A security
guard jailed for aiding a woman's bid to slip through overseas border
controls deserved his "stern" sentence, a top judge ruled on June 17.
According
to Essex Chronicle, 47-year-old Dele Uyi Akonedo, was jailed for two
and a half years at Chelmstead Crown Court in June last year after he
was convicted of assisting unlawful immigration to an EU state.
Akonedo,
was a man of exemplary character, London's Appeal Court, before he got
sucked into the scam. He and accomplices plotted to put a Nigerian woman
on a plane from Stansted Airport to the Slovakian Republic, using false
documents
Akonedo booked
an air ticket for the woman and also drove her to the airport, but she
never managed to get through immigration once she arrived in Bratislava,
Mr Justice Jay told the court.
Akonedo
was described in court as a hard-working family man and the father of
four children. His case reached the Appeal Court as he challenged his
sentence, which his lawyers claimed was far too harsh.
Mr
Justice Jay, sitting with Lord Justice Davis and Judge Neil Ford QC,
said Akonedo posed a difficult sentencing exercise. The immigration scam
was not sophisticated, he said, terming it a "somewhat cack-handed
offence".
But despite Akonedo's compelling personal history the judge refused to reduce his punishment.
"This
sentence was certainly stern and at the top of the range," he told the
court. "But this was a planned offence. Others were involved and
deterrent sentences continue to be called for in these cases. The appeal
is dismissed
Source: Essex Chronicle
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