Women illegally trafficked from Hungary to work as prostitutes

Two Hungarian nationals, including one living near Lincoln, admitted to being part of a gang that illegally trafficked women from their home country to work as prostitutes in Derby.

As reported by Derbyshire Live, Aleksandra Mandic, 31, of Deepdale Lane in Nettleham and Ferenc Ronto, 33, of Shakespeare Street in Derby pleaded guilty to facilitating the travel of another with a view to exploitation when they appeared from custody at Derby Crown Court.

The pair were part of a gang led by Geza Horvath and Daniel Zemencsik, who were jailed for a total of eight years and two months earlier this year.

They admitted facilitating the travel of another with a view to exploitation.

However, Ronto and Mandic pleaded not guilty to a second charge of conspiracy to control prostitutes for financial gain.

The prosecution accepted the pleas of the pair who admitted helping the girls come to the UK from Hungary with the knowledge they would be exploited, but that they played no part in setting them up as sex workers.

Ronto and Mandic were remanded into custody and are due to appear back at Derby Crown Court for sentencing at a date yet to be determined.

At a sentencing hearing earlier in the year Horvath, 33, of Borough Road, Burton was jailed for five years and Zemencsik, 28, of Uttoxeter New Road, for three years and two months.

The court previously heard that they trafficked women from Hungary to work in “squalid” brothels in the city. After arranging flights and picking the women up from airports they were placed in “unkempt and stinky” rented properties. Half of their earnings were also taken.

During the year the conspiracy ran, between May 2017 and April 2018, they spent £15,000 on online advertising the girl’s sexual services which were operated from a house in Violet Street, Normanton, and a flat on Uttoxeter New Road.

They are due to be deported back to Hungary when their prison sentences are complete.