A retired ambulance service worker has issued an urgent warning to travellers heading to Europe in the New Year – after he was fined over a migrant stowaway he didn’t know was in his camping trailer.
Great-grandfather Peter Hughes, 75, from Droylsden, Tameside, was initially told by the Home Office he was being fined a staggering £6,000. A migrant was found stowed inside his small camping trailer at the Port of Calais in France without his knowledge in a failed bid to illegally enter the UK.
Now – after substantial political and media pressure, and an appeal – Peter’s fine has been quashed to £150, a sum he’s begrudgingly paid despite he and his wife, Anne, knowing nothing about the migrant man, from Sudan.
Peter, who met the late Queen Elizabeth after accepting a long-service award from North West Ambulance Service before retiring as an ambulance technician, branded the enforcement action by the Home Office as ‘obscene’.
He’s now spoken out to warn others – and revealed the toll the case has had on both him and his wife.
Peter and Anne, 78, a retired carer, were returning to the UK after a camping holiday in France when the young Sudanese man was found by French border force officers hiding inside the small trailer attached to their converted motorhome at the Port of Calais in May.
The couple said they believed the bungee ropes to the trailer were lifted up and the man went inside when they stopped at a supermarket before the ferry trip to pick up supplies. They regularly checked the trailer was secure because they were driving around France.
But Peter received a letter from the ‘Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Team’ – part of the UK Border Force – telling him the ‘Secretary of State had decided’ he was ‘liable to a penalty of £6,000’. The letter accused him of failing to check the trailer before arriving at immigration control at Calais.
His MP, Ashton-under-Lyne’s Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, took up the case and her office liaised with Peter. UK Border force wrote to him revealing the revised fine and saying his written notice of objection had been ‘carefully considered’, but that his ‘liability stands’.
Great-grandfather Peter Hughes (pictured, right, with his wife Anne, left) was initially told by the Home Office he was being fined a staggering £6,000
A young Sudanese man (pictured) was found by French border force officers hiding inside the small trailer attached to the couple’s converted motorhome
Peter received a letter from the ‘Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Team’ – part of the UK Border Force – telling him the ‘Secretary of State had decided’ he was ‘liable to a penalty of £6,000’
Peter said: ‘I was in the phone first thing on the Monday following the arrival of the letter on the Friday. When I rang them they had to double check the amount, it was still showing £6,000.
‘I don’t think the woman who answered my call was impressed with my reaction when she asked for the full amount. I very much appreciate the help and support from the media and Angela Rayner and her staff.
‘There can be a positive thing that can come out of all this.
‘There are many people that travel into Europe for camping holidays – the more of them that are aware of what can happen the better. I wouldn’t wish the problems that we have had on anyone. The stress upon us has been awful.
‘We have all seen the television reports about illegal immigrants stowing away in goods vehicles and I am sure the majority of us, like myself, wouldn’t even consider my particular circumstances.
‘Perhaps the ferry companies and Eurotunnel could start issuing warnings to people who make bookings that include a trailer, to be aware that the illegal immigrants target everyone, not just HGV’s.’
The Home Office said the Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme was designed to secure the border, target negligence, and ensure drivers take every reasonable step to deter irregular migration.
The scheme is designed to target negligence rather than criminality, as drivers involved in people smuggling would be investigated and prosecuted in the courts, and comes under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999: The Carriers’ Liability Regulations 2002.
