A retired ambulance worker has been ordered to pay a £6,000 fine after border force officials found a migrant hiding in a trailer attached to his motorhome in France.
Great-grandfather Peter Hughes, 75, from Droylsden, Tameside, was returning to the UK with his wife Anne, 78, when French officials found the Sudanese man at the Port of Calais.
The pair had had no idea about the stowaway and had been preparing to board a ferry back home to the UK after a camping holiday around France and Europe with their dog.
They said they fully cooperated with authorities but now face having to pay the £6,000 to the Home Office within 60 days.
Mr Hughes, who met the late Queen Elizabeth after accepting a long-service award from North West Ambulance Service, has branded the enforcement action by the Home Office as ‘obscene’.
Great-grandfather Peter Hughes, 75, from Droylsden, Tameside, was returning to the UK with his wife Anne, 78, when French officials found the Sudanese man at the Port of Calais
A Sudanese man was discovered in the Hughes’ trailer as he attempted to reach the UK
The former ambulance technician, who retired in 2000 after 21 years, said they believe the man entered the trailer when they stopped at a supermarket near the port for supplies ahead of the crossing home.
He told of the moment a ‘foot and a leg’ emerged from under the trailer’s covering before French police were called to the port in May.
‘We got to border control. They said they wanted to check everything – it is a standard practice which we accept and fully understand. They asked to look in the trailer. I unhooked the straps from the cover – then there was a foot and a leg.
‘We found out later he was a young Sudanese man. Border control said we could not go anywhere until the police came. They turned up and took him away. One of the officers said to me that we should not have any problems, and now this.’
The incident meant the couple missed their ferry and had to wait five hours for another one.
After returning home Mr Hughes said he was sent a letter informing him he was being investigated.
He said he complied fully and completed all the relevant paperwork expected of him, telling the Home Office he and Anne, a former carer who retired at the age of 75, knew nothing of the man’s desperate bid to get to the UK.
The trailer’s bungee cords were all intact and there was no sign of the canvas cover being damaged, he added.
But on Saturday, Mr Hughes received an undated letter from the ‘Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Team’ – part of the UK Border Force – telling him the ‘Secretary of State has decided’ he’s ‘liable to a penalty of £6,000’.
The letter gives the date of the incident in Calais – May 7 – and the couple’s registration details.
On Saturday, Mr Hughes received an undated letter from the ‘Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Team’ – part of the UK Border Force – telling him the ‘Secretary of State has decided’ he’s ‘liable to a penalty of £6,000’
It adds: ‘The vehicle index described above was found to contain a total of one person concealed in it, each person being either a clandestine entrant or person concealed being a clandestine entrant, which was found by an Authorised Search Office.’
The notice says it’s been issued under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999: The Carriers’ Liability Regulations 2002.
The letter states Mr Hughes failed to check the trailer before arriving at immigration control at Calais, saying: ‘No standard checks were completed on the vehicle or trailer as soon as practicable before reaching immigration controls. Therefore the driver did not comply with this regulation.’
The pensioner said there is ‘no way’ he is paying the £6,000 fine, and he is appealing and has written to his MP, Ashton-under-Lyne’s Angela Rayner, who is the deputy prime minister, as well as the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper.
Mr Hughes added: ‘I have not slept with worry – it has really affected me. I think it’s obscene. I feel that I am being screwed – I am just the average Joe in the street.
‘We presume it happened in the supermarket car park, as we travelled to Calais from the south of France and slept in the van overnight in a services station.
‘When I returned from the supermarket I had to walk past my trailer and had there been any evidence of tampering with the cover, I’m sure I would have noticed. My wife is registered disabled and I am no spring chicken.
‘This should serve as a warning to other people – this could happen to anyone and it’s just not on.’
Mr Hughes said he regularly checked on the trailer’s strappings to make sure they hadn’t come loose and were still secure. The couple stored camping equipment in it for their holiday tour of Europe.
He added: ‘You try to be a good citizen and help others – which is what I have done – and now this happens. It’s just completely out of order and not on. We just do not know what to do.
‘I have had a phone call from Angela Rayner’s office. They are going to look into it. They said they thought it was disgusting. I have also had a response from Citizens Advice.
Mr Hughes said the ‘only good thing’ to have come out of the whole incident has been to warn others.
‘If people are now aware of what has happened to me – who just went on a camping holiday in France – then at least that’s something. This could happen to anyone.’
