Camper van people smugglers jailed

Two people smugglers from the Black Country caught with four illegal Indian immigrants in a hired camper van were today starting a three-year jail sentence.

Deborah Minogue, aged 40, and 31-year-old Towfik Osman, hatched the international plot to try and make money to clear their debts, a court heard.

The pair, from Wolverhampton, met three months before travelling to France and Holland before driving around picking up cargo.

They were found guilty yesterday of conspiring to smuggle the immigrants into the country using the £1,600 hired van following a trial at Hull Crown Court.

The court heard jobless mother-of-one Minogue was in financial trouble when she was stopped in Hull on September 2, 2008, after driving off the Pride of Bruges ferry.

Customs officials found three Indian men hidden in a pull down bed above the driver's cabin. An Indian boy was also found hiding in the toilet.

Minogue, of Lawfred Avenue, Wednesfield, claimed she was an innocent victim of a four-day holiday to stock up on cigarettes.

But Judge Trevor Barber described her and Osman, aged 31, of Othello Road, Wednesfield, as "bare-face liars".

"You are both criminals," he added. "You have acted without compassion and have shown no remorse.

"You were both in it for the money and it was not an insubstantial amount. You had contacts overseas. It was a well-organised, deliberately constructed plan, which unfortunately for you did not come off.

"This case goes to the heart of illegal immigration which this country is all too familiar with."

Prosecutor Andrew Wilson said despite describing herself as a single passenger, Minogue knew she had an illegal cargo. The pair denied knowing each other, even though ferry tickets showed them together on the outward bound trip to France from Dover.

Osman was not in the camper van when Minogue was stopped.

Mr Wilson said: "She had a benefit loan, Osman had a huge amount of debt but was found with £900 in cash when he was arrested."

By Victoria Nash