A van driver was stopped as he headed towards Folkestone with 16 people stashed in the back, including a five-month-old baby.

UK Border officers discovered them hiding among a mattress, chairs and beanbags in the rear of the hired Ford Transit van.

But driver, father-of-one Harbans Doll, claimed: "I thought I was just delivering furniture!"

Now he has been jailed for five and a half years after admitting people smuggling.

Canterbury Crown Court was told the van was stopped by UK Border Agency staff at Coquelles in February this year and the 61-year-old driver questioned.

He claimed he had been to Calais to collect furniture and officers asked to inspect the load.

The judge, Recorder John Bate-Williams, heard that hiding behind a double mattress were three Iraqi families, two Albanian women and four children aged between five months to nine years old.

Doll was taken to Folkestone police station but initially refused to answer questions about why he hired the van.

He later told police in a statement how he had met a man in a Wetherspoon's pub in Slough and offered £500 to bring furniture from France.

Doll, from Slough, claimed he had no idea there were people in the back of the hire truck, adding: “I was shocked there were illegal immigrants in the back. I thought I was delivering furniture.”

David Howells, defending said: “He’s a very ill man suffering from cancer and is receiving treatment.”

After yesterday's sentencing, the Border Agency's assistant director David Fairclough said: "Although Doll offered no explanation for his behaviour, the judge considered in his sentencing that the motivation was financial.

"Offences like this, where individuals take advantage of the desperation of others for personal gain, are among the worst that we deal with in CFI (Criminal & Financial Investigation).

“We work closely with Border Force colleagues to rigorously investigate allegations of immigration related criminality and this case should serve as a warning to anyone tempted to get involved with this kind of offending. We will catch you, and put you before the courts."

The 16 people were passed to the French border police.