Taxi Driver Online

Jury finds Uber driver Vijayakumar Sivakumar guilty of ferrying illegal immigrants away from Deenethorpe airfield near Corby

A jury has found a taxi driver guilty of being involved in a plot to fly Albanians into Corby in a small aircraft.

Vijayakumar Sivakumar, 43, of Tooting in London, had denied the charge of assisting the illegal entry of immigrants into the UK.

But during a two-week trial at Leicester Crown Court, the jury heard how he the Sri Lankan national received hundreds of messages from one of the ringleaders Kujtim Karanxha – known as Tim K – in the months before the plot.

He had also received a number of payments from him into his bank account including one for £3,000.

Sivakumar was arrested at Phoenix Parkway along with four Albanians who had that morning flown into Deenethorpe from Belgium. He had picked them up at the airfield in the back of his taxi after travelling up from London in the early hours of March 24 last year.

Sivakumar had also taken pilot Richard Styles from Kent to the airfield the night before so he could fly the Piper Seneca twin-engined plane out to Belgium.

The pilot was arrested by the National Crime Agency in the hangar after the flight had landed. The NCA had been tipped-off by suspicious Belgian authorities.

The jury was sent out to consider its verdict on Thursday afternoon and returned its guilty verdict on Friday morning.

The plot involved a gang of organised criminals with decades of serious criminal history behind them. Richard Styles, 53, of no fixed abode, has a long record of using planes to import drugs. Ringleader Silvano Turchet, of Chester, previously served a 15-year prison stretch for bringing class-A drugs into the country by plane.

The trio will be sentenced at the same court in April.

Albanian Kujtim Karanxha remains at large. Anyone who knows of his whereabouts can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit this link.

Albanians have no automatic right of entry to the UK. They can apply for a visa for tourism, business or study but a third of the 24,000 applications in the first nine months of 2022 were rejected.

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IDFIMH

Pilots and taxi driver jailed for smuggling migrants

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".

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.

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."

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IDFIMH

So the taxi/PH driver had previous convictions and had spent time in custody.

LIcensed by Wolverhampton maybe?

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IDFIMH

hopefully never again

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector