Corby human trafficking operation run by 'brutal' Lithuanians was 'well oiled machine'

A judge has heard from trafficked workers across Corby how they were humiliated, tortured and treated as servants by a ‘brutal’ former couple.

Lyda Petraviciute and Laisvydas Urbaitis chose their victims because they were vulnerable and ripe for exploitation.

One had suffered a head injury as a child, could not read or write and could not speak English.

Another was mum to two children whose father had died and wanted to give them a better life.

And a third had a string of serious convictions in Lithuania that Urbaitis used as leverage to make him be his ‘enforcer’.

Although they were only prosecuted for crimes against four victims, the evidence uncovered by officers investigating the case suggested there were many more who are yet to come forward. Bank cards in 32 names were uncovered and a police raid at an address in Argyll Street found several people living there who were being exploited by the pair.

They were handed nine-year jail terms at a sentencing hearing at Northampton Crown Court yesterday (Thursday, January 5).

A jury sat through three months of gruelling and often distressing evidence in order to reach verdicts on each of the counts – with both defendants found not guilty on a handful of the charges against them. Three members were in court to hear Her Honour Judge Rebecca deliver her sentence.

A series of moving victim impact statements shone a light on the desperate situation the victims found themselves in.

‘They left me wanting to hang myself’

In March 2018, one victim phoned Petraviciute from Liverpool where he had been exploited by a different gang, thinking she would help him.

Instead, she brought him to Corby, signed him up to an employment agency and opened multiple bank accounts and credit cards in his name, which she controlled.

He told the court he had been left suicidal. He said: “I dream about going to work and how they beat me up. They left me penniless so my family didn’t want me when I returned to Lithuania.”

Police have twice had to talk him out of taking his own life. He said the fact the pair pleaded not guilty, forcing him to give evidence in court, has re-traumatised him.

"It’s left me wanting to hang myself,” he said.

Sentencing Petraviciute, Her Honour Judge Rebecca Crane said: “You syphoned off virtually all of his wages.

"Nineteen thousand pounds went from his account to your account. You gave him £20-£40 a week to live off.

"You forced him to take out credit agreements for a phone, fridge, washing machine and TV.

"You told him you intended to marry him so you could get a mortgage.

"He lost a year of his life and described his treatment as torture.

"He said you were everywhere and you controlled everything.”

‘Lyda lived in Corby for ten years, doing nothing, changing cars like socks’

A second victim, who was blind, said he was threatened with violence by Petraviciute.

He worked in factories in Corby while she took over his HSBC account.

He eventually escaped Corby in April 2019 and walked into a police station in Peterborough. Even after that, his outstanding wages were transferred into a bank account controlled by the gang.

In his victim personal statement to the court said: “I left with two bags and eight or nine pounds.

"My final wages were taken from my account in my name so I was left with nothing.

"When I left Corby I was so scared. Every passing car I thought they were coming for me. Lyda used to control me so I didn’t know who to trust.

"I thought they’d come after me with a baseball bat. I was still afraid even after she was found guilty.

"Lyda lived in Corby for ten years, doing nothing, changing cars like socks.

“She lived off our hard work.”

Judge Crane said: “He said you were a brutal woman with friends who would be violent toward him if he did not comply.”

‘He said he’d burn down my house’

A third victim, a mum who had two children whose father had died, told the court how she was earning £350 per week but only being given between £20 and £40 in order to feed and clothe herself.

She was brought to Corby in a minibus with the offer of a job in the town.

"I came to the UK on the premise of a better life, willing to work hard to support and provide for my children in Lithuania,” she said. “I cried for three days when entering the UK I had to share a bedroom between three of us, having come from a three bedroom house.I wasn’t allowed to make friends in Corby.

"Lyda ran up a £3,000 tax bill in my name, opened a bank account in my name, insurance in my name… My child can’t even open a bank account now as his credit rating has been ruined.

"I’ve had to move away from Corby. Urbaitis said he’d pay someone to burn down my house back in Lithuania if we reported him. He threatened to sell me as prostitute.”

In her evidence to the court, the victim said she had been treated ‘like a servant, like a piece of rubbish, like an animal.’

Judge Crane said: “She went to the authorities in August 2018, after a year of misery and exploitation.”

He was subject to violence by you and your associates’

The final victim had a long and serious criminal record and had met Urbaitis in prison in 2006. Urbaitis used his knowledge to exploit him. He’d arrived in Corby via Ireland and Luton

Judge Crane said: “He’d be reluctant to go to the authorities and if he did, less likely to be believed. I’m sure he was subject to violence by you and your associates.”

‘The debt just kept getting bigger’

Earlier in the trial, which ran for three months this Autumn, the court had heard from a social worker who outlined the desperate situation of one victim and her sons.

They had already been involved with social services in Lithuania, and when they were brought to Corby in 2018 on the promise of a job and home, life had seemed hopeful.

But the family were holed up in a room in an HMO.

Lithuanian social services had contacted Northamptonshire County Council to let them know that the family was coming to Corby and to hand over their file. But social workers here could find no trace of them.

Then, one night, town centre CCTV operators spotted a child scavenging around bins at about 1am. Police were called and the case was referred to social services.

Diligent social workers visited the family at their room in Llwellyn Walk which was being sub-let by Petraviciute and Urbaitis.

Officials discovered that the children weren’t in school and their mother couldn’t speak English.

In their room was just a bed, a chair and a fridge freezer. There was little food in the property.

Both children were described as ‘fearful’ and reluctant to talk.

When social workers visited again, the victim quietly told them that ‘the walls have ears’, and clammed-up.

She told them she had a job but had to give her money to ‘a man’ who then decided how much she could have back.

"She said she was in debt to them, but the debt just kept getting bigger”, the social worker told the court.

The woman was repeatedly offered help but she told social workers there would be ‘repercussions’ if she accepted. She said police involvement would ‘just make things worse.’

The woman and her children were eventually given a safe-house and they moved away from Corby in September 2018.

Petraviciute and Urbaitis will face proceeds of crime hearings this spring. Any assets they have that the court deems to be the proceeds of their criminal activity could be confiscated.