The owner of a Harrogate car wash has been jailed for the mistreatment and exploitation of workers who travelled to the UK from their native Romania in search of better lives.

Defrim Paci is sole director of Harrogate Hand Carwash on Sykes Grove, but his crimes were committed against workers at a Carlisle car wash.

Paci and Sitar Ali were jailed for modern slavery crimes by a judge who heard of the harrowing impact their offending had on four men who helped bring the pair to justice after a painstaking multi-agency investigation.

Paci the ringleader

Carlisle Crown Court was told Paci, who has four children, led a criminal plot to exploit employees who were left exhausted having been forced to work long hours in poor conditions for less than the minimum wage at Shiny on Warwick Road in Carlisle. They were also housed in filthy city accommodation.

Some victims were left with only £20 left in weekly pay packet despite working 11 hours a day, six days a week as their freedom, according to the prosecution, was “effectively over-ridden”. Wage slips overstated pay and understated the working hours of workers left with sore feet, cracked hands and exhausted.

Documents found in Paci’s possession and phone evidence revealed Paci’s ongoing interest in the car wash despite his denials.

Meanwhile Ali ‪managed the Shiny site, denying the men proper breaks and days off. Some spoke of the skin on their being “burned” by “toxic” cleaning chemicals, and of receiving no protective clothing. One worker recalled buying cheap gloves from Tesco to protect his hands.

Despite their firm denials, Paci, of Windmill Close, Sutton-in-Ashfield, and Ali, of Adelaide Street, Carlisle, were each convicted of two modern slavery crimes committed over a 15-month period during 2016 and 2017. Ali was also found guilty of possessing criminal property after £16,000 was found in his car after police began making arrests during their criminal investigation.

The four Romanian victims, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, were aged 49, 34, 32 and 21. 

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Victims humiliated and exploited

Another said the ordeal was “the most horrible experience I have been through in my entire life”.

A third added:

The court heard Paci was a committed family man but Judge Nicholas Barker told him of the crimes: “I am satisfied you did benefit significantly from this operation.”

Paci was jailed for 45 months and Ali for 39 months by Judge Barker, who stressed it was necessary for “deterrent ambits” within the sentence to show such offending “will not be tolerated by the courts”.

He told both men: