A Romanian truck driver has been charged with attempting to smuggle migrants – including a man suspected of child sex offenses – out of the U.K. on two separate occasions.
48-year-old Sebastian Gabriel Podar was arrested as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) operation at the port of Dover in the early hours of December 2.
Nine migrants were discovered in the rear of his truck trailer, which was booked onto a ferry to France. Among the nine was a 39-year-old Bangladeshi man under investigation for child sexual offenses by Nottinghamshire Police. He was arrested and now faces charges. The remaining eight migrants, of Indian, Algerian and Bangladeshi nationality, were handed to the immigration authorities.
Podar had previously been stopped on October 16 in the same truck by police in the Edmonton area of north London. On that occasion six migrants were found inside.
NCA officers charged Podar with two counts of attempting to facilitate a breach of immigration law.
On December 3, he appeared before a court and was remanded in custody until his next appearance at Canterbury Crown Court on January 4 2021.
Read more at the National Crime Agency
