Slave gang kept Poles in squalor and beat them
Human traffickers’ reign of terror ends in three convictions
THREE members of the largest human trafficking ring uncovered in the UK have been convicted.
David Handy, Mateus Natkowski and Lukasz Wywrinski lured hundreds of people from Poland to Birmingham and the West Midlands with promises of well-paid jobs, good accommodation and a better life.
When they got here, the gang isolated them, put them up in unsanitary accommodation and beat or threatened them if they refused to work or complained.
One man was paid just £10 for working up to 13 hours a day, while the gang kept the rest of the hardearned wages.
A court was told how Handy operated as a “legitimate employer”, providing work for those exploited by the slavery gang.
He discussed how workers would be managed, where wages would be paid and hid the profits he was making from HMRC.
Natkowski was described as an “enforcer”, who brought the unsuspecting and trusting victims back to a squalid three-bedroom house with limited hot water and heating.
Wywrinski maintained discipline by living with the victims and would regularly intimidate them with verbal and physical abuse.
One victim, a Polish national, was promised £300-£450 a week and accommodation in the West Midlands back in February 2015.
On arrival, he was taken by Wywrinski and Natkowski to a twobedroom house with 11 people living there with no beds, no heating and no hot water or cooking facilities.
He was not allowed out on his own and was followed everywhere he went.
He was taken to an employment agency and despite opening bank accounts, he never received any cards.
For three weeks, he worked 12 to
13 hours a day and received £10 in total. He was assaulted by Wywrinski and watched and monitored by Natkowski.
Wyrwinski, 39, pleaded guilty to seven trafficking offences at the start of the trial on May 11.
Handy, 54, was found guilty of two counts of cheating the public revenue, one count of conspiracy to require another to perform forced or compulsory labour, conspiracy to control another for the purposes of labour exploitation and conspiracy to acquire criminal property at Coventry Crown Court on Friday.
Natkowski, 29, was also found
guilty of three trafficking offences.
The gang will be sentenced at a later date.
Neil Fielding, specialist prosecutor from CPS West Midlands’ complex casework unit, said: “The extent to which this gang callously exploited and deprived their victims of basic human rights is truly appalling.
“The scale of the suffering they inflicted on huge numbers of mainly vulnerable people is difficult to comprehend.”
Paul McAnulty, from charity Hope for Justice, said: “Human traffickers profit from misery and desperation, exploiting vulnerabilities in good people. This exploitation is often perpetuated by those who choose to look the other way, fail to live up to their responsibilities or, worse, become actively complicit.
“Employers, retailers, labour providers, landlords, banks, consumers, all of us owe a duty of care – we must all shine a light on the abhorrent crime of modern slavery.
“Hope for Justice is proud of our role in working alongside West Midlands Police and the CPS to bring an end to this particular network’s activities, and in assisting the survivors, supporting them towards their preferred futures.”