AN ILLEGAL immigrant who headed a people smuggling syndicate that included a man from Chester was jailed for eight years yesterday.
Harekrishna Maganbhai Patel had previously been jailed and deported from the UK in 2002 but re-entered the UK within a few months.
Birmingham Crown Court heard that he led an organised crime syndicate which conspired to help facilitate Indian nationals, who had entered Britain illegally, to successfully negotiate their way into the United States.
One of the syndicate members was Stephen Howard Brownson, 51, of Handbridge, Chester, who was among three men jailed earlier this year. He was given a three-and-a-half year sentence.
The plot was uncovered by Britain's National Crime Squad and the Immigration Service working with the US immigration and customs.
The illegal immigrants, who were paying up to £10,000 each to the gang for successful entry into the US, had photo-substitute British passports and were flying out of London Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
Sentenced with Patel, 36, of Hove, East Sussex, was Mohammed Ayub Gajra, 41, of Leicester, who got seven years.
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