Four men jailed for smuggling 29 Vietnamese migrants on yacht

FOUR MEN who smuggled 29 Vietnamese people into Britain on a 42ft yacht before cramming them into the back of a van have been jailed.

Devon and Cornwall Police were contacted on April 12 last year after several members of the public saw a group of people getting off a boat in Newlyn

Harbour, Cornwall. They were then seen getting into the back of a van which had been parked in the harbour car park. CCTV footage was reviewed and the van, followed by another car, was stopped on the M5 near Cullompton, Devon.

The van door was opened and officers found 29 Vietnamese nationals inside, including women and children.

They were taken to a multiagency reception centre and referred to the Home Office and social care services to be managed, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

Two men were arrested in Newlyn Harbour, and two more were held when the van and car were brought to a stop on the M5.

Judge Robert Linford, sentencing the four at Truro Crown Court, said they were motivated by profit and “traded in human misery” with the victims “carted around like freight”, police said.

Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Glenn Willcocks said: “The four convicted today risked the lives of 29 men, women and children without any appreciation of the danger of their circumstances.

“They were motivated only by monetary reward and thankfully no one paid the ultimate price.”

Jon Ransom, 63, from Kent, Glen Bennett, 55, from Burnley, and Frank Walling, 72, from Colne, were sentenced to four -and-a-half years in prison, police said. Keith Plummer, 63, was sentenced to three years and four months.

They were convicted under section 25 of the Immigration Act for assisting unlawful immigration.