PTI

London, Dec 21: An Indian-origin man, who was jailed for five years for human trafficking in April this year, has been asked to pay more than 3,00,000 pounds by a UK court.

The Leicester Crown court ordered Asif Patel, one of the six people convicted in January this year of smuggling illegal migrants from India into Britain, to pay the amount by January 31 next year, or face a further five years in prison.

Patel (32) owned a mobile phone shop in Bolton, and was jailed on April 21. At the confiscation hearing, Judge William Everade ordered him to pay back 3, 03,368 pounds.

The court was told that Patel sent money to contacts in India who recruited the clients, using a money exchange bureau. Each of the illegal migrants smuggled into the UK reportedly paid around 8,000 pounds.

Besides Asif Patel, other members of the people smuggling gang were Sajid Bhikhi, Asif Bhikhi, Sikandar Patel, Soyab Patel and Sabbir Patel. They were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment.

The people smugglers forged or stole documents to bring Indian citizens illegally into Britain via South Africa, often on forged South African passports. Holders of the passports can enter Britain as visitors for a period of six months.

The investigation, which began in September 1999 after an illegal passport-making factory was discovered under a staircase in a house in Leicester, was led by Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and spanned several countries.

In some cases, after the Indian nationals were brought into Britain, they were then facilitated to travel to Canada or the US through the collusion of a corrupt official at the Heathrow airport in UK.