LONDON: A British fraudster who had been on the run for nearly three decades using dozens of aliases was jailed on Wednesday after being caught off the UK coast trying to smuggle eight Albanian migrants into the country.

Charles Lynch, who had a conviction in France for paedophilia under another identity, was stopped on board the motor cruiser Saquerlotte III by Border Force vessels after a high-speed chase off the south coast of England on November 6, 2019.

The 64-year-old admitted to assisting unlawful immigration and two counts of possessing false identification documents and was sentenced to three years and eight months at Portsmouth Crown Court.

“You are a resourceful, experienced and professional criminal,” judge David Melville told the court.

“These were eight refugees and they had been persuaded you would be driving them to England.”—AFP