Trucker held over 9 migrants in his lorry
A SCOTS lorry driver is being held by police in the Netherlands after illegal immigrants were found in his trailer.
John Warbeck, 57, was stopped near Eindhoven on Sunday.
It is believed the migrants called the emergency services because they were struggling to breathe.
Mr Warbeck, from Chapelknowe, Dumfriesshire, was heading to Germany when he was pulled over and is now being detained for 14 days while the authorities investigate.
His wife Claire, 47, said: ‘We are heartbroken and shocked.
‘I just do not understand how they can do this to an innocent man trying to earn a living. It’s crazy. He’s just a driver trying to do a job.’
His family believe that nine illegal immigrants were sneaked into the lorry’s container on Saturday night while Mr Warbeck slept. He had made a rest stop at Dunkirk after crossing on the Dover to Calais ferry.
Mrs Warbeck said she was ‘worried sick’ at home with her children – aged 21, 15, and nine-year old twins. She added: ‘He spoke to me on Sunday to explain what had happened.
‘He was also allowed to call our son on Monday, which was his 15th birthday. The following day he was taken to court so they could keep him longer for interview.
‘I was told he was not allowed to contact anyone in the outside world until the investigation had come to an end.’
Mrs Warbeck added: ‘My wee girl, when she found out she couldn’t even speak to her dad, was carrying around our wedding photo – it was heartbreaking.’ Mr Warbeck’s employer Andy Quay, the owner of Centurion Freight near Glasgow, said: ‘John has done nothing wrong. John was going in the opposite direction to be moving people to the UK.
‘This is horrendously serious. None of it makes sense.
‘This is a modern European country and he’s been treated like a criminal for driving a lorry for a living.
‘He’s been parked up and while he’s been in bed they’ve put people in his trailer. They are criminal gangs and they are smarter than truck drivers and haulage operators.’ Mr Warbeck had been delivering McDonald’s drink trays via Belgium and Holland when he was pulled over by police.
It is understood the immigrants in the lorry had phoned police to say they were struggling for breath.
Mr Warbeck’s brother Michael, 55, also a lorry driver, said: ‘That may have been the case, we don’t know, or they may have had Google Maps on their phones and realised they were going the wrong way.’
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: ‘We are assisting the family of a British man detained in Holland.’