Suspended sentence for ‘groom’ in sham marriage

A ‘groom’ has received a suspended sentence for his role in a sham marriage which took place in Galway four years ago.

Galway District Court heard this week that an Estonian woman travelled to Ireland to marry the man, a Pakistani national, at a civil ceremony in Galway so he could obtain EU citizenship.

It is the first prosecution of its type to be brought in Galway.

Farrukh Farookui (36), 33 Foxborough Gardens, Lucan, Co. Dublin, claimed he and the woman were a couple who had been living together for some time when he signed a marriage declaration form at their civil marriage ceremony in Galway in April, 2013.

The sham marriage was discovered when Gardaí from the National Immigration Bureau examined marriage files at the Galway Civil Registration Office, as part of their ongoing nationwide investigation into illegal immigration and ‘marriages of convenience’, code-named “Operation Vantage”.

Detective Damien O’Neill said the pair had never lived together and, in fact, the woman had only flown to Ireland from Estonia to facilitate the civil marriage process.

Farookui was charged last week in Dublin with declaring information to the Registrar of Marriages, at the Civil Registration Office in Galway on April 16, 2013, that he knew to be false or misleading, contrary to Section 69(3) of the Civil Registration Act 2004.

He pleaded guilty in Galway this week, and Judge Mary Fahy sentenced him to five months in prison, suspended for two years.

Farookui also admitted handling a €1,400 laptop which had been stolen in a burglary and was found during a search of Farookui’s then-address.

A consecutive five-month sentence was imposed for the handling charge, also suspended for two years.