An Oldham man has been jailed for almost three years after he tried to smuggle people from France and Belgium to the UK in sofas.

Preston Crown Court heard Arman Yusuf Rahmani, from Iran, carried out the offence between December 2018 and April the following year.

The 21-year-old appeared to be sentenced after pleading guilty to breaking immigration law.

Rahmani hired six different “man with van” drivers advertising their services on social media and agreed for them to drive from the UK to France or Belgium to transport furniture back.

But the drivers were not aware that migrants were hidden in the sofas who had paid to be smuggled into the UK.

The drivers were instructed not to help with loading the vehicles and were distracted while the this took place.

Within two years of entering the UK Rahmani had established a criminal network to facilitate foreign nationals illegally into the country.

Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice, Chris Philip, hit out at his actions.

He said: “Rahmani showed a blatant disregard for the laws of the UK, a country which provided him with safety and a place to live for which he has rightly paid the price.

“This case shows the lengths criminals will go to profit from our broken asylum system by putting people’s lives at risk.

“We are aiming to step up prosecution of those smuggling people into the country which is why this government is bringing legislation through our new plan for immigration, breaking the business model of these heinous people smuggling networks and save lives.”

Katie Brown, CFI Investigator, said the case showed they would never stop looking for this involved in immigration crime,

She said: “Today’s sentence is the result of an excellent investigation which brought to an end Rahmani’s pattern of criminality.

“People smugglers are motivated by money alone and show no regard for the safety of those they exploit.

“This case is a message that we never stop looking for those involved in immigration crime.”

Rahmani, from Oldham, will be eligible for deportation once he has served out his sentence of two years and seven months.