Pilot jailed for trying to fly illegal migrants into UK
A British pilot and his accomplice were today sent to prison in France for trying to fly illegal migrants to the UK at a cost of £10,000 each.
In the first prosecution of its kind, David Green, 54, and Edward Buckley, 46, were accused of being members of ‘an extensive network of English people smugglers’.
Both were caught on Monday as they tried to take off from an airfield in Marck, near Calais, in a Cessna plane with four Albanians on board.
They were fast tracked for a criminal trial at Boulogne-sur-Mer Correctional Court, and each sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Green â€" a professional architect â€" and Buckley, a carpenter, were found guilty of ‘assisting the movement of illegal immigrants i n an organised gang’.
The Albanian migrants included a mother and child, who were taken to hospital for medical checks, but then disappeared. Police are still looking for them
They were also banned from France for a minimum of five years, and the plane they used was confiscated.
Green is a veteran amateur pilot who turned his hobby into a lucrative sideline, demanding ‘ten thousands pounds per passenger’, according to prosecution papers.
The pair had organised at least five return flights since April, and there were other records of them using Le Touquet airport for similar trips.
Prosecutor Raphaelle Wach had requested three-and-a-half years in prison for each defendant, and fines of £45,000 each.
‘They were attracted by huge profits,’ said Ms Wach. ‘It is unacceptable to demand such high sum s so as to make money out of other people’s misery’.
In turn, Emmanuelle Osmont, for Buckley, said the men were not ‘exploiting misery’ because their clients were middle class Albanians who ‘had money’.
The Albanian migrants included a mother and child, who were taken to hospital for medical checks, but then disappeared. Police are still looking for them.
Four Albanian migrants including two women and a child, were arrested as the plane prepared to take off near the northern port of Calais. Prosecutors said they had no record of a previous attempt to reach Britain in a private aircraft. Pictured above, a file photo of Migrants attempting to board trucks lining up to enter the Channel Tunnel in Calais
A man and a woman were also arrested at Marck, which is also known as Calais-Dunkirk airport, and they are in ‘administrative detention’ in Coquelles, at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel.
None of the migrants have been named by the French authorities, with the investigation into their journeys ‘ongoing’.
Thousands of illegal migrants have been drawn to northern France over the past decades, where they normally smuggle themselves aboard lorries and trains in an attempt to get to Britain, whe re they will claim asylum, or disappear into the black economy.
There have been rumours of planes offering a smuggling service in the past, but this is the first confirmed case.
The so-called Jungle refugee camp in Calais was razed last October, with some 8000 migrants being dispersed to other parts of France.
But since then the French authorities have reported a growing build-up of foreign nationals who want to get to the UK to claim asylum.
This includes numerous Albanians, who tend to favour the more expensive service offered by highly organised gangs of people smugglers.
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