The “architect and organiser” of a group that trafficked Romanian women into the UK to become sex workers has been sentenced to eight years and two months in prison.
George Filip, 45, led an organised crime group responsible for the “prostitution” of at least 16 victims, earning hundreds of thousands of pounds, Cardiff Crown Court heard.
He was assisted by his wife Ionela Filip, 35, to bring the women to work as prostitutes in locations across Wales, England and Scotland. Alexandru Moco, 27 and Leonard Banica, 41, were also involved in the conspiracy.
Judge Francis said it was a “substantial and sophisticated criminal enterprise that operated over seven years”.
The court heard that between June 2015 and October 2022, at least 16 identifiable victims had been brought to the UK from Romania and France to work in the sex industry.
Matthew Cobbe, prosecuting, said the operation was of a “significant scale” with women working in “Cwmbran, Hereford, a location near Alton Towers, Stoke-on-Trent, Aberdeen and Inverness”.
Francis was told the women had not been brought under duress but George, of no fixed abode, had “plainly exploited the circumstances of these victims”. Although there was “no suggestion of sexual violence” there were “very many customers”, Cobbe said.
Francis said that some of the women, while coming to the UK to work in the sex industry had been “pressured to commit sexual acts they had not agreed to which had caused them considerable distress”.