Eight members of a trafficking gang, some of whose victims have been supported by Hope for Justice, have been jailed for a total of 24 years for exploitation offences.

Hope for Justice has been supporting two of the victims of the gang since January 2015. Both survivors were key witnesses, but were homeless and destitute after their state-funded support provision ended.

Our Advocacy Team supported them to access accommodation, subsistence, alcohol support, healthcare and legal advice.

It was a long process of continuous advocacy to get the relevant service providers to accept that they were entitled to these things as EEA nationals and/or as recognised victims of trafficking. We also referred both survivors for supported employment opportunities.

The Hope for Justice UK Advocacy team attended court each day with the survivors as they gave evidence.

In our experience, survivors who lack this intensive support often disengage from the criminal justice process. Good-quality victim care leads to more convictions, as we have seen in this case.

Full story below, courtesy West Yorkshire Police

Members of an Organised Crime Group which trafficked victims from Slovakia into Leeds have been sentenced to a total of over 24 years.

An investigation by West Yorkshire Police’s Human Trafficking Unit discovered that the group would often target single and vulnerable men in extreme poverty and promise them a better life or use threats to bring them to the UK.They also trafficked families with young children into the UK.

Once the victims were in the UK the group would exploit them – housing them in nearby, often sub-standard accommodation (controlled by them) and arranging the victims’ housing benefits to be paid directly to the group.

The group would also set up bank accounts in the victim’s names but would then take all or some control of these before getting them to sign on to any other benefits available to them.

The defendants listed below were found guilty at Leeds Crown Court on Friday 17 August. At Leeds Crown Court today (Thursday 4 October) they were sentenced to the following:

– Frantisek Cisar, 37, of Rayleigh Street, Bradford was found guilty of one count of Conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel to the United Kingdom for Exploitation and six counts of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. He was jailed for a total of nine years.

– Bohuslava Cisarova, 33, of Rayleigh Street, Bradford was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel to the United Kingdom and two counts of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. She was jailed for three years.

– Arpad Jano, 41, of Rayleigh Street, Bradford, was found guilty of one count of Conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel to the United Kingdom for Exploitation and three counts of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. He was jailed for four and a half years.

– Bohuslava Cisarova, 60, of St Leonards Road, Bradford, was found guilty of one count of Conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel to the United Kingdom for Exploitation and one count of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. She was jailed for two years.

– Jan Cisar, 62, of St Leonards Road, Bradford, was found guilty of one count of Conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel to the United Kingdom for Exploitation and one count of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. He was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years.

– Marcel Cisar, 34, of Rayleigh Street, Bradford, was found guilty of one count of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation and two counts of arranging of facilitating the travel to the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. He was jailed for 15 months.

– Aurangzeb Naseem,43, of Otley Road, Leeds was found guilty of three counts of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. He was jailed for three and a half years.

– Mohammed Naseem, 59, of Otley Road, Leeds, was found guilty of three counts of arranging or facilitating the travel within the United Kingdom of another for exploitation. He was jailed for 18 months.

Detective Superintendent Pat Twiggs of West Yorkshire Police, said: “These people were in involved in modern day slavery – a crime that trades in human misery. They traded in victims. It is a terrible crime that can have a devastating impact on victims.

“These people belong in prison and today’s sentences should send out a clear warning that it will not be tolerated.”

In a pre-planned operation in November 2013 West Yorkshire Police, which was one of the first forces to have a unit set up specifically to target human trafficking, and partners raided addresses across the south and west of Leeds. A total of 37 victims aged 1 to 57 (at the time) were rescued and referred to the National Referral Mechanism. They have since been given the appropriate support.

Det Supt Twiggs added: “This was a detailed and thorough investigation and I would like to pay tribute to the team for the hard work that went into bringing these people to justice. It was also a real partnership approach – and when we rescued the victims various agencies came together to ensure those in greatest need received the help and support they needed at the victim recovery centres. We worked with partners including Leeds City Council, the DWP and HMRC, NHS, Salvation Army, Hope for Justice and CPS. Modern Day Slavery is a crime that is often ‘hidden in plain sight’ and we believe it to be very under-reported.”

West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Mark Burns-Williamson, said: “I welcome today’s sentences, which really underline our collective ongoing commitment to bringing the perpetrators of Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery to justice. It remains one the key priorities in my recently refreshed Police and Crime Plan and is an area of policing which I am particularly passionate about tackling in West Yorkshire and as the national lead for PCCs. It is a vile crime, which essentially abuses basic human rights and exploits mainly vulnerable people for profit and we must send out a clear message that it will not be tolerated.

“The sheer geography surrounding these offences, often means that they can be extremely complex, lengthy and challenging investigations. The fact that these individuals are now all behind bars, however, should be an indication to others of the lengths we will go to achieve these type of outcomes through the criminal justice system. I pay tribute to the tenacity and painstaking efforts of our Human Trafficking team working with other partners and prosecutors in helping to protect victims and achieve justice for them. Communities also play a key role in identifying and reporting this type of suspicious and cruel activity.

“I would urge everyone to help in our response to this destructive crime and tell us where they believe it might be happening, however small the concerns via the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700.

“By working together in this way, we can keep victims and survivors at the heart of our efforts, whilst working to prevent such abuses from occurring in the first place.”