Bride 'delivery service' for sham marriage ring exposed when couple 'had to use iPhone app to converse because they spoke different languages'

A 'delivery service' for foreign brides was exposed after registrars became suspicious because a couple used an iPhone app to talk to each other during their wedding ceremony, a court has heard.

One bride allegedly booked a flight to Prague within hours of tying the knot while a second couple went to KFC to celebrate their union, the jury at Manchester Crown Court was told.

Prosecutors say ten women were shipped into Britain on cross-channel ferries between September 2012 and June last year before marrying Asian students who had 'questionable' immigration status.

Hamid Mushtaq, 24 (left), and Blanka Farkasova, 35 (right), are among the couples accused of arranging sham marriages in which some partners did not even speak the same language

Hamid Mushtaq, 24, and Pavlina Kratka, 28, deny conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, as do Waqas Hussein, 25, and Blanka Farkasova, 35.

Klement Buncik, 43, who was allegedly central to the ‘trade in women’, bringing brides

from the Czech Republic to the UK via ferries from Dunkirk to Dover, also denies nine charges.

The jury in the trial, expected to last three weeks, was told the brides were Czech nationals who had the right to live in the UK because they were European Union citizens.

However they were reported to the police after registrars noticed they knew little of each other and interacted awkwardly.

Darren Preston, prosecuting, said: 'This is a delivery service, but unlike a delivery you might order from Amazon, (Buncik) is delivering women.

Prosecutors told the jury at Manchester Crown Court (pictured) that one bride booked a flight to Prague within hours of tying the knot while a second couple went to KFC to celebrate their union

'I’m sure there are a great many catches in this country for Czech women, I’m sure true love can be found in a very short space of time.

'We suggest it’s more than coincidence all these women who came in with Buncik found love and marriage within a very short time of landing.

'On each and every occasion registrars were suspicious, principally because the bride and groom couldn’t speak a word of each others’ language.

'I suppose in some marriages that may be a benefit, but in the majority it might get in the way.'

A number of others who took part in the conspiracy have pleaded guilty, the court heard, including a man called Avtar Singh, who had to use an iPhone app to speak to his bride at a Shropshire register office.