by Alex Claridge

A man who tried to bring an illegal immigrant through the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone in exchange for drugs has been jailed.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that Arturas Muraskinas, 29, was driving a silver Toyota stopped by border officials at Coquelles near Calais who found four people inside all carrying Lithuanian passports.

But officials could not be certain that one of the passports belonged to a man sitting in the back.

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly said officials did not think the man in the passport photograph was the man in back of the car.

He said the man also kept running his fingers over his face and pulled his hat down.

When the man was spoken to in Lithuanian, he did not respond. Mr Connolly said the man in the car turned out to be an Albanian-speaking Kosovan called Visar Hasani.

Muraskinas was later charged with assisting unlawful immigration into the UK in November 2009. He denied the charge at first, but admitted it on the day his trial was due to take place in August.

Katherine Burton, defending, said the father-of-two had suffered a traumatic childhood and had had problems with drugs in the past, which he had now overcome.

“This offence was motivated by a promise to receive drugs in return for this pick-up,” she said.

“He did have a real problem with drugs, but it’s a problem which no longer exists and it’s a credit to him that he has taken on board the help offered to him so that he has been drug free for two years.”

She added that Muraskinas wanted to find work and become a “valued member of his family”.

Muraskinas, who lives in Wembley, was jailed for 18 months.