Slavers victimized more than 400 people in the UK, court says

by Ben Reilly Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:20 pm

The UK's largest-ever modern slavery ring - which forced more than 400 people to work for as little as 50p a day - has been broken and its ringleaders convicted.

Following two trials, five men and three women, all originally from Poland, were convicted of modern slavery offences and money laundering.

The gang, led by the Brzezinski family, preyed on homeless people, ex-prisoners and alcoholics, also from Poland.

Their targets were trafficked to the UK after being offered good money, but instead were housed in squalor.

Some of them were desperate for money to pay for family members' medical care.

Living conditions were "horrible", one victim said. "I would say some homeless people here in the UK live better than I lived after I arrived over here," he added.

Victims aged from 17 to over 60 were housed in at least nine addresses in the West Midlands, up to four to a room, were fed out-of-date food and had to scavenge for mattresses to sleep on.

Some of the properties did not have working toilets, heating or furniture. One man washed in a canal because he had no other access to water.

If victims complained, they would be humiliated, threatened or beaten up, while "house spies" kept an eye on them.

They were put to work on farms, at rubbish recycling centres and poultry factories.

The gang registered them for National Insurance, opened bank accounts in their names using bogus addresses, and claimed benefits without their knowledge.

Despite being here legally, the traffickers convinced the victims that was not the case, and that if they left their accommodation they would be arrested.

One worker, who was redecorating a house, was given coffee and a chicken as payment.

In contrast, their criminal masters earned £2m, wore lavish clothes and drove luxury cars, including a Bentley.

The accounts of more than 90 victims were heard by jurors, but it is believed that at least 350 more were exploited by the gang.

https://news.sky.com/story/slavery-ring-that-forced-400-people-to-work-for-pittance-is-broken-11757286

by eddie Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:27 pm

Good. I hope this kind of thing stops. Modern day slavery. Did no one learn anything from the past?

by Vintage Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:54 pm

Sadly, financially this is a very lucrative business, especially with free movement, people are assured they'll get a good living in UK, once here they are told all sorts of things like they are in the UK illegally, they'll be arrested etc., and in worst case told their families back home will berin danger. These criminals should have very lengthy sentences and their assets stripped from them then deported if possible and their passports marked as criminals. This particular gang preyed on their own countrymen's desire for a decent life.

by eddie Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:10 pm

Vintage wrote:Sadly, financially this is a very lucrative business, especially with free movement, people are assured they'll get a good living in UK, once here they are told all sorts of things like they are in the UK illegally, they'll be arrested etc., and in worst case told their families back home will berin danger. These criminals should have very lengthy sentences and their assets stripped from them then deported if possible and their passports marked as criminals. This particular gang preyed on their own countrymen's desire for a decent life.

Yeah..somehow that made it all the worse somehow...like they persuaded people they may have known through others.
It’s just disgusting.

by Vintage Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:16 pm

Those people made enormous amounts of money by keeping people in misery, the only true punishment is for the criminals to be kept in such servitude, at least for some years, then perhaps they might understand the appalling thing they've done.

by eddie Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:20 pm

Vintage wrote:Those people made enormous amounts of money by keeping people in misery, the only true punishment is for the criminals to be kept in such servitude, at least for some years, then perhaps they might understand the appalling thing they've done.

I agree. It’s abhorrent.

by Original Quill Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:15 pm

all originally from Poland, were convicted of modern slavery offences and money laundering.

And you guys questioned my antipathy toward eastern Europeans. World-wide, the eastern Europeans, led by Russians, lead the world in modern day slavery...mostly for the prostitution trade.

Also, note the money-laundering. Trigger any recollections about Trump--the Putin lover, who takes sexual advantage of 13-year old girls--and real estate money laundering? You join the Mafia, you participate in all their activities.

by Ben Reilly Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:16 pm

Original Quill wrote:
all originally from Poland, were convicted of modern slavery offences and money laundering.

And you guys questioned my antipathy toward eastern Europeans. World-wide, the eastern Europeans, led by Russians, lead the world in modern day slavery...mostly for the prostitution trade.

Also, note the money-laundering. Trigger any recollections about Trump--the Putin lover, taking sexual advantage with 13-year old girls--and real estate money laundering? You join the Mafia, you participate in all their activities.

So just to be clear, do you have the same amount of antipathy toward the Polish slavers as you do toward the Polish slaves?

by Original Quill Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:40 pm

Ben Reilly wrote:
Original Quill wrote:

And you guys questioned my antipathy toward eastern Europeans. World-wide, the eastern Europeans, led by Russians, lead the world in modern day slavery...mostly for the prostitution trade.

Also, note the money-laundering. Trigger any recollections about Trump--the Putin lover, taking sexual advantage with 13-year old girls--and real estate money laundering? You join the Mafia, you participate in all their activities.

So just to be clear, do you have the same amount of antipathy toward the Polish slavers as you do toward the Polish slaves?

Mostly eastern Europeans are Slavs...Romanians and Bulgarians, and of course Russians. Are Poles Slavic or German? The need to propagate the belief that Poles are German was caused by expansion of kingdom of Prussia to ethnically Polish lands in 18th century - Kingdom of Prussia conquered most of Silesia, Greater Poland and Royal Prussia, parts of Lesser Poland, Mazovia and Podlachia (Partitions of Poland).

We probably don't need to analyze the point, because situated where they are the Poles probably acquired Slavic tastes in business and trade-craft. Did Poles catch on to prostitution/slavery, or did prostitution/slavery catch on to Poland? Why does it matter?

What I find detestable is the prevalence of both prostitution and slavery as major trades of eastern Europeans. Like didge, I dislike a culture's maltreatment of women, no matter the origin of the victims.

by eddie Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:41 pm

Original Quill wrote:
all originally from Poland, were convicted of modern slavery offences and money laundering.

And you guys questioned my antipathy toward eastern Europeans. World-wide, the eastern Europeans, led by Russians, lead the world in modern day slavery...mostly for the prostitution trade.

Also, note the money-laundering. Trigger any recollections about Trump--the Putin lover, who takes sexual advantage of 13-year old girls--and real estate money laundering? You join the Mafia, you participate in all their activities.

ALL Eastern Europeans, Quill? Or SOME? Or MOST?

Because, you know, you can’t simply generalise. You preach that often.

So?

by Original Quill Fri Jul 05, 2019 11:00 pm

eddie wrote:
Original Quill wrote:

And you guys questioned my antipathy toward eastern Europeans. World-wide, the eastern Europeans, led by Russians, lead the world in modern day slavery...mostly for the prostitution trade.

Also, note the money-laundering. Trigger any recollections about Trump--the Putin lover, who takes sexual advantage of 13-year old girls--and real estate money laundering? You join the Mafia, you participate in all their activities.

ALL Eastern Europeans, Quill? Or SOME? Or MOST?

Because, you know, you can’t simply generalise. You preach that often.

So?

No, others preach to me that you can't generalize. Consistent with my knowledge of logic for some 40-years, my answer has always been that generalization is an essential component of human thought. How can we understand the nature of our universe if we don't generalize? But like any fact, it must be supported by evidence.

You confuse this with another favorite remark of mine: you can't generalize from specifics. But that's an logical issue: in order to have a generalization, you must have a plurality. Specifics don't cut it.

Generalization is usually expressed in some summary statistic. These account for SOME, say 30%, or MOST, say 70%, or indeed ALL, say 100%. But you left out one important statistic: NONE, or 0%.

When something is against the law, the limit of acceptability should be 0%.

by 'Wolfie Sat Jul 06, 2019 9:20 am

Re: the O/P --

Down here, it usually appears to be mostly Asians (chiefly Chinese and Vietnamese, but also Filipinos, Thai, etc.).

Just a few months ago, a Chinese national woman in Sydney was convicted and jailed for running "sweat shop" production lines using dozens of foreign workers under similar circumstances..

These kinds of inhumane activities have been going on for as long as people have been able to move around internationally.

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Re: Slavers victimized more than 400 people in the UK, court says