Briton charged with smuggling illegal immigrants

A 45-year-old Briton appeared in a Greek court today charged with smuggling 72 illegal immigrants into the country from Turkey.

Michael James Wood will go on trial in the port of Piraeus tomorrow, said officials.

‘‘I will tell my story in court tomorrow,’’ he said, looking tired as he walked out of the prosecutor’s office, wearing shorts and a lime green T-shirt. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Coast guard officials arrested Wood on Saturday night on the island of Aegina near Athens after he allegedly transported the immigrants on board a 49 ft Greek-flagged yacht, Elena IV.

Police and coast guard officials on the island detained the Iraqi and Syrian immigrants, who included nine children.

The immigrants told authorities that they had set sail from Izmir on the Turkish coast and had paid more than £720 (€1,128) each to be taken to Greece.

Police are searching for a Greek man believed to have been sailing the boat with Wood, judicial authorities said.

Tens of thousands of people from Asia, eastern Europe and the Middle East cross illegally into European Union-member Greece every year, often heading to Greek islands from the neighbouring Turkish coast on board sailing or fishing boats.