A CZECH mother of two who took part in a sham marriage at an Accrington church after being promised a job has been locked up for a year.

Ex-seamstress Bozena Dunova, 41, was jailed after confessing to entering into the bogus wedding with Nigerian national Anthony Anyanwu, 31, at St Andrew’s Church in Accrington in 2009. He later applied to stay in the UK. She went on to be arrested at the Calais end of the Channel Tunnel.

Dunova, who was living in Birmingham, made a false statement to say she was living in Emma Street, Accrington.

The wedding would have allowed Anyanwu, who is Nigerian, to remain in this country.

She accepted that she had been promised a 12-month employment contract if she went along with the marriage.

This would have enabled Dunova to obtain a residency card for the UK.

The defendant became the latest in a long line of sham marriage criminals to be jailed at Burnley Crown Court. Dunova, of Hope Street, Tipton, Birmingham, had earlier admitted assisting unlawful immigration to a member state.

Anyanwu, of Albert Avenue, Manchester, was also earlier jailed for 12 months for his part in the scam.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said Anyanwu put forward to a vicar the defendant's Czech passport, his own- which turned out to be fake -and a British Gas bill showing an address at Emma Street, Accrington.

Anyanwu and Dunova were married on April 2, 2009 and the register was signed, stating they were both single and lived at Emma Street. Neither the "bride" nor "groom" were seen by the vicar again.

Mr Parker said Anyanwu later applied for residency in the UK. He was arrested in June last year and when his mobile phone was seized, there was a message to it reading :" Thank you. Here is my account number and sort code. Bozena."

The defendant was arrested on March 24 this year, at the French end of the Channel Tunnel, where she was with her two teenage children. When she was first interviewed, she claimed she and Anyanwu were a love match.

Judge Beverley Lunt said: “The courts have made it perfectly clear that anyone who commits such crime must expect the penalty to be severe, both to punish you and deter others, because these offences undermine our immigration laws, the immigration laws of this country which are there to protect legitimate citizens.”