A nurse from Bermondsey has been ordered to pay nearly £184,000 as part of her punishment for trafficking Nigerian women into Europe and forcing them into sex work.
Josephine Iyamu, 54, who is already serving an eighteen-year stretch in prison for her vile crimes, was slapped with the confiscation order at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, March 4.
The amount took into account her assets, which include a large house in Benin City, Nigeria, with staff. She also had a £400,000 house in Bermondsey, as the News has reported.
If she fails to pay the full sum within three months, she will serve two more years in prison and will still have to pay the full amount.
Iyamu, aka Madame Sandra, was jailed in July 2018 for her human trafficking scheme, which involved putting her victims through humiliating voodoo ceremonies while taking them to Germany to work as prostitutes.
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Kay Mellor, a senior investigating officer with the National Crime Agency, said: “Josephine Iyamu specifically targeted vulnerable women and put them through the most horrific experience, only to profit considerably form their misery.
“Iyamu’s expenditure on travel and properties far outweighed her legitimate earnings as a nurse and our investigation into her finances proved she made hundreds of thousands of pounds from her criminality.
“Confiscation orders are a key tool which provide us with the capability to really hit criminals where it hurts – in the pocket.
“Iyamu was calculated, manipulative and motivated by money. Not only is she serving a hefty prison sentence, but she won’t be living a luxury lifestyle when she comes out.”
Iyamu enlisted the services of a voodoo priest to intimidate vulnerable Nigerian women before forcing them into her sex ring.
She charged the women 38,000 Euros to arrange their travel across the Mediterranean before forcing them to pay off the debt through prostitution.
She subjected her victims to humiliating rituals including making them drink blood containing worms, eat chicken hearts and have their skin cut with razor blades.
One of the victims was forced to have an abortion when she was raped by traffickers – only for Iyamu to charge her £440 for the procedure.