People smugglers jailed after five migrants discovered hidden in van

Two people smugglers have been jailed for trying to bring five Vietnamese migrants into the UK hidden under rubbish in a van.

Denice Blendell, 62, and Andrew Stainton, 48, were sentenced to more than five years in prison on Friday after their plan was foiled on March 4 2022, the Home Office said.

Border Force officers searching the pair’s unregistered van in Coquelles, France, discovered the five migrants underneath an old mattress, clothing and heavy motorbike parts, before they boarded the Eurotunnel train back to the UK.

A video released by the Home Office shows the moment officials unloading the white van bring out one migrant from the back of the vehicle.

It emerged from a Home Office investigation that British nationals Blendell and Stainton were working as part of an organised crime gang and were expecting to be paid £2,000 each for smuggling the five migrants into the UK.

They were also found to have made several previous trips to France and Belgium by the Home Office working with international partners, and had deposited cash totalling £14,000 into their respective bank accounts after one of their earlier facilitations.

Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said: “Blendell and Stainton, like many criminal gangs are only concerned with lining their pockets, they exploited a desperate group of individuals by disguising them under motorcycle parts in the back of their van.

“This type of heinous criminality must be stopped, and today’s sentence shows we won’t stand and watch.”

Blendell, of Burringham Road, Scunthorpe, was sentenced to one year and eight months for conspiring and acting to facilitate illegal entry into the UK, and Stainton, of the same address, was sentenced to three years and nine months respectively.

They were sentenced at Hull Crown Court on Friday.

Jason Jowett, of the Home Office Criminal Financial Investigations team, added: “As with many cases we see, the migrants were led to believe they were coming for a better life, but found themselves in cramped, dangerous conditions as their exploiters lined their pockets at their expense.

“I cannot state this enough – the criminals running these networks do not care about the welfare of those that they transport to the UK. Their sole focus is financial gain and one by one we will put a stop to them.”