IMMIGRATION officers are pledging to take tough action to ensure a new same sex sham marriage scam does not spread to Bradford.

An undercover investigation discovered one London gang organising gay sham weddings for £10,000.

They found that within weeks of new legislation in March, making same sex marriages legal, criminal gangs were touting sham gay weddings to those wanting to dodge immigration controls.

Bradford has previously seen a string of sham weddings involving Eastern European brides.

Three Bradford women, including two mothers, who posed as bogus brides during a massive international sham marriage operation stretching fromYorkshire to Pakistan, were jailed last December. They were among a gang of 18 men and women jailed for a total of 28 years over the scam.

In December 2011, five men were jailed for a total of nine and a half years for their role in a Bradford-based sham marriage conspiracy. Three 'brides' were given suspended prison sentences and a fourth was given a conditional discharge. The conspirators made up crib-sheets to remind bogus brides and grooms of their partners' names and basic details.

In March 2012, Czech national Milan Cina, 38, of Manningham, was jailed for five years, and Polish mother-of-four Andzelina Surmaj, 30, of Girlington, imprisoned for three years and eight months, for their parts in arranging six sham marriages. They acted as brokers, charging illegal immigrants thousands of pounds to arrange bogus weddings to EU nationals so they could stay in the UK.

In July 2009, foreign brides and grooms were arrested on their wedding days in co-ordinated swoops by enforcement officers probing a suspected international marriage scam.

Slovakian brides and NIgerian grooms were arrested before they reached churches in Cleckheaton and Scholes, and a number of NIgerian men were intercepted at Hartshead Moor services as they made their way to Bradford.

A Home Office spokesman said there had been no reported same sex sham marriages in Bradford. But steps are being taken to prevent such offences.

James Brokenshire, Immigration and Security Minister, said: "We are building an immigration system that is fair to British citizens and legitimate migrants and tough on those who flout the law.

"We are taking ever tougher action to crack down on those who try to cheat the system by abusing marriage laws. Last year, we intervened in more than 1,300 sham marriages - more than double that of the previous year.

“The new Immigration Act is also making it even tougher for the fraudsters by extending the marriage and civil partnership notice period — giving officers and registrars longer to investigate suspicious marriages.”