A judge has overturned 179 divorces after it was discovered that the Italian citizens involved were pretending to live in the UK.

It was reported that they pretended to live in the Berkshire town of Maidenhead in order to get a quick divorce. They all gave the same address which was the address for the mailbox in the town.

Dr Frederica Russo arranged the divorces and charged the Italian couples up to £3,600.

The scam was first spotted when a court official in Burnley noticed two divorce cases registered to the same address.

The judge said "Given the dimensions of the mailbox it is clear that not even a single individual, however small, could possibly reside in it,"