Sentencing of people smugglers delayed
It is so it can be established how much money they made
The sentencing of two Ukrainian nationals, who have admitted smuggling migrants into the UK on a yacht, has been delayed for a legal hearing to determine the amount they earned for the crossings and the level of any coercion they were under.
Vladyslav Cherniavskyi, 37, and Oleksandr Yavtushenko, 43, pleaded guilty at Portsmouth Crown Court to three charges of assisting unlawful immigration.
They were arrested after a yacht was intercepted off the Isle of Wight on July 20 in an operation involving the National Crime Agency (NCA), Border Force and French law enforcement, which saw the vessel escorted into Gosport Marina.
Four migrants - three Albanian males and a Vietnamese female - were handed over to immigration authorities, according to the NCA.
Judge Daniel Sawyer adjourned the case, which had been set for sentencing, for a Newton hearing to be held to establish what the two defendants have admitted in relation to their income and any threats they were under.
Robin Leach, prosecuting, told the court that the migrants, brought to the UK by the defendants on more than one trip, had each paid 12,000 euros (£10,000) for the crossing.
He said it was not clear how much the defendants were paid as there was a "hierarchy" in the operation with bosses expected to take a large proportion of the profits.
But the court heard that Cherniavskyi bought the yacht for the operation and Yavtushenko was able to afford dental treatment in Poland worth 12,000 euros.
Mr Leach told the court: "It's been said there were some people above the two defendants organising the whole operation who remain hidden away.
"Given the amount of money paid, at least 12,000 euros for the trip, each of them, there was a significant amount of money being made. There is nothing to say what these two defendants received because we do not have access to their bank accounts.
"It's obvious the people organising the trips were receiving most of the money - to say these defendants did not receive any money would be fanciful.
"Mr Yavtushenko seemingly took a week out to fly to Poland for dentistry that cost him 12,000 euros."
He added: "There is no evidence in the report prepared by the French authorities that there was any coercion."
The defendants were assisted in the dock by a Russian interpreter, and were remanded in custody as Judge Sawyer adjourned the case to a date to be set.
He said: "We cannot go straight to sentence but we are going to need a date which will either be for sentence or for evidence to be heard as to the basis of sentence.”
They have both been remanded into custody.