London, July 3 (PTI): Two Indian-origin brothers who ran a London-based sex trafficking ring have been sentenced to a total of 40 years and 6 months in jail by a British court.
Ring leader Vishal Chaudhary, an Indian national who was found guilty of trafficking more than 100 women to Britain, was jailed for 31 years at the Croydon Crown Court.
The 35-year-old was found guilty on three counts relating to trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and prostitution and received three sentences amounting to a total of 31 years.
British police will work with the UK Border Force to enforce his deportation to India once his sentence is served.
A jury was told how Vishal was assisted by his brother, Kunal, who had acquired British nationality while formerly working as a senior accountant at Deloitte in Manchester. The 25-year-old Kunal was handed an eight-year, 18-month sentence for trafficking and concealing criminal property.
“This operation was on a massive scale and persisted from 2007 to the end of January 2013. It was a network that over a period of six years exploited hundreds of women,” Justice Gower said during sentencing.
Victims had their passports taken away and were threatened with further abuse if they tried to contact their families. Some were made to have sex with up to 20 men a day, the court was told during the trial. Vishal and Kunal, along with the three accomplices, were arrested in early 2013.
The court heard how flights were booked for at least 120 women, while others picked the women up from Stansted airport and delivered them to brothels in London.
The court heard that Vishal, of Peninsula Square, Canary Wharf, was the “leading figure in these conspiracies, the boss” and funded a luxury lifestyle from the crimes.
The women were recruited from Hungary with offers of cleaning and nanny jobs in London. Instead they worked in one of the 40 brothels operated by the gang across the city from a base in Brent Cross. The gang managed their victims from a makeshift call centre in a semi-detached house on a suburban street in Hendon, north London.