BOGUS BRIDES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 586, 18 July 1933, Page 3

BOGUS BRIDES

IIRREGULAR MARRIAGES WITH WOMANs FROM ABROAD. SECRET ORGANISATION. A secret organisation, which it was stated, arranges marriages hetween alien women and Englishmen in Britain for improper purposes at £100 each was mentioned at London sessions. Germain Larssoneur, aged 22, a dressmaker of French nationality, was j convicted of being found within the ] United Kingdom without permission of the Secretary of State. It was stated that Larssnoeur was brought to England by a relative, a'nd that after her arrival trouble arose ' ii connection with her proposed inarriage to an Englishman. She was ordered to leave the United Kingdom, and went to the Irish Free ' State. There she attempted to marry, but a priest refused to perform the ceremony, and she was escorted to Holyhead by Irish Free State officials. When she arrived in England she was met hy Scotland Yard detectives. Larssoneur was also charged with ^ to comply with the conditions imposed by the Home Secretary on the entry of aliens. Defence Plea. Mr. Marston Garda, for the defence, suggested that she had complied with the order to leave the United Kingdom by going to Ireland. The chairman decided that there was- no evidence to go to the jury on this count. Detective-Sergeant Minter, of Scotland Yard, said that a man to whom Larssoneur had referred used a West London estate agent's business to cloak his real activities. "For many years," said Sergeant Minter, "he has been the London agent of undesirable French women and their associates, and has been sucessful in arranging' a number of

marriages of convenience, for each of which he has received a round figure of about £100. "The Home Office views tliese marriages with grave apprehension, as p to the present we have been unable to ohtain sufficient evidence on which to proceed against ths organisers of this traffic. i "Owing to recent police activities the man referred to by Larssoneur has found it increasingly difficult to arrange those marriages, and there is every reason for believing that had this intended marriage taken place in Ireland he would have taken the parties in future marriages to that country for the ceremony. "In view of the difficulties encountered in the present case I am given to understand that he now intends to make the Channel Islands the venue for these marriages." Home Office Action. ; Mr. J. F. Eastwood, prosecuting, said that reciprocal arrangements had •been made by the Home Office and the Irish Free State authorities in order to prevent these marriages of convenience. i Sir Percival Clarke, the chairman, direeted that Larssoneur should be de_ tained in custody for three days, while the Home Office was communicated with regarding her deportation. I Mr. Garsia said that an appeal would be lodged against the ehairman's decision that this was a case to go to the jury on the second charge.