I’ve had illegals in a trailer, the 1st were a family of 3 Vietnamese who had I imagine, paid someone a sum of money to be transported to UK.
These were found by the sniffer dog, while sat in a lane waiting to board ferry, trailer had cord and seal, cord had been cut and repaired, which was very hard to spot at 4 am on cold wet morning ! 3 ferries later I was allowed to carry on. This resulted in a “civil penalty” notice from UKBA to the sum of £600, which I successfully challenged. I might have a copy of the letter at home, I’ll post it if I can find it.
The Boss got fined a large sum, for not having a system of checks in place to prevent immigrants.
The second attempt was an immigrant in the roof spoiler on a Daf space cab.
French spotted and evicted him, no further action.
Next one was a poorly executed attempt to put people in, so it was obvious people were in the trailer.
At Calais as soon as I stopped in the heart beat mon shed, I pointed out to the French BA, that i thought I had illegals on board, and was escorted to one side to be checked. There were 2 other trucks waiting to be checked as well as me, and 1 more turned up a bit later.
French for once civil and helpful, and only cost about an hour.
In all some twenty + immigrants seized and removed. No further action.
If you pass the ticket booths, you are effectively in England.
Be aware, take all measures you can, fill out a security log sheet ( available from BA website and RHA), most of all stay safe,
do not confront them,
allow the FRENCH to deal with them.
Personally I check for myself before going into the port area, any problems go straight to th French. . . .