in World News UK Couple Discover Migrant in Back of Their Van, Report to Police, Get Fined £3,000
by Ben Bartee
Picture this: you’re a law-abiding British citizen who discovers a migrant stowaway in your vehicle. You run him off, continue on your journey, and discover another one later on. This time, you do what you think is the responsible thing and deliver the news to your local police officer, whose salary you presumably pay with your taxes.
You believe you’ve done a good deed for God and country, only to discover you are now the target of state prosecutors.
Instead of thanking you, arresting and deporting the migrant, the government apparently lets him loose in Britain and then sends you a 3,000-pound fine for all of your work and civic engagement.
Via BBC (emphasis added):
A couple are calling unfair a £3,000 fine they received after informing police they had found a migrant hiding in their van as they arrived in the UK from France.
Jane Cave and her husband Ed Masters from Broomsthorpe in Norfolk had initially found a man in the back of the van at a supermarket on their way to the French border, and he was removed.
But when travelling through Suffolk on the journey home, they heard knocking and found another migrant and called the police.
Several months after the incident, they received the fine from Border Force, which said it had “sufficient evidence” for the penalty.
“Sufficient evidence” of what exactly, you might ask.
Continuing:
A few months later, they received a letter informing them that they were being fined.
“It said we are fining you for bringing in a clandestine immigrant,” she said.
“[I thought] why? It’s not our fault.
“We did everything right.”
The couple must pay the fine within the next two years but was paying monthly due to not being able to pay it off in full…
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 evidence*.”
