Fine cancelled for couple who found immigrant in motorhome’s bike rack
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had said the Home Office would look into the case.
A couple who were fined £1,500 after they found an “immigrant” in their motorhome’s bike rack have had the penalty cancelled.
After returning home to Essex from France, Joanne and Adrian Fenton found a young man under the cover of their bike rack.
After reporting the incident to the police they were fined by the Home Office.
But after objecting to the penalty, they received an email from the Border Force, which is part of the Home Office, cancelling the fine.
“We don’t want anyone else to go through what we’ve gone through,” Mr Fenton, 57, told the JVS show on BBC Three Counties Radio.
“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”.
Mrs Fenton, 55, 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?”
Mr and Mrs Fenton told the BBC they had been vigilant and border officials who checked the vehicle in Calais had not found the man.
They boarded Le Shuttle from Calais to Folkestone in Kent on the evening of October 15 after they had been travelling around France.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Home Office would look into the case.
Conservative former minister Sir John Whittingdale, who raised the case in the Commons, said the couple should be “thanked rather than punished”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, the MP for Maldon said: “Will the Prime Minister look at the case of my constituents, Mr And Mrs Adrian Fenton, who returned home from visiting France in their motorhome to discover an illegal immigrant concealed in the bike rack.
“They reported it immediately to the police, only to receive a fine from the Border Force of £1,500.
“Will he agree that my constituents ought to be thanked rather than punished? And does he accept that this action will send a message to deter anybody from acting responsibly in the future?”
The Prime Minister replied: “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.”
