Three men have been jailed after they covered the floor of their van with paprika to distract sniffer dogs as they tried to smuggle 20 people into the UK.

Horace Wallace, Michael Gillett and Peter Langston have been locked up for a total of 11 and a half years after trying to bring illegal inmigrants into the country through Dover on three separate occasions.

Each time the migrants, including two children and a baby, were found to have been hidden in the rear of Mercedes Sprinters in voids between boxes of household items.

All these identical attempts were detected by Border Force officers at Dover’s Eastern Docks.

When questioned by Border Force officers, the drivers all gave virtually identical cover stories - that they had purportedly been to Germany to collect goods from house clearances.

The first attempt was intercepted in the early hours of February 19 last year.

The driver was Michael Gillett, 29, of Newton Drive, Heanor, Derbyshire. One man, four women and a child aged nine were found in the rear of the vehicle.

The second van, driven by Peter Langston, 31, of Godfrey Street, Netherfield, Nottingham, was stopped on May 22 last year.

One man, five women, a six-year-old child and a baby aged eight months, were found in the rear of the vehicle.

The final stop was made on May 30 last year.

The van then was driven by Horace Wallace, 43, of Selwyn Close, Nottingham, and officers found six women, in the rear.

In all cases the migrants claimed to be from Iraq.

Each suspect was arrested by Border Force at the time of the individual incidents and the investigations passed to Immigration Enforcement Criminal and Financial Investigation officers.

Forensic checks of Gillett’s mobile phone and one of the illegal migrant’s phones showed the same number of an unknown third party stored on both.

Mobile phone data also showed Gillett had not been to Germany on that trip.

Other mobile phone evidence showed Langston’s phone in use in the UK, France and Belgium but not in Germany. A sat nav found in the van did not have any addresses outside the UK entered in it.

Wallace declined to answer any questions put to him by IECFI officers.

Further enquiries showed Langston’s mobile number stored in Wallace’s phone. Call data for Wallace’s mobile phone showed that the phone was used in the UK, Belgium and France but not Germany over the period he claimed to have been abroad.

The defendants were jailed at Canterbury Crown Court yesterday.

Wallace, who had maintained his innocence, was convicted after a trial, and sentenced to five years.

Langston, who changed his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial after initially denying the offence, was jailed for four years and six months.

Gillett, who had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, was jailed for two years.

All had been charged with assisting unlawful immigration into the UK.

IECFI assistant director David Fairclough, said after the sentencing: “The danger of placing these people, including two children and a baby, unrestrained inside the unsecured loads was huge. Had there been a collision then there was a real likelihood of serious injury, but Gillett, Langston and Wallace were unconcerned about the safety of their human cargo. This was a pitiless attempt to profit from the vile trade of people smuggling.

“There is significant circumstantial evidence to suggest that this was a co-ordinated operation. We will work hard to bring anyone else found to be connected to these incidents to justice.”

The 20 people found in the vans were passed to immigration officials. Their cases are being dealt with in line with the immigration rules.

Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visit the website crimestoppers-uk.org