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Detectives have smashed the UK’s biggest ever modern slavery ring, run by a ruthless crime family who made more than £2m trafficking victims from Poland to Birmingham.

Hundreds of vulnerable people, including the homeless, alcoholics and drug addicts, were lured from their Polish homeland to the UK with the promise of well-paid jobs and better lives.

Yet once they arrived in West Bromwich they were forced to open bank accounts by the criminals who then put them to work and stole most of their wages, with many picking up just £20 per week.

The victims were also made to live in appalling squalor and beaten and threatened by enforcers if they complained - including being told they would have to ‘dig their own graves’.

Yet the gang was brought down by West Midlands Police’s 'meticulous' Organised Crime team, aided by the Hope for Justice anti-slavery charity.

The West Bromwich charity encouraged scared and traumatised victims to speak to police who were eventually able to unravel a spider web of financial fraud and identify theft.

(Image: WMP)

Now eight members of the Polish Roma gypsy gang have been jailed after two trials at Birmingham Crown Court.

Leading gang member Justyna Parczewska, 48, was jailed for eight years following a trial, while her husband Ignacy Brzezinski, 52, was sentenced in his absence - after going on the run during the trial.

(Image: WMP)

Birmingham Crown Court heard that coaches carrying victims from Poland would often drop them off directly at the couple's family home in Beechwood Road, West Bromwich.

Relative Marek Brzezinski - who also brought many of the Polish nationals over in his car - was sentenced to nine years for his part in the operation, which saw victims housed in appalling conditions in West Bromwich, Sandwell, Smethwick and Walsall.

The court was told the family home in Beechwood Road became the centre of the modern slavery operation.

(Image: PA)

Investigations showed the Brzezinskis were on benefits yet sent cash amounts back to Poland via Western Union.

The lavish lifestyles they led was underlined after a luxury Bentley car was found at the address, linked to Ignacy Brzezinski.

Justyna Parczewska was seen as the crime family patriach.

(Image: PA)

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When one victim died at an address in Queen’s Head Road, Birmingham, she insisted his ID and personal belongings be removed from his pockets before paramedics arrived in order to conceal his identity and not jeopardise their cruel exploitation.

Another leading gang member was Warsaw-born Marek Chowanic. The 30-year-old, from Mount Street, Walsall, was jailed for 11 years after brave victims gave evidence in court.

(Image: WMP)

His partner Natalia Zmuda, 29 and from Canute Close in Walsall, received four years and six months for her role in the conspiracy.

She escorted victims to job centre appointments for national insurance numbers, ferried them to work, controlled banks accounts and stole wages.

Watch below: How detectives busted the UK's biggest modern slavery gang

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Greedy Juliana Chodakowicz was jailed for five years after she used her position at a Worcestershire recruitment agency to get the victims jobs

The recruiter, living in Evesham but from the Polish city of Grudziadz, was praised by “gullible” bosses for her stand-out performance – believing workers had been attracted through contacts and clever marketing.

Yet in reality she knew the men had been trafficked.

Her cruel streak saw her mock he desperate men in text messages with other gang members.

(Image: WMP)

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Dale, head of West Midlands Police’s Gangs and Organised Crime Unit, condemned the lack of remorse of the organised crime group who had deliberately targeted vulnerable victims.

“The defendants sat in court listening to evidence and there was no recognition of what they had done or contrition,” he said.

“They were exploiting anything up to 250 people in that community at any one time. The evidence of the victims was extremely impactive.”

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

The court heard details of the threats and abuse the victims had suffered, with 66 complainants giving evidence or providing statements during the five-month trial.

The gang sent recruiters to Poland who brought back hundreds of desperate and vulnerable people aged from 17 to their early 60s.

Individuals were approached after being released from prison, or outside homeless shelters and off-licences.

Some had financial need because of business failure, redundancy or marital breakdown. Others needed money to pay for medical bills for children, parents or partners. Many had fragile mental health.

They were brought back to the UK usually by coaches and sometimes by car.

(Image: WMP)

They were made to open bank accounts by gang members including the ‘extremely psychologically manipulative’ Marek Chowanic - bank accounts which the crooks took control off.

They were then forced into working at farms or as manual labour with employment agencies, including E-response and where Juliana Chodakowicz worked as an account manager.

Yet instead of collecting the promised wages of up to £400 per week, the victims often received less than half that figure from cash handouts.

Chodakiewicz and her partner Marek Chowaniec and the gang members kept the rest.

Wojciech Nowakowski, 41, and Jan Sadowski, 26, were trusted workers tasked with meeting new arrivals in the UK and chaperoning them to open bank accounts, claim benefits and register with employment agencies.

Feared Nowakowski was seen as the gang 'enforcer' who dished out beatings.

(Image: PA)

The court heard the value of the financial exploitation of all the complainants was £380,000. However, if wages and bank accounts of all victims were included a further £2m could be added to that figure.

Some 32 properties were used by the gang to house the trafficked workers, the majority of whom spoke no English and had never travelled abroad before.

(Image: WMP)

The conditions they were forced to live in were horrific, with often four sleeping in every room with no beds or bedding.

Some workers had to find mattresses abandoned in the street to sleep on which they carried back to the often mouse-infested houses.

(Image: PA)

Many properties had broken toilets and no flushing water - with one group having to wash with nearby canal water. The trafficked labourers were also moved from house to house at short notice which further disorientated them.

When they did complain they were often threatened or beaten and one woman was warned she would be forced into prostitution is she continued to protest.

Another victim has permanently lost the use of his arm after the gang refused to allow him to go to hospital to treat an injured elbow after a workplace accident.

Many victims turned initially for help to West Bromwich charity, Hope for Justice.

The group ran a soup kitchen which provided a lifeline to the often starving workers during their time with the gang.

But they were also encouraged to talk to police about their ordeals - co-operation that ultimately proved the downfall of the despicable slavery ring.

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

Ignacy Brzezinski and Nowakowski were found guilty of conspiracy to traffick people, requiring them to perform forced labour and acquiring criminal property after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Jan Sadowski had admitted the same charges.

The other five members of the gang were convicted on the same counts on February 22 but reporting restrictions prevented them being named until now.

(Image: PA)

The West Midlands Police investigation team analysed 650,000 lines of telephone data, 250 bank accounts, more than 3,000 exhibits – including bank statements and benefits claims – and 1,500 witness statements in addition to accounts taken from survivors.

The judge later praised the “meticulous detective work” in gathering detailed evidence and linking the co-conspirators to the exploitation.

(Image: PA)

After the court cases the rescued but still traumatised victims can now start to move on with their lives.

“Many have returned to Poland and have really turned their lives round,” said Detective Sergeant Michelle Ohrens, deputy senior investigating officer on the case.

“They have proper jobs and are working and earning and have families and an outlook on life.

"Some have remained in the UK and are functioning members of society.”

DCI Dale said: “This was trafficking and exploitation on a massive scale; this gang treated these people, their fellow countrymen, as commodities purely for their own greed.

“What they did was abhorrent: they subjected victims to a demi-life of misery and poverty. They forced them into work and, if they objected, they were beaten or threatened with violence and told family members back home would be attacked.

“Some were told they would be taken to the woods to dig their own graves.

“They have their dignity back.”

(Image: PA)

During the investigation, West Midlands Police secured 10 interim Slavery & Trafficking Risk Orders (STROs) against the group to restrict their activities and protect potential victims.

However, enquiries showed Nowakowski and Ignacy Brzezinski breached the conditions and were jailed for 42 and 28 months respectively; they were the first people in the UK to be jailed using STRO legislation.

Enquires are ongoing to trace other suspects who are believed to have played a part in the trafficking conspiracy.

*Anyone who suspects people are being exploited or forced into labour in their community is urged to call West Midlands Police on 101 or contact the anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice or call 0300 008 8000.

Defendants and sentences:

Trial One :

Marek Chowaniec, aged 30 and from Mount Street, Walsall. Sentenced to a total of 11 years;

Marek Brzezinski, aged 50, and from Lindley Avenue, Tipton. Sentenced to a total of nine years;

Justyna Parczewska, aged 48, from Beechwood Road, West Bromwich. Sentenced to a total of eight years;

Julianna Chodakowicz, aged 24 and from Evesham, Worcesteshire. Sentenced to a total of five years;

Natalia Zmuda, aged 29 and from Canute Close, Walsall. Sentenced to a total of four years and six months.

Trial Two :

Jan Sadowski, 26, from Dartmouth Street in West Bromwich: Jailed for three years;

Wojciech Nowakowski , 41, from James Turner Street in Winson Green, originally from Bydgoszcz in Poland. Jailed for six and a half years;

Ignacy Brzezinski , 52, from Beechwood Road in West Bromwich, originally from Chelmno-Pomorskie in Poland. Jailed for 11 years.