Solicitor jailed for running ‘conveyor belt’ of bogus brides

Published on 19/02/2013 00:00

A SOLICITOR was jailed for ten years yesterday for running an immigration sham marriage scam estimated to be worth £20 million.

Tevfick Souleiman was told he had let down his profession and destroyed the trust placed in lawyers.

Judge John Bevan said members of Souleiman GA solicitors had run a “conveyor belt” of brides being flown in from eastern European countries.

They would marry men they had never met from non-EU countries and be flown out the next day after being paid by the north London firm.

Souleiman, 39, from Hatfield, Hertfordshire, was found guilty last week of conspiracy to breach immigration law and receiving the proceeds of crime.

Immigration advisers Cenk Guclu, 41, of Enfield, and Furrah Kosimov, 29, from Wembley, both north London – who disappeared while on bail – were jailed for nine years for their parts in the scam.

Another of the firm’s immigration advisers, Zafer Altinbas, 38, of Islington, north London, pleaded guilty and was jailed for six years and nine months.

Judge Bevan said that it would be difficult to find a similar scam carried out on the same scale and sophistication.

The men took advantage of the complexity of EU law to 
create frauds “that would be obvious to a child”.

Sham marriages were created “on an industrial scale”, he said.

Judge Bevan added: “A heavy responsibility for upholding the law rests with the lawyers.

“If the public cannot trust them, who can they trust? You have destroyed that trust by driving a coach and horses through these rules.”