CCL Group played a critical role in the investigation into three illegal immigrants found onboard a vehicle, with SMS data recovery essential to securing a conviction.
Ionut-Daniel Rusan and Cristina-Iona Rusan were stopped at the Port of Dover on 18 October 2016 and two Albanian illegal immigrants were discovered in the air-dam above the cab of their vehicle and a further Albanian illegal immigrant in the trailer.
Mr and Mrs Rusan were both arrested and later charged.
In February this year, following earlier not guilty pleas, they both stood trial at Canterbury Crown Court. After hearing all the evidence that was available at the time, the jury could not reach a verdict.
The re-trial commenced in June 2019 and on 20 June, after three hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict against them both.
Assisting with the investigation, CCL Group was able to recover previously unknown SMS messages on the defendants’ phone, which the original jury did not have the benefit of seeing.
Both Mr and Mrs Rusan were sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment.
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