This is the moment Border Force agents foiled a people-smuggling gang attempting to bring migrants into the UK concealed in the back of a rubbish-strewn van.
Denice Lorraine Blendell and her co-conspirator Andrew David Stainton hid five Vietnamese nationals behind heavy motorcycle parts and an old mattress in the vehicle.
On Friday, the pair were sentenced to five years and five months behind bars. Hull Crown Court how the British nationals meticulously planned their crime.
The pair arrived in an unregistered van at Coquelles, France to board the Eurotunnel train headed for Britain on Friday March 4, 2022.
But when Border Force officers searched the vehicle they discovered five undocumented migrants from Vietnam concealed in the back.
An investigation led by the Home Office’s Criminal Financial Investigations (CFI) team later found that Stainton and Blendell were working as part of a larger organised crime gang.
Mobile phone analysis revealed that they played a key role in organising the pre-travel arrangements for the migrants and had conducted several previous trips to France and Belgium, the Home Office said.
The CFI investigation discovered that the pair had made cash deposits totalling to £14,000 into their respective bank accounts directly after one of their previous trips.
They were also expecting to receive £2,000 each for smuggling the five Vietnamese migrants into the UK before they were apprehended by Border Force, the court heard.
Despite initially denying any involvement in the crimes, they both entered later entered guilty pleas.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, said: “Blendell and Stainton, like many criminal gangs are only concerned with lining their pockets, they exploited a desperate group of individuals by disguising them under motorcycle parts in the back of their van.
"This type of heinous criminality must be stopped, and today’s sentence shows we won’t stand and watch.
“We are taking robust action against the organised criminal networks who continue to flout our laws and put lives on the line."
The sentences come as the Government attempts to toughen up border security measure by handing counter-terror style powers to police and increasing deportations.
Law enforcement agencies are also intensifying collaboration with France and other countries to dismantle the criminal gang business models.
CFI investigator Jason Jowett said: “This unscrupulous pair have been rightly convicted and sentenced for their callous actions.
“As with many cases we see, the migrants were led to believe they were coming for a better life, but found themselves in cramped, dangerous conditions as their exploiters lined their pockets at their expense.
“I cannot state this enough - the criminals running these networks do not care about the welfare of those that they transport to the UK. Their sole focus is financial gain and one by one we will put a stop to them.”
