By Edward Trower-
A Romanian gangmaster, who offered his countrymen the dream of a better life in the UK only to enslave them using threats and violence, is facing jail.
29-year old David Lupu was jailed for seven years on Friday after being found guilty of multiple charges of holding a person in slavery or servitude.
Jurors at the Inner London Crown Court heard how Lupu lured a group of Romanian nationals to Britain with the promise of work for £50 a day and accommodation included. But, he instead exploited the workers, only paying them a fraction of the wages they were expecting to receive, confiscating their ID papers and cramming them into a one bedroom flat in Leyton.
Evil Lupu cramped up to 15 men together in the tiny flat as the bundled men competed for very limited space like storage cupboards or on a mattress they had found on the street.
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Lupu all the while enjoyed much more favorable conditions in a flat of his own where he fed well whilst buying low-quality meals for his workers.
The court heard men were only allowed out of the house in twos at a time, Lupu even warned threatened his victims that they would be arrested by police if discovered.
The victimized men were also told they owed hundreds of pounds in fictitious rent and other fabricated costs. They were cruelly forced to work long hours in the demolition industry to repay the money.
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Tight Lupu also refused to pay the men at the lawful minimum wage despite the fact he was being paid handsomely for the building site work and have made profits if he had chosen to.
When the men stood up to Lupu after his dubious operations became glaring, he punched one of the group and told them he would beat them to death if they insisted on being paid before repaying their fabricated debts. However, at one point, he raised their pay offer to a single payout of £50 each- the only money they ever received.
Two of the men finally cried for help at Forest Gate police station in September 2017, while Lupu was briefly out of the country.
When he returned, Lupu threatened to break the legs of the others and attack their families in Romania in a bid to keep them under control.
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