A couple who were fined £1,500 by the Home Office when they reported a migrant in their motorhome after returning from France have said they are being punished for something the professionals should have picked up on.
Adrian and Joanne Fenton were astonished to find a Sudanese man inside a bag covering a bike rack on their motorhome.
After arriving home to Heybridge, Essex, on October 15 following a long drive back from Calais, the couple noticed the man when they spotted ‘a pair of white trainers.’
‘I then looked up and saw a pair of legs and face attached looking down. I immediately told him to stay there because you fear for your safety,’ Mr Fenton told MailOnline.
‘I’m now parked in my driveway at my house and you don’t know who this individual is. I shouted to Joanne to phone the police.
‘How he got under there, I don’t know. You cannot see how he got under there. I really can’t work it out.
‘He was contorted around the bikes. Feet on the bottom of the rack and bent double over, so you could see nobody from over the cover.’
After police arrived and took the man away, the Fentons were interviewed by officers and expected this would mark the end of the ordeal.
Adrian and Joanne Fenton (pictured) were astonished to find a Sudanese man inside a bike bag on their motorhome
The couple noticed the man when they spotted ‘a pair of white trainers’
But just over two months later, the pair were issued with a £1,500 fine by the Home Office for failing to ‘check that no clandestine entrant was concealed’ in the motorhome.
The couple insist they did not see or hear anything that could indicate to them the presence of a stowaway.
‘We didn’t see anything but neither did the passport control,’ Mr Fenton said.
‘I was struck by fear when I first saw him. You are wondering who this person is inside your motorhome, outside your own house. It was initial shock and fear.
‘We were really concerned. You hear so many stories and you think “could they be carrying a weapon or a knife?” I thought the moral thing to do would be to call the police.
‘He didn’t try to run off. He dropped his mobile phone and my wife took it. I told him to stay where he was, which he did until the police came. We passed him a bottle of water under the cover to make sure he was safe.’
Although they have been reprimanded by the Home Office, the Fentons believe they had implemented all appropriate measures.
‘The motorhome is fully alarmed. It has pir sensors inside and all the doors and lockers are alarmed because it’s state of the art.’
The man was stowed in a bag covering a bike rack
Police arrived 15 minutes after being called and interviewed the couple
As well as having an intact security system, the Fentons said that no one suspected anything during border checks.
‘Once we got to the shuttle port, we proceeded through English and French passport control and border force and then one person did a full walk around the vehicle.
‘He even got me to open one of my lockers on the back to double check that our gas was turned off before we went on.’
Once in the UK, no further checks were required and the couple hit the M25 and headed straight home to unpack the motorhome.
Police arrived 15 minutes after the Fentons discovered the man, who Mr Fenton described as ‘non-threatening’ when he came out from under the cover.
‘He spoke limited English but I asked him if he was okay and he said “yes”.
The man told the police he was a 16-year-old from Sudan.
‘I would have said he was older but that’s my judgment,’ Mr Fenton said.
Adrian and Joanne had just returned from a four-day holiday to the Champagne region
The man told police he was a 16-year-old from Sudan
‘Once he came out he wasn’t threatening. And then you feel sorry for the lad who has hung on while you’ve been driving on the M25.
‘We made sure he was alright. We offered him some food.’
Two police officers took the man away and interviewed the Fentons.
‘They gave us no indication that we would be fined. They said he wasn’t an illegal immigrant because he was under 18, which meant it wouldn’t go to court so I wouldn’t hear anything else.
‘Eight weeks later I got an email from the Home Office border force, saying they’re considering issuing a fine and could we explain the full circumstances of the situation.
‘I emailed them back with all of the information and then I thought nothing more of it.
‘And then, February 23, a letter comes through the door and we’ve received the fine.’
The Fentons believe the man made his way onto the motorhome after they stopped at a French supermarket before getting onto the shuttle ferry to come back home.
The bike rack on the back of the motorhome
Adrian and Joanne have called the fine ‘unfair’ and say it will deter others
In the short drive between the shop and the ferry, they had to stop at several lights and junctions, they said.
‘I was absolutely shocked when I received the fine. I thought I had done everything right. My motorhome is secure and it’s alarmed and as soon as we discovered the individual we called the police.
‘Morally, I thought I had done everything I should have done. I’m struggling to understand why it’s happened.
‘We were both shocked and amazed. I couldn’t see how we could have done anything more than was reasonably practical or safe.
‘You can’t jump out of your vehicle every time you stop at a traffic light or a junction to check it. I mean, you’ve got busy roads, and it’s not safe to do that.
‘We’ve went through the professionals and they’ve not picked up on anything yet. We’ve been fined for something that they didn’t discover either.
‘I’m an upstanding citizen and I do believe in doing things the right way. It seems to me that calling the police is the right thing to do.
‘However, if you’re going to be fined, do you know how that looks to every other caravan or motorhome or holidaymaker across the country? Are they going to call the police? Probably not now.
Two police officers took the man away
‘We’ve been encouraged that if you call the authorities and do the right thing, you’re going to be fine.’
Mr Fenton lodged an objection of liability claim on Saturday and has received an acknowledgment. He will be informed of the outcome on May 2.
Mrs Fenton labelled the fine as ‘exceptionally unfair’, telling The JVS show on BBC Three Counties Radio: ‘I’m so angry and it’s so frustrating because we have done the right thing.
It wasn’t until the festive period that the couple were contacted by the Home Office via email with details of the offence and the fine.
In the email, they were told that they failed to ‘check that no clandestine entrant was concealed in the vehicle’.
But the Fentons hope to challenge the claim as the man was clinging to the outside rather than on board the motorhome.
The email also told them that the ‘entrant’ was found by an authorised search officer, even though the couple say they called the police the night they found him.
The fine, which reach as high as £10,000 in some cases, referenced asylum and immigration legislation.
The couple were fined for failing to ‘check that no clandestine entrant was concealed’
The Fentons suspect the man got into the bag when they were on their way to the ferry
Mrs Fenton says she is now drafting an appeal, which she claims will cost her a further £150, but feared her story would prevent people from ‘doing the right thing’ if they found themselves in a similar situation.
She said: ‘How safe is it for the everyday holidaymaker to get out of their vehicle, whether they are towing a caravan, whether driving a van, whether driving a motor home? How safe is it for us to keep getting out and checking that they are not grabbing underneath? It’s impossible.’
‘We will appeal, but it sounds like we will not get anywhere. We will just be wasting more money and we are going to end up having to pay the fine.
‘It’s the legit people like my husband and I that are coming through and have done the right thing that are getting fined for it. Where is the justification in that?’
The Home Office said penalties were ‘designed to target negligence rather than criminality’ and stressed that contacting the authorities is a ‘huge mitigating factor’ in how people are dealt with in these cases.
A spokesperson said: ‘Responsible persons who have fully complied with the actions laid out in the carriers liability amendment regulations of 2023 will receive a reduced penalty. The scheme is designed to target negligence, rather than criminality.
‘We would expect drivers who are actively involved in people smuggling to be investigated and prosecuted in the courts.
‘Increased fines, new maximum penalty levels and a new penalty for failing to adequately secure a goods vehicle came into force on February 13, 2023, to prevent dangerous and illegal journeys to the UK.’
