Ukrainians who ran 'premium' migrant smuggling service to UK jailed

Two Ukrainian men who ran a "premium bespoke taxi service" smuggling migrants across the channel in a yacht have been jailed.

Vladyslav Cherniavskyi, 38, was jailed for six years and Oleksandr Yavtushenko, 43, for five having previously pleaded guilty at Portsmouth Crown Court to three charges of assisting unlawful immigration.

The pair were arrested after the yacht, Uforia, was intercepted four-and-a-half miles off the coast of Chichester, West Sussex, on 20 July last year, with five migrants onboard.

The migrants, four Albanian males and a "very young" Vietnamese female, were handed over to the immigration authorities, according to the National Crime Agency.

Robin Leach, prosecuting, said that the pair had carried out at least eight crossings and added: "Both defendants ferried migrants across the English Channel from northern France to the English coast, in particular to Itchenor in Chichester Harbour and they ferried the migrants across the Channel in a yacht called Uforia.

"It was established some of the migrants paid up to 15,000 euros - this was a premium bespoke service and any one trip would involve three to six migrants being taken across the Channel."

Cherniavskyi, had paid just £15,000 for the yacht, the court heard.

Sentencing the pair, Judge William Ashworth said: "You were both part of an insidious black market draining families of money and perpetuating the misery of illegal immigration.

"Of particular concern in this case is that on one occasion you willingly transported a young Vietnamese female travelling alone who upon arrival into the UK was taken in to foster care meaning that she was a particularly vulnerable person and transporting her into the UK is a callous act."

He added: "It was a premium service and you both accept you received significant amounts of money albeit you were not the organisers who, one would conclude, would take the lion's share of the money."

The pair are likely be deported at the end of their sentence, he added.

Daniel Reilly, defending Cherniavskyi, said he was trying to earn money for a bone marrow transplant, treatment for his mother's leukaemia and medication for his father's heart condition.

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William Saunders, defending Yavtushenko, said the qualified sailor had left Ukraine in 2015 and had worked as a builder and taxi driver in Poland before returning to sailing when he moved to Spain and Portugal.

He said: "He deeply regrets and apologises for getting involved."

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