Three Moldovan nationals have been given suspended prison sentences for assisting unlawful immigration after two men were found in the back of their van at Belfast ferry terminal.

Vealceslav Badrajan, 42, Nadejda Novacovschi, 26, and Fiodor Svet, 52, each received a sentence of two years and two months at Belfast Crown Court on Monday, suspended for three years by Judge Philip Gilpin.

The trio, all employees of a courier company and sharing an address in Bangor, County Down, pleaded guilty to two charges each of facilitating a breach of immigration law on 25 May 2025.

That day, Stena Line security staff at Belfast port alerted police after spotting two males in the back of a van driven by Svet. Badrajan and Novacovschi were passengers in the front.

Immigration checks revealed the two men had been refused entry into the UK by Border Force at Calais a month earlier and had no legal right to be in the country.

The defendants told the court they collected the men in Dublin before driving to Belfast, a route that bypassed standard immigration checks. They said they did not know the men were illegal but accepted they had reasonable cause to believe their actions would breach immigration law.

Judge Gilpin noted the three were acting on instructions and had no organising or financial role in the operation. However, he said they "ought to have had regard to the legality of the actions" of the two passengers.

All three spent time in custody before being granted bail. They have no previous convictions. The court heard Badrajan is a father of four separated from his family in Moldova, Svet's wife is disabled and he has not seen his children for more than a year, and Novacovschi, a university graduate, was granted compassionate bail to visit her seriously ill father in Moldova and returned voluntarily for sentencing.

The defendants were warned that any further offending in the UK within three years could activate the suspended terms.