People smuggler pilot and car wash owner charged migrants £12,000 per journey
Two people smugglers have been jailed after bringing migrants to the UK on light aircraft and in hidden van compartments.
Sangar Khalid Mohammed was jailed for seven and a half years and Billy Hems for two and a half years for their parts in the smuggling operation.
The two men admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration with Mohammed also admitting to supply of drugs at Worcester Crown Court.
Mohammed, 32, used his hand car wash near Wye Valley beauty spot Symonds Yat as a front for a major people smuggling operation.
Mohammed charged desperate people £12,000 each to bring them to the UK from Europe and then is believed to have used them as cheap labour at his car wash.
Pilot Billy Hems, from Birmingham, helped him by sneaking migrants into the country on under-the-radar dawn flights, dropping them at remote UK airfields.
Police officers worked with the Home Office to gather intelligence which led to their downfall.
In September 2018, a van owned by 24-year-old Hems was stopped by French police in Dunkirk with three migrants on board.
The driver and passenger, both British nationals, were later jailed in France and a phone found in the van was linked to the car wash run by Mohammed.
Three migrants were also recovered from a purpose-built hide in a van, part-owned by Mohammed, which was stopped by UK Border Force in France in April 2019.
Mohammed was arrested at his home in October 2019, while seven Kurdish migrants including a child were being transported under his orders to Ghent in Belgium, in the hope that they would cross the Channel.
Detective Inspector Julie Woods, from West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: “This was a great piece of joint working between ourselves, immigration and the Belgian Police to bring down an established people smuggling gang.
“Mohammed and Hems were making big money on the plight and desperation of migrants while we also believe some were being put to work as cheap labour at Mohammed’s hand car wash.”
The minister for justice and tackling illegal migration, Tom Pursglove, said: “Both of these individuals showed a blatant disregard for the laws of the UK, for which they have all now rightly paid the price.
“We are determined to clamp down on despicable people smugglers that put profit before lives by organising dangerous and unnecessary journeys.
“This is why we are bringing legislation forward through the New Plan for Immigration to dismantle these people smuggling networks and save lives.”
