Four men have been jailed for the murder of a member of an organised crime group who was tortured, doused in petrol and set alight. Father-of-two Tomasz Samel, 45, was kidnapped in March 2019 in Birmingham by three men claiming to be from Interpol, before being driven to the Liverpool area and attacked to be “taught a lesson” over the loss of cigarettes worth £1 million. He died in hospital three months after he was set alight while “naked and outnumbered”.
Kidnap and killing linked to cigarette seizure
Mr Samel’s killing was linked to the seizure of illicit and counterfeit cigarettes which had been smuggled into the UK from Poland. The victim had a unit in Elkington Street, Aston, Birmingham, the court heard, where HM Revenue and Customs had seized cigarettes on February 22 2019.
Neil Jones, 48, and Tobiasz Kozlowski, 38, who were among the main organisers behind the abduction and death of Mr Samel, who was kidnapped from his home in Raleigh Close, Handsworth, were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 34 years and 33 years respectively on Friday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Convictions and sentences
Jurors deliberated for more than 11 hours in August before unanimously convicting Jones, of no fixed address, and Kozlowski, of Crosland Road, Kirkby, Merseyside, of Mr Samel’s murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. The pair pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to falsely imprison before the trial began, while Jones had also admitted manslaughter.
Co-defendants Kevin Wooden, 46, of Alma Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, and 35-year-old Kye Arthur, of Copley Gardens, Bristol, who were cleared of murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm but were found guilty of manslaughter, were sentenced to 23 years and 22 years respectively. They had admitted conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to falsely imprison.
Kozlowski’s wife, Sandra Kozlowska, 38, also of Crosland Road, Kirkby, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for three years, after she was found guilty of assisting an offender by helping him to avoid detection by police, hiding evidence and moving money through bank accounts on his behalf.
Judge’s sentencing remarks
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Mr Justice Wall told the defendants they had all chosen to involve themselves in a “truly horrific series of events”. He said: “You played different parts in what happened. I am sure that you, Kozlowski and Jones, were organisers of these events.
“You both had a financial stake in the cigarettes that went missing and had a motive to punish the man whom you considered had lost them. You both went to Poland after they went missing. I am sure that this was part of the planning process.”
He added: “I am sure that the two of you intended that Mr Samel would die. If you had intended anything short of death, you would have made some arrangement for his being returned to Birmingham after he was assaulted.
“Rather, you disposed of the van he was brought to Liverpool in and sent the kidnappers away without asking them to wait to take Tomasz Samel home. Your chosen method of inflicting violence was fire. Fire is self-evidently not a weapon which can be controlled to a nicety allowing for the infliction of serious injury rather than death.
“In any event, even if your intention had been that he should not be killed but be really seriously injured, this affords you no mitigation for an attack carried out as it was.
“The distinction between an intention to kill and one to cause grievous bodily harm when someone is set alight with petrol is paper thin if it exists at all.”
The judge said life imprisonment was “richly deserved” for Kozlowski and Jones. He said: “There was a very high degree of mental and physical suffering inflicted on Tomasz Samel before he died – both in the period where he was being held hostage and the period of three months while he was in hospital.
“Your victim was vulnerable at the time he was set alight – he was naked and outnumbered.”
Of Wooden and Arthur, the judge said he accepted that the pair had been recruited to the plan and paid to act as Amazon delivery men and then law enforcement officers to kidnap Mr Samel. He said: “The jury’s verdicts of guilty of manslaughter make clear that you knew that violence was to be meted out to Mr Samel after you had delivered him.”
He added: “The kidnapping was committed in the victim’s own home… This was a highly planned activity in which you did not become involved at the last moment.”
Addressing Kozlowska, the judge said her efforts to assist her husband were “persistent and varied and they allowed (him) to evade justice for some time”.
Investigation and international cooperation
A six-week trial was told Mr Samel, who was the subject of an international arrest warrant, was dumped in a remote location in Lancashire after he was set on fire. He managed to walk to a house and was given water after knocking at the door of a property near Bickerstaffe at 11.10pm on March 27. He was taken to Whiston Hospital in Prescot but died on June 21 2019 as a result of his injuries.
The police investigation into Mr Samel’s killing saw wider inquiries carried out in Poland, Greece, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, France, Scotland and Wales, where the gang had operations or had fled to in the aftermath of the kidnap.
The CPS said Wooden was arrested in the Dominican Republic under a false name and had to be extradited before the trial. Hannah Sidaway, roving liaison prosecutor at the CPS, said: “This case shows what can be achieved when prosecutors and law enforcement work together across borders.
“Support from our partners in Poland, Greece and the Dominican Republic, together with Eurojust, was instrumental in securing evidence, progressing inquiries across jurisdictions, and ensuring those responsible faced justice in the UK.
“The CPS is grateful to all our partners, and our thoughts remain with Mr Samel’s family.”
