People smuggler ordered to pay more than £1,000 to 39 victims’ families
The people were found dead in a lorry in Essex in 2019
A member of a people-smuggling ring linked to the deaths of 39 migrants has been ordered to pay the victims’ families more than £1,000.
In October 2019, a group of Vietnamese men, women and children suffocated in an airtight container as it was transported by ferry from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in Essex.
An investigation into the tragedy led to the conviction of Valentin Calota and others involved in the profitable smuggling operation in which migrants were said to have paid up to £13,000 each for a “VIP” service.
The Old Bailey had heard that Calota was paid £700 plus expenses to drive one vanload of migrants from Essex to London days before the fatal run.
The 38-year-old, from Birmingham, was jailed for four-and-a-half years earlier this year.
On Tuesday, Calota appeared at the Old Bailey for a confiscation hearing by video link from HMP Huntercombe and was assisted by a Romanian interpreter.
The court heard that Calota had benefited from his criminal lifestyle to the amount of £1,137.29.
The money in sterling, euro and Romanian leu had been seized by police upon his arrest.
Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said: “The prosecution had considered submitting to this court the benefit was higher.
“However given we understand Mr Calota is to be deported relatively shortly from this country we consider there to be little if any benefit in an academic exercise in asserting that he had a higher benefit.”
Judge Mark Lucraft QC ordered that the entire sum of £1,137.29 be confiscated and paid as compensation to the victims’ families.
Other gang members are due to face confiscation hearings later this week.
Previously, the court had heard the criminal operation was long-running and profitable, with the smugglers standing to make more than £1 million in October 2019 alone.
A total of seven smuggling trips were identified between May 2018 and October 23 2019, although the court heard that there were likely to have been more.
Migrants would board lorries at a remote location on the continent to be transported to Britain where they would be picked up by a fleet of smaller vehicles for transfer to a safe house until payment was received.
Some of the trips were thwarted by border officials and residents in Orsett, Essex, had repeatedly reported migrants being dropped off to the police.
Yet the smuggling operation was not stopped until after the tragic journey.
The families of the victims in Vietnam and Britain have previously spoken of their loss and hardship.