Evening Standard/London

A vicar cleared of presiding over a “conveyor belt” of alleged sham marriages will be back in the pulpit today, his wife said yesterday.
The reverend Nathan Ntege, 55, faced being defrocked after he was accused of allowing couples to tie the knot to obtain passports in almost 500 bogus ceremonies over 15 months.
But he was yesterday allowed to return to work by the Diocese of Southwark after the case was thrown out when a judge accused two UK Border Agency officials of lying.
Couples were said to have queued at the back of the Church of St Jude’s and St Aidan’s in Croydon, with brides sharing ill-fitting wedding dresses.
His wife, speaking at their south London home, today told the Standard: “On Sunday we will be back in church. It’s an absolute relief. The judge had justice in him. He was a just judge.”
Ntege was arrested in 2011 and suspended from church duties. He said the ordeal had been a “perversion of justice” but admitted some couples may have tried to “dupe” the church.
He told Channel Four News: “Most of them were legitimate. I don’t say we weren’t duped — there were a few who tried to use the advantage — but whenever they were caught, they were exposed, reported to the diocese, reported to the home office and reported to the police.”
He later explained the high number of marriages — 494 at an average of one every other day — were because his church was so popular.
Accusations of him pocketing around £70,000 owed to the Diocese of Southwark were also thrown out.Ntege was in discussions with the diocese.