An imam
accused of conducting nearly 600 sham marriages between Muslim men and
European brides has walked free from court in the second case to have
been catastrophically bungled by Home Office officials in a week.
A
judge ordered charges against Mohammed Mattar to be dropped after
paperwork blunders meant that the case was not ready on time.
Details
of the fiasco emerged yesterday, only days after ministers were left
red-faced over the collapse of Britain’s biggest sham marriage case
against a vicar amid allegations of serious misconduct by border
officials.
Dropped: A
trial of an imam accused of conducting almost 600 sham marriages has
collapsed. Mohammed Mattar - pictured left at an earlier court hearing
and right at his home - had denied the charge
The
collapse of two such high-profile cases in a short period of time
raised new questions about the management of Britain’s immigration
system.
And it will revive calls for ministers to spend more on managing the nation’s borders.
It
follows the publication yesterday of a damning report by a group of MPs
about growing asylum backlogs, ‘lost’ illegal immigrants and the
write-off of some £1billion of taxpayers’ money on failed IT projects.
A
series of damaging revelations prompted the leaders of both major
parties to each demand the other apologise for their handling of the
immigration system.
At
Prime Minister’s Questions Ed Miliband accused David Cameron of making
the system worse, while the PM hit back over the ‘shambles’ he inherited
from Labour.
The latest case involved Mr Mattar, 63, of the Dar Al Dawa Islamic Centre in Westbourne Grove, West London.
Charges were also dropped against
Reverend Nathan Ntege, 54, accused of overseeing a ‘matrimonial conveyor
belt’ of European brides
He was accused of marrying Muslim men to women with EU passports so they could remain in the UK.
The
imam was said to have conducted a staggering 580 sham ceremonies
between 2008 and 2012. He was also charged with concealing criminal
property between the same dates via money transfers to the value of
£1,887,262, contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act. This charge was
dropped in April.
Yesterday,
his Malaysian wife Azizah Abdul Hamad, 57, revealed how police had
searched their home two years ago, but denied her husband carried out
the marriages or was an imam. The couple, who married in the UK in 1991,
have six children.
A massive investigation was launched this year, taking months to carry out and costing tens of thousands of pounds.
But
the Home Office failed to hand over its paperwork in time. As a result
the Crown Prosecution Service missed legal deadlines to hand over
prosecution material to Mr Mattar’s lawyers in time for the trial –
which was due to begin at Isleworth Crown Court on October 13.
It
applied for an extension at a pre-trial hearing on September 18, but
when the court refused, the CPS said it had ‘no choice’ but to offer no
evidence.
Bookshop: The imam helped run the former Dar Al Dawa Islamic centre in Bayswater, London (above)
Bungle: A trial was due to start two weeks ago at Isleworth Crown Court, but it will no longer take place
Yesterday
prosecutors made clear Home Office blunders were to blame. A CPS
spokesman said: ‘In early 2014 we identified a large amount of
potentially relevant material and we advised the Home Office
investigation team to obtain and look into the material for the purpose
of disclosure.
Labour's immigration spokesman has
called on Theresa May to make clear what steps she intends to take so
the fiasco does not happen again
‘In
August it became apparent that this work had not been completed and
therefore we would not be able to fully discharge disclosure obligations
in the case before the trial. We therefore applied for an adjournment.
This was refused by the court and we had no option but to offer no
evidence.’
A Home Office spokesman said there were ‘lessons to be learned’ to prevent something similar happening again.
He
added: ‘The decision not to take this matter to trial is disappointing,
particularly after such a long investigation.’ It follows the collapse
of the £1million trial of a vicar suspected of running Britain’s biggest
sham marriage racket, due to ‘serious misconduct’ by Border Agency
staff.
Last
week charges were dropped against Reverend Nathan Ntege, 54, who was
accused of overseeing a ‘matrimonial conveyor belt’ of Eastern European
brides.
The
Uganda-born clergyman walked free after Judge Nic Madge accused two
Border Agency officials of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
They have both been suspended and may face criminal charges themselves.
Yesterday’s
Public Accounts Committee report found the backlog of applications for
asylum had grown by 70 per cent in a year, despite reforms designed to
end the now-defunct Border Agency’s appalling record of failure.
At
PMQs, Mr Miliband said: ‘Can you explain why the number of asylum
applicants awaiting a decision has risen by 70 per cent in the last
year?’
Mr
Cameron said: ‘Let me just say this: we inherited from Labour a
complete and utter shambles – a department that wasn’t fit for purpose,
computer programmes that wouldn’t work and an immigration system that
was a complete mess.’
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