Essex couple fined £1,500 after migrant hid on motorhome

Jonathan Vernon-Smith

BBC Three Counties Radio

Henry Godfrey-Evans

BBC News, Essex

Border Force officials were called to Adrian and Joanne Fenton’s home in Essex after they found the man hidden in their bike rack

Joanne Fenton A garage with two men, one of them a police officer standing above another person whose face is blurred — Border Force officials were called to Adrian and Joanne Fenton’s home in Essex after they found the man hidden in their bike rack

A couple who discovered a migrant had clung to the back of their vehicle all the way home from France have been issued a £1,500 fine.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton said they called police when they found the person zipped inside the cover of a bike rack at their home in Heybridge, Essex, in October.

They later received a fine from the Home Office for failing to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” in the motorhome. The pair said they were drafting an appeal.

The Home Office said penalties were “designed to target negligence rather than criminality”.

“At no point did I believe I would be fined by taking correct and moral action,” said Mr Fenton, writing in an email exchange to the Home Office, seen by the BBC.

“This action taken by Border Force to impose a fine only encourages travellers [or] holidaymakers in this position not to call the police but to let the stowaway abscond.”

The migrant was latched on to the bike rack, under the covers, for a six-hour journey from France to Essex

Adrian Fenton A tightly-packed cover on the back of a van. It is pictured outside on a driveway or road. — The migrant was latched on to the bike rack, under the covers, for a six-hour journey from France to Essex

Speaking to the JVS Show on BBC Three Counties Radio, Mrs Fenton said the pair had been travelling in France with friends and returned to the UK via ferry on 15 October.

The 55-year-old said border officials in Calais and the UK had not inspected the bike rack or the cover before or after the crossing.

Retired firefighter Mr Fenton, 57, had been at the wheel for the six-hour journey before the pair arrived home at 22:15 BST.

Mrs Fenton said her husband unzipped the “really tight” cover they had been using for their bicyckes on the back of the motorhome.

“He sees two trainers… goes to have a look, and there’s two legs attached to it,” she recalled.

“He’s gone ‘Jo, you need to phone the police. We’ve got a stowaway.'”

Mrs Fenton said she offered the young man a bottle of water, to which he said “thank you”.

She said he told police he was from Sudan, and that he was 16 years old.

Joanne Fenton told her story to BBC Three Counties’ JVS Show

The Essex couple were travelling in Australia over Christmas when they received an email from the Home Office with details of the offence and fine.

It said they failed to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed in the vehicle”, but Mrs Fenton contested that technically he was clinging to the outside rather than aboard the motorhome.

The email also said the “entrant” was found by an authorised search officer, despite the couple saying they called the police the night they found him.

The fine referenced asylum and immigration legislation.

Maldon Conservative Sir John Whittingdale – their local MP – has written to the Minister for Border Security and Asylum Dame Angela Eagle, asking to review their concerns.

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