A lorry driver who discovered and reported stowaway immigrants in his vehicle as he boarded the ferry at Calais is challenging a £12,000 fine imposed by Border Force.
Michael Fletcher, 63, from Gloucestershire, was returning to the UK via France with a delivery from a factory in Germany on 16 September last year.
He had passed the security checks at the UK Immigration Control Zone in Calais when he felt a suspicious movement in the back of his lorry as he boarded the ferry.
He said: “I did all the checks. I walked around to the front and I thought the only place now is up on the roof, and that’s four metres high.”
“I looked over and could see where they cut the roof and somebody had sealed it back with tape.
“The police came, they took the immigrants. The UK Border Force said, ’here you are, here’s your paperwork. You can go now’.”
At the time Fletcher was reassured by officers that he had done all the necessary checks, and so was shocked to receive the letter from the Border Force in February demanding he pay a fine of £12,000, for not providing a checklist - a claim Fletcher denies.
After he provided photographic evidence of the checklist he submitted to authorities, Border Force reduced the fine to £3,000.
Fletcher took his case to his local MP at the time, who was Conservative minister Mark Harper. He referred the case to the former Home Secretary James Cleverly.
However the case has yet to be taken up by his new Labour MP Matt Bishop.
Fletcher said: “I just want my issue resolved. I’m now waiting for bailiffs to come take the value of the fine.
“I don’t understand how they can fine me when they haven’t taken me to court. The first letter they sent to me was how to pay the fine and nobody wants to talk to me because I’m not that important.”
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Fletcher had parked the night before in the Calais registered truck stop, where the government recommends drivers should park.
A border control officer allegedly told him they had found several stowaways in vehicles that had come from that site recently.
Northampton haulier EM Rogers Transport recently succeeded in appealing against a £30,000 penalty imposed after six stowaways were found in one of the firm’s trucks.
The company is now in the process of appealing a second case.
The driver has also had his fine reduced from £36,000 to £1,332 after the company took legal action.
Under the Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme, which was made even more stringent last year, anyone found to be carrying an illegal migrant now faces a fine of up to £10,000 for each clandestine entrant.
The haulier and the driver were originally ordered to pay £66,000 in March after six stowaways were discovered in its vehicle by Border Force officers.
The illegal immigrants broke into the HGV eight hours from Calais port, despite the company taking security measures which it insists were above and beyond what is required by Border Force.
Owner Ed Rogers took legal advice and appealed the penalty. He recently received an email from the Home Office saying it had reduced the fine to zero – with no explanation.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are fully committed to securing the border and cracking down on people smugglers.
“The Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme aims to ensure drivers are taking every reasonable step to deter irregular migration and disrupt people smugglers.”
