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ONE PAPER ... ALL THE NEWS from Dewsbury, Batley, Ossett, Mirfield, Liversedge, Birstall, Heckmondwike, Cleckheaton & Spen Valley
Friday January 22, 2016
12 MONTHS
No. 721
GUARANTEE
50p
GUILT OF SLAVE FACTORY BOSS
Beds businessman Mohammed Rafiq supplied retailers including John Lewis, Next and Dunelm Mill – but he used a ‘slave workforce’ of Hungarians who were paid £10-20 a week A BED factory owner from Staincliffe is reported to be the first company boss in the UK convicted of human trafficking.
Mohammed Rafiq, 60, used a ‘slave workforce’ of Hungarians at Kozee Sleep and subsidiary Layzee Sleep. The Ravensthorpe firm, which closed in May last year, supplied retailers including John Lewis, Next and Dunelm Mill. Rafiq, of Thorncliffe Road, Staincliffe, was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of conspiracy to traffic individuals within the UK. He had denied the charge but was convicted by a jury and will be sentenced on Friday, February 12. The court heard a probe began after two Hungarians, Janos Orsos and Ferenc Illes, were arrested over
human trafficking allegations. Large numbers of Hungarian men supplied by Orsos were employed at the Kozee Sleep factory. Prosecutor Christopher Tehrani QC said at the start of the trial in October that Rafiq knew Orsos’s organisation would source “cheap labour” for him. He said Rafiq was “aware of the circumstances of the Hungarian nationals who were working at these sites and went along with their exploitation as a slave workforce”. “The prosecution submits that this course of offending demonstrates a persistent campaign of exploitation involving many Hungarian men over a prolonged period of time.” High street retailers failed to spot what was happening despite conducting several “ethical audits”.
New laws in effect from July last year mean firms with a turnover of at least £36m have to publicly state the measures they take against slavery. Victims were promised good wages, housing and that food would be provided in the UK. But once in West Yorkshire they found themselves living in shared, cramped and squalid accommodation with a large number of others. Prosecutors said the men received £10 to £20 per week, plus each house would receive about £20 a day for food. Orsos and Illes were jailed for five years and three years respectively in 2014 after admitting people trafficking offences.
Continued on Page 2
Secrets behind the walls of ‘Gothic House’
Mohammed Rafiq ... he will be sentenced next month
THE jury in the trial of bed factory owner Mohammed Rafiq was told how one man, Robert Bodo, came to Batley from Hungary in January, 2010. He was taken to live in a property in the town called Gothic House, where 40 to 50 people were living and he shared a room with three others. Mr Bodo was at Kozee Sleep for three-and-a-half years, where he worked a minimum of 60 hours a
week or had to do extra work elsewhere. Prosecutor Christopher Tehrani said Mr Bodo was paid £10 every Friday by Janos Orsos, who was jailed for five years in 2014 after admitting people trafficking offences. He added Mr Bodo tried to leave but “couldn’t as Janos Orsos had his national insurance and bank card”. Mark Kovacs came to the UK in January 2013 and was put in a twobedroom house in Bradford.
Mr Tehrani said: “There were mattresses in every room. During the four months he lived in this property, Mr Kovacs estimates that between 25 and 42 people were living in the premises at any one time.” He was later moved to a threebedroom flat in Ravensthorpe, where 30 people were living. Mr Kovacs “escaped Mr Orsos’s clutches” with the help of a charity called Hope for Justice.