An organised crime gang was jailed today after they trafficked dozens of women from Hungary to the UK to work in brothels, including one on a university campus.
Almost 50 women were brought to Britain in two years and forced to work as prostitutes, including inside a University of Sussex halls of residence.
The sex ring also set up brothels in hotels and flats and uploaded their victims' profiles on to a website advertising sexual services for sale, Hove Crown Court heard.
Hungarians nationals Mate Puskas, Zoltan Mohacsi, Istvan Toth and Peter Toth, and Puskas’s former girlfriend Victoria Brown were all jailed for 25 years in total for running the operation. The Toth brothers remain at large after breaking bail.
Mate Puskas and Victoria Brown, a former couple in the gang that organised the trafficking of young women and forced them to work as prostitutes in brothels across the UK
The university's found out when building manager Martin West saw an email advertising escorts on the campus and recognised the campus curtains and bedding in the pictures that the prostitute was posing in.
Further investigation revealed a scantily-clad young woman in one of the student rooms along with wet wipes and large amount of condoms.
People would respond to the adverts by calling mobile phones controlled by the gang, who arranged meetings with the women in brothels.
Puskas, was jailed for six years, Brown for three years, and Mohacsi for four years for conspiracy to traffic women into the UK.
Istvan and Peter Toth were jailed for five years and four years respectively for the same offence, but both had nine months added to their sentences after being convicted of Contempt of Court for breaking bail.
Judge Richard Hayward said they had committed offending behavior which 'society finds repugnant'.
Istvan and Peter Toth, who have been found guilty of exploiting and bullying young girls into prostitution, blackmailing many of the girls and threatening others
Defendant Zolton Mohacsi outside of Hove Court
In many cases the women had come to the UK to escape financial difficulties at home.
When they arrived in Britain they were coerced into the prostitution, with the gang threatening to put up posters of them in their home towns denouncing them as sex workers if they didn't work for them.
They were forced to work for up to 12 hours a day to pay off the debt to the crime ring who paid for their flights to the UK.
Women saw 10 to 15 clients every day, each being charged £100 per hour. But the gang took 90 per cent of their earnings.
Prosecutor David Walbank said: 'They were not kidnapped or kept in slavery but once they came to this country they were not free agents.'
Puskas had arrived in the UK in 2008 and took on menial jobs like working at a car wash.
He met Victoria Brown and together they had a child, who is now 21 months old and has been in the care of its maternal grandparents since the couple were arrested.
Park Village, one of the student accommodation complexes in Sussex University, was the base for part of the prostitution ring
Portia Ragnauth, Acting Chief Crown Prosecutor CPS South East, said: 'None of us can imagine how desperate the victims were in this case.
'In many instances, they came to the UK to try to escape financial difficulties at home.
'Payments for their flights were often made by one of the five individuals convicted today. Once in the UK these “debts” were used as a hold over the women who were forced to work for up to 12 hours a day.
The gang used this flat in Eastbourne, East Sussex as one of the locations for the prostitution activity
'When the women told the group they did not want to work as prostitutes, threats would be made against them and their families back in Hungary.
'Threats were also made to expose the work they had been doing in the UK in their home country.
'I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the bravery of the victims who gave evidence in this case, one who gave evidence from behind a screen in the UK and two others who gave evidence via a live video-feed from Hungary.
'We know how incredibly difficult it was for them, especially as we know that the reach of this criminal group extends back to Hungary.
'It has not been easy for them, but we hope that today’s verdict brings them justice and allows them to now move on with their lives.
'The CPS was assisted greatly by the police and judicial authorities in Hungary to bring this prosecution. Without this cross-border cooperation achieving justice for these women would have been considerably more difficult.'
A University of Sussex spokeswoman said the case did not relate to activities by staff or students but that a flat on its campus was one of many locations across the region used for prostitution purposes.
She said: 'Through the vigilance and swift actions of our staff, the police were able to piece together the wider operations of this criminal gang and bring a case against them to court.
'More than 4,000 students live on our campus and their safety is of paramount importance to us.
'This was a one-off incident, involving people not connected in any way to the university. We continue to maintain high levels of vigilance to ensure that the residences are not misused and that our students are able to enjoy living in a very safe and secure environment.'
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