Suspicious Border Force officers discovered 13 illegal immigrants hiding in the back of a specially-modified tipper truck that was brought into Hull docks on an overnight ferry from Rotterdam. The undocumented people, from Albania and Vietnam, were found huddled at the back of the trailer after eagle-eyed investigators detained the truck and carried out a scan.
It showed that the truck contained people who were being secretly smuggled into this country – and it was later discovered that some of them were children, Hull Crown Court heard. Costinel Curcan, 41, admitted conspiring with others to facilitate the breach of international law, by bringing 13 undocumented people into this country, at King George Docks, Hull, between October 30 and November 9, 2022.
Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said that Border Force officers stopped two vehicles at King George Docks on November 9, 2022 after they arrived in the early morning from an overnight Pride of Rotterdam ferry. One of them was a cab with a tipper truck attached to it and the other was a Vauxhall Astra car.
It was established that the drivers ostensibly knew each other and worked for the same company. The car driver, who is Irish, was identified. Curcan, from Romania, was the passenger.
The tipper truck was examined and a scan of it was made. It looked like there were people in the tipper trailer. When it was opened, 13 people were discovered inside at the rear.
There were four Albanians and nine Vietnamese people. Six of the Vietnamese were deemed to be children and another claimed to be a child.
“All of those people were identified with no right or entitlement to be in the UK,” said Mr Robinson. Further examination of the tipper truck revealed that the wiring at the top or roof had been disconnected, meaning that it could not open so as to pull in a load.
There was also no hydraulic mechanism to deposit the contents. It had been modified for the purpose of bringing the occupants across to this country.
Curcan and the other man in the Astra were seen seemingly removing or swapping SIM cards for mobile phones. “There is some evidence of attempts to tamper with or remove evidence,” said Mr Robinson.
The other man had more than £1,000 cash on him. During interview, Curcan denied any knowledge of the people in the tipper truck but he admitted that he knew the other man.
“It appears that the people may have been picked up at Rotterdam – or certainly the trailer was,” said Mr Robinson. Curcan originally did not attend court but he was arrested in Folkestone, Kent, and he had been in custody since April 6.
The other two men involved, the drivers of the car and the truck, were still at large. “This was a commercial activity and the defendant was playing his role,” said Mr Robinson. There were false number plates on the car.
Philip Mahoney, mitigating, said that father-of-four Curcan pleaded guilty and he had no previous convictions. “He has worked blamelessly as a lorry driver for 16 years, back and forth between the continent and the UK,” said Mr Mahoney.
“He was working quite legitimately as a lorry driver between the UK and Europe.” He came into contact with the other man and, at first, the work that Curcan did for him was completely legitimate.
The man became aware that Curcan’s finances were tight and suggested a way that he could earn some money. Curcan was due to have been paid £800 but he never received it.
He thought that he was just going to pick up the tipper truck from this country and take it to Europe but he was later told that he would have to accompany the other man on the ferry on the way back.
Curcan claimed that he did not know that the tipper truck had been modified. “He is enormously ashamed of himself,” said Mr Mahoney. “He is a man who has made a terrible mistake and he and his family are going to pay the price for it.”
Recorder Brian Whitehead told Curcan: “You were doing this for financial gain. You perhaps ended up in over your head with this.
“You thought you were simply driving to Europe but then the deal was changed and you were told: ‘No, you are coming back’. This, overall, was a relatively sophisticated operation.
“The vehicle was specially modified for this. You knew that the number plates were false. That’s a lot of people – 13 – including children.”
Curcan was jailed for three years and two months.
After the hearing, the Government’s Border Security and Asylum Minister, Anna Turley, said: “I welcome this sentencing as a stark reminder that we stand ready to respond to all methods used by vile people-smuggling gangs, including lorries and other clandestine routes.
“We have delivered a record-breaking increase in disruptions to criminal smuggling activity, including arrests, convictions and seizures, rising by nearly 50 per cent in one year. Asylum claims from those entering illegally via lorry, car or incorrect documentation are also down by 25 per cent in the past 12 months.”
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