Fugitive paedophile fraudster jailed after smuggling migrants
A PAEDOPHILE fraudster, who had been on the run for 28 years after absconding from prison, has been jailed for three years and eight months after attempting to smuggle eight Albanian migrants into the UK.
Charles Lynch, who had more than 40 aliases, was stopped aboard Saquerlotte III, a 46ft motor cruiser, after a high-speed chase by Border Force vessels in the English Channel off Littlehampton, West Sussex, on Nov 6 2019.
The 64-year-old, of no fixed address, was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court after pleading guilty to assisting unlawful immigration and two counts of possessing false documents.
Judge David Melville QC told Lynch, who has 93 previous convictions: “You are a resourceful, experienced and professional criminal.” He said that Lynch had “exploited” the migrants, including an eight-year-old child, adding: “These were eight refugees and they had been persuaded you would be driving them to England.”
He ordered Lynch to also serve the 902 days outstanding from his previous unfinished jail sentence. The rented yacht had travelled from Le Havre,
France, and was escorted to the Portsmouth naval base.
Lynch, who gave his name as Wolfram Maximilian Steidl, told officers he was running a navigation school for his passengers, who were wearing branded sweatshirts and baseball caps.
Paul Douglass, prosecuting, listed offences of fraud, theft, burglary, possession of a firearm and possession of an indecent photo of a child spanning nearly five decades committed by London-born Lynch across Sussex, Hampshire and Cornwall, as well as in France and Austria.
Charles Langley, defending, said Lynch, who believed he was born in Russia, became involved in the smuggling operation to pay for medical bills which could not be covered by the NHS because of his outlaw status.
A spokesman for the National Crime Agency said Lynch had absconded from Maidstone Prison on Nov 5 1992 while on home leave after serving a year of a seven-year sentence for theft, fraud and forgery.
She said he used various aliases and was found with a selection of documents, including a Danish driving licence and Romanian ID card. “He had also been convicted and jailed for a number of offences in France, including possessing indecent images of children, under another identity,” she added.