TRAFFICKER TREATED MAN AS A SLAVE
VICTIM ‘DISCIPLINED WITH STUN GUN’ DURING TWO-YEAR ORDEAL
A TRAFFICKER used a man as a slave, disciplining him with a stun gun and making him sleep next to his dogs.
Janos Sztoska “lived like a king” while keeping his 31-year-old victim a virtual prisoner for two years.
Leicester Crown Court heard Sztoska, pictured, controlled the finances of the man, and four more he trafficked from Hungary, and made sure they were escorted to and from a Derby food production factory.
Rufus D’Cruz, prosecuting, said the main victim “had no access to cash and was paid in food and cigarettes and sometimes not even that”.
Judge Robert Brown told Sztoska: “The treatment of your victims, in particular one of them, was deplorable.”
Sztoska, of Westover Road, Braunstone, was jailed for six years.
HUMAN trafficker has been jailed for six years after using a man as a slave, disciplining him with a stun gun and making him sleep next to his dogs.
Janos Sztoska “lived like a king” while keeping his frightened 31-year-old victim a virtual prisoner for two years, controlling his every move.
He forced his victim to carry out household chores and spent his earnings, including buying his wife a lavish £180 birthday cake and paying for the flights of four other men he trafficked into the UK from Hungary.
Leicester Crown Court heard Sztoska, who used a number of aliases including Johnny Boss, controlled the finances of all five men and made sure they were escorted to and from a Derby food production factory, where he had arranged for them to work.
He also forged utility bills to open bank accounts in each of their names – which he then sold via the black market to other criminals, who used the accounts to launder about £150,000.
Sztoska also admitted possessing a prohibited item, a Taser-like stun gun, that was seized from his home and which his slavery victim claimed was used to discipline him.
Sztoska, who has previous convictions for burglary and money laundering, was deported from the UK in May 2017 but returned soon afterwards.
He then arranged for the Hungarian men, who were aged between 19 and 56 and spoke little English, to come to Leicestershire on the promise of obtaining well-paid jobs.
But the victims had their salaries paid into Onepay card accounts, which were controlled by Sztoska, who handed over only “a fraction” of what they earned.
The domestic slave victim later told the police Szoska “took me for an idiot”.
Rufus D’Cruz, prosecuting, said:
“He had no access to cash and was paid in food and cigarettes and sometimes not even that.
“He wasn’t allowed to leave the house.
“The defendant would lock the door and not let him out and he felt like he was in prison, being monitored by CCTV cameras.
“If he refused to do something he would be shouted at and slapped on the face, leaving him scared, stressed and nervous.
“His sleeping accommodation was shared with three dogs and he described himself as ‘the fourth dog in the household.’
“He wasn’t allowed to eat what, or when, he wanted.”
Sztoska used a stun gun on him on three occasions and pressed the weapon on to his leg over his trousers, once causing him to fall on the floor, leaving him feeling “hurt and humiliated”.
The 30,500-volt weapon was recovered by the police. The defendant claimed it was left at his home by someone else. Neighbours in Flamborough Road, Thurnby Lodge, Leicester, became aware of the victim cleaning up outside the house with the defendant not doing anything other than “strutting around like he was a king”.
The victim would be seen “rushing out to unload the shopping” from the car.
Another witness described the man as being treated “like a bitch boy,” who was constantly being shouted at and appeared scared.
His salary payment card was used by the defendant or his partner for purchases in stores and at petrol stations in Leicester, often while the victim was busy working at the food factory in Derby.
The offences were discovered when the victims’ employment agency and the factory’s management responsibly reported their concerns about the five Hungarian workers to the government’s Gangmasters and Labour Abuse AuthorA ity, resulting in an investigation. Four of the victims, living in Wigston at the home of a relative of the defendant, were only in the UK for about four months before their “dark situation” was discovered.
The total amount of earnings stolen from all five men amounted to more than £17,000, including about £8,000 from the man who was kept as a slave.
Judge Robert Brown told Sztoska: “The treatment of your victims, in particular one of them, was deplorable.
“He was particularly vulnerable, with learning difficulties, and you had him captive in your household for two years.
“When he wasn’t working in a factory he was performing chores in your home at your behest.
“There was a high degree of deceitfulness towards all five victims as you controlled their pay cards and they were economically trapped.”
He said Sztoska, who has a partner and a small child from a different relationship, would be deported to Hungary at the end of his sentence – for a second time.
Henry James, mitigating, said four of the victims were given a portion of their wages and had not complained
He had no access to cash and was paid in food and cigarettes and sometimes not even that
Rufus D’Cruz
about the food or accommodation they were given and one left the situation of his own free will.
He added they were not kept in squalor.
Mr James claimed the defendant fraudulently opened bank accounts in the victims’ names to sell on under the instructions of someone else, which he said was the main reason for bringing the men into the country on a short-term basis.
Sztoska, of Westover Road, Braunstone, and formerly of Flamborough Road, was said to come from a Romany gipsy background with no relatives remaining in Hungary.
He was jailed for six years after admitting five counts of facilitating travel of a person with a view to exploitation, one count of requiring someone to perform forced or compulsory labour, one count of making or supplying articles (bogus utility bills) for use in fraud and one count of being concerned in money laundering, between October 2018 and December 2020.
He was also made the subject of a 10-year Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order.
The defendant will face a proceeds of crime confiscation hearing with a view to seizing assets and compensating the victims.
Officer in the case, Detective Constable Daljinder Gill, was commended by the judge for his “dilligent and thorough” investigation.
The treatment of your victims, in particular one of them, was deplorable
Judge Robert Brown