Border Force spark fury after fining couple THOUSANDS for reporting illegal migrant hiding in van: 'Everything wrong with our borders'

Speaking to GB News, Cave detailed the "horrifying" ordeal and stressed that despite them reporting the migrant, they were still fined by the authorities.

Cave claimed: "If you want to keep £3,000, take them to a lay-by, let them go and then call the police."

Reacting to the incident, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control, Robert Bates, was enraged by the case and claimed it is the "ineffectiveness" of both the UK and French authorities that is to blame, not the couple.

Bates told GB News: "This is a case study in everything that's wrong with our borders. We've got the French authorities doing these checks on their side of the Channel, clearly not doing it competently enough, and we've got the Border Force absolutely swarming over this couple using their resources - I'd argue not very effectively.

"Ultimately the British taxpayer getting walloped as well, because these guys have now suffered a £3,000 fine. So I think in a nutshell, this is everything that is going wrong with the migration crisis. And if this is the government's plan of smashing the gangs, I think we're in a lot of trouble."

Offering a defence of the Border Force, former Chief Immigration Officer Kevin Saunders argued that the couple are "lucky" that they were only given a fine, and not sent to prison.

Saunders explained: "These people are extremely lucky that they've only got a £3,000 fine. If this had happened in France, the driver of the van could well be facing three months in a French prison.

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"The rule is that the driver of the vehicle is responsible for the security of the vehicle. There's no argument about whether you tell the police or don't tell the police - if you bring somebody in in an unsecured vehicle, then you are liable for civil penalty."

Hitting back at Saunders, Bates made clear that despite the "rules" being made clear by him, the Border Force are not enforcing them well enough to stop illegal migrants from entering the country.

Bates argued: "We're talking about the rules here, but in the last four years, we've had 150,000 people break into the country, so we're not quite enforcing the rules perhaps as stridently and as across the board as we should be.

"If this was a £3,000 fine, how much are we now going to fine the RNLI and the useful idiots at Care for Calais that are absolutely facilitating the flows over the Channel and the illegal migrants that are breaking into our country?"

Hitting out at the authorities further, Bates fumed: "We can get stuck in the technicalities, but I think common sense would mandate that these people aren't trying to engage in any form of people smuggling.

"Therefore the idea that they've had the absolute book thrown at them, whereas those that are breaking into the country have been able to live a life of luxury in four star hotels is really telling."

Standing firm on his defence, Saunders claimed that Border Force "can't control" illegal crossings from the Channel, but are carrying out the right checks everywhere else.

Saunders said: "We haven't had 150,000 people break into the country through Calais or the Channel Tunnel, these people have come across on boats which Border Force can't control.

"The Channel Tunnel, Calais and Dunkirk we can control, and we do control it. It's not 100 per cent, but we get most of them."