A Belfast judge has stressed the importance of stopping those who carried illegal immigrants to England from using an indirect route through Ireland.
Judge Corinne Philpott was jailing a German former show jumping champion who had pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to smuggling illegal immigrants into the UK.
This was the first prosecution of its kind to come before the courts in the North.
Armin Hargarten (43), from Delbruck in eastern Germany, was arrested on July 1st at Larne. Members of the RUC searched the camper van he was driving as he went to board the ferry to Scotland.
They found eight Punjabis whose destination was London. They were healthy and were kept in Magilligan Prison in Co Derry until they were deported.
Hargarten told police he was to be paid 20,000 German marks to drive them from Germany via Belgium and France, and by ferry to Rosslare in Ireland, before entering the UK by crossing the Border into Northern Ireland. The judge was told Hargarten had been chosen to represent West Germany at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, but due to the boycott was unable to take part. He came seventh in the world show jumping championships at Aachen in Germany in 1986, but has been forced to retire due to injuries. Defence counsel Mr Paul Ramsey said his client had remarried earlier this year, but had lost his job, and was "desperate for money" when he was asked to drive the immigrants to London. Jailing him for 21 months, Judge Philpott said she took into account the immigrants Hargarten was carrying had been well cared for at his own expense. However, she said such offences must not be allowed to become prevalent in Northern Ireland.