Two jailed over jobs scam for Polish workers

The UK Border Agency said it believed that at least 130 Poles had fallen victim to the scam, by answering adverts placed in Polish newspapers which offered British building site jobs.

Potential workers were told they would be earning up to 8 an hour, but when they arrived they were met by either Lukasz Adamowicz or Jerzy Bala and taken to a derelict Sheffield pub.

Each victim also paid upfront fees for housing, in some cases more than 800, but the money vanished and they were forced to work for no wages living in squalid accommodation.

Jeremy Hill-Baker, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court that the victims of the scam were virtually imprisoned by the two men in the pub after being left "penniless" in a foreign country.

He said the pair were working for others who had masterminded the scheme, Adamowicz "stepping into the role of local manager in the UK to run the business in Sheffield".

The court heard that Bala would collect victims from coach stations, rail stations and airports before taking their money and driving them to the derelict Halcar Tavern, in the Burngreave area of the city.

Both and Bala and Adamowicz lived in the pub alongside the workers, who were told to sleep on mattresses on the floor in conditions described as "filthy" and "stinking" by investigators.

Each morning they were driven to building sites in South Yorkshire where they were set to work, but when they asked for wages they were evicted from the pub by men wielding baseball bats.

Bala, 40, admitted one count of human trafficking within the UK, while 28-year-old Adamowicz pleaded guilty to an identical count and an additional charge of trafficking people into Britain.

Representing Adamowicz, Janice Young said he was not "making any great profit" from the scam, had not lived a life of luxury and was remorseful about what he had done to his victims.

Peter Pimm, representing Bala, said his client had in fact only ended up taking part in the con because he himself had been a victim of it, and had agreed to take part in order to get paid.

Mr Pimm said Bala had played only a "minor role" and had eventually been one of those who reported the scam to the authorities. he said Bala's payment for his involvement in the exploitation operation had been a takeaway meal each night, plus a packet of cigarettes and 10 cash a day.

The judge, Recorder Martin Simpson, said the men had effectively imprisoned their victims and added that there were very few similar cases with which to compare their crimes.

Jailing Adamowicz for four years and Bala for two years, he described the ordeal of the victims as "imprisonment without manacles" and said each had been conned out of an average of 1,000 each.

He added: "These are serious matters, and the message must go out to those, even those who have been exploited themselves, that custody is almost inevitable, even for those who play a minor role."

Two other members of the gang who ran the operation from Poland have been arrested. They were caught in Britain and have been extradited to their home country to stand trial.

The UK Border Agency last night described the operation, which was run in Sheffield over two years, as "one of the UK's largest human trafficking cases".

Its regional director Jeremy Oppenheim said: "This was a very serious case involving an unscrupulous gang.

"Trafficking can involve legal and illegal workers, exploiting the vulnerable as well as undermining legitimate businesses and the UK taxpayer.

"Let today's sentences send a loud warning to those either thinking about or involved in organised crime: our immigration crime teams will identify you, investigate you and bring you to justice."

The UK Border Agency said the Polish victims had now returned to their home country.