Ms Taber believes 5ft 8in man got into car when she left it unlocked at Calais

'Illegal immigrant' later found by police and is now in hands of Home Office

A British woman has been left shocked after finding a suspected illegal immigrant hiding on the back seat of her Fiat Panda after she drove from France to the UK.

Sue Taber, who arrived home this morning after driving from Spain to France and back to Britain via the Eurotunnel, was astonished when she spotted a human leg behind the driver's seat after parking up outside her home in Shepherdswell, Kent.

She made the unusual discovery as she let her two dogs out of the car and said the 5ft 8in man, aged between 18 and 20, emerged from her vehicle shouting: 'I'm an orphan, I'm an orphan'.

Ms Taber, who believes the man got into her car while she left it briefly unattended and unlocked at Calais, France, admitted she had felt something nudging her back on her 53 mile cross-Channel journey, but assumed it was just one of her dogs fetching a ball.

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Sue Taber was shocked to discover the man hiding behind her driver's seat as she arrived back to her home in Shepherdswell, Kent, having driven from Spain via France and back to the UK via the Eurotunnel

She believes he had got into the back of her Fiat Panda (file picture) while she had stopped to check her dogs

She believes the stowaway climbed into her Fiat and hid behind the seat after she left it unattended while she checked her two dogs in.

After making the discovery, she shouted at the stowaway 'in no uncertain terms' to 'get lost' before she went inside her home to dial 999 as he fled just before 9.30am.

It comes just hours after a ferry bound for Britain was stormed by up to 250 illegal immigrants who tried to force their way on board the vessel at Calais.

Security staff were forced to turn a fire hose on the immigrants as they attempted to overpower officials and machine-gun wielding police by climbing over fences and running up the main ramp into the P&O ferry's vehicle hold.

Cross-Channel travellers are now being warned to stay alert when travelling through the French port, where more than 80 police officers and 40 riot police have been drafted in as part of heightened patrols.

Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe said today that the company's site at Calais was extremely secure but added: ‘Everybody travelling through Calais should be vigilant whenever they leave their vehicle.’

Ironically, Ms Taber had been listening to a local radio station phone-in on migrants and the Calais incident as she drove home from the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone - but was completely unaware she was carrying one.

She told BBC Radio Kent: 'I can't believe this happened, I just can't believe that this man got in my car.

'As I let the dogs out of the car a leg protruded from behind my seats and a chap got out and said "I'm an orphan, I'm an orphan" at which point I told him to get lost.

'I just can't believe this man got in my car and I can only think that [it happened] when I took my dogs in to get their passports done at Calais - the only place where I would let my guard down and not had the car locked.

MsTaber said the 5ft 8in tall man jumped out of her Fiat and started shouting 'I'm an orphan, I'm an orphan' after she pulled up outside her house in the quiet village of Shepherdswell, Kent (pictured) at about 9.30am today

'I may be wrong, maybe I've done it somewhere else but it's the only place I can think of where I've got out of the car and maybe not locked it.

'I'm still shaking. You just can't believe it could happen to you. I've got a Fiat Panda for goodness sake, with two dogs in the back.

'And I've managed to get though passport control, everything else with a stowaway on board.'

Ms Taber said she even felt her something nudging her back during the cross-Channel journey home but assumed it was her dog.

She said: 'I thought my dog was nudging me in the back, she's a nutcase for balls and I'm thought she found one because I kept feeling something in the back of me. Now I know it probably wasn't [the dog], it was probably this chap wriggling.

'I feel outraged it happened to me, I wish it was someone else's problem, that sounds awful but I sound vulnerable now.'

Ms Taber believes the man may have jumped into her car as she tended to her dogs before entering the Eurotunnel at Calais, France (pictured). The man has now been located by police after fleeing the scene

She said the incident was all the more unusual because she had taken 'security precautions' throughout her journey home from Spain.

She said: 'I was paranoid driving back by myself so everywhere I stopped I clicked the door locked.

'If I stopped for a half hour break I'd stop where there was light outside the petrol station so I wasn't going to get hijacked.

'The only place that I think it could have happened was at Calais.

'It's the only place I might not have locked the car.'

A Kent Police spokesman said: 'Kent Police was called at 9.27am today to reports of a suspected illegal immigrant in a car in Shepherdswell.

'Officers located the man and he has been transferred to the Home Office Immigration Enforcement (formally UKBA) for them to take any further action.'



