Criminals who modify vehicles to smuggle people, drugs and weapons into the UK will face five years behind bars following a string of ‘sickening’ cases, the Home Office said
Criminals who modify vehicles to smuggle people, drugs and weapons into the UK face five years behind bars under new laws.
Under legislation expected to get Royal Assent this week, it will be a criminal offence to create concealed spaces for traffickers to use. A Home Office minister told The Mirror that tactics used to sneak people into the country are “utterly sickening”.
In June eight criminals were given a combined 20 years’ in jail after a Vietnamese woman was found dangerously hidden in a cramped compartment behind a dashboard. And in September last year a smuggler was jailed for 10 years for smuggling seven people behind a fitted panel at the back of a van.
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They were discovered when border staff heard their screams. Under the new law, those responsible would face longer sentences. Border Security Minister Alex Norris said: “The tactics used by criminal smuggling gangs are utterly sickening – hiding illegal migrants in boxes in cars and lorries.
“We are giving law enforcement stronger tools than ever before to intercept illegal migrants and shut down the criminal gangs exploiting them.”
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will make it a crime to import, manufacture or supply compartments to modify vehicles for people smuggling and serious organised crime. These include creating fake floors, secret compartments or hollowed out fire extinguishers.
Currently making a concealment is not a crime.
Between 2020 and 2023, over 430 vehicle concealments were seized – of which around 150 were at the border.
The new laws also make it an offence to possess or supply templates for making 3D-printed firearms components, pill pressers and pill encapsulators – used to make drugs like MDMA.
