In unusual and somewhat desperate UK visa news, it has emerged that a man from Latvia has attempted to smuggle his wife into the country in a suitcase after failing to successfully receive a UK spouse visa for her.
Bogden Croitor was stopped in Dover by UK immigration officials. He had caught the ferry from Calais, France, in order that he might come to the country with his wife.
When the officials searched his car and found a suitcase, they opened it up to discover his wife hiding inside. It is unknown how long she had been hiding in the case in an attempt to avoid detection.
The case emerged during a hearing at Canterbury Crown Court at which Mr Croitor explained that he had travelled to the French town of Calais in October of 2014 in order to visit his wife there as she had been twice refused the right to come to the UK with her husband; who did have a valid UK visa.
He claimed that it had been his wife's suggestion that she hide in his suitcase in an attempt to enter the UK.
Nonetheless, Mr Croitor was hit by the law for his attempts to smuggle his wife through customs. Judge Adele Williams told him: "You could have absolutely no complaint if I had sent you to prison straight away because those who commit this offence normally always go to jail immediately.
"But I take the view that the way you committed this offence does have extraordinary mitigating circumstances attached to it."
Exactly what those circumstances are is unclear, but the judge did decide to give Mr Croitor a 14 month jail sentence suspended for two years, and him to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work for the community and pay £400 costs.