An organised crime gang
was jailed today after they trafficked dozens of women from Hungary to
the UK to work in brothels, including one on a university campus.
Almost 50 women were
brought to Britain in two years and forced to work as prostitutes,
including inside a University of Sussex halls of residence.
The sex ring also set up
brothels in hotels and flats and uploaded their victims' profiles on to
a website advertising sexual services for sale, Hove Crown Court heard.
Hungarians nationals
Mate Puskas, Zoltan Mohacsi, Istvan Toth and Peter Toth, and Puskas’s
former girlfriend Victoria Brown were all jailed for 25 years in total
for running the operation. The Toth brothers remain at large after
breaking bail.
Mate Puskas and Victoria
Brown, a former couple in the gang that organised the trafficking of
young women and forced them to work as prostitutes in brothels across
the UK
The university's found
out when building manager Martin West saw an email advertising escorts
on the campus and recognised the campus curtains and bedding in the
pictures that the prostitute was posing in.
Further investigation
revealed a scantily-clad young woman in one of the student rooms along
with wet wipes and large amount of condoms.
People would respond to
the adverts by calling mobile phones controlled by the gang, who
arranged meetings with the women in brothels.
Puskas, was jailed for six years, Brown for three years, and Mohacsi for four years for conspiracy to traffic women into the UK.
Istvan and Peter Toth
were jailed for five years and four years respectively for the same
offence, but both had nine months added to their sentences after being
convicted of Contempt of Court for breaking bail.
Judge Richard Hayward said they had committed offending behavior which 'society finds repugnant'.
Istvan and Peter Toth,
who have been found guilty of exploiting and bullying young girls into
prostitution, blackmailing many of the girls and threatening others
Defendant Zolton Mohacsi outside of Hove Court
In many cases the women had come to the UK to escape financial difficulties at home.
When they arrived in
Britain they were coerced into the prostitution, with the gang
threatening to put up posters of them in their home towns denouncing
them as sex workers if they didn't work for them.
They were forced to work for up to 12 hours a day to pay off the debt to the crime ring who paid for their flights to the UK.
Women saw 10 to 15 clients every day, each being charged £100 per hour. But the gang took 90 per cent of their earnings.
Prosecutor David Walbank
said: 'They were not kidnapped or kept in slavery but once they came to
this country they were not free agents.'
Puskas had arrived in the UK in 2008 and took on menial jobs like working at a car wash.
He met Victoria Brown
and together they had a child, who is now 21 months old and has been in
the care of its maternal grandparents since the couple were arrested.
Park Village, one of the student accommodation complexes in Sussex University, was the base for part of the prostitution ring
Portia Ragnauth, Acting
Chief Crown Prosecutor CPS South East, said: 'None of us can imagine how
desperate the victims were in this case.
'In many instances, they came to the UK to try to escape financial difficulties at home.
'Payments for their
flights were often made by one of the five individuals convicted today.
Once in the UK these “debts” were used as a hold over the women who were
forced to work for up to 12 hours a day.
The gang used this flat in Eastbourne, East Sussex as one of the locations for the prostitution activity
'When the women told the
group they did not want to work as prostitutes, threats would be made
against them and their families back in Hungary.
'Threats were also made to expose the work they had been doing in the UK in their home country.
'I would like to take
this opportunity to pay tribute to the bravery of the victims who gave
evidence in this case, one who gave evidence from behind a screen in the
UK and two others who gave evidence via a live video-feed from Hungary.
'We know how incredibly
difficult it was for them, especially as we know that the reach of this
criminal group extends back to Hungary.
'It has not been easy
for them, but we hope that today’s verdict brings them justice and
allows them to now move on with their lives.
'The CPS was assisted
greatly by the police and judicial authorities in Hungary to bring this
prosecution. Without this cross-border cooperation achieving justice for
these women would have been considerably more difficult.'
A University of Sussex
spokeswoman said the case did not relate to activities by staff or
students but that a flat on its campus was one of many locations across
the region used for prostitution purposes.
She said: 'Through the
vigilance and swift actions of our staff, the police were able to piece
together the wider operations of this criminal gang and bring a case
against them to court.
'More than 4,000 students live on our campus and their safety is of paramount importance to us.
'This was a one-off
incident, involving people not connected in any way to the university.
We continue to maintain high levels of vigilance to ensure that the
residences are not misused and that our students are able to enjoy
living in a very safe and secure environment.'
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