Canterbury Crown Court has jailed a man and woman who attempted to smuggle an Albanian man into the UK via the Channel Tunnel in January this year.
At 5am on 6 January 2016, Border Force officers at the UK inward tourist controls at the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, France stopped a British-registered car containing two men and a woman.
Enquiries by Border Force found the vehicle’s driver – Ana-Maria Roman – and the other passenger, Skender Amati, had left Manchester late the previous afternoon, 5 January.
The pair had travelled to Calais by ferry on a one-way ticket, leaving Dover on the 2.25am departure, arriving in France at 3.55am.
Together with the second man, they then arrived 52 minutes later at the Eurotunnel ticket booth in Coquelles, to travel back to the UK on another one-way ticket.
Roman and Amati were arrested and the investigation was passed to Immigration Enforcement criminal investigation officers.
In interview, the pair said they had travelled to Calais to visit Roman’s brother – and had then picked up the man, whom they believed to be Romanian, at a petrol station en route to the Channel Tunnel.
On 7 January 2016, they were charged with assisting unlawful immigration into the UK.
On 11 April at Canterbury Crown Court, Roman, 27 – a Romanian national resident in Manchester – pleaded guilty.
Amati, 50 – an Albanian-born British national – was found guilty by a jury on 3 August, after a trial at Canterbury Crown Court.
On Tuesday, 16 August, the pair were jailed for a total of six years for immigration offences.
After sentencing, Assistant Director David Fairclough – of the Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigations team – said:
“This is an excellent example of well-trained Border Force officers identifying the incorrect documentation that was being used to attempt to facilitate this man’s illegal entry into the UK.
“This prison sentence should serve as a warning to anyone thinking of abusing our immigration rules – we will catch you and you will face imprisonment.
“Working closely with Border Force colleagues, our specialist and dedicated teams will rigorously investigate allegations of immigration related criminality.”
Mr Fairclough added that the man involved was identified as an Albanian national – he was refused entry to the UK and was passed to the French authorities.
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