Members of a sham marriage ring - including three people from Medway - have been jailed.

Nigerian Ehinhanre Esene, 29, and 22-year-old Slovakian Emilia Ginova were arrested when Home Office immigration enforcement officers stopped their fake ceremony.

Esene, of Tower Street, Pontypridd, was jailed for 21 months after being found guilty of seeking to obtain leave to remain in the UK by deception.

He faces deportation after his sentence.

The court heard how Ginova, who lived in Britton Street, Gillingham, had travelled from the Medway Towns to take part in the sham marriage at Pontypridd Register Office, in Wales, in November last year.

At the time of the ceremony, she was four months' pregnant by another man.

She was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of assisting unlawful immigration.

Also sentenced at Merthyr Crown Court were Slovakians Marian Bado, 28, of Seymour Road, Chatham; 32-year-old Michael Horvath, who also lived in Medway, and 17-year-old Nikola Cifrova.

Bado and the teenager had been complicit in organising the marriage ceremony and Horvath had acted as an interpreter, the court heard.

All three were found guilty of assisting illegal immigration.

Bado was jailed for 21 months, Horvath for 18 months and the teenage girl received a nine-month youth rehabilitation order.

Nicholas Jupp, from Home Office immigration enforcement, said: "These sentences send out a clear message that we will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system.

"We work closely with registrars across Wales and our crime teams will continue to make life as tough as possible for those who seek to abuse the immigration system.

"The Home Office is cracking down on abuse of the marriage system and those who seek to cheat immigration law face prosecution and conviction."

A sham marriage or civil partnership typically occurs when a non-European national marries someone from the European economic area as a means of attempting to gain long-term residency - as well as the right to work and claim benefits in the UK.

A marriage certificate alone does not give foreign nationals the right to live and work in the UK and any relationship has to be genuine. If it is not, people face prosecution or deportation.