A GARDA Trainee who is originally from another country is facing deportation after his sham marriage was exposed.
The unnamed man resigned from An Garda Síochána after an investigation by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) found he was involved in the deception with a woman from Eastern Europe.
He was exposed by detectives investigating sham marriages and illegal immigration under Operation Vantage – which has halted hundreds of fraudulent unions since it was set up in 2015.
As part of the operation, detectives recently learned that a student at the Garda Training College in Templemore, Co. Tipperary, had been granted permission to legally reside in Ireland after engaging in a sham marriage to an Eastern European woman.
He had later applied to An Garda Síochána during a recruitment campaign.
The man was yet to graduate from the Garda Training College in Templemore (Image: Gardaí)His scheme was exposed by GNIB prior to his graduation and he has never been involved in an active criminal investigation.
The man has now resigned from An Garda Síochána after being questioned by officers in relation to immigration offences.
He faces deportation if he does not leave Ireland voluntarily.
In a statement to the Journal, a Garda spokesperson said they do not comment on ongoing investigations.
A sham marriage, also known as a marriage of convenience, is a marital union entered into often to gain advantage for immigration purposes – and usually involves one of the newlyweds paying the other a substantial fee.
Last year, figures released by the Department of Social Protection showed that the number of notifications received by Gardaí about suspected sham marriages fell by over a half in the first 12 months after Operation Vantage was set up in 2015.
The data showed that between 2015 and 2016, the number of marriage notifications between non-Irish EU and non-EU nationals fell by 58 percent – from 1,175 to 497.
