Crime boss who killed 39 must pay their families more than £180,000

Crime boss who charged 39 migrants £14,000 each for lorry trip to UK that killed them must pay their families more than £180,000

• Lorry boss who ran a smuggling conspiracy has been ordered to pay £182,078 
• Ronan Hughes, 43, is already serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter of 39
• Will sell lorry in which the migrants died and property to pay the compensation 

A crime boss serving 20 years in prison for the deaths of 39 people as they were smuggled into the UK in a lorry will pay more than £180,000 in compensation.  

Ronan Hughes, 43, is serving a 20-year sentence for the 2019 manslaughter of the Vietnamese nationals, who were aged between 15 and 44.

On Friday at the Old Bailey, Judge Mark Lucraft KC confiscated Hughes’s ill-gotten gains from his leading role in the long-running fatal trafficking operation.

Available assets included cash, bank accounts, the value of lorries, including the one in which the victims died, and a share of a property in Ireland.

The 39 migrants were discovered in the back of a lorry in October 2019, having suffocated inside the vehicle. Police quickly uncovered a ‘conspiracy’ to smuggle people into the UK

Ronan Hughes, who ran a trafficking ring thatn killed 39 Vietnamese migrants, was already jailed for 20 years and will now pay £182,078 in compensation

Hughes appeared in court via video link from HMS Wakefield, wearing a grey jumper and tracksuit.  

The judge ordered that the confiscated sum of £182,078.90 be paid in compensation to the bereaved families of the victims.

The judge said the penalty for defaulting on the order was two years in prison. More than £43,000 is expected to be paid immediately. 

Hughes’s earlier Old Bailey trial had heard how 39 bodies were found in a lorry trailer after it was transported by ferry from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in Essex, early on October 23, 2019.

The grim discovery ended what had been a ‘sophisticated, long-running and profitable conspiracy’ to smuggle mainly Vietnamese migrants into the UK in the back of lorries.

Eamon Harrison, 25, from County Down, is the man believed to have delivered the ill-fated container to Zeebrugge, Belgium, and was charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and jailed for 18 years. Mo Robinson, 27, who picked up the lorry, was jailed for 13 years

The victims were from five provinces in the central, coastal area of Vietnam and two provinces near Hanoi

Carpenter Le Van Ha, 30, father-of-two Vo Ngoc Nam, 28, and Nguyen Dinh Tu, 26, were among the dead

Anna Bui Thi Nhung, 19, (left) and cousins Nguyen van Hung, 33, (centre) and Hoang Van Tiep, 18, (right) are also victims of the catastrophic smuggling attempt

Hughes had deployed other lorry drivers in the plot, including Maurice Robinson, 28, who discovered his human cargo had already suffocated in transit after picking up the trailer they were in at Purfleet in Essex.

Shortly before Robinson opened the back of the container, Hughes had texted him to ‘give them air quickly’ but ‘don’t let them out’.

Robinson had voiced his shameful hatred of ‘foreigners’ eight years before he found the bodies of 39 migrants in his trailer.

In a disturbing Facebook tirade, he ranted: ‘Stuffed in the back of a lorry then come and take everything that is supposed to be ours!’

He added in another post: ‘(Coming) here and act like they own the place’.

‘I actually hate foreigners, do us all a huge favour and go home.

‘It’s just the truth!’ he wrote in a social media comment. 

‘They come here and then act like they own the place when they shouldn’t even be here’.

As part of the investigation, police identified at least six trafficking trips, with migrants paying up to £13,000 for a ‘VIP’ service.

Fifteen-year-old Nguyen Huy Hung (left) was the youngest of the group, 10 of whom were teenagers. Nguyen Dinh Lurong, 20, (right) was named as one of the victims

Pham Tra My, 26, was confirmed as among the 39 people who died in a lorry in Essex in October 2019

In October 2019, the smugglers stood to make more than £1 million.

Migrants would board lorries at a remote location on the continent to be transported to Britain, where they would be picked up by a fleet of smaller vehicles for transfer to safe houses until payment was received.

Some of the trips were thwarted by border officials, and residents in Orsett, Essex, had repeatedly reported migrants being dropped off. 

Despite this, the smuggling operation was not stopped until after the fatal journey.

The families of the victims in Vietnam and Britain have previously described their grief at the loss of their loved ones. 

Fellow trucker Eamonn Harrison, 26, and Romanian fixer Gheorghe Nica, 45, were convicted of 39 counts of manslaughter while another driver, Christopher Kennedy, 26 and Valentin Calota, 40, were found guilty of assisting illegal immigration.

Hughes and Nica had admitted plotting to people smuggle and 39 counts of manslaughter. 

Hughes was jailed for 20 years. Nica was jailed for 27 years while Robinson was jailed for 13 years and four months.

Harrison was jailed for 18 years and Calota was jailed for four and a half years.

Who were the 39 people who died in the Esssex lorry container? 

These are the names of the victims of the Essex truck tragedy are: 

 Pham Thi Tra My, a 26-year-old woman from Ha Tinh

Nguyen Dinh Lurong, a 20-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Nguyen Huy Phong, a 35-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Vo Nhan Du, a 19-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Tran Manh Hung, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Tran Khanh Tho, a 18-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Vo Van Linh, a 25-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Nguyen Van Nhan, a 33-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Bui Phan Thang, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh

Nguyen Huy Hung, a 15-year-old boy from Ha Tinh

Tran Thi Tho, a 21-year-old woman from Nghe An

Bui Thi Nhung, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An

Vo Ngoc Nam, a 28-year-old man from Nghe An

Nguyen Dinh Tu, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An

Le Van Ha, a 30-year-old man from Nghe An

Tran Thi Ngoc, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An

Nguyen Van Hung, a 33-year-old man from Nghe An

Hoang Van Tiep, a 18-year-old man from Nghe An

Cao Tien Dung, a 37-year-old man from Nghe An

Cao Huy Thanh, a 33-year-old man from Nghe An

Tran Thi Mai Nhung, a 18-year-old woman from Nghe An

Nguyen Minh Quang, a 20-year-old man from Nghe An

Le Trong Thanh, a 44-year-old man from Dien Chau

Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, a 28-year-old woman from Nghe An

Hoang Van Hoi, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An

Nguyen Tho Tuan, a 25-year-old man from Nghe An

Dang Huu Tuyen, a 22-year-old man from Nghe An

Nguyen Trong Thai, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An

Nguyen Van Hiep, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An

Nguyen Thi Van, a 35-year-old woman from Nghe An

Tran Hai Loc, a 35-year-old man from Nghe An

Duong Minh Tuan, a 27-year-old man from Quang Binh

Nguyen Ngoc Ha, a 32-year-old man from Quang Binh

Nguyen Tien Dung, a 33-year-old man from Quang, Binh

Phan Thi Thanh, a 41-year-old woman from Hai Phong

Nguyen Ba Vu Hung, a 34-year-old man from Thua Tien Hue

Dinh Dinh Thai Quyen, a 18-year-old man from Hai Phong

Tran Ngoc Hieu, a 17-year-old boy from Hai Duong

Dinh Dinh Binh, a 15-year-old boy from Hai Phong

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