An Albanian pimp who ran a huge prostitution ring in Britain which included his year-old wife was sent to jail for 10 years yesterday. Luan Plakici, 26, a former interpreter, lured dozens of women from Eastern Europe with promises of work in the United Kingdom before enslaving them in London brothels and massage parlours.
The women were frequently beaten and sometimes raped if they refused to work. He tricked one of his victims, a year-old from Moldova, into marrying him before putting her to work as a prostitute on their wedding night, Wood Green Crown Court in north London was told.
In the months that followed their marriage, Plakici made the teenager have two abortions, forcing her to return to prostitution hours after each one in order to keep his cash losses to a minimum. Plakici made hundreds of thousands of pounds from prostitution in less than two years using the money to buyluxury homes and a number of expensive cars. He admitted seven counts of people trafficking and confessed to helping up to 60 women enter Britain illegally. The jury, which took three weeks to return a verdict, also found him guilty of three counts of kidnapping; one of procuring a teenager to have unlawful sex; one of incitement to rape and three of living on prostitution between July and October The jury heard how Plakici came to Britain seven years ago and promptly claimed political asylum, telling immigration officers he was a refugee from war-torn Kosovo.
In truth he came from Laci, a small city in northern Albania and some miles from fighting in the Balkans. His linguistic skills soon made him a much sought-after interpreter for a string of Home Office-approved law firms specialising in immigration cases. He became a recognised expert on the subject, and took part in a BBC documentary about it.
Carrying a British passport, he travelled Eastern Europe looking for "poor, naive and gullible" women, the court heard.
