AN ALERT official became suspicious when a Portuguese woman and a Nigerian man came to York Register Office to try to arrange their wedding.

City registration services manager Robert Livesey was so concerned that he notified the police, and officers were waiting when the couple turned up for the actual ceremony, York magistrates heard yesterday.

Mr Livesey's suspicions were aroused because of the way the couple behaved towards each other, and after he looked at a false address given by the bride-to-be, Susana Hacienta Fulgencio.

She spent what was to have been her "wedding day" in a cell, and her "bridegroom", Tobi Awosanyo, was deported. The couple, who had no common language, have not seen each other or contacted each other since.

It emerged during the hearing that it was the second attempt at a "sham" wedding at the register office. On the previous occasion, the couple failed to turn up for the wedding.

Fulgencio, 32, formerly of Lander Grove, White Moss, Manchester, who claims she does not know her current English address, and her interpreter friend, fellow Portuguese woman Vanessa Alexandra Furtado, 23, of the White Moss address, were charged with lying under oath to get a marriage licence.

It was the first court case involving a "sham" marriage in York for many years. Portuguese citizens do not need a visa to live in Britain, Nigerians do, and Awosanyo is thought to have been attempting to obtain EU citizenship.

Furtado pleaded guilty and was fined £100 with £100 costs. Fulgencio denied the charge and was convicted after a trial. She was fined £150 with £100 costs.

A man of African appearance who accompanied the two women stopped the Evening Press speaking to them as they left court.

Fulgencio claimed she met Awosanyo in a pub shortly after she arrived at Manchester Airport on September 9 and they went to York Register Office with Furtado on October 4 to arrange their marriage.

She said through an interpreter. "I was going to get married because I love him. Love passes all barriers."

But Mr Livesey, who has 26 years' experience of register office work, said their body language indicated they didn't know each other.

Fulgencio gave him a forged British Gas document which falsely claimed she lived in "Lindon Road, Nether Poppleton."

"The address had been used previously by another couple that I reported but the case had not gone any further," he said.

Then Furtado refused to give her address when she signed a declaration she had interpreted correctly and gave the wrong Christian names. Fulgencio claimed Awosanyo gave her the document and that she did not know her address and could not read English.

Her solicitor, Kevin Blount said: "He (Awosanyo) has dumped her at the altar when it fell apart. There is no suggestion she was anything other than a dupe."

For Furtado, Nick Darwin said she was an "innocent abroad" who had only realised Fulgencio was using a false address at the register office. She had simply gone to help her friend and was not part of a conspiracy.

Mr Livesey said today he had noticed the address being used several times before for weddings. But the biggest factor that aroused his suspicions had been the couple's body language.

He said that the problem of sham marriages appeared to have been nipped in the bud since a change in the law earlier this year, under which anyone under immigration controls has to go to a designated register office, such as Leeds or Hull. He had not seen any sham marriage attempts in York since.

Updated: 09:15 Saturday, October 15, 2005