A mum-of-four is facing jail for her part in an attempt to smuggle 12 illegal immigrants into the UK in a van containing a load of tyres.

Katy Bethel had denied assisting unlawful immigration, but was convicted by a jury of 10 women and two men by an 11-1 majority.

Adjourning sentence until September 11, Judge Philip Statman warned: “She is clearly going to be sent to prison for a considerable period of time.

“I am very mindful of the fact she is a mother of four. What I need to know is that the children will be looked after properly.”

The judge granted bail for a pre-sentence report covering Bethel’s family circumstances.

The 28-year-old, of Dial Road, Gillingham, wept after the verdict was returned.

She will be sentenced with the van driver, Aaron Harris, who admitted the offence.

Bethel and Harris, 28, of the same address, were stopped after they arrived at the Eurotunnel shuttle terminal in Coquelles, France, in the Mercedes Sprinter van on July 4 2015.

Harris told Border Force officers they went across the Channel for a day trip and had just been “along the long thing”.

Bethel, 28, added: “...along the beach.”

Prosecutor Michael Morris said Harris revealed it was a work van and claimed everything in it was his except the tyres, which belonged to his boss.

“Mr Harris was requested to open the rear doors,” Mr Morris told Maidstone Crown Court.

“Upon opening the doors officers saw what appeared to be jeans or jeaned legs within the tyres.

“An officer said: ‘What’s that then?’ He replied: ‘How did he get in?’

“In total there were 12 Vietnamese nationals in the back of that van concealed in the load of tyres. They were all illegal entrants trying to get into the United Kingdom.”

There were five women, four men and three children all under the age of 12.

Bethel claimed in evidence she had simply been across the Channel to buy alcohol for a party to celebrate the pending birth of her fourth child.

But no drink was bought, she said, because they kept getting lost.

She maintained she knew nothing about the illegal immigrants.

Asked if she had committed the offence for money to support her growing family, she replied: “I have never had any money. I always get by on what I can.”

She added: “I felt sick, I was tired and obviously pregnant. When I’m tired I don’t take much notice of what is going on around me.

“At the time his (Harris’) phone went off all day, every day. It was just normal. I didn’t think about it, I wasn’t listening in on his conversations.”

Bethel said she and Harris had left the van to go for a walk for up to an hour-and-a-half but she did not know he had left the vehicle key behind for another man.

She denied a suggestion by the prosecutor that her account was nonsense and she was trying to wriggle out of any blame.