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

Pic:Aliona Pislaru, 39, was sentenced to five years in prison
Crime reporter(wp/es):

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.

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.

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.