THE government’s policy of imposing £2,000 penalties on lorry drivers for each illegal immigrant brought into the country has today been ruled unlawful by the High Court.

The penalty system was introduced in 1999 and has cost freight firms thousands of pounds. Mr Justice Sullivan, in London, said that the regime introduced by the 1999 mmigration and Asylum Act was not compatible with the right to a fair trial under Article Six of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Allowing the claim of 50 lorry drivers and hauliers, the judge also ruled that the power to detain vehicles under the Act was not compatible with the protection of property under Article One in the First Protocol to the Convention.

The Home Office, which was given permission to appeal, was ordered to pay the costs of the hearing.