A lorry driver who turned people smuggler to raise funds for his brain tumour suffering son broke down as he was jailed.

Viorel Staver’s truck was stopped at Dover’s Eastern Docks last December when Border Force discovered an Albanian man stowed inside.

The 48-year-old was jailed for 20 months at Canterbury Crown Court after pleading guilty to facilitating illegal entrance into the UK at a previous hearing.

“His eldest son has been suffering from severe pains in his head and has been diagnosed with having a brain tumour which requires a treatment,” his barrister Kerry Waite said.

“Mr Staver was to be paid 6,000 Euros for his involvement.

“It was to be payment on delivery of the person and as a result of his detection he has not received any money for his efforts,” he continued.

The court heard the Moldovan national travelled to a rendezvous point in Europe to pick up the person, then entered Dover at about 10.30pm on December 16, when Border Force intercepted his vehicle.

Staver played a role as a courier rather than having organised the operation, the court heard.

Appearing via videolink from HMP Elmley, Staver appeared visibly upset when Judge Catherine Brown handed down her sentence for the “planned operation.”

She said: “But I accept the planning was done by others.

“While it is no excuse, I accept your motivation to enter this criminal enterprise was to pay for treatment for your son.”

The judge told the married father-of-two, who has been a commercial driver for six years, that countries must “have secure borders.”

“You had no way of knowing if he was going to be exploited in the UK, you had no way of knowing if he was coming to the UK to commit a crime of some kind,” she said.

She continued: “These are some of the reasons a country has to have secure borders.”