A people smuggler has admitted his part in a profitable criminal enterprise which ended in the deaths of 39 migrants.

Dragos Stefan Damian, 28, was extradited from Italy to face a UK court following the investigation into the deaths of Vietnamese men, women and children.

The victims’ bodies were found in a refrigerated lorry trailer after it was transported by ferry from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in Essex, in October 2019.

Earlier this year, other members of the people smuggling gang were jailed at the Old Bailey for their involvement.

Damian had been arrested on June 10 just outside Milan and sent back to Britain in September.

On Tuesday, he appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from Chelmsford prison.

With the assistance of an Italian interpreter, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between May 1 2018 to October 24 2019.

Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said Damian’s principal involvement in the plot was by “personally and allowing others to use his van to pick up migrants” from Collingwood Farm in Essex after they were transported into the country.

Sentencing was adjourned until January 14 next year before Mr Justice Sweeney.

Earlier, another gang member, Valentin Calota was ordered to pay the victims’ families more than £1,000.

Calota was paid £700 plus expenses to drive one vanload of migrants from Essex to London days before the fatal run.

The 38-year-old, from Birmingham, was jailed for four and a half years earlier this year.

Calota appeared at the Old Bailey for his confiscation hearing by video link from HMP Huntercombe and was assisted by a Romanian interpreter.

The court heard that Calota had benefited from his criminal lifestyle to the amount of £1,137.29.

The money in sterling, euro and Romanian leu had been seized by police upon his arrest.

Mr Polnay said: “The prosecution had considered submitting to this court the benefit was higher.

“However given we understand Mr Calota is to be deported relatively shortly from this country we consider there to be little if any benefit in an academic exercise in asserting that he had a higher benefit.”

Judge Mark Lucraft QC ordered that the entire sum of £1,137.29 be confiscated and paid as compensation to the victims’ families.

Other gang members are due to face confiscation hearings later this week.

Previously, the court had heard the criminal operation was long-running and profitable, with the smugglers standing to make more than £1 million in October 2019 alone.

A total of seven smuggling trips were identified between May 2018 and October 23 2019, with migrants paying up to £13,000 for a “VIP” service.

Migrants would board lorries at a remote location on the continent to be transported to Britain where they would be picked up by a fleet of smaller vehicles for transfer to a safe house until payment was received.

Some of the trips were thwarted by border officials and residents in Orsett, Essex, had repeatedly reported migrants being dropped off to the police.

Yet the smuggling operation was not stopped until after the tragic journey.

The families of the victims in Vietnam and Britain have previously spoken of their loss and hardship.

In January, four men were jailed for between 27 years and 13 years and four months for manslaughter and plotting to people smuggle.

They were: crime bosses Gheorghe Nica, 44, from Basildon, and Ronan Hughes, 42, of Armagh, and lorry drivers Maurice Robinson, 27, of  Craigavon, and Eamonn Harrison, 24, of County Down.

Three other members of the gang, including Calota, were also jailed for their role in the organised criminal operation.