On Thursday (July 13), two British men were sentenced to a collective six years in prison after being found guilty of smuggling seven Indian nationals into Britain in the boots of two cars.

A press release from the UK’s Home Office (Interior Ministry) said the two men had brought in seven Indian migrants, including women and children. The men were stopped while attempting the smuggling in 2018.

The migrants stowed in the vehicles, which were stopped in July 2018 at the UK border, claimed to be Afghan Sikhs. The smugglers had driven them over from France.

UK government: 'We will stop at nothing [to stop smugglers]'

The Home Office’s Criminal and Financial Investigations unit (CFI) investigated the men after they were stopped at the border and found that the suspects were linked via mobile phone records.

The first man, Palvinder SP, 48 from Hounslow, was stopped at the border on July 8, 2018. He was sentenced to three and a half years for assisting unlawful immigration.

His co-accused, Harjit SD, 45 and from Middlesex, was handed a sentence of three years and two months and was stopped at the UK border on July 12, 2018.

Both defendants pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court, where their sentencing took place.

Chris Foster, Deputy Director of Criminal and Financial Investigations at the Home Office, said that "today’s sentencing sends a clear message to those abusing our laws and borders: we will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone attempting to smuggle people into the UK."