People-trafficking family made fortune by keeping slaves' wages and benefits
A Slovakian family of people traffickers who enslaved their victims in England made hundreds of thousands of pounds by keeping their wages and benefits.
The Newcastle-based Rafael family, of Roma origin, spent their ill-gotten gains on gold and jewellery, casino trips, Mediterranean holidays and £10,000 cash on an Audi Q7 after luring vulnerable people from central Europe and forcing them to work in the UK.
One of the gang, who are being sentenced at Teesside Crown Court, tried to destroy her mobile phone when she was arrested and police found on it a photo of a suitcase stuffed with tens of thousands of euros.
John Elvidge QC, prosecuting, said slavery was the Rafael's "family business".
Victims were flown into the UK with the promise of work, bought and sold for as little as £200 each, put into low quality housing in Newcastle's West End and sent out to work long hours via agencies, recycling tyres, washing cars, reclaiming bricks or at food factories.
The Rafaels would only allow them a fraction of what they earned, controlled their bank accounts and kept their identity documents.
One victim said being enslaved for years alienated him from his wife and children who thought he was withholding his earnings.
The Rafaels would apply for National Insurance numbers, claim benefits for their victims and take out loans in their names.
Mr Elvidge said: "They were not chained or bound but that was not necessary because their circumstances made them compliant and to all intents and purposes, captives.
"They were strangers in a foreign land, with a foreign tongue, without independent means or access to money.
"They were made dependent on the Rafaels who controlled them."
The prosecution could not precisely say how much the family made over the seven years they operated, but the "reliable income stream" ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Some cash was converted into gold and transported out of the UK to relatives in Zlate Moravce in southern Slovakia.
Operating four slaves for five years could bring in £250,000, Mr Elvidge said, as the family kept the majority of their earnings.
And tax credits and bank loans were paid out to the family in the names of their victims. Benefits continued to be claimed for years after their victims managed to leave the UK, the court heard.
Brothers Roman Rafael, 33, and Marian Rafael, 39, were the gang leaders and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit slavery, conspiracy to traffic people for exploitation and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Roman's wife Angelica Chec, the 30-year-old Polish mother of his four children, and Marian's wife Ruzena Rafaelova, 38, denied those charges but were convicted after a trial.
The ringleader's 58-year-old mother, also called Ruzena Rafaelova, was convicted of money laundering and people trafficking.
The bosses' cousin Juraj Rafael, 38, and a 17-year-old who cannot be identified were convicted of the trafficking and money laundering charge.
Three interpreters translating into Polish, Slovakian and a Roma dialect were used during the hearing.
Judge Peter Armstrong said he will pass sentence tomorrow.
