Man jailed for hiring taxi drivers to help smuggle migrants to France: Rebecca Austin led William Goss for the Crown
An unemployed man who hired a team of taxi drivers in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants illegally to France in the back of lorries was jailed on 28th November 2025.
Madjid Belabes, 53, arranged for five taxi drivers to take migrants from London to lay-bys and service stations in Kent, from where they would be put in lorries and smuggled to France. He is estimated to have made £287,000 from the plot with a going rate of £1,200 for each migrant.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) argued that Belabes masterminded the illegal transportation of people 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023. He pleaded guilty on 29 October 2025, on the third day of a three-week trial. On Friday 28th November 2025 he was found guilty of possessing more than £11,000 in cash from his crimes and sentenced to a total of 10 years and nine months in prison at Kingston Crown Court. He will be taken back to court by the CPS to recover as much of his criminal gains as possible.
Rebecca Austin acted as Leading Counsel for the Crown.
