Classic car fan returns from French motor show... with a migrant in tow!
iN their efforts to reach Britain, stowaways have used boats, lorries and trains.
Never – until now – have any arrived by classic car.
But one man took a more stylish route when he sneaked into a 93-year- old vehicle returning to the UK from a motor show in France. Classic car enthusiast Michael Coatman was stunned to discover a hidden passenger asleep inside his prized 1926 Vauxhall 14/40 open tourer.
The 64- year- old had already stopped one would-be migrant trying to get on board when he stopped for fuel before boarding a ferry in northern France.
But when he got off at Portsmouth a search revealed a Somalian man asleep in the front seat of his beloved Vauxhall, which was being carried on a low-loader.
As the canvas cover on the car remained intact – and can be done up from the outside – custom officials decided the migrant must have had an accomplice. After a thorough search of other vehicles on the ferry, a second stowaway was located in the back of a van.
Mr Coatman, who goes to car shows in period costume, including a deerstalker hat – earning him the nickname Sherlock Holmes – said: ‘it certainly wasn’t what i planned for my trip, it was a bit of a scary ordeal.’
The enthusiast had been at a classic car show in Perigueux, in the Dordogne region of southwest France.
The semi-retired car salesman discovered the first stowaway as he refilled at a petrol station just before boarding the ferry in Caen last Tuesday.
Mr Coatman, from Poole, Dorset, said: ‘i stopped to get some fuel and i was a little bit nervous as there were a couple of refugees hanging around on the forecourt and it was dark and in the middle of nowhere. As i was walking back round to the driver’s side i heard this noise and there was a guy on top of the low-loader climbing underneath my car.
‘i screamed at him to get out and he started scrambling.
‘it was all a bit scary, i was a
‘A pair of feet in front of us’
bit worried for my life because you don’t know what might happen.’ Luckily the gendarmerie were keeping watch and arrived on the scene within seconds, causing the African migrant to flee the scene. The vehicle was given another thorough search when he arrived at the port in Caen but officials found nothing. it wasn’t until he got off the ferry in Portsmouth that UK border officials pulled away the canvas cover, opened the door and found a pair of feet poking out.
‘it was an overnight ferry and when i got off at the other side a couple of custom guys asked if i had checked the vehicle,’ said Mr Coatman.
‘i had a canvas cover on the car that you can only do up from the outside. So i checked all the buttons were still done up and checked under the low-loader but i didn’t bother to check inside because no one could have got in and then done them up. But [ customs officers] said they wanted to double check anyway and opened the door and there was a pair of feet in front of us.
‘i couldn’t believe it, i was so annoyed. They realised he must have had help with someone else doing the buttons up once he was inside, which meant there must have been another immigrant on the ferry too.
‘So they searched and found another one in the back of a van.
‘The authorities seem to be very diligent, but it was bizarre, i’ve never had anything like that happen before. it certainly put a bit of a dampener on what had been a fantastic trip.’