A MAN who tried to smuggle nine people from Afghanistan into the UK at Poole has been sentenced to 27 months in prison.

Ion Nicolae Gita, 33, of Kenton Road, Harrow, was arrested when the people were discovered in a purpose built hide in a van he was driving at Poole Harbour on October 6 last year.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard yesterday that when he was stopped, Gita, a Romanian national, refused to open the rear van doors, claiming they were broken and instead opened the side sliding doors.

But officers noticed that the dimensions of the inside and outside of the van didn’t match.

They forced the rear doors and discovered nine people, including three children, hidden behind a false wall in the van.

Gita, who had arrived at Poole on a ferry from Cherbourg, pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal entry into the UK.