A suspected illegal immigrant has been passed to Home Office officials after he jumped out of the back of a woman’s car in Shepherdswell today.

Police were called to reports of a man found in a car in the village, near Dover, at about 9.30am.

It is believed the man sneaked into the back of the woman’s car when she took her dogs to have their passports checked in Calais.

Owner of the Fiat Panda, Sue Taber, who was returning home from Spain via the Channel Tunnel, has said she had felt paranoid driving back by herself and cannot believe it happened.

She had clicked the door locked at nearly every opportunity and despite her dog’s irrational behaviour, the man went unnoticed until she arrived in Shepherdswell.

She told the BBC: “All he kept saying was ‘I’m an orphan, I’m an orphan’. I told him to get lost and he did.

“This boy must have been 18 to 20. I don’t know how he managed to fit in the car.

“My dog was going berserk but I thought she was looking for a ball, and I kept feeling somebody or something - somebody now I know - nudge me in the back.

“I immediately called the police because I was more frightened about what he was going to do. I can’t believe that it happened.”

She added: “I was paranoid driving back by myself so everywhere I stopped I clicked the door locked.

“If I stopped for a half hour break I’d stop where there was light outside the petrol station so I wasn’t going to get hijacked.

“The only place that I think it could have happened was when I took my dogs out of the car to have their passports checked at Calais.

“It’s the only place I might not have locked the car.”

A Kent Police spokesman said: “Kent Police was called at 9.27am today to reports of a suspected illegal immigrant in a car in Shepherdswell.

“Officers located the man and he has been transferred to the Home Office Immigration Enforcement (formally UKBA) for them to take any further action.”