IMMIGRATION officers swooped on a registry office just moments before a bride and groom tied the knot in a suspected "sham marriage".

A court heard border officials "burst" through the doors of Lancaster Registry Office to interrupt the wedding of a former Kendal businessman and a woman from the city.

Despite the pair being cleared of arranging an unlawful marriage, Muhammad Hassan Nazir, 34, who had been running K Cars in Kendal, was sentenced to 10 months behind bars at Carlisle Crown Court after admitting to fraudulently staying in the UK.

The wedding, between Pakistan National Nazir and Bulgarian National Tanya Dimitrova Draginova, was described by Judge Peter Hughes QC as one of the "desperate measures" taken by the defendant to remain in the UK.

Tim Evans, prosecuting, compared the "dramatic" ceremony on October 1 to the late 1960s film The Graduate, adding it was reminiscent of the closing scene.

"At the end of the film Ben Braddock - the Dustin Hoffman character - storms into a church where a wedding is taking place and stops it happening before running off with the bride," he said. "Well, no film set here."

After likening character Ben Braddock to Immigration Officer Steve Halfpenny - who "too took the bride-to-be-away" - Mr Evans told the court in an interview that Nazir's "fiancee" Miss Draginova admitted agreeing to marriage because he had a "problem".

"He was a friend of a friend and not a boyfriend and she was going to marry him so he didn't have to leave the UK," said Mr Evans.

The court heard she did not know where they would be living after the ceremony, she had only kissed him once, she did not intend to share a bed with him and the wedding rings had been bought a week or two earlier from Argos.

But a jury was directed to a not guilty verdict for one charge of attempting to obtain leave to remain in the UK by deception against Nazir, and a charge of attempting to assist unlawful immigration to a member state against Miss Draginova.

The court was told how Nazir first came to the UK in 2005 and studied for a degree before securing a post study work visa which ran out in 2010.

Between 2010 and 2013 he had told the immigration authority he was living and working at a restaurant called Bombay Brasserie in Nottingham. But he was working for K Cars in Kendal before "running" the company for his Pakistan-based father who bought it in 2012.

When it came to filling out another application to remain in the UK in July 2013, the authorities were alerted by his claim to be working in an eatery in Birmingham while living in Hillswood Avenue, Kendal.

Mr Evans told the court Nazir proposed to Miss Draginova just after being arrested on August 1 2013, and made arrangements with the registry office in September for their autumn wedding.

In mitigation Gulam Ahmed said K Cars had since been sold for £5,000 and Nazir, who was now living in Manchester "hangs his head in shame".

Mr Hughes said: "The basis of your application was that you were to work as a full time assistant manager in Nottingham, on 40 hours a week with a salary of £28,000.

"That was the means by which you obtained leave to remain.

"I'm quite satisfied the information you gave about your employment was bogus from the outset."

He added: "In 2013 you took a number of desperate measures in an attempt to stay in the country.

"Whether you would have lived together and made a relationship after the ceremony we will never know.

"At least you've not gone into the witness box and repeated your lies."

Nazir was sentenced to 10 months in prison for obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception.

"It will be up to the Immigration Authority what happens after that sentence," added Mr Hughes.