‘Naive’ refugee smuggler spared jail

A refugee charity worker who tried to smuggle a mother and two children into Britain in the boot of her car has been spared jail.

Alice Horton, 25, admitted trying to bring three illegal immigrants - a 33-year-old Albanian woman and her two teenage sons - into Britain from France.

She was caught when she was stopped by UK Border Officers in a rented Skoda at Coquelles in January.

But she was handed a suspended jail sentence after Canterbury Crown Court heard that her “heart strings had been well and truly tugged”.

Judge Heather Norton accepted it had been done for “misguided, but humanitarian reasons.” She added: “There is a considerable amount of naivety in how you have conducted yourself.”