A MAN on trial over a bogus marriages fraud which allowed illegal immigrants to set up home in the UK has admitted some of the charges against him.

Ibrahim Patel entered guilty pleas to four of the 12 allegations he faced on the fifth day of a Preston Crown Court trial.

The 30-year-old, of Dartford Close, Blackburn, now faces sentence along with six others, for his part in a fraud which allowed people to remain in the UK, or get permission to enter the country.

Patel admitted three offences of being involved with securing or facilitating someone to illegally enter the UK between August 1997 to November 1998.

He also pleaded guilty to one charge relating to an application to remain in the UK between September 1995 and September 1998.

The remaining eight charges, which he still denied, were ordered to lie on the file by Judge David Boulton.

His 33-year-old co-defendant, Amita Rana, of Roney Street, Blackburn, was discharged after the prosecution decided it would not be in the public interest to further pursue the nine charges against her.

A jury has been told that the case related to a total of 13 applications to the authorities by foreign nationals applying to come into the UK, or seeking permission to stay here.

In each instance the reason was the same -- the applicant was about to be married or had married someone living here.

A former Blackburn woman, Jacqueline Grahams, claimed that she took part in four bogus weddings in Lancashire and was forced to fly to India for another two ceremonies -- on one occasion her flat having been attacked.

It had been suggested that Rana had been an assistant to Patel and that she was implicated by documents she had either handled or written.

But she had always denied doing anything wrong and told police after her arrest that she had merely been helping her co-defendant, who could not write English.

Meanwhile, in his basis of guilty plea to the court, Patel stated that she was not involved in the offences as she had written out documents at his request. He also stressed: "I deny ever using any force whatsoever in carrying out any attempts to assist people to either come or stay in this country."

Patel stated that for many years he had helped members of the Asian community deal with the authorities, including matters relating to arranged marriages and immigration.

He will be sentenced along with two other defendants who gave evidence against him in court -- Miss Grahams and unemployed Blackburn man, Mohammed Nassib, who spoke of having gone to Asia to take part in a ceremony himself, after being promised £5,000.

Also due to be sentenced at the same time is self-styled Asian community leader Ismail Purbhai, who has admitted similar charges.