IT was an attack on the sanctity of marriage.

That was the message from a Winchester judge who handed prison terms to a group for conspiring to arrange a sham marriage at the city’s registry office last year.

The ‘groom’, Cameroonian national Devine Abanda, was found guilty following the trial in June, of conspiracy to facilitate obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception by marrying Olivia Godefroy, 22, who had earlier pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and bigamy.

The court heard Godefroy – a French national – had married a man in December 2012 in Wood Green, London, before marrying Diedonna Ateh in Wandsworth, in January 2014. She claimed Armand Djedje – the “fixer” of the marriage to Abanda – had also arranged her marriage to Ateh, promising her £2,000.

She was given 12 months for the conspiracy and 15 months for bigamy, to run concurrently, suspended for two years.

Abanda, 27, was given 15 months, minus the 207 days already served in custody.

Djedje, 31, of the Ivory Coast, was handed 18 months, less the 216 days already served.

The fourth member of the gang – 31-year-old Olivier Attie from Belgium – failed to show up for the verdict and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He still remains at large and his whereabouts and real identity are currently unknown.

Recorder of Winchester, the judge Keith Cutler decided to adjourn his sentencing until he is found and appears in court.

Mr Cutler said Godefroy’s admission of guilt would be taken into consideration.

“Olivia Godefroy you have pleaded guilty to these two offences and you had the courage and good sense to give evidence at the trial,” he said.

“I’m satisfied from the evidence I’ve heard during the trial that the centre of this conspiracy was you Armand Djedje. You knew that you had Miss Godefroy that you could use. She had the requisite of European credentials and you were not in the slightest bit worried that she had been married before.

“You Mr Abanda wanted to have those advantages of being married to someone with a European nationality. It was quite clear you had the money and Mr Djedje had the potential bride. It was a rather squalid story that lay behind these offences; to earn money dishonestly.

“The offences comprise in an attack on the sanctity of marriage. You thought you could deceive this city by pulling the wool over the eyes of the registry office and pulling the wool over the eyes of a Winchester jury but that failed too. They did not accept your stories. It’s clear this was a financial transaction.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The criminal gangs who try and dupe our immigration laws will not escape justice, as this case shows.

“Since 2010, we have done more than any government before to clamp down on those seeking to abuse the UK’s immigration system.

“Last year, our investigators intervened in more than 2,900 suspected sham marriages. The Immigration Act 2014, which became law last year, gives us a much stronger platform to identify, disrupt and deter marriages which are not genuine.”