A SWINDON couple who got rich whilst trafficking sex workers across the UK will not have their sentences increased.

Cristian Simion and Mihaela Borcos were jailed last year after a jury found they used vulnerable women, often from Romania, to carry out sex work.

Profiles of the women were uploaded onto adult websites and they were moved around the country.

The couple, who at the time lived in Grantham Close, Freshbrook, then took a large cut of their earnings.

The case was referred to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) by a member of the public under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, who reviewed the case.

However, Solicitor General, Alex Chalk MP, decided not to refer it to the Court of Appeal, where it would have been reviewed.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the AGO said the case could not be properly referred.

They said: “A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

“The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met.”

Wiltshire Police were first tipped off in May 2017 after North Wales Police attended a hotel in Wrexham and spoke to a sex worker, who revealed she was being put to work by an organised crime group in Swindon.

What followed was a complex police investigation, which included trawling through financial records, liaising with other police forces across the country, examining digital devices and computers which were seized from the couple's address and taking statements from potential witnesses.

Their work revealed that Simion and Borcos were running a highly-organised operation using vulnerable women, usually women originally from Romania who could not speak English and had no way of securing legal work in the UK.

The conviction was the first of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act for the force.

Simion, 29 at the time, was found guilty of one count of human trafficking and two counts of money laundering, was jailed for two years and five months.

Borcos, 25 at the time, who was found guilty of one count of human trafficking and one count of money laundering, was jailed for two years and two months.