Court Reporting: Imigration Case

Care Worker Faces Deportation Over “Sham” Marriage

A Nottingham Woman faces two years in prison before being deported to her native Zambia if she is found guilty of using deception to remain in the UK. The 35 year old care worker living in Radford, Nottingham has been accused of entering a “sham” marriage with a European national in order to live in the country after an application to renew her student visa was rejected.

Under UK immigration laws any person is allowed to live and work in the country if they are married to an EU national. However Chima Kishumbre has been accused of entering into a staged marriage with a man she had never met prior to the service which took place in May 2008.

Chima migrated into the UK in 2006 on a student visa studying to be a nurse. She got a job placement at a care home in Radford looking after elderly residents.

After 12 months and having secured a full time job at the care home her adult student visa expired. It is alleged that she then tried to secure and extension on her visa and it was not until her application was rejected that she married Portuguese National Paulo Mendes Teverez, allowing her leave to remain in the United Kingdom.

Miss Kishumbre continued to work at the Radford Care Home until was arrested in April last year when immigration authorities reported that there was no evidence of a husband or partner living at her flat in Radford.

Chima had been consulting ICS Legal, an organisation which offers advice and support for immigrants studying or working in the UK. The prosecution believe they had helped arrange the wedding when the student visa application

 

was rejected. If this proves to be the case further investigation may be carried out into the organisation.

The defendant has pleaded not guilty to the allegation held against her claiming that she had married out of love for Mr. Teverez, however the prosecution insist the man now claiming to be her husband is not the same man she married three years ago, and that the real Paulo Teverez is in fact married to three other foreign nationals.

A woman who attended the wedding and acted as a witness claims she was asked by a friend to come along, but that she had never met the bride or groom.

This comes just weeks after Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to address the issue of tougher, fairer immigration policies. The new plans will focus on controlled immigration in an attempt to bring in foreign business investors in order to generate more jobs and stimulate the economy.

The number of foreign nationals entering to country is an ever growing concern for many, especially with unemployment at its lowest point in years with almost 2.7 million actively seeking employment.