(Trinidad Express) A Trinidad-born woman will spend Christmas in a British jail after being found guilty of paying her gay hairdresser to become her husband in an attempt to avoid deportation.
Vera Jadoonanan, 39, offered her British hairdresser £10,000 to become her husband in order to boost her chances of staying in the United Kingdom.
She has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for arranging the sham marriage.
Jadoonanan, originally from this country, had been granted a two-year student visa to study in the UK but wanted to secure indefinite leave to remain there.
Due to financial circumstances, the hairdresser agreed to Jadoonanan’s proposal and the couple wed at Brighton Register office in August 2006. The hairdresser was paid £4,500 at this stage.
Jadoonanan, of Commercial Road, Eastbourne, made applications for citizenship to the Home Office as the spouse of a British national.
In October 2010, Jadoonanan threatened the hairdresser if he did not support the applications she would make allegations to the police he had assaulted her.
Intimidated by these threats, the hairdresser went to the police.
Police investigations uncovered that the hairdresser was a gay man who had been living with his partner for ten years.
He had never lived at the address Jadoonanan claimed they shared as husband and wife.
Jadoonanan was charged with one count of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception.
On November 17, following a three-day trial, she was convicted at Lewes Crown Court.
Jadoonanan was sentenced on December 16.