Investigation into Romanian slave drivers cost £1.3m

A ‘complex’ investigation into a Romanian crime family who made a fortune keeping at least 26 slave labourers in a terraced house cost more than £1.3m.

Their victims were promised £50 a day to work in the construction industry with free food and accommodation.

But once they were crammed into the slums run by 62-year-old Vasile Dragoi – dubbed the ‘big boss’ – and his family, their wages were withheld and they were presented with bogus bills.

Their identification documents were seized and workers who challenged the family were threatened by Dragoi and his sons, Ion Dragoi, 26, Marian Podianu, 44, and 34-year-old Florinel Dragoi.

Earlier this month Vasile was jailed for six years; Marian and Florinel were both jailed for five years and three months while Ion received five years and seven months.

Ion’s wife Alexandra Ciocodan, 28, was spared jail in an act of ‘mercy’, receiving a prison sentence of two years suspended over 18 months.

Judge Hopmeier passed sentence earlier this month but, unusually, he decided to give his full remarks back at Southwark Crown Court – and revealed the scale of the operation.

He said: ‘There had been a complex investigation, the costs of the investigation alone came to over £1.3m.

‘Costs of trial have exceeded to date £50,000.

‘At trial…each of the defendants pleaded not guilty notwithstanding the substantial if not overwhelming evidence against them.

‘None of the defendants either then or since, seems to this court, has shown any remorse for their actions or any remorse for the plight they caused to their victims.’

The judge said the Romanian family exploited fellow countrymen who had never been to the UK before with the promise of work and better wages.

‘Work for such people was, the court was told, scarce in Romania.

‘And the work which is available in Romania is rarely well paid.’

Properties which housed the workers were also, at times, overcrowded and in general poor condition.

‘It is clear that these defendants exploited and preyed upon many individuals who were not in a position to be able to stand up to them,’ judge Hopmeier said.

‘The defendants did so quite simply in order to benefit financially from their, that is to say, their victims’, hard work.’

The judge went on: ‘During the trial I saw and heard the complainants.

‘It was quite plain seeing and hearing them, let alone reading their victim statements, that these were indeed vulnerable victims who were deliberately targeted at least in part because they were vulnerable.

‘It was plain that the motive for these offences were simply money and greed, i.e., to make more money in addition to legitimate earning at the expense of exploited vulnerable men.’

Vasile Dragoi, of Derbyshire; Podianu, of Upton Park Road, East Ham; Florinel Dragoi, also of East Ham; Ion Dragoi of East Ham, and his wife Ciocodan, of East Ham, were all convicted of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to exploitation between 1 January 2017 and 20 October 2017.

They were also convicted of conspiracy to convert criminal property between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2017.

The prosecution are pursuing confiscation orders against the defendants under the Proceeds of Crime Act as well as slavery and trafficking prevention orders under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in a hearing on 1 September.