British grandmother who tried to smuggle three Albanian migrants into the UK in the boot of her car after she was ‘tempted’ by easy money is now set to spend Christmas in jail
- Jackie Willis, 53, of Feltham, West London caught trying to smuggle the migrants
- She was reportedly offered £3,000 by trafficker to transport the three Albanians
- Was caught trying to transport them from Calais to Dover along the Eurotunnel
- A senior manager at catering firm Aramark, has now been jailed for six months
A British grandmother who tried to smuggle three Albanian migrants into the UK in the boot of her car is now set to spend Christmas in jail.
Jackie Willis, 53, of Feltham, West London was arrested three weeks ago after she was caught trying to transport the migrants from Calais to Dover on the Eurotunnel.
She had reportedly been offered £3,000 by a trafficker to transport the Albanians, and was ‘tempted’ by the easy money, her lawyer said.
Jackie Willis (pictured) was arrested three weeks ago after she was caught trying to transport the migrants from Calais to Dover
Willis, a senior manager at catering firm Aramark, wept in court in Boulogne as she was jailed for six months, as reported by The Sun.
Her lawyer, Isabelle Pauwels, told the newspaper: ‘She has a decent job but she was tempted by easy money.
Jackie Willis, 53, of Feltham, West London was arrested three weeks ago after she was caught trying to transport the migrants from Calais to Dover on the Eurotunnel (pictured the UK Border Control checkpoint in Calais)
‘She regrets bitterly what she did and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. Her family were in court to support her and see her cry.’
Willis will not be allowed back into France for two years following her release from jail next year.
Willis had tried to transport the migrants in the boot of her car, and had been hoping to use the Eurotunnel (pictured) to get across the Channel
The news comes following the recent high-profile case of 39 Vietnamese migrants – 31 males and eight females – who were found dead in a refrigerated truck in Essex, east of London in October.
And earlier this month three British men were jailed for human trafficking after smuggling three Vietnamese teenagers and a young man into Britain from France.
Hundreds of migrants try to enter Britain every year through the Channel.