French judges were last night accused of ‘going soft’ on criminals orchestrating a wave of small-boat crossings to Britain after a string of convicted people smugglers were allowed to dodge prison.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday can today expose how criminals convicted of involvement in people trafficking have been allowed to walk free with a slap on the wrist by French courts – even when they were caught red-handed.
In one of the most shocking cases, a married couple were last week handed suspended sentences and allowed to return home to Germany despite being caught with an inflatable dinghy, 50 life jackets and phones full of the numbers of migrants willing to pay thousands of pounds to make the perilous Channel crossing to England.
And in another astonishing verdict, a suspected Iraqi people smuggler allegedly involved in last weekend’s record number of small-boat crossings was ‘given the benefit of the doubt’ and acquitted by a French court, even though police found a 20-seat inflatable boat in the boot of the car he was in.
A delighted Ibrahim Hussein, 36, blew kisses at the three judges who cleared him.
