The luckless and unfortunate Chinese were obliged to sit or squat in an air-tight container..

Victor Temple QC

Chinese interpreter Ying Guo, 29, of South Woodford, Essex, denies conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into Britain.

Customs and Excise officers found 54 men and four women suffocated in the airtight lorry container of tomatoes on 18 June at Dover's eastern docks.

Two survivors

Only two men survived the trip in the back of the lorry after the group tried to enter Britain illegally.

Mr Wacker and Ms Guo were involved to different degrees in a people smuggling network, the jury heard on Wednesday.

Many people living in China were attracted by the prospect of a better life in Europe, said prosecutor Victor Temple QC.

Lorries are searched daily for stowaways

He said they each had to pay about �20,000 to the Chinese criminal underworld for the privilege.

He said: "Life in China can be very hard, work is often difficult to obtain and wages low."

He added that they were brought in by Chinese-based criminal organisations such as the Snakeheads.

And if they did not pay the �20,000 retribution followed.

He said the immigrants were handed over at Rotterdam to a gang of Turks, led by a man called Gurzul Oznan.

Mr Temple said Mr Wacker was not a driver recruited for a one-off fee but was "deeply involved."

Container airtight

He said Mr Wacker had selected and bought the lorry and trailer.

But Mr Wacker told police that he had helped a friend buy the lorry, tractor and chassis which stopped in Dover, but not the refrigeration container.

"The luckless and unfortunate Chinese were obliged to sit or squat in an air-tight container with little or no opportunity to move and only a little water to quench their thirst."

Wacker made no effort to check welfare of the Chinese, still less to open the vent

Victor Temple QC

Mr Temple said that Wacker had closed the container's air vent.

"Wacker made no effort to check welfare of the Chinese, still less to open the vent.

"Instead he contented himself with a meal and watching a film or two upstairs."

Mr Wacker was captured on closed circuit cameras at a warehouse in Rotterdam loading the lorry container with tomatoes.

Footprints found

Footprints of the deceased were found and DNA evidence on tomato stalks at the warehouse.

The court heard that Mr Wacker's close friend Leo Nijveen had had 50 Chinese immigrants in a container from Zeebrugge to Dover last April.

He had handed the people over to immigration after hearing banging coming from the container during the crossing.

There was no evidence that Nijveen had known that the immigrants were on board.

Of these immigrants seven gave Ying Guo's mobile telephone number as their contact in Britain.

Police also checked Ms Guo's boyfriend's bank account and found large sums of cash were being sent to China on a regular basis.

The trial is expected to last six weeks.