The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has snapped up more than £75,000 in overdue fines from hauliers caught harbouring stowaways.
As part of the police-led Operation Mermaid, which also involved VOSA, the UKBA collected the outstanding penalties totalling £75,030 from drivers and firms who had previously been caught with clandestines hiding in their vehicles.
Eight motorway service stations were targeted, and officers detained drivers from 26 companies and impounded their vehicles after they were identified as not having paid civil penalties for previous offences.
The bulk of the fines came from businesses based in Britain, Germany and Poland.
Polish organisation Breviter still has a vehicle impounded at South Mimms on the M25 because it has yet to pay a fine of £33,050.
A company or driver is each liable for a civil penalty of up to £2,000 per stowaway if it is found not to have taken adequate steps to secure a load.
This crackdown is the latest in a series of Operation Mermaid investigations, targeting areas where stowaways have previously been caught.
"Working shoulder-to-shoulder with the police, we are showing that there is no hiding place for those who try to cheat their way across the border," declares Simon Excell, UKBA deputy director Midlands and East.
For more details, log on to The Lorry Crime Blog.
