A ‘manipulative and controlling’ couple who trafficked two Lithuanians into the UK and forced one to sleep in a cramped cupboard under the stairs have been jailed.
Rita Jablonskaite, 34, and Robertas Repsas, 31, promised the man and woman, aged 50 and 51, money and a new life in Warrington, Cheshire when they arrived in June 2017 and June 2018 respectively.
But the pair, who admitted trafficking offences, confiscated their victims’ documents and earnings and barely fed them, treating them ‘as a means of making money’ for themselves.
The man lost nearly 44lbs in the time he lived in a cramped cupboard under the stairs inside the couple’s property, a court heard.
Rita Jablonskaite (left) and Robertas Repsas (right) trafficked vulnerable people and ‘robbed them of their humanity’ when they were forced into slavery for ‘financial gain’, a court heard
Jablonskaite and Repsas were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court today after pleading guilty to trafficking offences.
Jablonskaite was sentenced to 28 months in prison and Repsas 15 months.
Judge Louise Brandon said in sentencing that the victims had been ‘robbed of their humanity’ and the case ‘brought home the true horror and misery’ of human trafficking.
‘This case brings home the true horror and misery of modern slavery,’ she said. ‘There was a high level of organisation and planning.
‘The treatment that they suffered has had a significant physical impact on them. The motivation in both of these cases was financial gain.
‘The victims were treated simply as a means of making money for the two of you.’
The pair, from Warrington, Cheshire, first brought the man to their home in a mini-bus in June 2017, the court heard.
He worked as a domestic servant and full-time at a recycling company.
Jablonskaite and Repsas confiscated the man’s wages and did not pay him for any domestic work he did, the court heard.
It was alleged that the pair controlled the 50-year-old’s work and finances – taking out loans and store cards using his details and setting up bank accounts for him, which they used to pay for their own council tax, mobile phone top-ups, motoring fines and petrol.
The court was told how Jablonskaite paid him £30 a week which he ‘thought was a good deal’.
The man’s understanding of English, finances and possessions were ‘limited’ – with the only items he owned being a mobile phone he had found at the recycling plant and a bag of old coins he had been collecting.
The couple promised the man and woman, aged 50 and 51, money and a new life when they arrived in Warrington, Cheshire in June 2017 and June 2018 respectively (Pictured: The makeshift bed in a tiny cupboard under the stairs)
Jablonskaite claimed to have ‘come across him in Warrington and took pity on him as he was a fellow Lithuanian with nowhere to stay’ before helping him to find employment and open bank accounts.
He escaped nine months later when he found a discarded phone at his workplace and managed to call the Lithuanian embassy for help.
Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said: ‘After arriving in the country in June 2017 in a minibus on a P&O Ferry, the man was taken to an address on Fitzherbert Street in Orford where he slept in the attic.
‘When the couple moved home after Christmas that year, he then slept in a cupboard under the stairs on a mattress with a pillow and blanket.’
The couple trafficked the woman in June 2018 and forced her to do similar chores and left her in similarly horrific living conditions, the court heard.
They claimed it was ‘an act of kindness because of the problems she was having in her home country’.
But the court heard how she slept on a sofa and was so hungry that she was reduced to tears.
She was eventually freed from her ‘invisible handcuffs’ after scribbling a message asking for help on a piece of police paperwork after officers visited the home as part of their investigation.
Ms Daley told the court that Jablonskaite knew the woman had been in a violent relationship in Lithuania.
She said: ‘The woman had a hard life back home and needed money. Rita Jablonskaite exploited that and kept her as an unpaid cleaner and houseworker.
‘The woman said she was planning to live in Warrington because her sister was there but life was not the same.’
Ayaz Qazi, defending Jablonskaite, said: ‘There was psychological and financial exploitation but both appear to have made a recovery.
‘The psychological harm is not of the most serious type. The man was quite capable of leaving, he walked past a police station a number of times on visits to the shop.
‘Also, it did not carry on for a long period of time. She had a different cultural upbringing and was not familiar with the consequences of her behaviour.
‘She has since shown a great deal of remorse and is the carer of a child who will have to go into care if she is sent to prison.’
Sukhdev Garcha, defending Repsas, said: ‘He now accepts what he did was wrong but there is a clear distinction between Jablonskaite’s and Repsas’ criminality.
‘He asked the girl if she had eaten a number of times and made sure she had food. He played a lesser role.’
Detective Inspector Julie Jackson, of Cheshire Police, described Jablonskaite and Repsas as ‘abhorrent, manipulative and controlling’.
She said: ‘The two vulnerable victims in this case were sold on the idea of coming to England to work and earn money whilst living with a family from their homeland.
‘But they ended up being controlled and exploited by Robertas Repsas and Rita Jablonskaite, working excessive hours and not having any money to show for it.
‘With them having had their identification taken off them, speaking very little English, being totally dependent on the offenders and having no way of contacting anyone in Lithuania, both victims felt trapped.
‘The second victim was trafficked, controlled and exploited whilst the couple knew they were being investigated for doing the same to the first victim.
‘This beggars belief and shows that the couple believed that they were above the law as they took advantage of vulnerable people for financial and domestic gain.
‘I am delighted that the pair are now behind bars facing the consequences of their actions and I hope this case reassures the community that we take reports of human trafficking and modern slavery extremely seriously.’
DI Jackson added: ‘Modern slavery destroys lives. Many victims are tricked into coming to the UK with a promise of a good job and a better life.
‘Instead, they are made to live a life of abuse, working in inhumane conditions with very little reward and not knowing how to escape the situation.
‘These offences represent a grave abuse of human rights and basic dignity and we do everything we can to stop people from being victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.
‘But we need all the help we can get in terms of finding victims and I urge anyone with any suspicions or information they have regarding possible cases of modern slavery to get in touch.
‘Please help us to help victims of these devastating crimes.’
Jablonskaite admitted three counts of arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to exploitation at an earlier hearing while Repsas pleaded guilty to one count of the same offence.