A Kent taxi driver involved in a people smuggling operation has been ordered to hand over almost £100,000 in illicit gains or face further imprisonment.
The man, from Chatham, transported migrants who had been smuggled into the UK via lorries to the West Midlands, where a Vietnamese organized crime group he was working with was based. He was also implicated in collecting payments from those who had been transported.
The driver was convicted in December 2022 of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and received a 20-month jail term, suspended for two years. Following this conviction, financial investigators began the process of identifying assets that were proceeds of his criminal activity.
At a hearing on Friday, June 27, the court mandated that he pay close to £100,000 within three months, or serve an additional 12-month jail term.
NCA senior investigating officer Paul Boniface said:
“It is only right that he should not be able to benefit from it.
“He played an important part in a people smuggling enterprise which saw migrants treated as a commodity to be profited from, transporting them from Vietnam to the UK.
“This case demonstrates that not only will we investigate and bring to justice those involved in organised immigration crime, we will also follow the money and stop criminals profiting from their wrongdoing.”