A people smuggler who crossed the Channel with four Albanian migrants hidden in a campervan has been jailed for 15 months after a receipt from a Belgian casino helped prove his guilt.

Oozy Hughes, also known as Mark Newton, of Catlyn Close, East Malling, pleaded guilty and was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday (November 29) for facilitating illegal entry into the UK.

Border Force found the men in the showers and bunks of Hughes’ van when it was stopped at Harwich Port in Essex in March 2018.

In an interview at Chelmsford Police Station, he claimed he had hired the van to drive to Spain and returned to the UK by ferry from Santander.

However, his lies began to unravel when officers discovered the receipt from a casino in northern Belgium in his van, showing he had been there earlier that day to participate in a “Fantastic Fridays” competition to win a 100-gram gold bar.

Further investigations found GPS data from the campervan, which had been hired two days earlier, proved it had travelled through Belgium to the Netherlands, not Spain as Hughes had claimed.

Home Office Criminal and Financial Investigation teams also obtained text messages and call records from his mobile phone.

One message, sent on the day of the smuggling attempt, read “Holland Casino”.

Several calls had been made on the same day, including two to numbers the Home Office had linked to a Belgian people-smuggling ring.

More evidence was collected from the campervan including a receipt for a fuel purchase in Belgium and a parking ticket from Rotterdam from the day of Hughes’ arrest.

Hughes, who made no mention of knowing anyone in Belgium or the Netherlands when interviewed, was subsequently charged with facilitating illegal entry to the UK.

Chris Foster, deputy director of criminal and financial investigations at the Home Office, said the sentencing followed “a complex and long-running investigation by my officers who have worked hard to bring this investigation to a positive conclusion”.

“This criminal worked with organised gangs overseas in his attempt to exploit our border,” he added.

“I’m pleased to see that he has been brought to justice and grateful to my teams for their tireless work on this case.”