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| Four guilty of hijacking migrant workers' bank accounts | Four guilty of hijacking migrant workers' bank accounts |
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| Two men and two women have been found guilty of offences relating to the exploitation of migrant workers in the Fenland area of Cambridgeshire. | |
| All four were convicted of conspiring to acquire money by laundering fraudulent bank and PayPal transfers through migrants’ hijacked bank accounts. Three of the four were also found guilty of arranging sham marriages between EU migrant women and Asian men to facilitate unlawful immigration to the UK. | All four were convicted of conspiring to acquire money by laundering fraudulent bank and PayPal transfers through migrants’ hijacked bank accounts. Three of the four were also found guilty of arranging sham marriages between EU migrant women and Asian men to facilitate unlawful immigration to the UK. |
| Juris Valujevs, 37, his wife Oksana Valujeva, 35, their friend Lauma Vankova, 27, all of King’s Lynn, and Ivars Mezals, 30, of Wisbech and Reading, persuaded fellow migrants from Latvia and Lithuania to open numerous bank accounts which they then controlled and used to launder thousands of pounds’ worth of criminally-acquired payments. | Juris Valujevs, 37, his wife Oksana Valujeva, 35, their friend Lauma Vankova, 27, all of King’s Lynn, and Ivars Mezals, 30, of Wisbech and Reading, persuaded fellow migrants from Latvia and Lithuania to open numerous bank accounts which they then controlled and used to launder thousands of pounds’ worth of criminally-acquired payments. |
| The gateway to their operations was an illegal gangmaster operation run by Valujevs and Mezals out of Wisbech. That provided them with a steady turnover of migrant workers whose identities they could hijack, the court heard. | The gateway to their operations was an illegal gangmaster operation run by Valujevs and Mezals out of Wisbech. That provided them with a steady turnover of migrant workers whose identities they could hijack, the court heard. |
| They recruited people in eastern Europe, or locally, on the promise of work, and housed them in crowded gang houses in the Wisbech area. Rent was typically £50-60 a week even when sleeping three or four to a room, and transport to the fields and factories was charged at £7-8 a day, even when work did not materialise, so that workers ended up controlled by debt to the men. Valujevs and Mezals were convicted and jailed at Blackfriars crown court in 2014 for acting as gangmasters without a licence. | They recruited people in eastern Europe, or locally, on the promise of work, and housed them in crowded gang houses in the Wisbech area. Rent was typically £50-60 a week even when sleeping three or four to a room, and transport to the fields and factories was charged at £7-8 a day, even when work did not materialise, so that workers ended up controlled by debt to the men. Valujevs and Mezals were convicted and jailed at Blackfriars crown court in 2014 for acting as gangmasters without a licence. |
| The four were also charged and tried in 2014 with pressuring female workers who had built up debt to them into sham marriages to pay off what they owed. Mezals was acquitted of the charge, while the jury failed to reach a verdict on the other three in the earlier trial. | The four were also charged and tried in 2014 with pressuring female workers who had built up debt to them into sham marriages to pay off what they owed. Mezals was acquitted of the charge, while the jury failed to reach a verdict on the other three in the earlier trial. |
| But in the nine-week retrial, concluding at Huntingdon crown court this week, Valujevs, Valujeva and Vankova were found guilty on the additional count, which can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. A fourth defendant on the criminal property charge, Valujevs’ stepfather, Laimonas Belka, was acquitted. | But in the nine-week retrial, concluding at Huntingdon crown court this week, Valujevs, Valujeva and Vankova were found guilty on the additional count, which can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. A fourth defendant on the criminal property charge, Valujevs’ stepfather, Laimonas Belka, was acquitted. |
| The trial was the result of Operation Endeavour, a joint police and Gangmasters Licensing Authority investigation launched to tackle concern about the widespread exploitation of migrant workers and growing associated organised crime in the Fens. With a large swing to Ukip in elections and surveys suggesting many residents in the area want to leave the European Union because of fears over immigration, the issue has become politically charged. | The trial was the result of Operation Endeavour, a joint police and Gangmasters Licensing Authority investigation launched to tackle concern about the widespread exploitation of migrant workers and growing associated organised crime in the Fens. With a large swing to Ukip in elections and surveys suggesting many residents in the area want to leave the European Union because of fears over immigration, the issue has become politically charged. |
| DI Jenny Bristow said: “I hope this court case and the previous one have shown how seriously we and the courts take this type of exploitation. | DI Jenny Bristow said: “I hope this court case and the previous one have shown how seriously we and the courts take this type of exploitation. |
| “The operation run by the defendants left many people in abject poverty and debt and all four defendants ruthlessly took advantage of the victims for their own gain. | “The operation run by the defendants left many people in abject poverty and debt and all four defendants ruthlessly took advantage of the victims for their own gain. |
| “We know the exploitation of vulnerable people, many of whom simply want to make a better life for themselves in the United Kingdom, is still happening. However, we are committed to working with colleagues in partner agencies to protect vulnerable people and bring those who commit criminal offences against them to justice.” | “We know the exploitation of vulnerable people, many of whom simply want to make a better life for themselves in the United Kingdom, is still happening. However, we are committed to working with colleagues in partner agencies to protect vulnerable people and bring those who commit criminal offences against them to justice.” |
| Valujevs and Mezals were supplying workers to a raft of other gangmaster firms which in turn supplied large numbers of casual workers to industrial farms and factories in the region. Typically they were recruited to pick, cut and pack leeks, potatoes, cabbages, broccoli and flowers for supermarket supply chains across East Anglia. | Valujevs and Mezals were supplying workers to a raft of other gangmaster firms which in turn supplied large numbers of casual workers to industrial farms and factories in the region. Typically they were recruited to pick, cut and pack leeks, potatoes, cabbages, broccoli and flowers for supermarket supply chains across East Anglia. |