FACTORY78: NEWS: Man tries to smuggle his wife into UK in a SUITCASE after failed visa application

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

NEWS: Man tries to smuggle his wife into UK in a SUITCASE after failed visa application

Suitcase plot: Croitor was found out when immigration officials stopped his car at Dover

A Latvian man tried to smuggle his wife into the UK inside a suitcase after she had been refused the right to live in the country, a court heard.

Bogden Croitor's car was stopped by immigration officials as he arrived at the car port in Dover, Kent, having caught a ferry from Calais in France.

After finding a suitcase in his car, the officers opened it up to discover his wife hiding inside.

A court heard that Croiter, 30, had permission to live in UK but his

Moldova-born wife had twice been refused the right to come to the country.

He later told officials how he had travelled to Calais in October last year to spend the weekend with his wife and claimed she suggested hiding in the suitcase, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Natasha Spread borough, for Croitor, said his wife had made numerous applications for a visa but was refused each time.

Judge Adele Williams took the unusual step of suspending the jail sentence after he admitted the smuggling charge.

She told him: "You could have absolutely no complaint if I had sent you to prison straight away because those who commit this offence normally always go to jail immediately.

"But I take the view that the way you committed this offence does have extraordinary mitigating circumstances attached to it."

The judge said Croitor had deliberately "flouted" UK restrictions on immigration which is "an unfair thing to do because many people seek to enter the UK lawfully."

He was given a 14 month jail sentence suspended for two years, told to do 100 hours of unpaid work for the community and pay £400 costs when he appeared in court on Monday.