A sick and twisted couple trafficked innocent girls and forced them into working as prostitutes, while spending their dirty ill-gotten fortune on their own “lavish lifestyle”.
A depraved 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.
The married couple lived in Burnley, and sought out to target vulnerable women, predominantly from Poland and bring them over to the UK. The women were promised jobs as childminders or in local bars or shops, but were then told they had a huge debt to pay off and were forced into sex work instead.
The couple had made around £170,000 from the sex slave ring, where the women were forced to work up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week providing the sexual services. One of the youngest victims was just 17 when she was brought over and the teen was put to work in a brothel the day after her 18th birthday.
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These women wouldn’t see the money earned, and was handed straight to the callous couple, who splashed the cash on a luxury lifestyle. The court heard the couple were spending the money on driving expensive sports cars and receipts from the address showed large sums of money being transferred out of the country, and CCTV footage from the house showing the victims being driven off by Michniewicz and Timoszek on a daily basis.
The pair were assisted by Michniewicz’s cousin, Mariusz Seretny, and wife, Marta Seretny, 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. Officers arrested the couple at their home address on September 14, 2016, on suspicion of offences relating to modern slavery.
Police found several women at the address and three luxury sports cars – a Porsche Panamera, a Porsche Carrera and an Audi R8, which were 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.
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 in January 23, 2026 – while a fourth was given a community order. During the investigation officers identified 14 victims, aged between 17 and 31, who had been targeted.
Women considered unsuitable on arrival in the UK were sent back to Poland, and another had become suspicious and refused to travel to the UK. Key evidence came from social media communication, with more than 1,000 pages of content secured and translated from Polish into English.
Police also found travel bookings and documents for flights and ferry crossings that brought the victims to the UK, mobile phones with thousands of messages, images and videos recovered, including the victims’ passport details.
Throughout the investigation, detectives maintained contact with the victims, many of whom returned to Poland following the arrests of Michniewicz and Timoszek. The investigation team sought the assistance of the Polish authorities and, through a joint investigation team facilitated by Europol, were able to safeguard and support the victims in Poland and use specially trained officers to secure their evidence.
The four defendants were charged with modern slavery and controlling prostitution offences in February 2023, but both Michniewicz and Timoszek fled the country. The couple were then found and extradited back to the UK and remanded in custody until their trial, which began at Leeds Crown Court in November 2025.
On December 18, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts against all four defendants and were sentenced on January 23, 2026. 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 and 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 Superintendent 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.”
