Stuck on a Kent beach, suspected £10k-a-man people smuggler whose speedboat broke down
SITTING dejected on the side of his powerful speedboat, this is a suspected French people smuggler who became stranded on an English beach.
David Turpin is believed to have just dropped off a group of migrants he had ferried from Calais for £10,000 a time.
He claimed to be a penniless fisherman who had taken a wrong turn and broken down off Kent in the dead of night.
However, he could not explain why there were 16 life jackets in his £40,000 boat and his fishing rod did not have a line on it.
Turpin was arrested near Dunkirk earlier this month with five others, accused of being part of a ‘vast people trafficking ring’ run by Albanian gangsters.
He claimed he was bullied into making the trips on his boat by the gang leaders.
Migrants were paying £10,000 to £12,000 a time for the ‘VIP’ crossings, French prosecutors allege.
This picture, taken on Kingsdown beach near Deal in October last year, and salvage documents seen by the Daily Mail, suggest Turpin has been making crossings for many months. The case raises serious questions about Britain’s coastal security.
It is thought he was stranded because the waves had swamped his engines. Locals went to investigate when they spotted him at dawn the next day. A boat owner who helped him and asked not to be named said: ‘He was found sat on the pavement, cold wet and miserable.
‘People went to help him and an old lady did a very British thing and invited him in for an English breakfast. But soon we realised that he had been there since 2am and you don’t go rod fishing in a boat of that size.’ Turpin quickly agreed to pay £2,800 in cash to have his boat taken to a yard and collected it the next day.
The boat owner who helped him said: ‘We think the migrants scarpered when they got to the beach. They weren’t going to wait around and help him.’ Turpin was arrested 12 months later, on November 1, following an investigation by French police who had been watching him make crossings.
His dinghy was confiscated and he has been remanded in custody with his alleged accomplices pending investigation. They face up to ten years in prison, if convicted of people smuggling. Turpin, from Dunkirk, is accused of supplying the boat and using his local knowledge.
He is said to have received £1,000 per head from the gang for his part. About 90,000 euros in cash was found on its alleged leader.
In an incident on October 27 in Kingsdown a couple saw a group of migrants arrive on the beach.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said: ‘It was a full moon and we heard and saw what was clearly a RIB [rigid inflatable boat] which came on to the beach and dropped a bunch of people off.
‘It was possible to make out the silhouettes of about 20 people wandering up the beach.
‘Then a transit van and two taxis came speeding up the road. They all vanished into them and were driven off at speed as the RIB roared back into life and swirled away into the Channel.’