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 activities.

Habib 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 Wolverhampton.

The 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 £94,527.

The 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, said.

The 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.

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