A bogus bridegroom and two family members have been jailed for paying £5,000 to stage a sham wedding at Bradford Register Office with a sex worker “bride”.

Political activist Mohammed Omar Ali posed as a groom because he feared for his life if he was returned to Bangladesh, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Ali, 23, who wed Czech sex worker Lucie Dundalkova, 22, at a ceremony on May 24 last year, was imprisoned for 14 months.

His brother, Tofozzul Ali, 33, a witness, was locked up for nine months and his sister-in-law, bank worker Yarun Nessa, 27, who helped broker the swindle, was jailed for six months. Nessa, the mother of two children, was subjected to “cultural pressure” to help her brother-in-law, the court heard.

Judge Alistair McCallum said the sentences for the sophisticated scheme involving payment of £5,000 were a warning to others tempted to flout the country’s immigration laws.

“That is a cheap price to retain the advantages of staying in the UK to benefit from the hospitality of Britain, which some people may feel is exceptionally generous,” Judge McCallum said.

The defendants, all of Whiteway, Bolton, Bradford, pleaded guilty to conspiring to arrange a sham marriage that facilitated a breach of immigration law. Mohammed Omar Ali admitted perjury by signing a false declaration relating to a notice of marriage.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron said Tofozzul Ali was a UK citizen and his wife had a British passport.

Mohammed Omar Ali was granted a holiday visa that ran out in January this year.

In February last year, he and Miss Dundalkova, said to be illegally trafficked into the UK, applied for a certificate of approval to marry, saying they were in a “loving and continuous relationship”

On April 28, 2010, they told a registrar they intended to marry at Bradford Register Office. Her suspicions were aroused by Ali’s nervousness and inability to say Czechoslovakia. She filed a report to the Home Office but nothing was done to prevent the marriage.

Then Miss Dundalkova told the police she was never in a relationship with Ali and the UK Border Agency launched an inquiry.

The three defendants were arrested on April 20 this year.

Simon Keeley, for Mohammed Omar Ali, said he was secretary of the Democratic Party in Bangladesh and fled fearing persecution. He had now applied for asylum.

Michael Reeves, for Toffozul Ali, said he was a decent, hard working, man who acted out of sympathy for his brother. Nick Worsley, for Nessa, said she was “a broken woman” who feared her children would be taken into care.