Haulier blames migrants for £100,000 damage to lorry in France

Damage caused to the lorry of Allan Campbell. Picture: SWNS

Allan Campbell has been sending lorries to France every day for the last 19 years.

But the haulier, who runs A.L. Campbell Haulage in Carstairs, South Lanarkshire, said his drivers now face frequent ambushes by migrants trying to get to the UK.

He said: “Basically they are burning bales of straw and having fires lit on the dual carriageway.”

In the latest incident at the weekend, one of Allan’s lorries collided with another lorry being driven by a Lithuanian haulier who was caught in such a trap.

Allan’s driver tried to pass it but collided with the vehicle after the trapped driver tried to pull out.

The tractor unit has been wrecked by the collision and while the container was able to be picked up by one of Allan’s other drivers, it also suffered damage.

The cost of the damage to the container and the tractor unit could be around £100,000, and the tractor unit has yet to be recovered from France.

Allan added: “It is lying over there in France, and it might never be back on the road, it is that bad.”

The Campbell family business has been operating for 30 years and now runs deliveries of fish from northern Scotland to France every day.

But Allan says the area around the Eurotunnel is now like a prison.

He said: “I started going out there in 1997 and there weren’t any fences round about the Eurotunnel or the ferry terminal then.

“Now it is like going out and in to a jail because of all the immigrants trying to come in.

“There are a lot of trucks being damaged.

“We had the sister truck of that damaged just weeks ago. People threw bricks at it.

“The paint is damaged on a regular basis.

“It is not nice.”

Despite the problems his firm has faced, Allan has no plans to change how he operates truck deliveries to France.

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