A former Nottingham pilot and two other men plotted to fly four illegal immigrants from Albania into the UK. Richard Styles, of St Albans, Hertfordshire, was arrested in March 2022 at Deenethorpe Airfield near Corby, Northamptonshire.
The 53 year old had flown his twin-engine plane to the airfield from Belgium, and had been carrying with him three men and a woman attempting to evade immigration checks. Styles had worked with former pilot and aviation buff, SIlvano Turchet, of Nottingham, to rent the six-seater Piper Seneca for £1,500 from an airfield in Lincolnshire.
Styles then flew it to Deenethorpe, where Turchet had paid for it to be stored in a hangar before flying to Belgium on March 23. National Crime Agency [NCA] investigators believe the men were in contact with 'Tim K', an Albanian who arranged for the illegal passengers to meet Styles in Belgium.
