A British punk rock band were arrested for human trafficking after illegal immigrants stowed away in their van as they returned from a European tour.
Ben Waldock, Josh Reed and Ben Dowling, all 18, who play in the band Criminal Mind, were stopped by officials as they drove through Dover.
Customs officers discovered four Vietnamese immigrants hiding inside their speakers and the band were arrested and held in cells for nine hours.
It is believed the band’s Czech driver, who spoke little English, picked up the illegal immigrants as they returned from two gigs in the Czech Republic.
Criminal Mind were eventually released without charge while their 25-year-old driver has been charged with facilitating entry by asylum seekers.
Drummer Ben Waldock, who lives in Bishop Sutton, Somerset, has revealed he was ”scared” when police locked him in a cell last month.
He said: ”I was scared when I was in the cell. I was thinking what if it all goes bad and it all gets blamed on us. I was sat in the front with the two Czech men on driving duties.
”When the lads told me there were people hiding in the speakers I just thought that they were joking because they had been winding me up all weekend.”
Bassist Ben Dowling added: ”Two hours after we left Brussels, I leaned back in my seat and saw these spindly little fingers.
”Then I felt a tap on the shoulder and i just saw this face in the darkness going ‘shhh’.”
