Hauliers fear fines for unknowingly carrying stowaways will be ruinous
Hauliers facing £10,000 fines for inadvertently having migrants aboard their lorries fear the penalties could lead to them going bust.
Recent Home Office figures show a 16 per cent year-on-year increase in migrants smuggled into the UK in vehicles or ferries, indicating a rise in attempted lorry crossings as French police clamp down on small boat crossings.
Companies and drivers face fines of up to £10,000 for each stowaway after the Government increased the maximum penalty from £2,000 last year.
Hauliers can also be fined up to £6,000 if their vehicles are unsecured under the stricter penalty system.
Recent statistics show haulage businesses are closing at the fastest rate in a decade amid a “perfect storm” of high inflation and interest rates.
One haulage firm is exploring a legal challenge against the Government over its “completely unfair” fines for stowaways found on trucks.
Bosses at Alcaline Transport in
Hythe, Kent, said the firm is speaking to lawyers about launching a High Court judicial review into the Home Office over the penalty charges.
In three instances they say Border Force and French checks of trucks failed to locate migrants who were discovered on arrival at the yard of the firm, which was fined up to £3,000 per stowaway after alerting police.
“We want to take the Government to court. It is absolutely ridiculous what they are doing,” Lorenzo Zaccheo, owner and managing director of Alcaline Transport, said.
“We do due diligence. We stick to the Home Office guidance. And despite all of that it’s an automatic fine.
“Hauliers and lorry drivers are not police officers.”
The Home Office figures represent a fraction of the true figure of migrants smuggled into the UK in vehicles or ferries, because it does not include those who evade capture in the UK or attempts to board vehicles on the continent.
Alcaline Transport, which has a fleet of around 150 lorries, loses on average about £110,000 to £120,000 a year in lost goods damaged after migrants board lorries, Mr Zacchero added. Mr Zaccheo said one of the company’s drivers was badly beaten after confronting a group of stowaways on his truck.
Dominic Graham, a manager at Alcaline, said a spike in haulier fines in the past six months indicated a rise in attempts to cross by lorry.
“It’s just a completely unfair system,” he said. “Three times in the past six months, maybe a bit longer, Border Force have not found any immigrants on our truck, yet we have found them on arrival at our yard.
“We immediately called police to take these clandestines away, but then – to top it all – we received fines for having unsecured vehicles.”
The Home Office was contacted for comment.