LONDON: Four men involved in smuggling 87 illegal immigrants, including children, into the UK hidden among van loads of second-hand furniture, mattresses and tyres have been jailed for a total of more than 14 years.
The gang showed ‘no regard for human life’ as they concealed 14 people inside wardrobes in the rear of one van, while 12 adults and three children were found in another, hidden by a pile of mattresses. Their hiding place was revealed after a border force official at the Channel Tunnel spotted condensation on top of the van roof. On another occasion, two men were found lying in the boot of an Audi car.
One of the people smuggling gang, Romanian national Nicodin Ardelean ,was at the time wanted on a European arrest warrant in respect of a six-year prison sentence in his home country. The immigrants came from China, Kurdistan, Vietnam, Iran and Iraq, and were discovered by border control officers at the Channel Tunnel, and Dover Docks in Kent.
Prosecutor Dickon Reid told Maidstone Crown Court there were a totalof seven ‘interceptions’ of cross-Channel trips between May and December last year in which the 87 illegals were discovered.The first revealed the two men hiding in the car boot at Dover docks. Thereafter, the people smugglers switched to using hire vans. The vehicles were rented from firms in Rochester and Sittingbourne in Kent.
The drivers would then head across the Channel to stay in hotels on the outskirts of Dunkirk in France before heading back with their illicit ‘cargo’. Mr Reid said the four men in the dock were involved in facilitating unlawful immigration by ‘seeking to bypass border controls’ to enter the UK.
Marcus Shorter, 32, of Pine Grove, Hempstead, Gillingham, Kent, was jailed for three years and nine months. Former soldier Adam Dunning, 29, of no fixed address, was jailed for four years and nine months.John Newitt, 35 of Evans Street, Crewe, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, while Ardelean, 36, of no fixed address, was jailed for three years and four months.A fifth man, Mohammed Sangak, was said to have been at the heart ofthe operation and reaping the financial benefits.
He was linked to the other defendants and the organised trips either by mobile phone evidence or car tracking devices.Mr Reid told the court: ‘He was at the height of this conspiracy and the prime organiser of the trips across the Channel.’The 30-year-old, from Gold Crest Drive, St Mary’s Island, Chatham, will be sentenced at a later date.
Shorter organised the hiring of a Mercedes van which was used to smuggle in 11 Vietnamese nationals and three from Iraq.The driver was asked about his load, and his answers and general demeanour aroused suspicions,’ said the prosecutor.
‘He described his load as furniture and the vehicle was directed over to a scanner. It revealed an anomaly and was then searched.
