I was struck during our interview by the absence of remorse, the self-serving excuses: that the police are lying, that he’s just a money man, and that deaths when they happen are somehow the will of God.

When I asked how many people he had helped smuggle to the UK, he said: “Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count.”

Majeed seemed bitter that other smugglers he knew who migrated to Britain had been given British passports and were carrying on with their business.

“There’s a smuggler in the UK, he got 170 people into boats last week and he holds a British passport. He’s there working, enjoying a good life, making lots of money, whilst I’m f—–.”

Scorpion has all the appearances of a very wealthy man: he lives in a luxury property, he has cars and designer clothes.

He said his people smuggling days are over, but as he spoke to us, he was scrolling through his mobile phone. He didn’t realise it, but we could see his screen reflected in a polished picture frame on the wall behind. He was scrolling through lists of passport numbers; we learned later that smugglers send these passport numbers to corrupt officials to get visas for migrants.