Four men have been sentenced for killing a member of an organised crime group. Tomasz Samel, 45, was kidnapped in Birmingham by three men in 2019, who claimed to be from Interpol. He was then driven to Liverpool and attacked over the loss of cigarettes worth £1m.
The cigarettes, which had been illegally imported from Poland, had been in Mr Samel's possession when they were seized by HM Revenue and Customs on February 22 2019.
Kidnap and attack
Samel, who was the subject of an international arrest warrant, was kidnapped from his home in Raleigh Road, Handsworth, at about 8.35am on March 27 2019. Samel was tortured, doused in petrol and set alight during the horrific attack.
After being placed in a white van, he was driven to Merseyside before being dumped in a remote location near Bickerstaffe in Lancashire, where he knocked on the door of a property for help at 11.10pm that day.
Convictions and sentences
In August, a jury unanimously convicted Neil Jones, 49, of no fixed address, and Tobiasz Kozlowski, 38, of Kirkby, of Samel's murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Co-defendants Kevin Wooden, 46, from Oxfordshire, and Kye Arthur, 35 from Bristol, were found guilty of manslaughter. Kozlowski's wife, Sandra Kozlowska, 38, also of Kirkby, was convicted of assisting an offender by helping him to avoid detection by police.
Today (Friday, October 9), Jones was jailed for life with a minimum term of 34 years in prison. Kozlowski received a life sentence with a minimum term of 33 years in prison. Wooden was sentenced to 23 years in prison, while Arthur was jailed for 22 years. Kozlowska received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for three years.
Judge's remarks
Mr Justice Wall told the defendants at Birmingham Crown Court: "You all chose to involve yourselves in a truly horrific series of events. The motive for this was that he was in possession of a consignment of cigarettes worth £1m illegally imported from Poland, when they were seized by HMRC.
"He was held responsible for their loss. Following his kidnap, Mr Samel was detained in the Liverpool area for some time. It is impossible to say how he was treated during the early part of his detention because the extent of his later-inflicted burn injuries did not allow for his body to be examined for other marks of violence."
The judge added: "I do not sentence you on the basis that he was tortured during this time. However, this lengthy period of detention must have been terrifying for him. After a number of hours of detention, he was stripped naked, and, while seated and defenceless, petrol was thrown over him and he was set alight."
"He suffered extensive burns to most of his body. He was then dressed and driven to a remote area where he was thrown out of a vehicle onto the side of the road. His injuries were so serious that anyone who saw him after they were inflicted and chose to leave him without assistance of any kind must have intended that he would die of them."
The judge said the descriptions of Mr Samel's injuries by attending paramedics and those who saw him at the scene were "harrowing and disturbing." The judge explained that Samel was in hospital for almost three months before he died.
Mr Samel died at Whiston Hospital in Prescot on June 21 2019, as a result of his injuries. The judge described the plot as a "carefully executed plan" and said Koslowski and Jones were the "organisers" of what happened to Samel.
The judge said Wooden and Arthur were paid to kidnap Mr Samel, along with a third person who has not yet been identified, and initially posed as Amazon delivery drivers before claiming to be law enforcement officers.
Kozlowski and Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to falsely imprison before the trial began. Jones had also admitted manslaughter. Wooden and Arthur admitted conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to falsely imprison.
Prosecution response
Speaking after the case, Kate Seal, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "This was a sustained and merciless attack on a man taken from the safety of his own home.
"Bringing all those responsible to justice required years of painstaking work, including close co-operation with West Midlands Police and international partners across three countries, to gather the forensic, digital and witness evidence needed to secure these convictions."
"Mr Samel's family have shown extraordinary strength throughout this ordeal. Our thoughts remain with them, and I hope these sentences reflect the severity of what was inflicted on Mr Samel and provide the family with a sense of justice being achieved, though nothing can undo their loss."
The police investigation 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.
