A trio of people smugglers who made several failed attempts to transport migrants across the Channel have been jailed.
National Crime Agency officers observed the group, led by 57-year-old Freddy Lawrence, from Folkestone, and assisted by his close associates Keith Baigent, 63, also from Folkestone, and 64-year-old Paul Giglia, from Cheriton.
During a 10-day period in August 2018, the men made five attempts to smuggle Vietnamese migrants from France to the UK, of which four trips were on a boat called the ‘Sorel Light’.
The group also conspired with three associates: Ronald Scott, Toby Lake and Stephen Chapman. Chapman was living in France and acted as the point of contact overseas.
Lawrence was seen buying the vessel from a boatyard on the Norfolk Broads for £30,000, enlisting Baigent to acquire it for him. Baigent ignored advice from the seller to transport it by road, and instead, the boat was skippered from Norfolk to Dover by Lawrence and Scott.
Scott, Lake and Chapman were arrested shortly before the final attempt to set sail and prosecuted by French law enforcement, acting on information provided by the NCA’s case team. They were sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment, one-year imprisonment, and two years imprisonment, respectively.
During that last attempt, French police conducting surveillance near Wimereux, a coastal town between Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, spotted the Sorel Light about 100 metres from the beach.
They saw 12 people of Vietnamese origin arriving on foot at a car park in the town, who then split into several groups before gathering on the beach.
Flashes of light were seen emanating from the Sorel Light, with return signals coming from the migrants. Some of them entered the water and swam towards the boat to try and get on board, at which point the French authorities intervened.
Chapman jumped into the sea and attempted to swim away but was apprehended. Meanwhile, the person piloting the boat moved it away at speed, causing a number of French officers to fall off a ladder and into the water.
The police eventually caught up with the vessel and detained the people on board. There were 11 Vietnamese migrants, together with Lake and Scott. The 12th migrant had fallen into the water and was also detained.
The UK-based group relied on pure chance rather than navigational experience, attempting to follow cross-channel ferries en route to France. All the crossing attempts happened in the days before the arrests in France – from Dover, Folkestone and Ramsgate. None were successful due to repeated mechanical issues with the boats.
When the Sorel Light’s engine failed, Lawrence borrowed a smaller ‘Piscator’ boat from a breakage yard in Hollingbourne, Kent, which itself had to be towed back to the UK following an attempted trip to France after it ran out of fuel.
He tried to hide his criminality by using eight pay-as-you-go phones, telephones, unregistered vehicles and cash payments made via third parties. He would also use his associates’ phones and leave his at unrelated locations to stay under the radar of law enforcement.
Lawrence is a career criminal with 15 previous convictions between 1981 and 2024 for offences including supplying cocaine, producing class B drugs, ABH, burglary, and common assault. He is currently serving a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of supplying class A drugs and money laundering in 2024.
He was arrested alongside Baigent and Giglia in October 2018, and all three were charged with assisting unlawful immigration in May 2022.
Lawrence pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court on 24 October 2024, with Giglia and Baigent convicted at the same court on 14 and 15 November 2024, respectively. At the same court on Friday, Lawrence was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment, Baigent to three years and nine months’ imprisonment and Giglia to three years and four months’ imprisonment.
