A NORTH-EAST businessman who used his shops as a front to mastermind a £6m ring to smuggle asylum seekers has been told he faces a substantial jail term.

Kashmir Singh Nanan, 36, from Birtley, near Gateshead, was exposed when an undercover police officer infiltrated his smuggling ring last December, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

His arrest, as part of the multi-agency Operation Zephaniah, followed a series of coordinated raids across Europe that ended in the discovery of 21 illegal immigrants crammed into the back of a lorry in Germany.

The National Crime Squad, German Border Police, National Criminal Intelligence Services, Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue combined to snare Nanan.

The father-of-two, described as a major player in human smuggling, was caught after offering an undercover police officer up to £10,000 to bring 21 Indian men into Britain.

The 40-tonne lorry carrying the stowaways, and being driven by the undercover officer, was stopped by German Border Police near Essen, and Nanan was arrested at one of his shops in Durham Road, Birtley.

It is estimated that Nanan, who himself arrived as an illegal immigrant from India before marrying an English woman in 1992, oversaw a £6m turnover for his illicit operation.

Nanan, who ran a curry house, four off licences and a greengrocers on the back of his illegal trade in human beings, initially denied a charge of facilitating the entry of illegal immigrants into the UK.

But yesterday he changed his plea to guilty and was remanded in custody.

Judge John Walford refused an application for bail and told Nanan, who had the proceedings translated by an interpreter in court: "There has to be a substantial prison sentence to punish you and deter others as unscrupulous and greedy as those who commit these offences are.

"Deterrent sentences are required in these cases, and the most effective deterrent will not only be limited to substantial custodial sentences, but also substantial financial penalties as well. Because of the inevitable long prison sentence there is a substantial risk, in my judgement, that you will fail to surrender if granted bail."

The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports. No date was set for sentence, but it is expected to be in three to four weeks.