A married couple who trafficked women from Europe and forced them into prostitution spent their earnings on a "lavish lifestyle" and drove luxury cars. Polish nationals Wieslaw Michniewicz, 53, and his wife, Aleksandra Timoszek, 32, from Leeds, invited young women to the UK with the promise of legitimate work, but then put them to work as prostitutes.

Michniewicz and Timoszek, who lived on Willow Avenue, Burley, targeted vulnerable women, predominantly from Poland. The women were told they would have jobs working as childminders or in local bars or shops. However, when the victims arrived in the UK, they were told they had a debt to pay off and were forced into sex work. The youngest victim was brought to the UK aged 17 and put to work in a brothel the day after her 18th birthday. The women were forced to work up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, providing sexual services.

All the money they earned was handed directly to the couple, who lived a lavish lifestyle on the profits, driving expensive sports cars, the court heard.

The pair were assisted by Michniewicz's cousin, Mariusz Seretny, and wife, Marta Seretny, who were living at Grange Close, Hunslet, and were found to have had a supporting role in prostituting the women.

Following a "complex and painstaking investigation" by specialist detectives at West Yorkshire Police, spanning a decade, officers arrested the couple at their home address on September 14, 2016, on suspicion of offences relating to modern slavery.
Several women were found at the address, along with three luxury sports cars - a Porsche Panamera, a Porsche Carrera and an Audi R8 - which were also seized from the couple, along with £16,000 cash.

Analysis of handwritten ledgers recovered from a safe showed that prostitution of the victims had generated about £170,000, with details of the sizeable debts each victim faced.

During the investigation, officers identified 14 victims, aged between 17 and 31, who had been targeted. Key evidence included social media communications, with more than 1,000 pages of content secured and translated from Polish into English, travel bookings and documents for flights and ferry crossings that brought the victims to the UK and mobile phones with thousands of messages, images, and videos recovered, including the victims' passport details.

Receipts from the Willow Avenue address showed large sums of money being transferred out of the country, while CCTV footage from the house showed the victims being driven off by Michniewicz and Timoszek on a daily basis.

The four defendants were charged with modern slavery and controlling prostitution offences in February 2023, but both Michniewicz and Timoszek fled the country. The pair were traced by officers and extradited back to the UK and remanded in custody until their trial, which began at Leeds Crown Court in November 2025. The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts against all four defendants on December 18, 2025. They were sentenced for those offences at Leeds Crown Court on January 23, 2026.

Three defendants were found guilty of modern slavery and controlling prostitution offences and jailed for a total of 27.5 years between them at Leeds Crown Court on January 23, 2026, while a fourth was given a community order.

Michniewicz, Timoszek and Mariusz Seretny were each convicted of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to exploitation, conspiracy to incite another person to become a prostitute for gain, conspiracy to control prostitution for gain and two counts of controlling prostitution for gain in relation to two individual victims. Marta Seretny was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to control prostitution for gain.

Michniewicz was sentenced to 15 years' jail, with Timoszek given a term of seven-and-a-half years. Mariusz Seretny, 45, was jailed for five years, while 41-year-old Marta Seretny was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work and five rehabilitation days.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Supt Helen Steele said: "The victims have each suffered harrowing experiences and have been left understandably traumatised by the ordeals they were put through.

"We hope that it will help them in some way to know that those responsible have now been brought to justice.

"Modern slavery offences are truly abhorrent, and we remain absolutely committed to doing everything we can to target those involved.

"This is a crime that is often hidden in plain sight, and we would urge members of the public to report any suspicions they have that this type of exploitation is taking place to us immediately."