TRAFFICKERS SMUGGLED ALBANIANS INTO BRITAIN FOR £5,500 EACH

A GANG of human traffickers charged Albanian illegal immigrants £5,500 each to be smuggled across the Channel, a court heard yesterday.

Leonard Powell, 66, and his son Alfie, 39, organised the journeys using inflatable motor boats, one of which cost £12,500, it is alleged.

The Powells met the crews of their boats in a pub car park near their home in Farningham, Kent, before each ‘migrant run’, it is claimed.

The ‘very lucrative’ enterprise took place with the help of Albanian co-ordinators and British boat drivers, the Old Bailey heard, who would sail to France and bring the migrants to the UK.

The four boats said to have been used in the illicit operation included one named Rebel, a 9mm rigidhulled inflatable dinghy. Another gang member, Wayne Bath, 38, allegedly paid £12,500 for Rebel.

Alfie Powell appeared in the dock yesterday for the first day of a trial, alongside six accused co-conspirators, including Bath.

Leonard Powell did not attend court, as he had been taken ill.

Jurors were told that Leonard Powell’s other son, George had already confessed to being part of the operation, which went on between April and August 2016. Prosecutor Timothy Probert-Wood QC said: ‘This is all about bringing in illegal migrants into England from France.

‘It has been done for money, it was a very lucrative scam. The Powells were at the heart of the operation... the tour operators who organised the transportation.’

Mr Probert-Wood added: ‘The evidence shows that they [the gang] also helped with providing onward transport after a successful crossing, enabling the migrants to disappear once they entered the UK.’

All deny conspiracy to facilitate the commission of a breach of the immigration law of the UK. The trial continues.