'Wedding planner' offers sham brides $20,000

By TONY WALL

Young New Zealand women are being paid thousands of dollars to marry Indian men in a marriage-for-residency racket run by a woman known as "the wedding planner".

Women in their 20s and 30s - including solo mothers, beneficiaries and prostitutes - are set up with Indian men hoping to obtain New Zealand residency on marriage grounds.

The women are promised up to $20,000.

Participants in the marriages say the organiser is Samshad "Sam" Beggum, a 52-year-old Otara woman.

She denies any involvement, but confirmed that Work and Income NZ has quizzed her over similar allegations.

Ms Beggum came to Auckland from Fiji about 15 years ago and is a New Zealand resident. A former cook, she now collects a sickness benefit.

It is understood that she employs "scouts" to find women willing to take part in the sham marriages, and coaches couples on how to handle questions from the Immigration Service.

The Herald has been investigating the racket for three months and has met several people involved, including a former prostitute and a Punjabi student who married last year five days after they met.

They have told immigration authorities they live together in South Auckland, but they live in separate towns.

The groom says he paid Ms Beggum $8000 but is still waiting for his residency application to be approved.

The bride said Ms Beggum told her she had arranged hundreds of marriages.

"She's been doing it for a long time. It's like her own little private business."

The Government last year toughened penalties for breaking immigration laws.

Anyone fraudulently arranging marriages to obtain residency for a person who would not otherwise qualify faces up to seven years in jail and a $100,000 fine.

The Immigration Service will not say if it knows about Ms Beggum's marriage racket.

Spokesman Ian Smith said it was "extremely difficult" to investigate marriage scams without the names of the brides and grooms and asked the Herald to provide names.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said that if the paper did not provide names, "it makes our job impossible".

The Herald has agreed to protect the identity of the sources for this investigation, so the wider issue can be exposed.

To identify journalistic sources would make impossible future inquiries into breaches of the law or failings in the public service in applying or policing regulations.

It is the second big marriage-for-residency racket exposed by the Herald.

In 2001, the paper revealed that Asian businessman Jack Li was arranging marriages between homeless people and street kids and wealthy Asians wanting residency.

Li disappeared after the article was published, but resurfaced in Christchurch and was eventually deported.

The paper has learned that Ms Beggum arranges wedding receptions at Indian restaurants, complete with "rent-a-crowd" guests who say they have posed for photographs to make the marriages look genuine.

It is understood Ms Beggum takes up to half the money paid by the groom for her services.

Ms Beggum denies any involvement. She said this week she had been accused of arranging marriages before, by a Work and Income NZ officer who came to her house to investigate unexplained income.

The Ministry of Social Development, of which Winz is a part, refused to say what became of the investigation.

Ms Beggum insists the money being investigated was from legitimate sources.

But the former prostitute and her Indian groom said Ms Beggum introduced them, told them what kinds of questions to expect from the Immigration Service and handled the financial arrangements.

The Herald has also spoken to people who have acted as scouts. One Manukau City man said Ms Beggum offered him $500 for each woman he found.

The man said he went to wedding receptions at the Khyber Tandoori Indian Restaurant in Khyber Pass Rd, acting as a "guest" and posing for group photographs to make the marriage seem legitimate. Those who attended received free food and alcohol.

An Otara woman who attended about six weddings said Ms Beggum had also asked her to act as a scout.

The wedding ceremonies are rotated between marriage registry offices so as not to arouse suspicion. Ms Beggum attends the receptions but not the weddings.

A worker at Khyber Tandoori said Ms Beggum had been in the restaurant "countless" times in the past year, usually with wedding parties of about 20. The last such gathering was last month.

Restaurant manager Idrees Ahmed denied knowing Ms Beggum.

The former prostitute described how she decided to go through with the marriage after eight of her friends had done it.

Ms Beggum had promised her $20,000, but so far she had received only half that.

She was refusing to help her husband with any further immigration matters until she received the rest of her money.

The groom is upset because Ms Beggum had indicated his residency application would be approved within a few months but almost a year later he is still waiting.

The couple are to have another interview with an Immigration Service officer next month.

Ms Beggum insisted she had nothing to do with the marriages.

"I'm sick, I can't do nothing like that. I'm a Kiwi - why should I do that?"

- additional reporting: Ainsley Thomson.