Four young Sudanese men were arrested this morning, Tuesday January 21, on London Road, Marlborough. They had stowed away in a horse trailer belonging to Sue and Jeremy Riches, boarding at the French port of Caen.
“We had taken the horse trailer to France to bring back some furniture from our French holiday home. We started to unload at our son’s house on London Road when I saw a face looking out at me. You feel sad for them but it was a big fright.”
The police were called and they discovered four Sudanese refugees under a pile of duvets and bedding in the trailer.
Sue and Jeremy had parked the car and trailer in the port area at Caen while they had dinner at a restaurant before boarding the ferry. They had noticed a group of immigrants at the port and after returning to their car and trailer had been suspicious that it had been tampered with.
“We were suspicious that one of the ties was loose so I asked the port security to check the trailer,” commented Jeremy. “They climbed up and looked inside but couldn’t see anything untoward.”
The couple then made the overnight crossing from Caen to Portsmouth and travelled to Marlborough unaware that they had extra passengers on board.
The police arrived promptly and searched and handcuffed the men. They were taken into custody at Melksham where they will be handed over to immigration.