A WILDLIFE snapper was gobsmacked when he set up a camera to catch wild otters — and filmed a gang of illegal immigrants running from the police.

Nick Ball, 32, put a hidden device in woodland near his home to record the cute critters.

When he played it back he saw mice, squirrels, pigeons — and four illegal immigrants stalking through the forest.
Minutes earlier a group of foreign stowaways jumped from a salad lorry in the quaint village of Alresford, Hants, and made a run for it.
Cops swooped and rounded up six Afghan men and a youth during the incident at around 1pm on Thursday.
But eyewitnesses claimed to have seen at least ten men escaping from the lorry.
It is thought Nick managed to capture four that got away.

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They can be heard speaking in a foreign language as they struggle through the undergrowth by a stream — with one appearing to almost fall.
Nick has offered his footage to cops but they have so far failed to look at it.
He said: “I had set up the cameras there in the hope of filming some wild otters.

 

“I had heard about the commotion in the village and that a group of illegal immigrants had been arrested jumping out of a van.
“I couldn’t believe it when I checked the camera footage and saw these guys walking past the camera.”
The UK Border Agency confirmed it had arrested seven people on suspicion of entering the UK illegally after they were seen jumping from a lorry.
It is not clear whether those in the video have been arrested.
It was shot in a secluded area on a steep bank which leads to a river and is otherwise not used by the public.
It is believed the immigrants hid in one of the large 18-wheel lorries that travel through Alresfor each day.
Nick says many of the lorries carry food and stop at salad farms in the quaint town famous for its watercress.
Nick, who films wildlife documentaries around the world, says he was "absolutely stunned" to discover he had captured illegal immigrants on his camera trap.
Speaking from his home, which is just 30 seconds from his camera trap site, he said: "Capturing these illegal immigrants was one hell of a shock.
"I put the camera trap down a week ago. I was hoping to catch some otters on it.
"You have to regularly go and check on the traps and take out the memory cards so you can replace them with a new one.
"On the second time I did that, I brought the memory card home and put it into my laptop.
"I was going through my photographs and videos and I was seeing squirrels and I was just checking the shots to see what I had.
"Then out of nowhere I saw four guys running past.
"I immediately thought it was strange as it's not on a footpath, they're on a bank by a river.
"I quickly put two and two together because I had seen articles earlier in the week saying immigrants had been arrested there.
“I checked the times on the video and the articles and they matched up.
"They don't look like local guys and they look like they're in a rush.
"It's a very steep bank, I actually went to check it after and I slipped down it - so you wouldn't want to go down it. There's no reason for anyone to go down there.
"I was absolutely stunned when I saw it. I have no idea if these guys got away from police.
"My thoughts were that these guys are ones that got away. They could be anywhere.”
Witness Luke Sneader, 27, from Chandler’s Ford, Hants, said: “I had a front row seat when the police closed the road over the dam at Old Alresford Pond.
“I saw four of them in handcuffs. They were taken out of one van and put in another by the police.
“They weren’t struggling; they knew they had been caught.”
The Home Office said last night: "Immigration Enforcement was contacted by Hampshire Police last Thursday at 1.20pm after police officers attended an incident in Alresford.
“Six men from Afghanistan were arrested on suspicion of entering the UK illegally. The group also included one minor.
“Four of the men aged 18, 23, 25 and 26, are in immigration detention pending removal from the UK.
“The other two men, aged 35 and 36, have been granted temporary release and must report to the Home Office regularly while their cases are progressed.
“The minor remains in the care of social services.
“Where someone is found to have no right to remain in the UK, we will take action to remove them."