Gang jailed for 112 years over Handsworth dad's kidnap and killing

Four men have been jailed for a total of 112 years over the kidnap and killing of a father who was taken from his home in Handsworth by men posing as Interpol officers.

Tomasz Samel, 45, was abducted from Raleigh Close at around 8.40am on 27 March 2019. The men told him they were carrying out a European Arrest Warrant issued for him in Poland, where he was originally from.

He was bundled into a white Peugeot van and driven north, where he was doused in petrol and set alight. He suffered burns to 75 per cent of his body and was dumped in a remote location. Later that night, at around 11.10pm, he banged on the door of a remote house in Lancashire and told the householder he had been driven from Birmingham and tortured.

Mr Samel spent three months in hospital but died from his injuries on 21 June 2019.

A £1 million cigarette seizure

The investigation found that Mr Samel was involved in smuggling illicit cigarettes from Poland to the UK, and had a unit in Aston where they were stored. On 22 February 2019, HMRC officers raided the unit and seized 10 million cigarettes with a street value of around £1 million. The gang held him responsible for the loss.

The sentences

At Birmingham Crown Court on Friday 9 October:

• Tobiasz Kozlowski, 39, from Kirkby in Merseyside, was found guilty of murder and jailed for life, with a minimum term of 33 years.
• Neil Jones, 49, of no fixed address, was found guilty of murder and jailed for life, with a minimum term of 34 years. He is already serving a 30-year sentence in Greece for trafficking £42 million of cocaine.
• Kevin Wooden, 46, from Banbury, was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 23 years.
• Kye Arthur, 35, from Bristol, was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 22 years.

All four had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and falsely imprison. Sandra Kozlowska, 38, also from Kirkby, was found guilty of assisting an offender and given a three-year suspended sentence with 200 hours of unpaid work.

The court heard that Kozlowski and Jones led the plot to "teach a lesson" to Mr Samel. Wooden bought a police-style earpiece online so he could pass himself off as an Interpol officer, and acquired the van.

"The fear has never left us"

Mr Samel's wife, Beata Ostrowska, said: "My children and I witnessed Tomasz being kidnapped. That moment changed our lives forever. The trauma for my children didn't begin when he died. It began the moment they watched him being taken from us."

Mr Justice Mark Wall said: "All four of you chose to involve yourselves in a truly horrific course of events."

Seven years and many countries

Chief Superintendent Scott Griffiths, who led the investigation, said officers had pieced together movements, mobile phone data and CCTV over many years. The inquiry took them to Poland, Greece, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, France, Scotland and Wales.

"I'm pleased that after more than seven years, we have finally been able to get justice for Tomasz and his family," he said. "This was a significant organised crime group, making millions of pounds through the illegal trade of cigarettes."