A lorry driver has been jailed for three years after attempting to smuggle 32 migrants out of the UK and into France.
Romanian Sorin-Costinel Ivan, 46, was arrested as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) operation at Dover Port in September.
The operation was supported by the Port of Dover Police, Kent Police, and Immigration Enforcement.
Ivan had the mostly Bangladeshi nationals in the trailer of his HGV. Three bundles of cash totally £9,950 were found in his cab.
He admitted to police having visited a layby on the A20 near Ashford, but initially denied any knowledge of the migrants in his trailer.
However, he later changed his plea and admitted a charge of facilitating illegal immigration.
Another Romanian, Marius Bajenaru, was also sentenced after the enforcement authorities found 17 migrants concealed in the rear of his panel van, and almost £4,000 in cash in a black plastic bag in the cab.
The 44-year-old was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to two years and eight months in jail after he made a full confession and admitted he had collected the migrants from the same layby on the A20 and stood to be paid around £200 for each person he smuggled.
The sentencing of the two men comes just weeks after the NCA warned HGV drivers they were facing hefty sentences for taking money to transport people across the border in otherwise legitimate loads.
It said it had seen an increase in cases of lorry drivers being recruited by criminal gangs.
NCA senior investigating officer John Turner said: “People smuggling gangs will pitch this as a low-risk way of making extra money to drivers, but as this case shows it is anything but.
“Those caught face potentially life-changing prison sentences.
“The criminal networks involved in this type of offending show no regard for the safety of those they transport, treating people as commodities.”
