A TAXI company which has a £4million-a-year deal to ferry migrants around the country has seen profits soar more than tenfold since taking on the lucrative contract, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
PTS-247 has had an agreement with Home Office hotel contractor Clearsprings Ready Homes to transport asylum seekers in the South of England and Wales for the past three years.
Migrants pile into a small dinghy and attempt to cross the English Channel from France[/caption]
PTS-247 has had an agreement with Home Office hotel contractor Clearsprings Ready Homes to transport asylum seekers[/caption]
Migrants who are moved hotels may keep the same doctors, especially for GP referrals[/caption]
During this period its annual profits soared from £52,153 in the 2022/23 financial year to £586,762 in 2023/24.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told The Sun on Sunday: “This is disgusting. Taxpayers are being fleeced by the Government to ferry illegal immigrants around the country.
“Many hard-working people can’t afford to shell out for taxis themselves. Why should illegal immigrants get this chauffeur-driven service?
“They should walk or take a bus or train like other people. In fact, these illegal immigrants all need to be deported, not given silver service treatment. No wonder they’re flocking here from around Europe.
“This weak Government only offers gimmicks which don’t work — which is why the first eight months of this year were the worst in history for illegal immigrants crossing the channel.”
The business, based in Crawley, West Sussex, also saw its net worth top £1million for the first time, according to accounts to March 31 last year.
And its staff numbers increased from 28 to 36.
The most recent accounts for the firm’s parent company Meco Maitha, which also runs two other divisions, report a £3.5million pre-tax profit on £20.3million turnover.
TaxPayers’ Alliance chief John O’Connell told The Sun: “A tenfold surge in profits shows how the asylum system has turned into a gravy train for contractors.
“While firms cash in on taxpayer-funded taxi contracts, illegal migrants are ferried to medical appointments as ordinary Brits sit on NHS waiting lists and make their own way there. It’s a two-tier system in action.
“Illegal migrants shouldn’t be put in taxis to go to GP appointments, they should be put on planes to be deported.”
Last week, The Sun revealed the firm — owned by UAE-based husband and wife Ashok and Manju Puri — is being paid £344,000-a-month to take migrants to and from medical appointments.
The mammoth figure is based on around 6,000 journeys, which can include taxis, coaches, and even separate trips to transport luggage.
Any journey above 175 miles is charged at £1.85 per mile.
The numbers emerged in legal documents which reveal the taxi company is suing Clearsprings over £2.75million in alleged unpaid invoices.
PTS-247 claims the accommodation provider, owned by billionaire Graham King, has failed to pay bills including £2.4million for longer journeys, £230,710 for coach trips, and £88,200 for luggage transfers.
Ashok Puri’s firm is being paid £344,000-a-month to take migrants to and from medical appointments[/caption]
In a defence filed in August, Clearsprings has requested that the claim be struck out.
It alleges the taxi firm “has consistently failed, and continues to fail, to provide evidence of the journeys it has taken and that the charges it says are due and owing by the defendant are correct”.
Essex tycoon King, 57, has been dubbed the asylum billionaire as his firm rakes in £4.8million in taxpayers’ cash every day.
A spokesman for PTS-247 said the first reporting year of accounts did not reflect a full contract year and included significant start-up and compliance costs.
He said: “PTS-247 is a CQC-regulated organisation, subject to stringent governance, compliance, and performance standards. We work closely with reputable customers, delivering professional services in accordance with contractual KPIs set by the Home Office and its contractors.
“We strongly refute any implication of profiteering. Our commitment remains to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transport services in support of the Government’s objectives.”
Last week, a probe revealed taxpayers were stumping up millions a year for taxis to take asylum seekers hundreds of miles to see doctors.
An ex-Serco manager who supervised five asylum hotels said migrants used its taxi service almost daily and some invented appointments for nights out.
Migrants’ lingo bill hits £26m
EXCLUSIVE by Emily-Jane Heap
A RECORD amount of money was spent on court interpreters last year — with increasing numbers of small boat migrants thought to be behind soaring costs.
A total of £25.9million was spent on translators to help defendants, witnesses and victims who did not speak English in 2024/25.
It brings the bill for the last five years to £111million — more than £400,000 per week.
Migration Watch UK’s Alp Mehmet told The Sun on Sunday the cost of interpreters “will go on increasing unless our government gets a grip of our borders”.
This month, Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu, 38, who was jailed for groping a 14-year-old girl while living at The Bell Hotel in Epping, was provided with a Tigrinya interpreter for his trial.
