A man who attempted to smuggle four people from Afghanistan into the UK has been jailed.

Dwayne Sidney Lovelock, 31, of York Avenue, Stanmore, Middlesex, was sentenced today at Canterbury Crown Court to two years and six months in prison for assisting unlawful immigration into the UK.

His vehicle was also forfeited.

On May 22, 2015 Border Force officers at the UK inward tourist controls at the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, France, stopped a British-registered Hyundai Sante Fe. They questioned Lovelock, the driver of the car, who said he had been to Belgium to visit his girlfriend who was studying at a college outside Brussels.

Officers asked Lovelock to open the vehicle’s boot and found the four people, two adults and two children, inside.

Lovelock was arrested and the investigation passed to Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigation officers.

In October 2015 he was charged with assisting unlawful immigration into the UK.

Lovelock appeared for sentencing today after admitting the offence at an earlier hearing.

Assistant director David Fairclough, from the Immigration Enforcement Criminal and Financial Investigations team, said: “The girlfriend Lovelock told Border Force officers he had visited in Belgium didn’t exist. The reality was that Lovelock was travelling for one reason only and it had nothing to do with romance.

“People smuggling is a vile trade, and one that our specialist crime teams are cracking down on. The sentence handed out today should serve as a warning to anyone tempted to get involved with this kind of criminality. We will catch you, and put you before the courts.”

The four people from Afghanistan were passed to the French Police Aux Frontières.

Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visit http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org.