by Julia Roberts

A couple's wedding plans were exposed as a sham - after they sat apart and the bride couldn't even spell her loved one's name!

Now the bungling 'couple' will spend time apart - in separate jail cells!

Amjad Javid and “bride” Elmira Umajewa were exposed when their hamfisted attempt to obtain a marriage certificate aroused the suspicions of a registrar.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the couple sat on opposite sides of the room at The Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone in October last year and didn't speak to each other.

Umajewa, 38, was also unable to spell her 33-year-old husband-to-be’s name.

Javid, from Plaistow, East London, was jailed for six months after admitting conspiracy to commit perjury by falsely stating they were living together in Dover Road, Northfleet.

Umajewa, who skipped bail and fled the UK, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment after she was convicted in her absence of the same offence.

Javid was also jailed for a further 12 months, making a total sentence of 18 months, for trying to use a forged passport at Robin Hood Airport near Doncaster in January.

Judge Richard Polden dismissed defence submissions that there was simply an agreement between the pair and they were not part of a wider conspiracy.

He said the offence “struck at the sanctity of marriage” and that both Javid and Umajewa were equally involved.

“There clearly was a purpose in giving the false address and producing documents to support that false address, even though the Crown cannot say what the exact purpose was behind the offence,” the judge added.

Jawad Ahmed, 33, of Dover Road, Northfleet, who was to be a witness at the marriage, denied conspiracy to commit perjury and was acquitted.

Registrar Donna Prizeman told how she was immediately suspicious when she saw the couple at The Archbishops Palace on October 8 last year.

They claimed they lived together at 7 Dover Road, but the plot was exposed when police and immigration officers investigated.

They were arrested at The Manor Gatehouse register office in Dartford when they arrived hoping to marry on October 25.

Umajewa had Austrian nationality after previously marrying a man from that country.

Javid came to the UK four years ago on a student visa. He will serve half the sentence, less 217 days already spent on remand. He will then be deported.