Paddington sex traffic gang who made £15,000 a month 'exploiting women' is jailed

Locked up: Janina Nuta, 39, and Vlad Harzoparu, 30, were jailed for controlling prostitution for gain.
Met Police
Francesca Gillett21 November 2016

A central London sex traffic gang which earned thousands of pounds a week by pimping out prostitutes has been jailed.

The traffickers raked in more than £15,000 a month and even submitted their accounts to HM Revenue and Customs to hide their criminal activities.

The Paddington gang of two men and two women “callously manipulated” prostitutes and gave them “very little” of the money they made, police said.

Police raided an address in Sussex Gardens, near to Paddington station, and discovered one of the traffickers with 105 mobile phones which rang intermittently.

Behind bars: Aliona Pislaru, 39, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Met Police

Aliona Pislaru, 39, was in charge of a group of prostitutes who she advertised online and arranged for them to be delivered to addresses for sex.

She used 14 separate bank accounts to store thousands of pounds worth of cash earned by the prostitutes, only giving them a small amount.

On Friday she was jailed for five years.

Gang member: Ilie Melinte, 34, of Seymour Place, one of the two men who was jailed on Friday.
Met Police

Police also found Janina Nuta, 39, at the house with paperwork and price lists for the prostitutes.

Two others, 30-year-old Vlad Harzoparu and 34-year-old Ilie Melinte, were also caught by police and arrested for controlling prostitution.

All four were found guilty of modern slavery offences after a three-week trial and were sentenced on Friday at Isleworth Crown Court.

Pislaru, of Sussex Gardens, was locked up for five years while Nuta, of Highfield Avenue, and Harzoparu, also of Sussex Gardens, were jailed for three years. Melinte, of Seymour Place, was sentenced to two years in prison.

The gang, who were Romanian nationals, were caught after an investigation by the Met Police’s slavery and kidnap unit.

Detective Inspector Stephen Kiely said: "This investigation highlights the commitment to ending the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable people.

"The victims in this case were callously manipulated and exploited by this trafficking network. I hope that the sentences handed down today bring them a measure of closure and comfort as they go about rebuilding their lives."

Pislaru, Nuta, Harzoparu and Melinte were convicted of controlling prostitution for gain, arranging and facilitating the travel of another person with view to exploitation and concealing criminal property.

Harzoparu was also convicted of four counts of possession or control of identity documents.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in