THE eighth and final member of a prostitution gang that trafficked more than 50 women to the UK for sex has been jailed.

Attila Kolompar, 37, has handed a two years and nine months sentence for his part in the gang, which included recruiting woman from deprived parts of Hungary and chaperoning them to brothels and hotel rooms across Sussex.

Seven others have already been handed prison terms for their part in the operation, which saw brothels created at the University of Sussex campus in Brighton and in Eastbourne.

Lewes Crown Court heard that Kolompar, who is from a deprived part of Hungary close to the border in Romania, was the final piece in the jigsaw.

His duties in the gang included recruiting women from his home town and flying them over to the UK to work in brothels and hotels.

Among those he brought over was a 17-year-old who was denied entry to the country due to her age.

In the UK he was assigned a car by the gang to transport the working girls to brothels and hotel rooms.

The court heard that in the three months he was in the country he sent £10,757 back to accounts in Hungary.

Kolompar was set to stand trial later this year but last month pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic women into the UK for sexual exploitation. Jailing him, judge Richard Hayward accepted the defendant did not play as big a role as others. However, he added: "You all played your part. This was a joint enterprise and you should take responsibility for what took place. The evidence from flights suggests you came into the country in December 2011 and left on March 2012. But I do not accept your involvement was limited to that very short period. Females were being recruited in the area where you lived both before and after those dates.”

Speaking outside court, David Fairclough, from the Home Office Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigations team, said he was pleased with the sentence.

He said: “Kolompar took advantage of these vulnerable young women and controlled them mentally, physically and financially.

“They were coming to the UK in the hope of improving their lives but were exploited so that Kolompar and his associates could run their despicable criminal network.”

Background

SEVEN other gang members have already been sentenced for their part in trafficking and prostitution ring.

Mate Puskas, 25, of Surrey Street, Croydon, Victoria Brown, 25, of Oakley Road Bognor and Zoltan Mohacsi, 36, of Cranbrook Road, Ilford, got six, three and four years respectively following a trial in January.

Brothers Istvan and Peter Toth, 34 and 28, of St John’s Road, Eastbourne, got five and four years.

Both also had nine months added after being convicted of contempt of court for breaking bail – both are still on the run.

The five were found guilty after trial of conspiracy to control the activities of prostitutes for gain, conspiracy to traffic into the UK and conspiracy to traffic within the UK Sandor Mohacsi, 35, and Csaba Safian, 33, of no fixed address, were jailed in August for two years and eight months each.

They had pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic women into the UK for sexual exploitation.