Donegal<\/a> Circuit Court on Thursday. <\/p>\nIt is the first conviction of its kind in the Republic for human trafficking on the basis of labour exploitation. Some of the victims had to scour public bins for food.<\/p>\n
The duo, of Assaroe Falls, Ballyshannon, were each before the court on 17 charges, including seven apiece of trafficking. They also pleaded to money laundering and forgery charges.<\/p>\n
Judge John Aylmer said it was clear it was a joint enterprise and both men \u201cplayed a lead role\u201d.<\/p>\n
He noted a very high degree of planning and premeditation and said there was a substantial degree of threats and menaces used, with victims subjected to physical violence.<\/p>\n
The victims, six men and one woman, lived either in a rural house in Rossnowlagh or in an apartment in Ballyshannon, where conditions were described as \u201csubstandard\u201d with a lack of heating and no bedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a very significant psychological harm inflicted on the victims,\u201d the judge said. \u201cIn some cases, the impact continues.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou took advantage of the fact that they were all vulnerable people and they lived in quite impoverished circumstances in Latvia. They were, therefore, all the more amenable to this type of exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month at a sentencing hearing, Det Garda Paddy Kelly told how the victims were initially recruited by deception in Latvia. They were promised employment with a good salary, good housing and no bills.<\/p>\n
Poniza and Pogosyan entered into an arrangement where they would supply workers to two companies in south Donegal. There was no criminality suggested against the companies, who co-operated fully with the investigation.<\/p>\n
Bank cards in the name of some of the victims were obtained and used by the accused.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victims suffered extreme humiliation,\u201d the judge said. \u201cThey felt as if they were treated like …animals, or worse, like slaves. They were left homeless and some were left scavanging in bins for food.\u201d<\/p>\n
The passports of the victims were seized by the men who said they were needed to manage tax affairs. The accused used their victims\u2019 payslips to control what money they would receive. They made deductions while victims would be \u201cfined\u201d if they were found drinking alcohol in the properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt that I had no rights,\u201d one victim said, adding that he was regularly assaulted. \u201cI felt humiliated.\u201d <\/p>\n
The woman told how she was threatened and bullied and how the pair controlled their victims at all times. At one stage, the accused men made her sign a \u201cdebt bond\u201d and she paid \u20ac100 a week until a total of \u20ac2,100 was paid over.<\/p>\n
The judge noted both accused had entered guilty pleas, albeit at a late stage, which spared the victims having to endure a six-week trial.<\/p>\n
He noted an \u201cexpression of remorse\u201d from Poniza, which was previously issued through defence counsel, while he said that Poniza had a good work record, having trained as a mechanic, before his arrest.<\/p>\n
Pogosyan, who hails from Uzbekistan and is of Armenian nationality, penned a series of letters to victims and to Aylmer, detailing his apology, a previous court hearing heard. The judge said his remorse was apparent. <\/p>\n
When police arrested the men in 2023, Revenue and fraudulent documents in victims\u2019 names were seized as well as fuel cards and debit cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men who trafficked seven people to Ireland for work and subjected them to horrendous conditions have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1485,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-507474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donegal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}