A 23-year-old Drogheda woman has been given a two-year suspended sentence by a court in England for taking part in a fake marriage to a Nigerian to allow him to stay in Britain illegally.
Melissa Reilly of St Finian's Park in Drogheda had pleaded guilty to two charges at Chichester Crown Court.
Suspending her prison sentence today, his honour Judge John Sessions told her he was doing so because she had commitments to her three children which she was not able to discharge as long as she was in prison.
Reilly was then released immediately.
A warrant had previously been issued for the arrest of another Drogheda woman, 29-year-old Ann-Marie Devlin, who is accused of acting as a witness in the planned marriage.
She had been bailed and had failed to return to court in August.
The Nigerian man, 34-year-old Orobola Osantuyi, had also pleaded guilty.
He was sent to prison for two years and Judge Sessions ordered that he be deported once he has served his sentence.
He and Reilly were arrested by immigration officers when they went to a register office in Worthing in Sussex to get married last June.
Reilly had claimed she was to have been paid €2,500 once she got back to Ireland for marrying Osantuyi.
