A DENTAL engineer who smuggled six illegal entrants ashore at Dungeness in a boat unfit to cross the busy Channel shipping lanes has been jailed for three years.

Mark Maynard, 39, admitting facilitating a breach of UK immigration law when he appeared before a judge at Canterbury Crown Court.

Maynard was told by the judge that he had woefully misused his skills of 20 years in skippering boats and the sentence would have to be substantial.

Maynard, from Dunstable, agreed to smuggle the six Oriental men for £2,000 because of serious financial problems.

The inflatable rib boat he used had no running or navigation lights and no emergency flares and was described by the prosecution as "wholly unworthy and unfit to do the job it was doing"

Maynard left Rye Harbour one morning last September and was seen as he brought in his six passengers by anglers fishing off Dungeness beach. One took pictures on his mobile phone.

Counsel for Maynard said Maynard would lose his business importing dental equipment and he was facing possible loss of function in his hands in the future due to an impact accident while playing rugby.

He said it was a one-off trip for which Maynard was remorseful.