A SNOOKER coach to the stars has been jailed for smuggling five illegal immigrants into the country in the back of his car for £500.

Alan Bell, 61, was returning from the Hook of Holland into Harwich International Port on December 20 last year when officials heard a baby crying inside the vehicle.

After he was confronted, Bell admitted there were five people concealed under a duvet.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard on Friday that Bell of Esslement Road, Southsea, in Hampshire, was a respected snooker and pool coach who had given tips to a host of professional players including legends Jimmy White, Willie Thorne and Joe Johnson.

Richard Conley, mitigating, said Bell was approached to be part of the operation while at a pool tournament he had organised in Amsterdam.

He said: “In the world of smoky pool and snooker clubs one can be approached and it was in such circumstances his heart strings were tugged who by someone was effectively the agent concerned in the importation of these individuals.

“Whilst in Amsterdam he was befriended by this person who told of the desperate plight of these people in the Middle East.”

The party included two women, a teenager, a girl aged seven and a nine-month-old baby who were Kurdish Iraqis.

In interviews the women said they had paid a combined $30,000 for the chance to be taken from their homeland to the UK.

Bell was due to receive £500 upon the safe arrival of the family who remain in the country and are currently seeking asylum.

He had admitted a charge of assisting with unlawful immigration at an earlier hearing.

Judge Christoper Ball QC sentenced Bell to two years in jail in order to deter other people from trafficking people “like packages of meat.”

He said: “I find it hard to swallow a profitable and well organised operation should rely on a chance meeting with a man in a snooker hall.

“You have facilitated the unlawful immigration of five people from one European country to another safe European country.

“In doing that you exacerbated the stresses and strains placed on the system.

“You did it so you could line your pockets with £500.”