Given the amount of brain that would have to have been turned off for this to occur I have to question the safety of satnav devices.

... did the driver even get into our country! Originating from outside the EU, surely he would be required to have some documents giving him clearance to be transporting all that stuff? Let alone bring himself into our country as a worker!

I can't even order some PC components from the USA without having to make a trip to the local post office to pay tax on them... And annoyingly a handling charge with exceed even the tax... Makes me wonder what exactly the postage is supposed to pay for if it's not the handling!

I had high hopes for this article.

Skeggy obviously. Gibraltar doesnt have a Butlins.

... get all their news stories from The Sun?

That's the third one today (at least).

Why don't you just add a direct link to the home page... or is this part of a grand strategy to pimp El-Reg to Rupert?

Because his real undocumented cargo is now farming cockles off the coast of Skeggy

Hmm, the feller's a fool on all sorts of levels! You would think he would have a good overall idea of which countries he would need to travel through - wouldn't you? He was lucky to have seen someone down that road, it's dead at the best of times...

It's the bloody stupid driver. Surely he must have noticed that he was going the wrong way?

Say what?

I'm in Australia so I'm not 100% sure how far he went but surely he would have had to cross several national borders during his journey.

It's the EU's fault. Back in ye olden days he would have been turned back at the first checkpoint I'm sure.

... blame the Sat Nav.

Why not blame the truck, after all it was the truck that took him there.

two words that really only go together in that context.

@Anonymous Coward

I don't read the Sun myself, so if true, is useful to me. I like hearing about confused truck drivers ending up at the opposite end of the continent due to the failings of good old-fashioned common sense.

I would be scared of a world where only one news source could report a single story!

He's lucky he didn't have his wheels stolen while parked up.

Anyway what could Gib possibly want from Syria, and by the truck load?

A Syrian (or Turkish) driver would need a UK visa to enter the UK, but his Schengen visa would let him enter Gibraltar. The number plate on the truck in the picture is not Syrian, or Turkish it's the EU blue plate. The ferry of course would have been paid for. The paperwork for importing a vehicle is a PITA and would need to have been predone. Perhaps Corral road (two r's? I can't find a Coral Road). Necdet Bakimci, well the name is Turkish.

The detail isn't quite right.

That's brilliant. Security @ border crossings non existent if entering the UK disguised as a bewildered and very geographically challenged Turkish Truck driver.

er... cars I presume..

"...then arranged for the lorry-load of cars ..."

but Hartlepool, home of monkey-hangers since the end of the 18th century.

We all know that know that Skegness is in the Rock (atleast Skegness Rock, obviously Blackpool Rock has Blackpool written in it).

... more serioulsy

@jim, According to the article, cars (prestige cars according to the Sun) and the firm was Turkish not Syrian, that was the driver.

I would also like to point out that although the haulage firm was Turkish that doesn't mean the load originated in Turkey. It is quite possible (infact, most likely) that the cars were assembled in Birmingham, collected and taken direct to Skegness without passing any national borders. Quite possibly a load of rugs (or whatever turkey exports) was delivered to Birmingham and then the cars were picked up as a return load, via Gibraltar. However that wouldn't have made such a tasty story.

"need a UK visa to enter the UK, but his Schengen visa would let him enter Gibraltar"

I thought that this particular bit of Spain was considered to be part of the UK (by some people) and hence is outside the Schengen area. I wouldn't blame the Spanish border police if they make life hell for (resident) Brits crossing the border.

Maybe we should offer Skeggy to Spain in part-exchange...

... My GF has her sat nav set in Darth Vader voice mode, so we're on holiday and end up having a big old row because she depends completely on where Darth bleedin' Vader is telling us to go.

So now we've gone in a circle three times, which is what I've been telling her for the last 20 minutes, pointing repeatedly at a good old fashioned map.

Nope, Darth is right always, poncy old paper map - (the ones that have served us well for the last few thousand years) - must be wrong.

When Darth told us to head down a road with big M.O.D signs, warning of sudden gunfire and possible death, she finally relented and Darth was shoved in the cubby hole - for about 10 minutes until we got lost again...

Satnav? - welcome to the dark side...

Paris, because we like her Tom Toms.

According to an article in The Mirror, about 300,000 drivers in the UK had accidents because of sat nav.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/07/21/satnav-danger-revealed-navigation-device-blamed-for-causing-300-000-crashes-89520-20656554/

"The detail isn't quite right."

There's a hidden clue in the included link.

"300,000 drivers in the UK had accidents because of sat nav"

Maybe we should introduce cameras to detect them...

I reckon it's a Sun horror story of "bleedin' furriners just wander in and take our jobs innit" disguised as a wayward driver. A subtle tale of how weak our border security is.

Yes perhaps I misunderstood their comment. It looks like Gibraltar accepts Schengen visas, however it doesn't, it *requires* multi-entry schengen visas as a condition of entry for people coming from Schengen zone (because Spain won't let them back in otherwise when they try to leave).

So yeh, perhaps he'd need a UK visa even for Gibraltar.

Well, clearly the force was strong in that one!

Did the SatNav tell him to buy a ferry ticket as well?

Literally beyond belief

Parcelforce clearly use the same satnav system.

Surely when it said "You next stop after the ferry/tunnel is England!" the alarm bells should have gone off?

What The Rock is cookin'

Seriously though, it astonishes me how many cabbies round here drive completely via sat nav and heard some stories about experienced ones having airport/business meeting runs to London taken off them because they did not have a sat nav.

Ridiculous.

Still, the lack of news reports outlining the destruction of Skeggy by the Scorpion King should have been a big clue :o/

To all the nobs who complain about sat navs being useless, they are just a tool. Just 'cos a chainsaw can be operated without protection and used to carve up bone and gristle, doesn't mean it should be used like that, for that.

As usual the middle-England, pandering media stirring up anti-tech shite, although they will quite happily use a Mac or PC to order a load of expensive tat across the internet from commercial sites that don't even bother with SSL encryption!

A one-way bridge near my now former home had an asda guy sent under it THE WRONG WAY by satnav - his truck also had the top corner near the chiller unit mashed by said bridge (on top of it is a stretch of dual-carriageway A road). I did have a pic somewhere on my phone, think I might have deleted it tho - will post link if I find it :D

Maybe you should break up - you obviously hate her.

On a side note - your sat nav really does suck. Mine has done nothing but get me to places that I would never have found on my own (because sometimes, people don't have a second person in the car and it's unsafe to have a map open while driving). I've never been taken the wrong way, and I've never had one in a never ending loop!?

To be honest, you are as bad as those people who all complain things were better before computers - and any problems is the computers fault, not the users or procedures. Seriously - stop reading el-reg!

Why blame the satnav? surely the guy had a working brain....

Finally the Rock has come back to... Skegness?

thought not, but would have been a hell of a turnup for the local caravan parks or even Butlins.