Double life of accountant in sex trafficking gang

A FORMER senior manager at Deloitte in Manchester is facing jail over his role in a sex trafficking gang.

Until last year Kunal Chaudhary was a senior manager in the enterprise risk services team at the accountancy group’s Spinningfields office.

But he was suspended and after being arrested by police investigating a gang that tricked mainly Hungarian women into coming to the UK for administrative and childcare jobs, only to be forced into working as prostitutes in brothels around London.

Chaudhary, who lived in Didsbury, was sacked last week after being found guilty after a five month trial at Croydon Crown Court.

He was convicted along with ringleader Vishal Chaudhary, Attila Kovacs and Szilvia Abel. Other members Krisztian Abel and Beata Herman had already pleaded guilty. All will be sentenced at a future date.

Croydon Crown Court heard how at least 120 women were trafficked, some having responded to adverts on websites; others having applied online for what they believed were administrative, cleaning and babysitting jobs.

Those who applied for these jobs found themselves being forced or coerced into prostitution when they arrived. Some were made to have sex with up to 20 men a day. The gang controlled the women with threats of violence and intimidation, this included threatening to harm or tell their families they were prostitutes. The gang would retain their passports in order to exert further control over them.

Det Sgt Alan Clark, of the Metropolitan Police’s Trafficking and Kidnap Unit, said: “They came to the UK for regular employment, to earn money to make a better life for themselves and their families. Instead, they found themselves trapped and at the mercy of this abusive group. I would like to pay tribute to the bravery of these women during what has been a very lengthy case.”

“The group applied a cold business mentality to their crime, treating women as no more than a commodity. We found what can only be described as a centre of operations at a semi-detached house in Brent Cross. There were in excess of 40 mobile phones being used to take calls for victims housed across London.

“Four laptop computers were lined up in a row, all logged on to a website offering sexual services. Often the women weren’t even aware of the services they were expected to provide. There was even an automated system in place to regularly refresh the advertisements they had placed.”

A spokesman for Deloitte said: “Kunal Chaudhary is a former employee of the firm. The police have made it clear that these terrible offences were not in any way connected with his employment at Deloitte. As soon as the charges were confirmed he was suspended without pay and following his conviction he was summarily dismissed without notice.”