A people smuggler from Woodford Green who ran a cross-Channel network of lorry drivers has been ordered to pay back £290,000 of his criminal profits — or spend even longer behind bars.
Md Mokter Hossain, 58, of Gaynes Hill Road, is already serving a ten-and-a-half-year prison sentence. On Wednesday he was brought back before a judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court, where a confiscation order was made against him under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The £290,000 represents the maximum sum that National Crime Agency financial investigators believe can actually be recovered from him — even though officers are convinced his true earnings from the racket ran well beyond £1 million.
Hossain was jailed in June 2023 after a covert NCA investigation exposed him as the head of a network of complicit lorry drivers ferrying people in both directions across the Channel. His operation moved hundreds of people in and out of Britain, including fugitives wanted for grave offences such as child abuse and murder.
He personally coordinated the drivers and booked taxis to carry migrants to pick-up points. After his arrest, officers recovered a ledger recording the people he had moved and the fees he charged — alongside a document laying out his “terms and conditions”, which even promised customers a refund if they were caught.
Chris Hill, the NCA’s senior investigating officer on the case, said the orders showed the agency’s work did not end at conviction. “We have continued to investigate Hossain’s finances to claw back as much criminal profit as we can under the Proceeds of Crime Act,” he said.
He added that Hossain also faced strict conditions aimed at stopping him offending again, and said tackling organised immigration crime was a priority for the agency, which was determined to use every tool at its disposal against those involved.
Confiscation orders like this one work in two stages. First, the court calculates how much an offender benefited from their crimes — in Hossain’s case, investigators put that figure at more than £1 million. Then it assesses what can realistically be seized. The final order is set at the lower of the two sums, which is how the court arrived at £290,000: the recoverable assets the NCA’s financial investigators had been able to identify.
The order does not simply lapse if the money is not handed over. Failure to pay can trigger a further prison sentence on top of the original term — the “or face jail” warning hanging over Hossain — and the debt itself remains live. Interest accrues on the unpaid balance, and prosecutors can go back to court for an increased order if fresh assets come to light.
Alongside the confiscation order, Hossain has been made subject to a Serious Crime Prevention Order that will run for five years after his eventual release. These civil orders are designed to make reoffending harder, placing strict limits on everything from travel and associations to financial dealings. Breaching the conditions is a criminal offence in its own right and can send an offender straight back to prison.
The case follows a string of major smuggling prosecutions in the capital, including the gang jailed over a £20 million cocaine plot routed through Billingsgate Market and the three men jailed for 25 years over the UK’s biggest stolen-phone smuggling network.
Courts have also shown a growing willingness to strip London criminals of their assets long after sentencing — as in the case of former Met officer Kuldip Singh, jailed over a “crash for cash” insurance fraud.
Hossain remains in prison serving his original sentence. He must now pay the £290,000 — or face further time in custody.
