Man jailed after controlling prostitution at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Southport

Merseyside Police has welcomed the sentencing of a 27 year-old Romanian man in relation to human trafficking offences.

Robert-Florin Dragnea, 27, of Samuel Street, Preston appeared at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday afternoon (Tuesday, 23 January) where he pled guilty to one count of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation, together with a further charge of controlling prostitution.

Dragnea was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment, after which time he will be deported to Romania. Officers have also applied for a slavery and trafficking prevention order against him which will last for 10 years, ensuring the public are protected from further harm.

Dragnea facilitated the movement of a woman who became a sex worker in the Southport area. Further police investigations then uncovered additional sex workers who were under his control.

He was subsequently arrested when entering the country at Liverpool John Lennon Airport in September 2017, charged with a number of offences and has been in custody since that time.

Detective Inspector Tony O’Brien said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the officers involved in this case and our CPS colleagues, whose hard work secured a guilty plea from Dragnea.

“Partnership working has proved to be crucial in building a case against Dragnea and I am proud of the work completed by our investigation team, National Crime Agency, Europol and Romanian law enforcement who have all contributed to bringing him to justice. Together we’ve protected vulnerable people who have been exploited by him and have prevented further harm.

“This is only the second prosecution of its kind for an offence of Human Trafficking in Merseyside, and as a Force we are actively investing more resources into training specialised officers, enabling us to better investigate and tackle modern slavery.

“We are committed to protecting the public, and in doing so we’ll continue working with partner agencies to prevent this type of exploitation. This sentencing will hopefully reassure the public that we will seek these criminals and bring them to justice.

“Modern slavery is a despicable offence and abuses the victim’s human rights, but sadly we are seeing more and more cases involving vulnerable people who have been manipulated by ruthless people who use and exploit them.

“We encourage the reporting of this type of crime and I would urge anyone who has any information relating to Modern Slavery or human trafficking to contact 101, or anonymously through the Modern Slavery Helpline on 0800 0121 700.”