Facebook: Adrian and Joanne Fenton.

A couple fined £1,500 after a stowaway migrant hid under a bike-rack cover attached to their motorhome has had the penalty squashed.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton were fined for failing to check “no clandestine entrant was concealed” aboard the vehicle after a trip to France.

Border Force – part of the Home Office – cancelled the fine after taking the couple’s objection to liability into consideration.

The Fentons returned to the UK through Eurotunnel’s Le Shuttle train service.

They found the migrant six hours later at their Essex home when the bike-rack cover was unzipped.

Mr Fenton said:

“I noticed a pair of white trainers.

“I then looked up and saw a pair of legs and face looking down.

“I immediately told him to stay there because you fear for your safety.

“I shouted to Joanne to phone the police.

“How he got under there, I don’t know. You cannot see how he got under there. I really can’t work it out.

“He was contorted around the bikes.

“Feet on the bottom of the rack and bent double over, so you could see nobody from over the cover.”

The Fentons reported the incident to the authorities.

However, they received an email on February 23rd informing them of the fine.

Mr Fenton challenged the penalty.

He said the migrant was clinging to the outside of the vehicle rather than inside the motorhome.

And the couple also claimed border officials in Calais and the UK had not inspected the bike rack or the cover before or after the crossing and denied they knew anything of the migrant before he was found.

Mr Fenton said:

“My motorhome is secure and it’s alarmed.

“As soon as we discovered the individual, we called the police.

“Morally, I thought I had done everything I should have done.

“I couldn’t see how we could have done anything more than was reasonably practical or safe.”

Last week, Sir Keir Starmer said the Home Office would investigate the case.