Govanhill human trafficking gang jailed for more than 36 years
Last updated 8th Nov 2019
Four members of a human trafficking gang that brought vulnerable women to Scotland for sham marriages and prostitution were jailed for a total of more than 36 years today.
The ringleader of the serious crime group Vojtech Gombar (61) was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after arranging the travel of victims from his native Slovakia to Glasgow where they were exploited.
His accomplices Nepalese failed asylum seeker Anil Wagle (37) was imprisoned for eight and a half years, mother-of-five Jana Sandorova (28) was sentenced to seven years and her partner Rastislav Adam (31) was jailed for nine years.
The judge, Lord Beckett, praised a cross border police operation in Scotland, England, Ireland and Slovakia and international cooperation which brought them to justice.
He said: "Such crimes are notoriously difficult to escape from and complain about to the authorities."
The judge said: "However, a number of young women have had the courage to do so and explain to the jury the awful things that were done to them."
Lord Beckett said: "It is the policy of the law that sentencing for this kind of criminal conduct must make it clear to every vulnerable victim of exploitation that the criminal law will be enforced to protect them. Substantial and deterrent sentences will generally be required."
Lord Beckett said at the High Court in Edinburgh that such crimes were "utterly repugnant". He told the four: "For crimes of the gravity of those of which you have been convicted it is necessary to punish you and to seek to deter you and others from becoming involved in crimes of trafficking and exploitation."
Lord Beckett said: "Not one of you has shown any insight into the suffering you caused and not one of you has expressed even a shred of remorse."
All four were placed on the sex offenders' register and made the subject of trafficking and exploitation prevention orders limiting them to one mobile phone, a maximum of pounds 1000 in cash and imposing reporting restrictions and notification requirements of travel plans for five years to begin on completion of their jail terms.
Lord Beckett said the trafficking scheme was done for "significant financial gain" with victims duped into believing that work and a good life awaited them in this country.
He said: "The women involved came from impoverished circumstances with little prospect of employment."
They spoke little or no English and their identity cards were removed and they were kept under control on arrival in Glasgow.
Gombar, Sandorova and Adam, all of Allison Street, Govanhill, and Wagle, of Westmoreland Street, in Glasgow had denied a string of trafficking and sexual exploitation charges at their earlier trial, but were found guilty of offences linked to serious and organised crime.
Their eight victims were transported to flats in the Govanhill area between 2011 and 2017 where they were exploited with victims sold for sham marriages to circumvent immigration controls and others coerced into prostitution even when pregnant.
The judge told Wagle: "Your attitude to all of your victims was callous and contemptuous."
Victims were forced into marriage with virtual strangers and one was forced to have sex with two or three men a day over a period of at least eight months.
One woman was sold for £10,000 outside a branch of Primark in the city's Argyle Street.
The plight of the women came to light after one managed to escape and ran to a shop for help.
Most of the victims were from an area of Slovakia near the border with Ukraine. Gombar, Adam and Sandorova came from the town of Trebisov in the region.
Defence counsel Ronnie Renucci QC, for Gombar, who was convicted of 13 offences, including holding victims in slavery or servitude, said he continued to deny committing the crimes.
He told the court: "He has never before been in custody."
Gary Allan QC for Wagle said he had come to this country because of the political situation in his native Nepal. He said that at the end of his sentence it was likely he would deported and returned to his homeland where he has "concerns for his well-being".
Mark Moir, for Sandorova, said: "She has found prison a particularly difficult place because she cannot speak English and she is very isolated within the jail."
Solicitor advocate Jim Stephenson, for Adam, said he arrived in this country in 2012 and continued to maintain his innocence over the offences.
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