A gang who tricked Hungarian women into coming to England to force them into prostitution where they were made to have sex with up to 20 men a day have been found guilty.
Four men and two woman were convicted on Thursday (June 12) at Croydon Crown Court of human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain after a five month trial - the Met Police’s longest for a human trafficking case.
The court heard how flights were booked for at least 120 women aged between 18 and 45 and were picked up from Stansted airport and delivered to brothels across 12 London boroughs including Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Hounslow and Brent.
Some of the women were forced into prostitution and raped and almost all of them were trafficked from Hungary where they had responded to adverts on websites or applied online for what they believed were administrative, cleaning and babysitting jobs.
When they arrived in the UK they were then forced or coerced into prostitution with some women being made to have sex with up to 20 men a day, with the clients being charged between £30 and £100 an hour.
The gang controlled the women with threats of violence and intimidation, including threatening to harm their families or tell them they were prostitutes and retaining their passports.
They managed the victims from a make-shift call centre at a house in Parkview Gardens, Brent Cross, where they used more than 40 mobile phones to organise bookings on a commercial scale. Each phone had details of the victims’ working names, fees and brothel locations taped to them.
Ring leader and Indian national Vishal Chaudhary, 35, of Parkview Gardens, used various pseydonyms including Rahul Singh and Aresh Khan to disguise his identity and drove a Mercedes convertible while living in an expensive apartment block in Pan Peninsula Square, Canary Wharf, until days before his arrest on January 30, 2013 when he pleaded not guilty.
Hungarian national Kristzian Abel, of Ilford acted as an enforcer, threatening and abusing the women if they did not do as they were told. In one case he forced a victim in her 20s to carry out sex acts with clients which left her with serious injuries after she discovered the address of the brothel where she was being held. He pleaded guilty in August 2013 after being arrested in February 2013.
His sister, Szilvia Abel, 24, was extradited to the UK from Hungary after a European Arrest Warrant was issued in conjunction with Hungarian police and partially funded by Eurojust, the EU’s judicial co-operation unit. She denied the charges but was found guilty of conspiracy to traffic persons into and within the UK for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to control prostitution for gain.
Hungarian Attila Kovacs, 33, of Highview Gardens, New Southgate, British national Kunal Chaudhary, 32, of Manchester both denied their role in the gang but were found guilty and Polish Beata Herman, 27, of Sutton pleaded guilty to conspiracy to control prostitution for gain.
Detective Sergeant Alan Clark, of the Met’s Trafficking and Kidnap Unit, said: “Many of the victims have been deeply traumatised by what this gang did to them, and displayed signs of severe distress when they told us what had happened to them. One victim’s graphic account actually brought the interpreter to tears.
“They came to the UK for regular employment, to earn money to make a better life for themselves and their families. Instead, they found themselves trapped and at the mercy of this abusive group. I would like to pay tribute to the bravery of these women during what has been a very lengthy case.
“The group applied a cold business mentality to their crime, treating women as no more than a commodity. We found what can only be described as a centre of operations at a semi detached house in Brent Cross. There were in excess of 40 mobile phones being used to take calls for victims housed across London. Four laptop computers were lined up in a row, all logged on to a website offering sexual services. Often the women weren’t even aware of the services they were expected to provide. There was even an automated system in place to regularly refresh the advertisements they had placed.”
Sentencing is set to take place at a later date.
Victims of trafficking are urged to call the Human Trafficking freephone 24-hour helpline, which is open seven days a week and operated by specially trained officers waiting to take their call. The number is 0800 783 2589.
