Immigrants hid in load of tyres
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by Ann Price • An Italian lorry driver, who pleaded guilty to smuggling 18 illegal immigrants into the UK, has been told he can go home because he had already served a year in prison on remand.
Domenico Tedesco wept as Judge John Gower QC sentenced him to 22 months in jail but told him he would be able to go home in a week's time, when he appeared at Maidstone Crown Court last week.
Tachograph evidence suggested the stowaways had boarded the truck somewhere in Paris. A film found by Customs officers in the trailer showed the immigrants posing by the Eiffel tower.
They were discovered among a load of tyres after a sniffer dog had indicated to Customs officers that there were people inside the trailer as Tedesco attempted to enter the UK at Dover. The tyres had been stacked in such a way as to make it look as though the trailer was full in fact an area for the 18 people had been created at the front.
Judge Gower freed Tedesco after hearing a plea from his defence that while in jail his wife had left him for a "toy boy" and he was in danger of losing his children.
He told him: "The courts in this country have to take a very serious view of crimes like this." Citing the UK's strict immigration policy, he told the defendant that if he had denied the offence and subsequently been found guilty, he would have been sentenced to three years.