Plan B Forum

A UK removal firm was slapped with an £18,000 bill after 13 illegal immigrants were found hiding in one of its trucks - even though the driver had been the one to report it.



The driver, who pulled over on the M25 motorway on his return trip from France, had been alerted to banging noises coming from the back of his removal lorry and called police.

MoveCorp Ltd's Mark Robinson tried to explain the situation when UK Border Force officials cut the padlocks to his lorry and made the discovery, but his company was still fined £19,500.

He told MailOnline: 'The most frustrating thing is that our driver could have opened the doors and let them go, but because he did the right thing and reported it, we have ended up being the ones penalised.'

Mr Tennant added: 'The fine came out of the blue. Our driver explained the situation and then we were asked to provide more details a few weeks after the incident.

'We did this and were then told we would be fined £19,500 - £1,500 for each of the illegal immigrants found hiding in the truck.

Abbott government ministers have halted a legal case that saw the Child Support Agency spend $600,000 in legal fees trying to recover an alleged debt of $6000.

The case has now gone to mediation after social services minister Scott Morrison and human services minister Marise Payne ordered an end to the four-year legal saga.

The Canberra Times first revealed in December that more than half-a-million dollars of taxpayers' money had been sunk into the battle between the giant Department of Human Services and the father.


The bill has since sailed past $600,000, with seven taxpayer-funded lawyers on the case at one point, in February 2015, with most of their efforts directed at battling against the public release of case documents.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon, who accused Human Services of a "scandalous waste of taxpayers' money" in an effort to cover its own "butt", now wants legislative changes to ensure there can be no repeat of the saga.

The South Australian cross-bencher praised the two ministers for their "common sense" intervention into the case.

"I want to pay tribute to ministers Morrison and Payne, who helped common sense prevail," Mr Xenophon said on Thursday.

"At least now this litigation nightmare has ended, the next challenge is to advocate for common sense reforms to the child."

It is understood the father, a determined litigant known simply as "DT" because of strict Family Court rules on identifying parties, and the department have now come to a confidential settlement through a mediation process.

DT said simply the case was at an end and he could not comment further.

"The matter has now been resolved by mediation," he said.