Brit couple’s jaw-dropping discovery after driving dwelling from France lands them large positive
A couple from Essex were stunned after the Home Office slapped them with a hefty £1500 fine after they reported to the police a clandestine migrant found at the back of their motorhome
A couple were fined £1,500 after reporting a Sudanese migrant who clung to the back of their motorhome as they drove back from France to the UK to the police.
Adrian and Joanne Fenton, from Essex, opened a bike bag once they arrived to their home in Heybridge. to find the migrant. Joanne said: “He goes to take the bikes off and as he unzips and unlocks the cover, which is really tight, he sees two trainers.
“Suddenly he thinks to himself ‘I haven’t left any trainers on here’ and then he sees there are two legs attached to it. He then called me, and I was at the front unloading and said, ‘Joanne you need to call the police, we have a stowaway’.”
After the police arrived on the scene, they detained the unidentified man, and the couple believed that was the end of the ordeal. Two months on, the pair were gob-smacked after the Home Office slapped them with a £1,500 fine for failing to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” in the motorhome.
Joanne believed that the fine was “exceptionally unfair”, and told the BBC: “I’m so angry and it’s so frustrating because we have done the right thing.
“We have phoned the police. It’s dangerous enough when you drive through France, and you can ask anyone who drives through France and comes up to the borders.
“These clandestines are everywhere. So, to stop and go outside and check your vehicle all the time is dangerous. How can you do that? It’s on a bike rack. It’s not internal”, she added.
She’s is now drafting an appeal, which she says will cost another £150. She asked rhetorically: “How safe is it for the everyday holidaymaker to get out of their vehicle, whether they are towing a caravan, whether driving a van, whether driving a motor home? How safe is it for us to keep getting out and checking that they are not grabbing underneath? It’s impossible.
“We will appeal, but it sounds like we will not get anywhere. We will just be wasting more money and we are going to end up having to pay the fine.
“It’s the legit people like my husband and I that are coming through and have done the right thing that are getting fined for it. Where is the justification in that?”
