Five people in the United Kingdom have been convicted for running a two-year international sex trafficking ring.
The offenders brought at least 44 women from Hungary to the U.K., paying for all expenses and promising to improve their lives in the new country. Instead the women were abused, exploited as prostitutes and paid next to nothing, the Croydon Advertiser, a British newspaper, reported.
Profiles of the women were set up on websites that advertised their services, the Guardian reported. The women, mostly from Budapest and southeastern Hungary, were situated in hotels across the country. They also performed services from apartments, including ones on the campus of the University of Sussex.
"This appalling gang preyed on the vulnerability of young women who came to the UK in the hope of finding a better life," David Fairclough, a member of the U.K.'s Home Office's Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigations team, said according to the Croydon Advertiser. "They controlled the women mentally, physically and financially."
The convicted gang includes Mate Puskas and his former girlfriend Victoria Brown, Zoltan Mohacsi, Istvan Toth and his brother Peter Toth. They were convicted on charges of conspiring to traffic persons to the U.K. for sexual exploitation, the Croydon Advertiser reported.
Reports say the women were aware of the fact that they would work as prostitutes after they arrived in the U.K, according to the Croydon Advertiser. But they never received an equal share of the exorbitant amount of money the defendants charged their clients.
Judge Richard Hayward said the gang carried out actions that "society finds repugnant," the Guardian reported.
Puskas was sentenced to six years in prison, the Guardian reported. Istvan Toth was sentenced to five years, while his brother received four years. Mohacsi was sentenced to four years and Brown was sentenced to three years.
"Our officers dismantled their despicable network and they are now where they belong- behind bars," Fairclough said, the Croydon Advertiser reported.
