Man jailed over 39 lorry deaths cannot pay families

Gheorghe Nica was caught on CCTV purchasing a mobile phone top-up during the smuggling plot

A people smuggler involved in the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants has had his prison sentence extended by 341 days after he failed to compensate their families.

Gheorghe Nica, 47, was ordered to pay £65,157.65 in November 2023 for his role in the tragedy.

He was previously convicted of 39 counts of manslaughter and human trafficking and jailed for 27 years after the bodies were discovered in Grays, Essex, in October 2019.

A hearing at Margate Magistrates' Court earlier was told that Nica would still have to pay the money he owed.

A total of 11 people have been convicted in the UK over the case.

Nica was responsible for giving lorry driver Maurice Robinson his instructions in the hours before the bodies were found in the early hours of 23 October 2019.

The bodies of 39 Vietnamese migrants were discovered inside the back of a lorry

The Vietnamese migrants, aged between 15 and 44, died in sweltering conditions as they were transported in an airtight container from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet.

They had paid a fee rising to £13,000 for what was promised as a "VIP" route to Europe.

Romanian national Nica, from Basildon, was ordered to pay the families through a confiscation order made at the Old Bailey last year.

Following the hearing earlier, Heather Chalk, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said nobody should profit "from these awful crimes".

"[Nica] profited from smuggling people into the country, which ended in 39 people dying in the most horrific circumstances," she said.

The 39 people who died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between Zeebrugge and the UK

In addition to Nica, four other men were jailed for between 13 and 20 years for the manslaughters of the men, women and children.

They are:

• Marius Draghici, 51, who was described as Nica's "second in command"

• Haulier boss Ronan Hughes, 44, of Armagh, Northern Ireland

• Lorry driver Maurice Robinson, 29, of Craigavon, who found the bodies

• Eamonn Harrison, 27, of Co Down, Northern Ireland, who collected the victims on the continent.

To date, more than £283,000 in ill-gotten gains has been ordered to be paid by defendants as compensation to the victims' families.