A father claims he was hit with a £12,000 fine after two illegal immigrants allegedly hid in his campervan without his knowledge whilst he drove back to the UK.
Holidaymaker Edson Martins Francisco, 45, and his young family had been making their way from Portugal back to the UK, when they arrived at Calais on December 17.
Having arrived early after confusing the time slots for boarding the ferry, the father stopped at Lidl for 30 minutes before going through the border control check.
However during his pit-stop at the supermarket, he claims two men broke in and locked themselves inside the back of his converted van unnoticed.
The father-of-four, from Woking in Surrey, insists he was astonished when officials searched the van and found the two men hidden under the bed, curled up in the back of the van.
After the discovery Edson claims his documents, phone and van were checked and he was let go after a six- hour interview, where he insists he was told ‘everything [was] fine’.
He thought nothing of the incident again until he was greeted by a £12,000 penalty fine for ‘clandestine entry offences’ on his doorstep six months later.
He’s been given 60 days to pay the Border Force penalty issued on behalf of the secretary of state – despite earning just £1,200 a month.
Reflecting on the six-hour interview with border control officials, he said: ‘They just treated me like a criminal.
‘There was no sense of my humanity or that of my boy. I kept telling them I didn’t know anything about the people. I asked to see the manager.’
‘They checked everything and could see I’d done nothing wrong.
‘The policeman at the end said ‘you have to be careful, you have to look for these things’, but I do this journey all the time and they never tell you to look out for this.”
The letter, which arrived on June 15, says he did not fully comply with the Carriers Liability Regulations 2023 in three ways.
It said the van was not ‘locked or secured’ when it was left unattended, and he didn’t use locks ‘appropriately and with reasonable care’.
The third alleged rule break involved not checking for ‘clandestine entrants’ before reaching immigration control.
If Edson had checked the vehicle before going to border control he would have found the people hidden in his van, it claims.
‘It’s ridiculous! It’s a huge amount of money and there’s no way I can pay it,’ the father-of-four added.
‘Border control searched all my stuff and said ‘everything is fine you can go’ – they didn’t say anything else could or would happen.
‘I couldn’t believe it when the letter arrived. I was absolutely horrified when I opened the back of the van for border control and saw them curled up there.’
He added: ‘I couldn’t even speak. All this stuff was going through my head – they could have kidnapped me or taken my boy.
‘They must have got in when I was in Lidl. I just never thought about it.
‘They must have broken in. I’ve worked with vehicles for years; I know how easy it is to unlock them.
‘I didn’t check the back of the van because I didn’t think anyone would do that.
‘I’m black and I get checked every time. I know I have to stay above the law so I’d never try to smuggle anyone in. Plus I had my son with me so why would I do that.’
Edson has been travelling home to Surrey in the converted van with his then two-year-old son, as his partner had flown home earlier with their disabled daughter.
Edson is a Portuguese national but has lived in the UK for more than 20 years and has indefinite leave to remain, and makes the journey twice a year to see family.
He had accidentally arrived 12 hours early for the ferry – at 2am instead of 2pm – and didn’t have the £100 needed to change his crossing time.
He insists that he parked up the Ford transit and slept in the vehicle with his son, now three, before the pair allegedly broke into his vehicle whilst he grabbed breakfast at Lidl.
Edson added: ‘This whole thing has been extremely stressful and still is. Border control should make people aware that this can happen.’
‘I now realise there’s such a huge thing going on with people trying to get in vehicles at Calais – it’s the same people trying over and over, because when they’re caught they’re just let go so they try again.
‘People shouldn’t travel this route alone – it’s not safe.
‘If you check your vehicle and find them there and face up to them it could be very dangerous.’
The Home Office said they do not comment on individual cases.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We are fully committed to stopping people from illegally entering the country and cracking down on people smugglers.
‘We do not issue Clandestine entrant civil penalty fines without sufficient cause.’