Ronan Hughes, who led a conspiracy which tragically unfolded in Essex in October 2019, previously said the property he had built on land belonging to his parents in Ireland was not an available asset for confiscation proceedings.
However, a judge at the Central Criminal Court last month found the property in question was indeed an available asset and made a confiscation order totalling £182,078.90 all to be paid in compensation, Essex Police have revealed.
Ringleader – a message Ronan Hughes sent to the lorry driver (Image: Essex Police)
It means, as a result of the financial investigation into all concerned, a total of £283,802.58 has been ordered to be paid to the 39 families of the Essex lorry death victims.
On the day the 39 victims were discovered unresponsive in a lorry in Grays, Hughes left Thurrock and boarded a plane back to Ireland.
The lorry had travelled from Zeebrugge in Belgium to the port of Purfleet in Essex.
Hughes was issued as a wanted man on October 29, 2019, but he remained in his home in County Monaghan where Essex Police were unable to arrest him without a European Arrest Warrant.
Jailed – Ronan Hughes (Image: Essex Police)
The European Arrest Warrant was granted in April 2020, and Hughes was brought back to Essex to face the charges against him. He admitted to all offences and was sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison at the Old Bailey in February 2021.
The court heard Hughes was the leader of a gang which profited from smuggling people into the country and ended in the deaths of 39 people.
Following the hearing on December 20, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Metcalfe said: “Following the conclusion of criminal proceedings and the group being sentenced to a total of 117 years in prison, our final act has been to pursue Hughes for his ill-gotten gains.
“We know he – and his associates – treated this operation as a lucrative business and it would not have been acceptable to anyone at Essex Police to conclude our work at this group’s conviction.
“This money – all £283,802.58 of it – will be divided between the Vietnamese families who continue to feel the devastating loss of their loved ones.
“It will do little to help heal their loss, I know this, but I do truly hope it will allow them to begin to move forward.
“I also want to pay specific tribute to our skilled financial investigators whose work in the background with the Crown Prosecution Service for more than five years has made this possible.”