A father and son who drove around in flashy cars and holidayed in Dubai while keeping 19 slaves at a time in a four-bedroom home and paying them £5 a week have been jailed for a total of 13 years.
Petr Makula, 48, and his son Mario, 26, brought in homeless and alcoholic men from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and installed them in a single house in Dover, Kent.
The Czech pair set up their own recruitment agency to provide workers to a tile factory in nearby Lydd and a hand car wash, but pocketed the lion’s share of the wages themselves.
Petr told his victims he couldn’t pay them because his business was in trouble – but is thought to have made around £1million from the trafficking plot.
Son Mario was pictured dripping in expensive jewellery and driving around in supercars, while his father enjoyed lavish trips to Dubai.
Meanwhile the exploited men worked up to 36 hours straight and were not given days off, sometimes for years on end.
Anyone who spoke out against the conditions was beaten or humiliated by the older man, prosecutors said.
Describing the conditions the workers were kept in, a spokesman for Kent Police said: ‘Hot water was rare and there were no taps in the bathroom.
‘Those living in the property also had to share a food budget of just £100 per week, which would only stretch to one basic meal per day that usually consisted of pasta or potatoes with sauce.
‘Petr Makula controlled the pay of all of his workers and gave them different amounts every week, but always a lot less than what they were entitled to.
‘The cost of accommodation was also taken out of their wages, with the living wage of one worker calculated as being less than 50p an hour.’
Police used an angle grinder to break into the house where the exploited workers were kept last year and arrested Petr Makula.
It is thought the pair had been bringing slaves to the UK since 2007. One victim is estimated to have lost out on more than £27,000 over a four-year period.
Eight of those who had been exploited gave evidence at a trial at Canterbury Crown Court, where a jury was shown social media images of the pair’s lavish lifestyle.
The father and son were found guilty of multiple offences relating to human trafficking and modern slavery and Petr was jailed for eight-and-a-half years and Mario for four-and-a-half years today.
They will both be entitled to automatic release after serving half of their sentence behind bars. They could then face deportation proceedings.
Bizarrely, father Petr tried to get a lighter sentence by claiming he had overcome ‘prejudice’ against his gypsy heritage growing up.
Petr’s daughter Angela Makula, 27, and his nephew, Emil Rac, 40, were both acquitted of all the charges against them.
Following the pair’s jailing, Kent Police Detective Inspector James Derham said: ‘Human trafficking and modern slavery are two of the fastest-growing international crimes and a large source of income for the people responsible, who care little for the misery they inflict on victims who are lured to the UK on the promise of a better life.
‘Petr and Mario Makula made no secret of the fact that they were living the high life, posting images of themselves on social media while flaunting the proceeds of their crimes.
‘What was less obvious was the harm they were causing to their workers who were forced to endure horrendous living conditions with virtually no money to spend on themselves.
‘They spared little if any thought for anyone else’s welfare while they benefited from the misery of others, and are now quite rightly in prison.
‘Tackling human trafficking and modern slavery is a priority for Kent Police and we will be relentless in our pursuit of those whom we believe are responsible for the exploitation of others.
‘Such offences have no place in a civilised society and we are keen to do everything we can to prevent them from happening and protect those who are most at risk.’
Lorna Lee, from the CPS, said: ‘This was a well-planned and co-ordinated conspiracy, where the victims, who were in a vulnerable position in their own countries, were promised a better life in the UK.
‘The reality was starkly different. They were exploited for years, paid well below the minimum wage and forced to live in basic and cramped conditions, sometimes without electricity or running water.
‘The men were effectively prisoners of the circumstances they found themselves in, knowing little English and not having any money or anywhere else to go.
‘Some victims were threatened or beaten, leaving them too scared to complain.
‘Meanwhile, the defendants were using the fruits of slave labour to buy foreign holidays, cars, and jewellery.’