London, Nov 18 (IANS): A court in Wales has sentenced three women who were involved in planning sham marriages to help non-European Union (EU) people stay in Britain, according to local reports.

Lithuania-born woman, Audrone Siniciene, 49, of Peterborough, was Monday given two years and nine months in prison by the Cardiff Crown Court, Xinhua reported. The ringleader organised six sham weddings and arranged for brides to get married in Cardiff, Peterborough, Ipswich and Wandsworth, London.

Two "brides", Anna Scipanova, 30, and Asta Norvaisiene, 39, admitted to breaching British immigration law, and were given a year in prison and a six-month sentence suspended for a year, respectively.

Reports said Anna Scipanova was put through a Sharia marriage ceremony with an Egyptian man she had never met, and Asta Norvaisiene was arranged to marry an Algerian man whose name she did not know, but she was paid 2,000 pounds for the "marriage".

"These three defendants were involved in a conspiracy to arrange sham marriages in order to allow a number of foreign nationals to remain in this country who may otherwise have faced deportation," said Catrin Evans, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Wales Complex Casework Unit.