Kent taxi driver ordered to repay £100,000 earned from people smuggling or face jail
- Perry Richardson
- Jun 30
- 1 min read
Updated: Jul 1
A taxi driver from Kent has been told to repay nearly £100,000 made from people smuggling or face jail.
Habib Behsodi, 44, from Chatham, was part of a group moving migrants into the UK. He ferried people brought in by lorries to the West Midlands, where the Vietnamese crime group he worked with was based. He also took payments from those moved.
Behsodi was found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in December 2022. He received a 20-month jail sentence, suspended for two years.
Financial investigators then looked into the money he made. On 27 June, a court ruled he must repay almost £100,000 in three months. If he fails, he faces 12 months in prison.
Paul Boniface, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “Behsodi made this money from his criminality, so it is only right that he should not be able to benefit from it.
“He played an important part in a people smuggling enterprise which saw migrants treated as a commodity to be profited from, transporting them from Vietnam to the UK.
“This case demonstrates that not only will we investigate and bring to justice those involved in organised immigration crime, we will also follow the money and stop criminals profiting from their wrongdoing.”
