From Monday February 13, 2023, the law on civil penalties against drivers and truck owners for transporting illegal immigrants will change, with additional sanctions to be imposed for not securing the vehicle properly.
Penalties to a person responsible for transporting an illegal immigrant:
- The maximum penalty for the first incident will be £6,000 per person.
- This amount will increase to a maximum of £10,000 for the second and each subsequent incident recorded within the last five years.
- The maximum penalties per inspection in total will be £12,000 and £20,000.
Penalties to a person responsible for failing to secure the truck (driver):
- The maximum penalty for the first incident will be £1,500 as well as, £3,000 for a second incident recorded within the last five years.
- The maximum penalty will be £6,000 for the third and any subsequent incident within the last five years.
- The maximum penalties in total will be £3,000, £6,000 and £12,000.
Circumstances concerning the fine reduction:
- A responsible person fined for transporting an illegal immigrant can expect a 50% reduction in the fine if they have complied with security regulations. A further reduction of 50% can be applied if the person participates in the civil penalty accreditation scheme.
- In case of insufficient security of the lorry, the person responsible, who is not the driver and who was not present when the vehicle or semi-trailer crossed into the UK, is entitled to a 50% reduction in the fine if they have taken steps to ensure compliance with safety regulations. The driver would not be entitled to a reduction for complying with safety regulations because, if they had done so, they would have properly secured their vehicle and would not have been fined at all. A further 50% reduction can be applied if the responsible person is a member of the civil penalty accreditation scheme.
For both crimes, individuals and companies will be able to request a financial assessment to be applied in determining the fine. However, the Secretary of State is not required to apply a financial means assessment, for example, in cases where insufficient evidence has been provided to determine the financial condition of the individual or company making the request. The Secretary will be also entitled to take into account any other factors that they consider appropriate in determining the fine. They will also have the power to waive the imposition of a penalty.
Following these changes, the UK government has prepared a guide on preventing illegal entry in Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Welsh.
To be downloaded from the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/clandestine-entrant-civil-penalty-scheme