Agata Jankowska

Agata Jankowska, aged 37 from Gloucester, was a key member of an organised crime group prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) South West Complex Casework Unit for human trafficking offences involving the sexual exploitation of women. The group, led by Maciej Kozlowski, trafficked at least 20 women, predominantly from Poland, over two years to force them into sex work at brothels in locations such as Gloucester, Cheltenham, Swindon, Bridgwater, Kettering, Coventry, Nottingham, Worcester, and Wales. Women were shuttled between sites to increase profits, with profiles like one victim's appearing in up to seven towns.

Jankowska's contributions were logistical and administrative: she arranged flights for the victims entering the UK and managed some of the mobile phones used to coordinate client bookings for the sex services. This role supported the broader operation run by Kozlowski and his accomplice Piotr Lebek, who handled transport and cash collection. The prosecution's case relied on multifaceted evidence from the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU), including airport-to-brothel travel logs, extensive messaging records for appointments, photos for online sex adverts, cash handover communications, and evidence of purchases for the trade, such as bedding, wet wipes, condoms, and phone top-ups.

The group's activities demonstrated a ruthless exploitation of vulnerable women in the sex trade, maximising financial gain through control and mobility. Andrew Pritchard, Specialist Prosecutor for CPS South West’s Complex Casework Unit, remarked: “Kozlowski, Lebek and Jankowska were members of a well organised and motivated group who chose to make money off women made vulnerable by their work in the sex trade. Victims were treated like a commodity to be exploited and moved around the country to different brothels simply to maximise their profitability.” Detective Superintendent Charlotte Tucker, leading the SWROCU investigation, emphasised: “This group was making huge amounts of money by trafficking women into and around the country to exploit like commodities, profiting from the risks these vulnerable victims took and the ‘work’ they endured. I hope the sentences handed down bring her and the other women some closure.”

Jankowska pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced on 2 February 2024 to three years and four months' imprisonment, acknowledging her involvement in the trafficking network that enabled widespread sexual exploitation.