A York couple said to have lied to immigration officials and used a sham marriage to start a new life in Australia are facing deportation back to Britain.

The couple's Australian-born daughter may now be brought up in England unless John and Marisa Powell can overturn the ruling at a final appeal.

The couple were given their orders to leave despite the fact they have both developed successful careers in Western Australia.

They were told to pack their bags after it was allegedly discovered Mr Powell, 45, had staged a sham marriage with an Australian woman whom he later divorced, enabling him to marry Mrs Powell, 38.

The couple have appealed and are said to maintain they instigated the con because they were desperate to leave Britain after Mrs Powell's previous marriage ended acrimoniously.

Mr and Mrs Powell, who previously lived in Copmanthorpe and Wigginton, are said to be devastated by the decision to send them home with their three-year-old daughter, Jasmine.

The couple applied to emigrate to Australia after a holiday there in 1989.

But when they were turned down, Mr Powell, then a BT technician, allegedly hatched his plan to gain citizenship.

An immigration judgment by the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal says Mr Powell paid $7,500 to an Australian woman, Marjatta Saastmoinen, to stage a sham marriage in 1990. The couple were soon divorced.

Mrs Powell then flew out to meet him and the couple married in May 1993, beginning their new life in Perth, Western Australia.

Mr Powell began a successful career as a furniture upholsterer while Mrs Powell became marketing manager with Perth City Mission, a charitable organisation which sponsored her and her husband's bid to stay.

However, immigration officials began to investigate.

They called on the Powells' home and according to the tribunal judgment they found Mrs Powell trying to burn letters that proved her knowledge of the sham marriage.

The couple allegedly admitted the deceit and were refused permanent entry visas in 1996.

They appealed to the appeals tribunal which gave its judgment, backing the earlier ruling, last month.

The tribunal's deputy president, Tos Barnett, said the couple's deceit "amounted to criminal misconduct of a most serious nature".

"There are many law-abiding applicants for Australian residence. They and their Australian relatives and sponsors would, justifiably, feel outraged if the Powells were granted visas in these circumstances.

"To do so would bring Australia's immigration laws into disrepute and would be likely to encourage others to 'jump the queue' by trying similar illegal schemes."

The tribunal found the couple had lied about the alleged harassment and abuse by Mrs Powell's ex-husband and exaggerated her anxieties about returning home.

Mr Barnett said the Powells would soon find employment in England.

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