Three years ago police in Lancashire noticed that among an influx of Romanians was a man called Gabriel Razvan Ursu, a career criminal with convictions for theft, fraud and running prostitutes.

Brothels started to spring up in the east of the county and officers began to watch houses in Blackburn and Burnley which were being used by Ursu. After they discovered that he had travelled to Luton to collect a “new girl” from the airport they raided his Burnley terr­ace, and there they found Ursu with Maria.