Two men who tried to smuggle 18 Albanian immigrants into the UK before their boat broke down have been jailed for a total of nine years.
Mark Stribling, 35, and Robert Stilwell, 33, admitted breaching immigration law by illegally attempting to help 18 migrants enter the country on a boat from France which had to be rescued in the English Channel.
SNP set to ban the word 'benefits' from new social security agency
Stilwell, a former European and Commonwealth judo champion, and Stribling were to be paid £2,000 each to make the journey to the south of Calais and transport the migrants, who had paid £6,000 each for the crossing, Maidstone Crown Court heard.
The migrants - 15 men, one woman and two children - had waded into the water before climbing on board the white rigid inflatable boat (rib) on the evening of May 28 this year.
They had to be rescued by the Coastguard and the crew of HMC Valiant after the boat lost power one and a half miles (2.4km) from shore.
Stribling, of Hilltop Farm, Farningham, near Swanley in Kent, was jailed for four years and eight months and Stilwell, of Stanley Close, Greenhithe, was sentenced to four years and four months in prison.
Stilwell appeared stunned by the sentence and mouthed "Tell them I love them" as he was sent down, while Stribling smirked.
In sentencing, Judge Jeremy Carey said: "This case shows the best and the worst of human characteristics.
"On the part of the rescue services, a real and conspicuous devotion to duty and at considerable risk to themselves.
"On your part, greed, recklessness and deceit and the desire to get easy money.
"In the event, there was a rescue and those who were rescued should be very grateful, as you should be to those who came to your aid.
"A tragedy was averted by a whisker."
The court heard that the two men, who both had criminal records, had been wearing all-weather clothing and life jackets on board.
SNP set to ban the word 'benefits' from new social security agency
The boat lost power shortly after they set off from France and had been drifting for almost three hours, taking in water.
A video from the search and rescue helicopter played to the court showed a migrant using a small container to try to bail out the boat, while Stribling could be seen remonstrating with other migrants.
When lifeboat crews arrived, the woman migrant was "showing signs of hypothermia", prosecutor Nina Ellin said.
It took four return trips to the HMC Valiant, a Border Force cutter ship, to remove all the migrants and the defendants from the rib, taking a total of an hour and a half.
Ms Ellin said rescuers overheard one of the defendants - the only English speakers on board - claim they had been fishing and had rescued the migrants, while the other was said to have shouted that the boat had run out of fuel as they did so.
Once the pair arrived back at Dover, they appeared in "good spirits" and joked about the strength of the tea and coffee.
In interview, Ms Ellin said Stilwell told police: "Yes, they were in the water but he did not want to elaborate further on this as the officers would twist everything he said."
The husband of the woman migrant told police he had been told by another migrant that there had been threats "the boat would be punctured" with scissors if they alerted authorities, while the woman said she had been told of threats they would be "thrown into the sea".
The pair feared for their lives, and Ms Ellin said: "They believe if they had been 10 more minutes on that boat they would have died."
The Coastguard was only alerted because of phone calls the migrants made to family members.
Both men pleaded guilty on the basis they were the boatmen and not part of the hierarchy of the smuggling operation.
Kate Hunter, defending Stilwell, said the father-of-one was "remorseful".
She added: "He is a keen judo sportsman, he started at the age of five and carried on into adulthood. Unfortunately at 21, he had a severe injury, which caused him crushed vertebrae and unfortunately he could not keep up with the high standard he had reached.
"As a result of that, money difficulties came into Mr Stilwell's life.
"He had a part time job. He had not left school with many qualifications and suffered from dyslexia."
His mother was ill with thrombosis and his father had retired, meaning the family struggled to pay their bills and so Stilwell took the offer of cash to transport the migrants, Ms Hunter said.
Neil Guest, defending Stribling, said his client was unemployed and had one five-year-old child and another child on the way with his girlfriend of 35 years.
SNP set to ban the word 'benefits' from new social security agency
Mr Guest said: "£2,000 to him was some degree of salvation."
He added Stribling had no sailing or baiting experience.
"He was simply, no pun intended, out of his depth," Mr Guest said.
"He has not got a maritime background at all - he hails from Swanley.
"It does not take a great deal of seamanship to do what has been done."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article