A Northolt man was part of a gang jailed for people smuggling following a Home Office investigation.

The five members, including British national Amarjit Mudhar, 46, of Brick Lane in Northolt, smuggled Sri Lankans into the UK from France and have been locked up for a total of 23 years.

The men, the rest of whom are Sri Lankan, were caught after the Home Office led investigation supported by Kent Police, the National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol and French, German and Swiss law enforcement agencies.

They assisted Sri Lankan illegal immigrants attempting to reach the UK by smuggling them in vehicles through the channel ports, charging each client about £4,500 for the service.

Many of the smuggling attempts were foiled by Border Force officers who discovered stowaways hiding in vehicles stopped at ports including Calais, Dunkerque, Coquelles and Dover.

Of those who reached the UK, some would also travel onwards to North America using falsified documents.

The gang’s ringleader, 37-year-old Sudharsan Jeyakodi of Luton, was jailed for five years and four months at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday last week (29).

His accomplices- Kamalanesan Kandiah, 39, of Hayes, Chubramanian Vignarajah, 42, of Croydon, Mudhar, and John Anes Soundaranayagam Uvais, 41, of East Ham- were jailed for five years, three years and four months, four years and eight months, and five years respectively.

David Fairclough from Home Office Immigration Enforcement - Criminal Investigations said: “This international organised crime gang conspired to smuggle desperate people into the UK purely for their own financial gain.

“They were major players in bringing Sri Lankan nationals to the UK illegally but thanks to the cooperation of agencies across Europe they have been stopped.

“This investigation demonstrates that we will stop at nothing to track down those responsible, no matter where they are in the world.”

Jeyakodi and Vignarajah, pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in August last year and Kandiah, Mudhar, and Uvais were found guilty of the same charge on January 17 following an eight week trial.

Kandiah, Mudhar and Vignarajah were arrested in the UK in May last year when officers carried out a series of raids in London, Luton, Essex, France and Germany, while Jeyakodi and Uvais were arrested by police in Zurich, Switzerland, in June last year.

Anyone who has information about immigration crime should contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org/.