A leading member of one of Europe's biggest people-trafficking gangs was allowed to stay in Britain despite being jailed for an identical offence.
Ali Riza Gun was beginning a further ten year jail sentence as details of his previous convictions were disclosed.
As he was taken to prison it emerged the 48-year-old Kurdish asylum seeker was a "serial" people trafficker with an appalling record.
But despite having served jail terms in both Britain and France he was given "indefinite leave to remain" in the country almost ten years ago.
Gun, from Barnet, Herts, arrived in Britain from Turkey in 1990 and after seeking asylum he remained here illegally on a forged Cypriot passport.
When he was arrested for people smuggling in 1996 he was given a 30 month sentence after being held at Dover.
He was then allowed to go free and after his release he was arrested in Belgium for people smuggling and then extradited to France where he was given a three year jail term.
However Gun served just six months before being deported back to the UK and banned from entering France for a further five years.
It was then, according to police sources, that in 1998, he was given indefinite leave to remain in Britain by Home Office immigration authorities.
During his trial for his latest people smuggling operation Croydon Crown Court heard that Gun - together with Ramazan Zorlu, 43, and Hassan Eroglu, 47 - ran a large and lucrative smuggling racket.
The gang ran the "business" for almost a decade and were responsible for tens of thousands of immigrants being smuggled into the country.
Many of those brought into Britain paid up to £14,500 to be packed into tiny metal compartments on the underside of lorries - often with little food
or water.

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