Page 34 Daily Mail, Friday, August 30, 2019
THE number of suspected sham mar-
riages staged to cheat immigration laws
may have multiplied five times over the
past decade, a report has revealed.
It said fake marriages, regarded by
Home Office officials as the ‘route of
choice’ for those trying to dodge the rules,
are ineffectively policed and open to abuse
by organised crime.
European Union free movement laws
can be easily used by those running fake
marriage rackets, the report from the
Migration Watch UK think-tank said.
It also criticised the exploitation of
‘proxy marriage’ rights granted by British
courts, in which a marriage contracted
abroad is recognised as genuine – even
when one of the marriage partners was
not present at the wedding.
Evidence for the spread of these mar-
riages is provided by a comparison of fig-
ures provided to MPs by the Home Office
in early 2014 with those obtained through
Freedom of Information enquiries this
year. Official figures say registrars reported
561 suspected fake marriages in 2009 –
which rose to 1,891 in 2012.
But the numbers – as reported by regis-
trars – have risen steeply in recent years.
And according to FOI figures given to
The Guardian, there were 2,868 reported
sham marriages last year.EU tourists are shunning Britain even
though a drop in the value of the pound
has made holidays here cheaper.
The number of European visitors in
April was 8 per cent down on the previ-
ous year, with the biggest fall among
holidaymakers from other EU countries,
the Office for National Statistics said.
Continued Brexit uncertainty may have
been a factor – as there was a sharp rise
in tourists from the US.
In the three months between March
and May, the number of visitors from
the US and Canada was up 10 per cent on
2018 at 1.2million. The number of EU tour-
ists was down 6 per cent at 6.9million,
and numbers from the rest of the world
fell 7 per cent to 1.2million.
Visitors spent £1.6billion during April, a
14 per cent drop on last year. While in
March a pound bought 1.18 euros and
$1.33, yesterday it was worth only 1.10
euros and $1.22. Britons made 13.6million
visits to Europe between March and
May, up 2 per cent on 2018, the ONS said.EU tourists shun
British holidays
Queen’s ex-surgeon
‘ branded colleagues
hairy-a***d Muslims’
‘I strenuously deny I would use
that phrase and I would not be
so stupid to use it at a chief
executive.’ Professor Kru-
kowski’s colleagues also claimed
he had issues concerning staff
being unable to attend weekly
meetings for religious reasons.
The surgeon accepted that he
had asked: ‘What’s more impor-
tant? Patients or prayers?’, in
discussions over colleagues’
absences for Friday prayers.
Mr Truscott suggested that
while Professor Krukowski had
been working at the infirmary
his behaviour could have been
perceived as ‘unnecessarily
blunt’ or ‘insistent’. But Profes-sor Krukowski replied: ‘I try not
to be unnecessarily blunt. I do
try to be brief.’
Mr Truscott went on to
describe another occasion when
a worker felt he was being ‘bul-
lied, harassed and mobbed’
after Professor Krukowski ques-
tioned his methods of care and‘raised his voice’ at him.
The solicitor read from a diary
entry that said the worker was
unable to go into theatre after
being left ‘shaken’.
Professor Krukowski
responded that the claim was ‘a
falsehood’. He added: ‘I lost my
temper with him and I was
embarrassed and mortified. I
have subsequently apologised.’
In March 2014, a whistleblower
first contacted the then health
secretary Alex Neil with con-
cerns from senior medical staff
over management and clinical
standards at ARI.
Mr Neil then ordered Health-
care Improvement Scotland to
carry out a full review on per-
formance and culture at the
flagship hospital. Its inspectors
raised concerns about some
senior medical staff, particularly
the behaviour of a minority of
consultants in general surgery.
Professor Krukowski was
suspended during an inter-
nal inquiry into his conductTHE Queen’s former surgeon
was accused of bullying col-
leagues and using racial slurs,
a tribunal into his unfair dis-
missal has heard.
Professor Zygmunt Krukowski
allegedly referred to colleagues as
‘hairy-ad Muslims’ during a
meeting with the chief executive
at NHS Grampian.
The doctor, 70, who used to oversee
the medical care of the Royal Family
at Balmoral, was suspended from
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI)
after an investigation in 2015.
But he was cleared by the General
Medical Council of any wrongdoing
the following year. He has now
taken the regional health board to
an employment tribunal claim-
ing unfair dismissal.
The tribunal, which began on
Wednesday in Aberdeen, saw a
number of allegations of bully-
ing and derogatory racial lan-
guage put to Professor Kru-
kowski – claims which he
‘strenuously’ denied.
Ian Truscott QC, on behalf of
NHS Grampian, said an NHS
colleague had claimed Professor
Krukowski used the derogatory
phrase ‘hairy-ad Muslims’
when he spoke to the then chief
executive Richard Carey.
Professor Krukowski said he
rejected the assertion, adding: ‘I have
never used that phrase in my life. I
would have been astonished that the
chief executive of a national board
would not take action immediately.
By Alex Ward
‘I lost my temper
with him’JAN MOIR IS AWAY
‘Five-fold’ rise
in UK sham
marriages
Accused: Prof
Zygmunt
Krukowski
says he was
unfairly
dismissedat Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in
May 2015. An earlier report by
the Royal College of Surgeons of
England had described the gen-
eral surgery team as suffering a
‘breakdown in functional work-
ing relationships’.
In 2016 the General Medical
Council cleared Professor Kru-
kowski and seven other consult-
ant surgeons following an inves-
tigation. After leaving the health
board the professor worked with
the International Red Cross.
The cost to the health board of
paying salaries, legal costs and
hiring locum doctors during the
investigation, which lasted
almost two years, could be at
least £5million.
The tribunal continues.V1