Mail starts the week with groundless immigration scare story

A typical scare story about the UK being flooded with illegal immigrants in the Mail today, with the reliability of the story being given away in the headline:

Stowaway express: Border agency coach waved through every day could have brought hundreds of illegals into UK

The telling words: 'could have'.

Because that means: there's no evidence to support that claim, but it's a claim we want to scare our readers with anyway.

So following the news that one man had apparently hidden under a Border Agency coach from Calais and then run off when it arrived in the UK, that means hundreds 'could have' come through the same way.

But they haven't.

The story goes on to say:

Since last month's incident, three more illegals have been caught trying to hide on the coach in France.

And when it was later parked in a 'secure' spot within Channel Tunnel land to deter stowaways, two more illegals were arrested breaking into the area to reach it.

So that's five others who have all been caught, and one who has got through and was seen. And in the world of the Mail - and their conveniently anonymous source who isn't even from the Border Agency but described as 'close to' it - that means hundreds 'could have'.

But they haven't.