Taxi driver from Kent ordered to pay back £100,000 he made from people smuggling or face jail
A taxi driver from Kent has been ordered to pay back £100,000 he made from people smuggling or he could face jail.
Habib Behsodi from Chatham ferried migrants who had been smuggled into the UK in the back of lorries up to the West Midlands, where the Vietnamese organised crime group he was working with were based.
The 44-year-old was also invovled in taking payments from those who had been transported in.
He was found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in December 2022. He was given a 20-month jail term, suspended for two years.
Following his conviction financial investigators from the National Crime Agency began work to identify assets that could be proceeds of crime.
At a hearing on Friday 27 June he was ordered to pay £100,000 or face an additional 12-month jail term. He has three months to hand over the money.
NCA senior investigating officer Paul Boniface said: "Behsodi made this money from his criminality, so 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."
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ITV News
6 hours ago
- ITV News
Taxi driver from Kent ordered to pay back £100,000 he made from people smuggling or face jail
A taxi driver from Kent has been ordered to pay back £100,000 he made from people smuggling or he could face jail. Habib Behsodi from Chatham ferried migrants who had been smuggled into the UK in the back of lorries up to the West Midlands, where the Vietnamese organised crime group he was working with were based. The 44-year-old was also invovled in taking payments from those who had been transported in. He was found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in December 2022. He was given a 20-month jail term, suspended for two years. Following his conviction financial investigators from the National Crime Agency began work to identify assets that could be proceeds of crime. At a hearing on Friday 27 June he was ordered to pay £100,000 or face an additional 12-month jail term. He has three months to hand over the money. NCA senior investigating officer Paul Boniface said: "Behsodi made this money from his criminality, so 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."
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18 hours ago
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Chatham people smuggler ordered to pay back £100k
A taxi driver who was part of a people smuggling network has been ordered to pay back almost £100,000 that he made from his criminal Behsodi, 44, was sentenced in 2023 for working with a gang that arranged for Vietnamese migrants to come to the UK and took them to "safe houses" in Birmingham and National Crime Agency (NCA) said it had since investigated which of his assets came from his crimes and, at a hearing on Friday, he was ordered to pay back £94, NCA added that Behsodi, from Chatham, Kent, had taken people who were smuggled into the country to the West Midlands. The proceeds of crime hearing took place at Birmingham Crown Court and Behsodi was given three months to pay the money back."Behsodi made this money from his criminality so it is only right that he should not be able to benefit from it," Paul Boniface, from the NCA, NCA said Behsodi was found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in December 2022 and he was later given a 20-month jail term, suspended for two years. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
