Dutchman And Jamaican Overstayer Jailed For Sham Marriage

Union Of The Snakes: Tsahai & Rudy

A Dutch national and Jamaican overstayer, who participated in a "sham marriage" at a notorious church suspected of conducting hundreds of bogus ceremonies, were each jailed for fifteen months yesterday.

The 'couple' were married at Thornton Heath's St.Jude with St.Aidan, Thornton Road, Thornton Heath, where the UK Border Agency (UKBA) suspect 492 sham marriages took place between December, 2009 and March, 2011.

Croydon Crown Court heard the UKBA discovered it was a fake union and the pair were not even living together and the spousal visa application was supported by fake documentation.

Dutch national Rudy Richard Puljhun, 55, of Lant Street, Borough married Tsahai Deacon-Puljhun, 36, of Fordington House, Sydenham Hill, Sydenham on February 6, 2010.

"We are dealing here with a sham marriage," said prosecutor Mr. Dennis Kavanagh. "That is the nub of the allegation.

"That marriage was investigated by immigration officials and it was inherently suspicious, a false marriage that was a device to allow Mrs Deacon-Puljhun to stay in this country.

"She arrived in this country in 2001 as a visitor and applied for leave to remain as a student and by the time of the marriage she was an overstayer with no immigration status and in danger of being removed.

"She tried to secure a way to stay in this country by deception."

Nineteen months after the marriage Deacon-Puljhun applied for leave to remain and provided supporting documents, claiming Puljhun was employed as a handyman.

However, on his marriage certificate Puljhun described himself as a driver.

On June 14, last year Deacon-Puljhun was arrested during a raid on a Stockwell address.

"It was clear she was in a relationship with a gentleman apart from Mr. Puljhun. That gentleman's photograph was under her bed and there were text messages from him on her phone," explained Mr. Kavanagh.

"Puljhun was not there, he was in Holland where he lives his life and has children and has no connection with this country whatsoever."

Deacon-Puljhun, who had been signing at an immigration office for several years, "came clean" suggested the prosecutor.

She is said to have told immigration officers: "I was signing-on for four-and-a-half years and it would be unfair if I did not sort myself out.

"We met at a wedding, I told him of my predicament, and he offered to help me out by marrying me. We were dating, we really were."

Puljhun was convicted of doing an act to facilitate a breach of UK immigration law and Deacon-Puljhun was convicted of seeking to remain in the UK by deception.