Pilots and taxi driver jailed for smuggling migrants

This surveillance picture shows the plane shortly after landing at Deenethorpe Airfield

Three men who plotted to smuggle four Albanian migrants from Belgium to the UK in a light aircraft have been jailed.

Pilot Silavano Turchet hired the plane, which fellow pilot Richard Styles then used to fly the migrants to an airfield in Northamptonshire.

Taxi driver Vijayakumar Sivakumar picked the migrants up, but they were intercepted by police and officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Styles was arrested at the airfield.

Upon being arrested, he said: "I normally get arrested for drugs so it's a bit strange to be arrested for illegal immigration."

'Go-to' criminals

Turchet was arrested at a later date at his home in West Bridgford in Nottinghamshire, following what the judge described as a "very thorough" investigation by the NCA.

Judge Timothy Spencer KC sentenced Styles to seven years, Turchet to seven and a half years, and Sivakumar to four and a half years.

All of the defendants had previous convictions for either smuggling drugs or migrants.

The judge described Styles as "the go-to pilot for the illegal use of light aircraft", while Turchet was described as "a similar go-to man for fixing anything to do with the illegal use of light aircraft".

Richard Styles, Vijayakumar Sivakumar and Silavano Turchet were all jailed

During the sentencing hearing at Leicester Crown Court on Friday, the prosecution explained the migrants were intercepted after the NCA received a tip-off.

The judge said the NCA then "moved very swiftly and impressively", and said he would be giving commendations to all involved.

The light aircraft landed at Deenethorpe Airfield in Northamptonshire on 24 March last year.

Styles was arrested at an aircraft hangar, while Sivakumar was arrested after taking the migrants to the nearby town of Corby in his Mercedes.

While Turchet was later arrested at his home, a fourth man involved in the plot "evaporated", the judge said, and has not been brought to justice.

Silavano Turchet hired the plane after pretending he was interested in buying it, the court heard

Styles, 54, previously of St Albans but now of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal immigration.

Turchet, 69, of North Road, West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.

The court heard the men had met in prison for previous offences, and both of their UK pilots' licences had been taken away from them.

However, Styles was able to get a US licence, the court heard.

Sivakumar, 43, of Singleton Close, Tooting, London, was found guilty of facilitating illegal immigration following a trial.

He had previously been jailed for trying to smuggle an illegal immigrant into the UK inside a speaker in the boot of his car, but was stopped at the French end of the Channel Tunnel.

'Occupational hazard'

Following the hearing, the NCA appealed to the aviation community to help it prevent immigration crime.

"People smugglers use a range of methods to try and breach UK border controls, and we are determined to do all we can to stop them," said NCA's regional head of investigations, Jacque Beer.

"Styles was a career criminal who previously used his piloting skills to move consignments of drugs around Europe.

"His comments to my officers show that he considered getting arrested nothing more than an occupational hazard."