A sham wedding couple used crib sheets to memorise facts about each other before tying the knot in a bogus ceremony set up by a fixer, a court heard.
Moroccan Zakaria Azzouzi married Petra Tatalova, from Slovakia, in an attempt to stay in Britain after his visa expired.
The fraud went undetected for eight months - until police raided the house of the fixer who had arranged the fake marriage and found the notes used by the couple to learn their lines.
The crib sheet reminded them that the bride's star sign is scorpio, the groom's favourite food is couscous and they supposedly met in a coffee shop.
Student Azzouzi, 24, was yesterday jailed for 21 months for his part in the scam, while Tatalova, 32, an events manager, was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
The 'couple' wed at Barnet registry office in north London in March 2011, because Azzouzi needed to marry an EU citizen to avoid being deported from the UK when his visa expired.
They claimed that had met in a coffee shop on Oxford Street in June 2010 and had been living together for six months before the wedding.
But in fact, they were introduced by 'fixer' Mourad Nabil, 43, who was described by a judge at St Albans Crown Court as having a 'Svengali-like malign influence' over the bride.
When police raided Nabil's home in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire they discovered notes helping Azzouzi and Tatalova learn facts about each other in order to convince officials that their marriage was genuine.
At the bottom of the crib sheet, Nabil had written: 'That is about it honey.. try memorising these information sweety,, just in case.. you know me I am always thourough.. [sic]'.
Nabil, 43, who was earlier convicted of an £18,500 benefit fraud, was sentenced to two years in prison.
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