A wealthy couple based in Dubai have generated millions of pounds from British taxpayers by providing taxi services for asylum seekers across the country.
Ashok Puri and his wife Manju operate several UK-based companies, including at least three that have secured contracts to transport migrants staying in hotels to medical appointments and even airports.
The Dubai Connection
The couple are believed to reside in an exclusive Dubai neighbourhood often described as the 'Beverly Hills of the Middle East'. One of their companies holds a £4 million agreement with a Home Office hotel contractor.
This isn't the first time the Puris have benefited from such arrangements. Five years ago, The Mail on Sunday revealed that another company owned by the couple received £2 million from the same Home Office contractor to transport Channel migrants.
The revelations emerge as the Home Office implemented a ban on Saturday preventing asylum seekers from using taxis except in the most exceptional cases.
Staggering Costs to Taxpayers
New figures reveal that taxpayers are footing an enormous bill of nearly £16 million per year on taxi journeys for migrants. Some individual journeys have reached astonishing costs, including a 250-mile round trip to visit a GP that cost £600.
Thousands of shorter journeys to doctors and dentists are being undertaken by taxi, despite many being within walking distance or accessible by bus. One taxi firm disclosed last week that £1,000 per day was being spent transporting illegal migrants from a south-east London hotel to a GP surgery just miles away.
Radio 4's Today programme reported that the Home Office confirmed to the BBC that asylum transport costs average £15.8 million annually, though they declined to provide specific figures for this year.
Concerns are growing that the current annual figure may be substantially higher, given the increase in illegal migrants housed in hotels from 32,000 in June to over 36,000 in September.
Lucrative Contracts and Soaring Profits
One of the largest known contracts involves a company called PTS-247, which has a £4 million per year agreement with Home Office contractor Clearsprings. Based in Crawley, West Sussex, PTS-247 has held a contract to transport asylum seekers for Clearsprings in the South-East and Wales for the past three years.
Clearsprings itself holds a ten-year contract with the Home Office projected to be worth £7 billion, providing accommodation for approximately 30,000 asylum seekers.
The financial benefits to PTS-247 have been dramatic. Company profits surged from £52,153 in the 2022/23 financial year to £586,762 in 2023/2024 following the contract with Clearsprings.
PTS-247 belongs to parent company Meco Maitha, which reported a pre-tax profit of £3.5 million in the latest financial year according to Companies House records.
The companies are owned by Ashok Puri, 70, and his wife Manju, 66, who are Kenyans of Indian origin and have lived in Dubai since the 1980s.
In 2020, another cab firm called Evo Taxis, also owned by the Puris, was paid almost £2 million over two years to transport migrants.
Neither Clearsprings nor PTS-247 responded to requests for comment on Saturday night as the Home Office's new taxi restrictions came into effect.
