Mother and daughter from Wetherby tried to smuggle Albanians through Channel Tunnel in six-berth campervan

Kimberley Susan Harding and her daughter Leonie Harding were stopped in December 2020 by UK Border Force officials in France. The pair were found to be transporting five immigrants hidden in the locked storage area of the vehicle.

Denying a charge of conspiracy to assist in unlawful immigration to the UK, they eventually admitted their part. The mastermind behind the smuggling scheme, Christopher Hennigan from Leeds, was jailed on Friday for more than 14 years.

Sentencing them at Leeds Crown Court this morning, Judge Robin Mairs said that because of Hennigan was the “brains”, he gave the women suspended sentences and no mitigation was read out in court for either defendant.

Kimberley Harding, aged 39 of of Montagu Road, Wetherby, was given two years’ jail, suspended for 12 months, with 30 rehabilitation days.

Leonie Harding, aged 21, of the same address, received 18 months’ jail, suspended for 12 months, with 20 rehabilitation days.

Judge Mairs told them: “This was planned and professional criminality, but that planning and professionalism was Harding’s rather than yours. The profits, that undoubtedly were to be made, were also Hennigan’s rather than yours. You were not the operating mind in this conspiracy.”

The pair had arrived in Europe in the six-berth vehicle vehicle just four days before, travelling on the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. They were questioned in Rotterdam by officials and said they were nursing assistants, coming to work.

Due to Covid restrictions, work was the only acceptable reason for travelling out of Britain during that time, the court heard. The pair then tried to travel through the Channel Tunnel on December 10 and were stopped at Coquelles, France, where they claimed they had been working in a shop. Officials then found the immigrants.

Both mother and daughter initially denied any wrongdoing. It was found that the documents used to back up their stories were false.

The court heard that a lengthy investigation was carried out looking at their phones and social media accounts, which pointed to the pair being directed and funded by Hennigan in “every step”.

No evidence was offered for a fourth defendant, 28-year-old Rebecca Lily O’Donnell from Leeds, and the case was dropped.