A PILOT who flew a Syrian illegal immigrant into Bournemouth Airport is facing a sentence of imprisonment.

Ammar Khalifa, aged 49, was convicted following a trial at Dorchester Crown Court for a charge of assisting unlawful immigration.

The jury heard evidence that Khalifa, of Campbell Road, Burton, Christchurch, met Syrian Ebrahim Hamad in a café in Cherbourg on January 7, having flown to the French town in a private plane with a friend.

On the way back Mr Hamad accompanied them and when they arrived at Bournemouth Airport the plane was seen to stop on the taxi way and two men were seen walking away from it towards a hangar.

When Khalifa was questioned by immigration officials at the airport, he initially made no mention of the additional passenger on the return journey.

Police were contacted and Mr Hamad was found in Khalifa’s car, which was outside of the controlled zone, at which point the pilot admitted he had arrived in his plane.

When he gave evidence to the jury, Giving evidence, Khalifa claimed that Mr Hamad had wanted to see an ill relative and had shown him a French identification card.

He said it was only 20 minutes before landing when he asked Mr Hamad to get the identification card out that he replied he had thrown it away because it was “dodgy” and Khalifa then realised he would be entering the country illegally.

The defendant claimed he had let Mr Hamad out of the plane and told him to go and wait in the car, because he was worried about how it would look if he was found in his plane and said he had been intending to hand him over to immigration on his own terms.

In his closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Tim Bradbury suggested Khalifa was not as “naive” as he implied would have them believe. He said: “The plan throughout was for Mr Hamad to circumvent immigration control by getting off the private plane early, putting him in the car and no doubt be driven drive off to Bournemouth.”

Leslie Smith, representing Khalifa, said: “The act he did was not to facilitate him getting away, it was to facilitate the handing over of him to immigration.”

Following the conviction, the case was adjourned until Friday, November 27 for sentencing at Bournemouth Crown Court.

Judge Peter Johnson told the defendant: “This was a very serious breach of immigration laws.

“You are looking at a prison sentence.

“You have tried to hoodwink the jury and you have tried to hoodwink a number of people with a story that can best be described as a cock and bull story rather than facing the music.”