Moment Romanian dancing pimp makes it rain with cash

A Romanian pimp and his girlfriend have been jailed for a total of 16 years for assault, kidnap and exploitation of a woman who was forced against her will to have sex with up to ten men a day. 

Mihai Jean-Marinel, 29, and his girlfriend Florentiana Urmez, 27, were jailed for ten and six years respectively. 

Jean-Marinel, was found guilty of modern slavery and exploitation sentences while Urmez was sentenced for kidnap and exploitation offences. 

Both face deportation to Romania upon their release from prison. 

The pair were arrested by Greater Manchester Police who were investigating reports that a woman in the Cheetham Hill area of the city was being exploited in 2020.

At the time of her kidnap, she was grabbed from the street and bundled into a car by Urmez. 

Crown Square Crown Court heard the car went to Derby. Police were alerted after a local Manchester charity who provide support for sex workers in the city noticed the woman was missing. 

The charity alerted police who began an investigation. 

In an effort to stop the investigation, Urmez and the victim attended Central Park police station in north Manchester. Urmez tried to convince officers that she had not kidnapped the woman but was instead trying to help her escape from prostitution. 

When confronted with CCTV showing the assault and kidnap, Urmez claimed this was 'a ploy' to enable the lady to escape. 

Investigators discovered the victim had met Urmez's mother more than a decade earlier in the Romanian capital Bucharest. 

According to GM Police: 'She was offered a place to stay, but she was treated as a slave. She was forced to do housework and sex work and give the family all her earnings. The victim was subjected to years of physical and emotional abuse by Urmez and her family. She was later moved to Craiova, Romania, with Urmuz, which is where she met Jean Marinel Mihai, the boyfriend of Urmez at the time.

'In December 2018, the victim was brought to the United Kingdom by Mihai, flying to Liverpool with the promise of a better life. Mihai used a number of methods to conceal the fact that they were known to one another, in order to avoid raising suspicions of airport staff. Upon arrival, she was placed in a guest house and put to work as a sex worker in the Cheetham Hill and Strangeways areas.' 

Police said Mihai took any money the victim had earned and regularly subjected her to violent assaults. 

A co-accused, Ion Raducan, was convicted in 2021 for his role in the kidnap and exploitation and was jailed for six years. He will also be deported to Romania upon his release.  

Detective Inspector Tony Platten the Senior Investigating Officer of this case said: 'I would like to commend the survivor for her incredible strength throughout this entire process, and for trusting us and our partners to get justice.

'She endured years of abuse and coercion by this group, forced to live in unimaginable conditions for so much of her life. They took extraordinary measures to conceal their illicit operation, but I am glad today to see that they will now face a considerable time behind bars, before they will be deported by our immigration colleagues.'