Gang master convicted over 'slave' workers

A Ukrainian gang master, who earned more than £5m exploiting illegal immigrants through their work in British food factories, was yesterday found guilty of breaching money laundering and immigration laws.

Victor Solomka, based in King's Lynn, Norfolk, controlled the lives of more than 700 eastern Europeans who worked gruelling hours and lived in cramped conditions, while he accumulated a fleet of four-wheel drive vehicles and laundered his profits abroad.

His forced labour was described by the police as "nothing less than modern-day slavery".

The jury at King's Lynn crown court found Solomka guilty of conspiring to facilitate the commission of breaches of immigration law and of one count of money laundering between December 2000 and March 2004. The charges each carry a 14-year jail term.

Solomka will be sentenced later. Following his conviction, Detective Inspector Paul Cunningham, head of Norfolk police's economic and computer crime unit, said: "Victor Solomka is a man who made a personal fortune on the back of other people's misery. [His workers were] promised regular work and pay. What they encountered was sheer hell. Any of them who complained or who wanted to move on were threatened with beatings by Solomka or his henchmen."

The workers were forced to pay for sub-standard accommodation and were paid a pittance for working up to 16-hour days, he added. "In sharp contrast, Victor Solomka and the masters were living in luxurious surroundings."

Solomka, 44, arrived in Britain in a lorry in February 2000, a penniless asylum seeker. He sought refuge on the grounds of persecution from political rivals in Ukraine and was granted leave to remain.

Initially he worked in Norfolk's food processing plants. By April 2001 he had set up a business supplying casual labour from his home in King's Lynn, and was employing about 100 foreign workers, who were sent out to work in local factories.

The competition there proved too strong and he moved most of his workforce further north. "Food processing factories in Scotland need a lot a labour very quickly in the fish and vegetable growing seasons," said Mr Cunningham.

Solomka's outfits supplied labour to factories, which paid up to £6.50 an hour for each employee. The money was paid directly to Solomka. He did not pay the tax or insurance, but passed on reduced wages that equated to £4.30 an hour.

He also extracted from their wage packets £40-£45 a week for rent and £10-15 for transport. There were often groups of seven people living in two-bedroom flats.

"Solomka was making a lot of money on the back of these victims. The factories would pay the minimum wage to Solomka who was meant to pay whatever was left, after deductions, to the workers," Mr Cunningham said. "Sometimes they were even paid in cigarettes. He was creaming off £2 per hour per worker, plus around £60 per week per person for living expenses."

Solomka's set-up was built on a regime of fear with trusted lieutenants beating anyone who dared complain. One of those lieutenants was his co-defendant Alexander Pianzin who began working for Solomka after entering Britain illegally from Russia.

Pianzin, who has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to breach immigration law, was Solomka's righthand man in Scotland. He was so willing to do his employer's bidding he was known as Chonkin, named after a dim-witted character from Russian literature who took orders blindly.

Police investigations found that of the 700 staff on the books, 429 had never been registered with the Home Office. Only 86 had genuine national insurance numbers.

Judge Nicholas Coleman QC adjourned the cases until February 11 for sentencing.