Ex-Carlisle art student and drugs criminal in people smuggling plot

Stasia Manderson, 28, was recruited as a driver, given the task of transporting illegal immigrants into the country in a pick-up truck via the Eurotunnel in a conspiracy involving 30-year-old Carlisle man Francis Pattinson.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiring to help foreign nationals breach of UK immigration law. Pattinson, already serving an eight year, four month jail term for drugs offences, also admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

The city’s crown court heard that Pattinson’s involvement in the conspiracy began in August 2020, when money was paid into Manderson’s bank account.

The plot involved renting pick-up vehicles, which were stopped by officials on the French side of the Eurotunnel. Manderson was driving one of the two vehicles.

Hidden in each pick-up truck were four Albanian nationals. Phone evidence made it clear that Pattinson was in contact with the men who were being smuggled. He was at the centre of the conspiracy.

Francis Pattinson (Image: Police)

His role included organising the travel and making various preparations, including the purchase of covers for rear of the pickup trucks.

Andrew Scott, for Manderson, said she was a woman of previous good character, whose motivation had been the need to pay off a car loan – cash that her parents would have provided had she asked them.

Mr Scott said: “The Albanians were unknown to Stasia Manderson. She was just told to drive. She had no organisational role in this enterprise.”

She was recruited by criminals who recognised that her lack of offending history and clean driving licence meant she was unlikely to rouse suspicions with the authorities.

The defendant is due to give birth in October and was assessed as a low risk of reoffending. During the three years wait for the case to come to court, Manderson had lived with the case hanging over her.

The lawyer said it beggared belief that the defendant, from an exemplary family in Ayrshire, had stayed in Carlisle for work after her degree and, while in an abusive relationship, found herself in debt and then the position she was now in.

“There are no excuses,” said the barrister, adding that the defendant had now started a new life away from Carlisle with a new partner.

Brendan Burke, for Pattinson, accepted that his primary motivation was financial. But while in prison, the defendant had achieved 'open prison status.'

This was through enrolling on courses, finding prison work, and testing negative for drugs.

“That rapid graduation to open prison status is perhaps the best indication of the progress and rehabilitation he has already achieved,” said the barrister.

Judge Nicholas Barker said it was clear that Pattinson, formerly of Briar Bank, Belah, was motivated by the commercial aspect of the conspiracy and he accepted there was no evidence that the Albanians were to be exploited.

The judge told Manderson, of Johnston Street, Gateshead: “Your role, in essence, was as a driver; you were clearly used and identified to the benefit of the conspiracy because you were a young female and less likely to draw suspicion than others.

“I do find it to be an isolated act.”

The judge noted that Manderson was motivated by the financial gain and while she did not know the details of the people she was transporting she did know it was illegal.

She had been naive and easily led.

She was given a ten-month sentence suspended for two years, with 20 rehabilitation activity days.

Declining to impose unpaid work, the judge noted that the defendant’s becoming a mother in six weeks would mean having her hands full.

Pattinson was given a 32-month jail sentence.

This will be consecutive to the 100 month term he is currently serving. The court heard that his cannabis offence involved him possessing more than two kilos of the class B drug, estimated to have a potential street value of £13,000.

Meanwhile, two other men from Carlisle, aged 55 and 34, have denied the same immigration law offence and are due to go on trial. That hearing is expected to last six days, the court heard.

A 31-year-old Carlisle woman has also been charged in connection with same investigation and is due to appear before the court.  

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