Human trafficking ring gang members jailed

Three members of a gang linked to the largest human trafficking ring ever exposed in the UK have been jailed.

Vulnerable people were tricked into coming to England and then put to work in the West Midlands while housed in poor or unsanitary accommodation.

The three were sentenced over charges including conspiracy to traffic people to the UK and forcing people to perform compulsory labour.

It is thought there were more than 400 victims in total.

Several other gang members, connected to two Polish crime families, were jailed in July 2019.

David Handy, 54, of Oxford Street, Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent was found guilty in June of charges including conspiracy to facilitate transportation to the UK for exploitation. He was jailed for seven years.

"He would accept workers with no question, he would pay the workers' wages into the bank accounts that the OCG told him to, he would also receive a backhander from the OCG themselves and he'd also skim money from the victims," Det Ch Insp Nick Dale, from West Midlands Police anti slavery team, said.

"He earned about £900,000 over the course of two years."

Mateusz Natkowski, 39 of no fixed abode, was found guilty of three charges, including conspiracy to require another to perform forced or compulsory labour and conspiracy to control another for the purposes of labour exploitation.

People were forced to work and housed in poor or unsanitary accommodation

At Birmingham Crown Court on Friday he was jailed for four years and six months.

Lukasz Wywrinski, 38, had pleaded guilty to six offences at an earlier hearing and received a four-year and three month prison sentence.

Judge Dean Kershaw described how victims were kept in dirty accommodation and given little or no food.

He said the exploitation had driven some victims to self harm, while others believed that if they came forward their families would be targeted.

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Sara Thornton, the independent anti-slavery commissioner said the case as a "very shocking" example of modern day slavery that should act as a "real wake-up call" about the way the crime group could operate in the UK.