Brothers jailed for keeping 22 slaves in single rat-infested room and forcing them to work as builders for just £2 a day
THREE brothers who kept more than 20 slaves living in a single vermin-infested room while forcing them to work on one of Britain’s most exclusive housing developments, have been jailed for a total of 28 years.
The slaves were forced to live in squalid conditions while being paid £2 a day by gang masters for working on building sites across the capital with forged construction qualification certificates.
One of the development projects where the Romanian men worked for a pittance, was the award-winning Fitzroy Place development in Central London, where three-bedroom flats sell for almost £13million each.
The scandal emerged when police raided a squalid three-bedroom maisonette in Barking, East London, and found 22 men sleeping on lice-ridden mattresses in a filthy single room.
Shocked police officers reported seeing cockroaches on the walls and hearing squealing rodents in the run-down property, where their captors and relatives lived upstairs in two more rooms - bringing the total number of inhabitants to more than 30 people.
Some of the slaves were ‘bought’ from gangsters for £100 a head and then held captive with beatings and threats of violence in a £2.5million racket run by the three Romanian brothers jailed at Blackfriars crown court for modern slavery offences.
Gang masters Valentin Lupu, 24, and Grigore Lupu, 39, were jailed for 10 years each and older brother Alexandru, 43, sentenced to eight years.
FORCED TO WASH OUTSIDE
Judge Rajaav Shetty spoke of his revulsion as he sentenced the trio, saying: “This case involved the degradation of fellow human beings.
“It involved the denial of their humanity and failure to recognise that these are human beings who feel pain and misery just like all of us. That disgusts me.”
The trial heard how the Lupu brothers kept dozens of their fellow Romanians effectively captive in properties they owned or rented in East London.
At the Bower House maisonette, in Whiting Avenue, Barking, men were forced to use the garden and a nearby canal when they needed the toilet.
They were allowed to use the bathroom once a week and were charged £2 - a day’s wages - for extra use of the shower, or instead wash with a garden hose outside.
Some reported being sent ‘home’ from work on occasion because their personal hygiene was so bad.
The men were fed rotten out of date food, leading to many developing severe stomach upsets, while others suffered from scabies after mites burrowed into their skin.
This case involved the denial of their humanity and failure to recognise that these are human beings who feel pain and misery just like all of us.
Judge Rajaav Shetty
Judge Shetty said: “Conditions were terrible. The properties were infested with rats and cockroaches.
“The mattresses on the floor were filthy and they were denied the ability to wash themselves daily.
“There was clearly little regard given to the health of the workers.”
The men were forced to remain quiet and stay indoors at weekends in case neighbours were alerted to their plight and the sheer numbers of them living there.
When they were allowed out to work, the men were given fake travel passes to use on public transport to make their way to building sites.
One of the developments where they worked was Fitzroy Place, on the site of the former Middlesex Hospital, a short distance from Oxford Circus and in the shadow of the iconic BT Tower.
The estate, which first opened in 2015, boasts high quality offices, stores, restaurants and 291 homes for the super-rich, set around a central garden square incorporating the Grade II listed Fitzrovia Chapel.
BRUTAL LUPU BROTHERS
Police confirmed to The Sun how Romanian men working for the brutal Lupu brothers, were employed on the Fitzroy Place site with forged construction skills certificates.
Unskilled workers were taken on as joiners at the site in yet another criminal enterprise by the Lupu slave masters.
The men under their control also carried out work on other building projects, among them one for the BDL Group, a dry lining company which is a subsidiary of construction giants Carey.
The family-run Carey Group has a Modern Slavery Statement on its website, saying: “We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking.”
Yet Valentin Lupu, 24, raked in thousands of pounds every month from the BDL Group for work carried out by men he tormented and controlled.
Prosecutor Ian McLoughlin told the two-month trial: “At its heart it is a case about exploitation. It is about those who are in a position of comparative strength and power.
“It is the prosecution’s case that these defendants exploited and preyed on dozens of individuals who were not, for a variety of reasons, in a position to stand up to them.’’
Police were alerted to the plight of the men when a Salvation Army volunteer found one of the in a distressed state in the street.
Some of the men also sought help from a Romanian volunteer pastor, Florin Antonie, at the Genesis Baptist Church in Barking. He notified the NSPCC.
Twenty-two men were found sleeping in their clothes without blankets on the floor of a single downstairs room when police swooped on the Bower House addressat 11.30pm on 28 March 2016.
Nine members of the Lupu family were upstairs at the time and a large number of inedible meals in plastic boxes were found outside with a pile of shoes.
MODERN DAY SLAVERY
An investigation by the Met Police Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit identified 33 separate companies linked to Valentin Lupu through which earnings flowed from building firms and recruitment agencies.
Valentin Lupu and his parents were arrested for trafficking offences for exploiting labour under the Modern Slavery Act. All three were bailed.
But Valentin continued his racket until he was arrested again at his home in Perth Road, Ilford, where 14 men were found when police raided the address in October last year.
It was part of a co-ordinated series of 15 swoops in addresses in London and Romanie which led to 33 people being rescued, including five women and four children.
Lupu brother Valentine, Georgian and Alexandru were convicted of conspiracy to force compulsory labour following a two-month trial.
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They were also found guilty of conspiracy to facilitate the transport of others for exploitation and concealing criminal property.
At the close of the prosecution case, Judge Judge Rajaav Shetty directed the jury to clear five other members of the Lupu family, including parents Viorel and Victorita, in the slavery labour racket.
Toader Lupu, 45, Violeta Lupu, 44, and their son Ionut Lupu, 25, were also acquitted of the same slavery charges.
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