Guilty: Trafficking gang who forced foreign women to work in brothels in Brent

Beata Herman, left, and Szilvia Abel (Image: Archant)

Croydon Crown Court heard how flights were booked for at least 120 women, while others picked the women up from Stansted airport and delivered to brothels in the borough and 11 others in the city.

The women had their passports confiscated and were threatened with violence and intimidation if they refused to carry out orders.

Some were raped and in one case a victim in her 20s was forced to carry out such brutal sex acts with clients that she suffered serious injuries.

The gang managed the victims from a make-shift call centre at a semi-detached house in Parkview Gardens, Brent Cross, where clients were charged between £30 to £100 per hour.

Attila Kovacs, left, and Krisztian Abel (Image: Archant)

Vishal Chaudhary, 32, the ring leader, used various pseudonyms including Rahul Singh and Aresh Khan in order to disguise his true identity.

Until days before his arrest he lived a comfortable lifestyle in a plush apartment block in Canary Wharf and drove a Mercedes convertible.

Chaudhary and the five other members were arrested last January as part of an intelligence-led investigation by the Met’s trafficking and kidnap unit.

Vishal Chaudhary from Hendon, was found guilty of conspiracy to traffic persons into the UK for sexual exploitation, conspiracy to traffic persons within the UK for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to control prostitution for gain.

Kunal Chaudhary (Image: Archant)

Krisztian Abel, a 33-year-old Hungarian national from Ilford, who acted as an enforcer by threatening and abused the women if they did not do as they were told, was found guilty of the same charges as Vishal.

Szilvia Abel, Krisztian’s 24-year-old sister, was found guilty of conspiracy to traffic persons into the UK, conspiracy to traffic persons within the UK for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to control prostitution for gain.

Kunal Chaudhary, 32, from Manchester, was convicted of conspiracy to traffic persons into the UK for sexual exploitation, conspiracy to control prostitution and concealing criminal property.

Attila Kovacs, 33, a Hungarian national , from Arnos Grove, was found guilty of conspiracy to traffic persons into the UK for sexual exploitation and at an earlier trial Beata Herman, 27, a Polish national from Sutton, admitted conspiracy to control prostitution for gain.

All will be sentenced at a later date.

Det Sgt Alan Clark, investigating officer, said: “Many of the victims have been deeply traumatised by what this gang did to them, and displayed signs of severe distress when they told us what had happened to them.

“The group applied a cold business mentality to their crime, treating women as no more than a commodity.”