Photo credit: BBC
Three men have been jailed after conspiring to smuggle people in a boat from France to the UK.
Kentlive reports that Freddy Lawrence, Keith Baigent and Paul Gigia were sentenced to seven years and six months, three years and nine months, and three years and four months imprisonment respectively at Canterbury Crown Court for conspiring to assist in unlawful immigration.
Lawrence headed the organized crime group and masterminded the criminal operation. In August 2018, the group made several attempts to sail to France to pick up people and ferry them across the channel.
However, the defendants and their co-conspirators were repeatedly beset by mechanical difficulties. Three British men were arrested while trying to lead 12 Vietnamese people onto a boat called Sorel Light in order to smuggle them to the UK. They were then convicted and jailed in France. Lawrence, Giglia and Baigent were arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK.
