Pregnant mum facing jail for smuggling migrants to UK
Boyfriend’s van was carrying Vietnamese women and children hidden inside tyres
‘I have never had any money’
A mother of four who claimed she was on a booze cruise to France wept yesterday as she was convicted of trying to smuggle a van-load of 12 Vietnamese immigrants into Britain.
Katy Bethel, 28, was six months pregnant when she was stopped with boyfriend Aaron harris, 33, as they tried to enter the Channel tunnel.
harris was driving a van stacked with tyres which concealed a number of men, women and children.
Bethel claimed she had no idea what the ‘cargo’ was in the back of the van, and said they had planned to stock up on alcohol ahead of the birth of her fourth child, but they ‘kept getting lost’ during the day trip to Calais.
the couple were caught out after UK Border Force officials operating in Coquelles, France, spotted a pair of jean-clad legs poking out of the piled-up tyres just a few feet from where she was sitting in the van.
Yesterday Bethel was convicted at maidstone Crown Court after a jury heard that she may have turned people smuggler to raise extra cash before the arrival of her fourth child.
the couple were stopped at about 9pm on July 4, 2015, as they headed home from Calais via Folkestone with five women, four men and three children under the age of 12 hiding in the back of their mercedes Sprinter van.
officials discovered almost 70 calls and texts were made between the pair and a mystery number during their four-hour trip to France. But Bethel told jurors she did not pay attention to what her boyfriend was saying. ‘I felt sick, I was tired and obviously pregnant,’ she said. ‘When I’m tired I don’t take much notice of what is going on around me.’
When questioned why no alcohol was found in the vehicle, she said they had never bought any because they ‘kept getting lost’ on the way to the shops.
Bethel also said that she and harris went for a 90-minute walk to a strawberry field, but she did not know harris left the van key behind with the vehicle. But prosecutor michael morris said the truth was that she had turned to people smuggling to ‘make some money’ for the birth of her child, to which she replied: ‘I have never had any money. I always get by on what I can.’
Yesterday Bethel, from Gillingham in Kent, sobbed as she was told she faced jail after being convicted by a majority of 11 to one of assisting unlawful immigration. Judge Philip Statman warned her she was likely to go to prison for ‘some considerable time’, despite her being the sole carer of four young daughters aged between seven years and 18 months.
the judge released Bethel on bail yesterday ahead of sentencing so she could arrange for their care, saying: ‘I need to ensure that proper arrangements have been made for the children.’
he pointed out that there was no humanitarian motive for the serious offence.
harris, also from Gillingham, admitted the same charge at an earlier hearing.
According to his Facebook page, harris once worked as an assembly line worker for Channel tunnel rail. he told officials when they were stopped that everything in the vehicle belonged to him except the tyres.
mr morris said the driver had feigned surprise when the illegal immigrants were discovered.
he said: ‘Upon opening the doors the officer saw what appeared to be jeans or jeanedlegs within the tyres.
‘he asked “What’s that then?” and Aaron harris replied “how did he get in?”
‘there were 12 Vietnamese
nationals concealed in that load of tyres. All were illegal entrants trying to get into the UK.’ David Fairclough, of Immigration Enforcement, said: ‘Harris and Bethel initially claimed to be having a day at the beach, but in reality their visit to France had a much more sinister purpose. The pair gave little or no thought to the safety of their human cargo. ‘ Crammed into a tight space, had the vehicle been involved in any kind of accident the consequences could have been tragic. People smuggling is a crime which puts vulnerable people into dangerous situations in the name of profit.
‘This case shows my officers will not hesitate to bring those involved before the courts.’
Bethel and Harris will be sentenced on September 11.
The conviction comes just days after police smashed a £40million smuggling ring responsible for bringing up to 2,000 people into Britain.
Migrants as young as five were among those caught using false Spanish passports to board tourist flights, as part of what is believed to have been one of the biggest ever people- smuggling operation discovered.
Travellers, most of them affluent Iranians, paid at least £22,000 a time for a bespoke service in which they used genuine travel documents of people who looked like them or were given cutting-edge counterfeits.
Its mastermind, believed to be an Iranian national based in Malaga, was arrested at Heathrow airport as he tried to flee to Sao Paulo in Brazil via Dubai. More than 100 others, including his key henchmen, were held in raids across Spain and at airports across the continent.
Migrants with the means to pay the trafficking gang were seemingly able to obtain false or genuine European documents at will.
They then took advantage of free movement rules to travel into London and other major cities before disappearing into society.
Investigators believe that up to 200 people a year were smuggled by the gang across Europe over up to ten years with the vast majority brought into Britain.