A human trafficker claimed a gangster threatened to harm her cancer suffering mum if she refused to smuggle immigrants into Kent.

Samantha Wainwright, 34, said Vladimir Denaj stalked her mother to coerce her in bringing his cousin through the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone.

Wainwright claimed the unidentified man, who she said was her ex-partner, bullied her after she broke her neck and back.

But Wainwright failed to provide medical evidence to support this.

Border Force caught Wainwright in Coquelles smuggling two Albanians inside the boot of her hire car last summer, a court heard.

Wainwright pleaded guilty to people trafficking at a previous hearing but claimed the crime was to prevent Mr Denaj from attacking her mother.

She told Canterbury Crown Court a car accident had left her with a broken back, neck and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since 2014. Wainwright claimed she turned to cocaine and it is at this point she met drug dealer Mr Denaj.

She claimed Mr Denaj began stalking her around shops, following her ill mother to medical appointments and send threatening texts. But under cross-examination, she later told prosecutor Caroline Knight “he never phoned or texted me.”

Ms Knight highlighted Wainwright made several other journeys across the Channel throughout the summer, in hire cars, while unemployed.

Wainwright, of Knoll Road in Wandsworth, maintained Mr Denaj’s threats would soon escalate, with him pinning her against a wall, claiming she had to traffic his cousin.

“I was so scared of him I’d just had enough and I thought if I did it he’ll move on and I can get on with my life,” she told the court.

“He was intimidating and controlling, I didn’t want to say no to him.”

But the judge ruled Wainwright’s evidence “implausible” and jailed her for two-and-a-half years.

Wainwright’s barrister Mr Snowden said his client was at “low risk” of reoffending, and that she is the carer for her unwell mother and stepfather.

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