Minara Helen: A care home boss who ran a 'one man band operation' finding jobs for illegal immigrants, earning £19,000 in the process, has been jailed.
From 2017 till 2018, Benoy Thomas took 'advantage of his contacts in southern India' and knowingly employed migrants who were in the UK illegally to work as care assistants for his company - A Class Care Recruitment. He did so by exploiting a loophole which allows seafarers to be within the UK to transfer from one boat to another. The Indian nationals would then travel to Thomas' home in Bexhill where he would find them work, Lewes Crown Court heard.
On Friday, he was convicted of 13 counts of assisting unlawful immigration by facilitating employment for people without a legitimate right to be or work in the UK.
The 50-year-old has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years imprisonment for using his 'familiarity with the immigration process' to find work for 13 Indian nationals.
The offences spanned a nine-month period before his operation was discovered by police on June 5 2018, the court heard.
Thomas, who arrived in the UK legally in 2007 and became a citizen in 2012, was said to have earned roughly £19,000 from the activity through his company, of which he was the sole employee.
Judge Stephen Mooney said: 'It was in the summer of this year that I heard your trial and what that revealed to me was that you had taken advantage of your contacts with southern India. 'Your familiarity with the immigration process allowed yourself to embark upon an unlawful operation which allowed people from southern India to work in this country unlawfully.'
He added that Thomas knew 'exactly' what he was doing and had tried to hide incriminating evidence when the police arrived. Using a loophole which allows seafarers to be within the UK to transfer from one boat to another, the Indian nationals arrived and then 'disappeared', making their way to Bexhill, where Thomas would arrange work for them, the court heard.
Prosecuting, Wayne Cranston-Morris said: 'When officers encountered four Indian nationals on the 5 June 2018, inquiries with the men disclosed that their passports were being held by a company run by this defendant from offices in Bexhill.
'Officers sought to speak to the defendant and eventually attended his home address. Contact was made with him and he promised to turn up shortly, he did in fact turn up later and by taxi.'
The prosecution said that Thomas had tried to hide his own car elsewhere and hide incriminating evidence before he arrived.
The judge called the case a 'one man band operation running out of Bexhill' which he ran for 'commercial purposes'. Thomas, who is a father of six, was first arrested in 2018, but he first appeared in court last year.
Judge Mooney said there was no 'sensible explanation' that it took a 'woeful' six years from the time of arrest to Thomas' first appearance in court in 2024.
'That delay fundamentally undermines the operation of deterrents, someone who was aware of this process would think 'well I've got plenty of time',' he said. However, he determined that despite taking the delay, Thomas had 'subverted' a parliamentary aim, and therefore must face a custodial sentence.
'Parliament has legislated to put into place laws and regulations which act as a filter which allows those who are entitled to work in this country to come and work in this country,' he said.
Katie Samways, the lawyer who prosecuted Thomas at trial, said: 'Benoy Thomas knowingly breached immigration laws by employing people who had no right to work in the UK.
'Many of those he illegally employed were working with some of the most vulnerable people without adequate training or medical expertise, putting the safety and wellbeing of those who needed care at significant risk.
'The Crown Prosecution Service is committed to robustly prosecuting those who exploit our immigration system.'
Thomas will serve up to half of his sentence in prison before being released on licence and will face a proceeds of crime hearing next year.
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