Couple who found migrant hiding in campervan have £1,500 fine cancelled

A couple who were fined after they reported finding a migrant on the bike rack of their motorhome have had their penalty cancelled.

The Home Office had ordered Adrian and Joanne Fenton, from Heybridge in Essex, to pay £1,500 for “failing to check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” in the vehicle as they crossed the English Channel, the BBC reported.

Mr Fenton, 57, has now told the broadcaster that Border Force, part of the Home Office, had taken his objection to liability into consideration and they were no longer being fined.

The Home Office confirmed to The Independent that a letter was sent to the couple reducing the fine to £0.

The couple boarded Le Shuttle from Calais to Folkestone, Kent, on the evening of 15 October after they had been travelling around France.

Mrs Fenton, 55, told the BBC that after a six-hour drive, her husband had unzipped the cover of the bicycle rack and found someone inside.

The couple called the police to tell them they had found a stowaway. They later discovered the boy was a 16-year-old from Sudan.

They received an email saying they were being fined. The couple argued that the man had been clinging to the outside of the motorhome rather than inside it, and they thought they’d done the right thing by calling the police.

The Home Office has said such fines are designed to target negligence rather than criminality. It added those who are actively involved in people smuggling will be investigated and prosecuted.

On Wednesday, the couple’s local MP, Sir John Whittingdale, raised the issue at PMQs and said they should be “thanked rather than punished”.

Sir Keir Starmer responded: “Can I thank him for raising this important case on behalf of his constituents? I’ve seen some of the details, and I am concerned about it, and I do think it’s important, as he says, that the Home Office look into it, and therefore we will do so.

“And I will make sure that he is updated in relation to that in due course.”

The Carriers Liability Amendment Regulation 2023 states that owners, drivers, hirers and operators must secure their vehicles to prevent unauthorised access by clandestine entrants.

The government can fine people up to £10,000 under the scheme.

Mrs Fenton told the BBC: “It’s about motorhomes and caravaners coming through the borders - how many more people are going to get caught out exactly the same?”

Her husband added: “We don’t want anyone else to go through what we’ve gone through.

“If someone does call the police because they’ve got someone discovered in their motorhome, Border Force shouldn’t even be considering fining them because everyone's doing the moral and the right thing.”

He said the Home Office should “be looking at their policy and make sure that it's fit for purpose and not targeting holidaymakers.”