Two British Indian men have been sentenced to a total of over six years' imprisonment for smuggling seven Indian migrants, including women and children, into the UK in the boots of two cars.
Palvinder Singh Phull, 48, was handed a three and half years' sentence for assisting unlawful immigration and co-accused Harjit Singh Dhaliwal, 45, was jailed for three years and two months on the same charge at Canterbury Crown Court in south-east England on Thursday.
Both the Londoners had pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration in a case dating back five years.
"Today's sentencing sends a clear message to those abusing our laws and borders: we will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone attempting to smuggle people into the UK," said Chris Foster, Deputy Director of Criminal and Financial Investigations at the UK Home Office.
"I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of my team, and their tireless efforts to tackle this type of crime. We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to disrupt people smuggling gangs and make sure those who break our laws face the consequences," he said.
According to the Home Office, Phull was stopped at the UK border in Dover in July 2018 and three Indian nationals claiming to be Afghan Sikhs were found in the boot of his hire car. Four days after Phull was arrested, Dhaliwal was stopped at the same border and four Indian nationals also claiming to be Afghan Sikhs were found hiding in the boot of his car.
The suspects were found to be linked via mobile phone records following an investigation by the UK's Home Office Criminal and Financial Investigations (CFI) unit.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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