of the second case last month, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court convicted two men, 52-year-old Ignacy Brzezinski, from West Bromwich, and Wojciech Nowakowski, 41, from Birmingham, of modern slavery offences.

A third, Jan Sadowski, 26, from West Bromwich, admitted his part on the trial's first day.

At a previous trial ending in February, leading conspirator Marek Chowanic, 30, along with Ignacy's cousin, Marek Brzezinski, 50, recruitment consultant Julianna Chodakiewicz, 24, Natalia Zmuda, 29, and Justyna Parczewska, 48, the group's matriarch, were all convicted of their roles.

During sentencing at the first trial, Judge Mary Stacey said the gang's "degradation" of their victims was "totally unacceptable".

She jailed the five defendants for between 11 and four-and-a-half years in March.

Ignacy Brzezinski, who has skipped bail since being convicted, Nowakowski and Sadowski will beOne week to 2009 elections

Millions in Europe sink into unemployment and poverty

By Dietmar Henning and Elizabeth Zimmermann

1 June 2009

The elections to the European parliament on June 7 take place in the midst of the deepest crisis of capitalism since the 1930s and an extremely tense social situation. Many millions are being plunged into unemployment and poverty, while a small minority of shareholders, stock market speculators and managers have been able to acquire enormous wealth.

The gross domestic product in Europe sank in the first quarter of 2009 compared to one year previously by 4.4 percent. The German economy, which is strongly dependant on exports, declined over the same period by 6.9 percent. The Eastern European countries have been particularly hard hit. In the Baltic States, GDP has plunged by