Wellingborough-based sex trafficker DEPORTED by Home Office

A pimp who had been living in Wellingborough after being convicted by a Romanian court of sex trafficking women and children has been sent home by the UK Government.

As revealed yesterday by the Northants Telegraph, Cosmin Busuioc was convicted in 2014 of trafficking more than 20 victims to hotels around Craiova in South Romania to be used by men for sex.

After serving part of his ten year sentence, Busuoic came to live first in Dale Close, Wellingborough, during 2019, then in a flat in Gordon Road. He had been caught stealing from Boots in Kettering in August 2019 but remained in the country despite appearing before a court for that crime.

When they discovered his past, Northamptonshire Police applied for an interim notification order to ensure Busuoic signed the sex offenders' register which would help officers monitor his behaviour. On Tuesday (July 6) officers went to court again to ask Wellingborough magistrates for a full notification order that forced Busuoic to adhere to conditions including notifying them of a change of address within three days, telling them if he is planning to travel abroad and telling them when he is staying at any address where a child lives.

Busuoic did not attend the court hearing, although the case went ahead and the notification order was imposed.

It is understood that Busuoic had recently made an attempt to legalise his status as a UK resident.

But late last night (Friday, July 9), the Home Office confirmed to reporters that Busuoic had been removed from the country and revoked his right to be in the UK.

A statement said: “The public should be in no doubt of our determination to remove dangerous criminals who violate our laws and abuse our hospitality.

“Each week we remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries who have no right to be here, and since January 2019 we have removed over 7,985 foreign national offenders.”

Busuoic was convicted after police officers in Craiova stopped three taxis carrying women and girls to hotels to be exploited by men in October 2012. Fourteen months later, the gang of 15 were sentenced to between three and ten years for their part in the conspiracy, with Busuoic being handed a ten year sentence which he later appealed. He is believed to have served part of his sentence before coming to live as part of the growing Romanian diaspora in Northamptonshire.

In recent years, police have made a series of high-profile raids across the UK to try to tackle to increasing exploitation of Romanian women brought into the country to be exploited by men here. A 2018 parliamentary inquiry into commercial sexual exploitation found that Romanian women were being trafficking on an industrial scale across the UK.

Northamptonshire Police have previously reached out to victims of modern day slavery to encourage them to speak out. If you are a victim or you know someone you think may be being exploited, you can contact Northamptonshire Police, in confidence, on 101 or 999 in an emergency, or you can report online.