Motorist jailed after women in holdall discovered in boot

A woman has been jailed for attempting to smuggle three people hidden in the boot and foot well of her car into Britain.

Wendy Thomas was stopped at the UK border controls at the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, France, where officers discovered two women in a holdall and a man lying on the floor in the back covered in a quilt.

Two of the stowaways were unresponsive and had to be rushed to hospital on October 9 2016.

Thomas, 50, of Cardiff, South Wales, pleaded guilty to one count of assisting illegal immigration and was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday.

Releasing the details of the case on Monday, the Home Office said Thomas' co-conspirators Adriano Bettoja-Allen, 37, and his wife Jeanette, 49, were also sentenced for their parts in two separate "carefully planned" attempts to smuggle people into the UK.

Investigation into the case started after the arrest of Dawood Shahbeik, a British national, at St Pancras International station when he arrived on the Eurostar from Calais on October 2 2016.

Shahbeik's mobile phone was found to contain text messages referring to an individual who had been transported to a house in Newport, South Wales, and a search of his luggage revealed a damaged Iranian passport and a large amount of cash, a Home Office spokeswoman said.

Thomas' arrest happened a week after Shahbeik's and text messages on both their phones showed they had been in regular contact with Bettoja-Allen, of Newport.

David Fairclough, assistant director from Immigration Enforcement's Criminal and Financial Investigation (CFI) team, said: "Adriano Bettoja-Allen was revealed by our investigations to be the common link between what initially appeared to be unconnected incidents.

"Our investigations showed that far from being opportunistic attempts to undermine the UK's border controls, the offences had been carefully planned.

"The fact that two women ended up in hospital demonstrates the dangerous lengths people smugglers will go to."

The CFI team discovered Bettoja-Allen and his wife had travelled through Calais on October 2 having earlier met up with Shahbeik in Dunkirk and that Thomas and Bettoja-Allen had travelled in separate vehicles from Folkestone to Coquelles on the same Eurotunnel train on October 8.

Bettoja-Allen returned to the UK alone the next day less than two hours after Thomas had been stopped by Border Force.

Financial checks also uncovered a large cash deposit into Thomas' bank account in September 2016.

Jeanette Bettoja-Allen, 49, of Park Square, Newport, from the Philippines, was linked to the Calais incident and was sentenced to 11 months, suspended for two years, 150 hours unpaid work, and a curfew after pleading guilty to assisting illegal immigration three days into her trial, the Home Office said.

Her husband was sentenced to five years in prison after admitting two counts of assisting illegal immigration.

Shahbeik was dealt with at an earlier hearing and was sentenced to 18 months in prison after admitting one count of assisting illegal immigrationMr Fairclough said the case was a warning for anyone tempted to get involved in people-smuggling.

"We work closely with Border Force colleagues to rigorously investigate allegations of immigration-related criminality," he said.

"We will catch you, and put you before the courts."

Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously.