A solution forged in dishonesty

The long two-month trial was complex, fascinating and occasionally farcical - tales of wedding rings that didn't fit and brides changing in the vestry beggared belief.

The sentences may seem harsh, but the judge was swayed by the sheer scale of the conspiracy. It was the numbers - 360 sham weddings - that always cast the trio's innocence into doubt.

Buchak was presented as a victim, a man driven to this country by desperation who took on the sham weddings as a way to support his young family. Lynchpin of the operation or not, he clearly played a major part.

Adelasoye is a man who has worked hard with the local community, in various roles. The judge suggested he got involved because he was so desperate to help people stay in this country. As a lawyer he is duty bound to uphold the law, so his apparent motive, while understandable, is unforgiveable.

Like Adelasoye, Rev Brown's motives are likely to remain a mystery. Neither man, it seems, was driven by financial gain. His was a life dedicated to helping others and his quote in his police interview - "the law is an ass" - suggests his crime was to take his pastoral role to an illegal extreme.

Probably we will never know. What is certain is that in their roles as a vicar and a solicitor and pastor respectively, both Brown and Adelasoye abused the trust that society put in them.

Questions have rightly been asked of the church's procedures, and they will continue to be asked, while credit must go the UK Border Agency for a painstaking two-year investigation.

The last word is for the people who were exploited - the poor, the desperate, those for whom life in the UK was a pale betrayal of the better life they believed in.

Their actions were wrong, but they felt they had no other choice. These three men offered a solution forged in dishonesty that played on their vulnerability, and prison is the right place for them.

HASTINGS and St Leonards is lucky to have a thriving arts scene with a growing group of creative residents and the council is right to throw its support behind a new cultural strategy, but three things in the report make us nervous.

Firstly, the ludicrously over-the-top use of the word "renaissance" doesn't do anyone any favours.

Second, the idea of rebranding the town as a sort of Shoreditch-on-Sea is misguided - Hastings is not the uber trendy East London enclave, which is as pretentious as it is exciting.

And thirdly we should not put all our eggs in one basket, the town thrives on diversity, and if a snobbish Daily Telegraph writer cannot see that, then good riddance to him.