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Phone and travel limits imposed on jailed pilot

Martin Heath
BBC News, Northamptonshire
National Crime Agency Richard Styles with medium-length grey hair looking at the camera and wearing a black top in a police custody photoNational Crime Agency
Richard Styles was described by a judge as "the go-to pilot for the illegal use of light aircraft"

Restrictions on phone use and travel have been imposed on a pilot jailed for helping to smuggle four Albanian migrants into the UK.

Richard Styles, who was arrested at Deenethorpe Airfield in Northamptonshire, has been given a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO).

His British pilot's licence had been confiscated during an earlier prison sentence but Leicester Crown Court heard he had been able to get a US licence.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the order would help them monitor the 55-year-old's activity and prevent him "from engaging in further criminality".

Styles was described as "the go-to pilot for the illegal use of light aircraft" by the judge who jailed him for seven years in April 2023 for facilitating illegal immigration.

Another pilot hired the plane used by Styles to take four Albanian migrants from Belgium to Deenethorpe Airfield near Corby.

Acting on a tip-off, officials from the National Crime Agency arrested him in a hanger at the airfield.

National Crime Agency White twin-engined Piper Seneca aircraft on the ground at an airfield. It is mostly white with some black trip and the identification number N248LT. The grass of the airfield is visible in the foreground. National Crime Agency
The plane was photographed by the NCA shortly after it arrived at the airfield

Styles, of no fixed address, has been given a five-year SCPO that includes:

  • Restrictions on communication devices
  • Restrictions on entry to airports and airfields
  • Prohibition on private aircraft
  • Prohibitions on importations
  • Restrictions on travel and travel documents
  • Restrictions on associating with other people
National Crime Agency Sivakumar with short black hair and slight beard wearing a white shirt and SIlvano Turchet, with short white hair and beard wearing a black top in police custody photosNational Crime Agency
Vijayakumar Sivakumar (left), who drove the taxi, and Silvano Turchet, who hired the plane, were both jailed

The pilot who hired the plane, Silvano Turchet from West Bridgford in Nottinghamshire, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

The taxi driver who picked the migrants up, Vijayakumar Sivakumar, from Tooting in London, was sent to prison for four-and-a-half years.

Alison Abbott from the NCA said: "Offenders involved in organised crime groups so often think they can return to their criminal ventures once they are released from prison.

"But making them subject to Serious Crime Prevention Orders mean we will continue to monitor their activity and prevent them from engaging in further criminality."

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