ONE of Blackburn's best known solicitors has been charged by police who have been investigating an alleged fake marriages operation based in East Lancashire.

Police said Bob Pickles, 66, was arrested and charged late yesterday afternoon by officers running Operation Capital - set up to probe what police believe is a bogus marriage operation.

The lawyer, who retired from Parker and Pickles law firm in Richmond Terrace, Blackburn, last year, faces a charge of conspiracy to defraud the Home Office. He is due to appear before Blackburn magistrates tomorrow.

Pickles, who lives in the Ribble Valley, was arrested and quizzed last month, but released on police bail while detectives carried out further inquiries. He became a well-established figure in Blackburn law circles after founding the practice of Farley, Parker and Pickles in 1960 along with John Parker and the late Frank Farley.

He went on to join John Parker in partnership at the firm Parker and Pickles, which opened in 1993, where he specialised in family, matrimonial, criminal and civil law and litigation.

The Blackburn offices of Parker and Pickles were searched when initial arrests were made in January.

Police also searched a house which has been the home of Asian community leader Ismail Pirbhai in Dartford Close, Blackburn.

Pirbhai, 48, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the Home Office along with Ibrahim Patel, also 48, of Dartford Close and Jacqueline Grahams, 22, of Liverpool Road, Penwortham. All three are currently on bail awaiting trial.