The owner of a recruitment agency that gardaí allege is a front for a human trafficking operation has been warned by a judge that he risks forfeiting his bail and being taken into custody if he fails to show up for his next court appearance.
Ladislav Bubencik (32) from Railway Road, Charleville, Co Cork was warned by Judge Colm Roberts that he must show up at Mallow District Court on March 26th when he took up bail on three charges of human trafficking and 20 counts of money laundering.
Mr Bubencik, a Slovakian national who is the owner of L & B Recruitment in Charleville, was charged last Thursday with three counts of trafficking three named persons for the purpose of exploiting them contrary to Section 4 of Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008.
The State alleges in the three human trafficking charges that Mr Bubencik took advantage of the vulnerability of the named people to such an extent as to cause them to have no acceptable alternative but to submit to being trafficked.
Housing in Ireland is among the most expensive and most affordable in the EU. How does that happen?
Ceann comhairle election key task as 34th Dáil convenes for first time
Your EV questions answered: Am I better to drive my 13-year-old diesel until it dies than buy a new EV?
Workplace wrangles: Staying on the right side of your HR department, and more labrynthine aspects of employment law
Mr Bubencik is also charged with 20 counts of money laundering on various dates in 2021 at various locations in Charleville. He is accused of handling, acquiring, possessing or using money belonging to the three people, knowing or believing the sums to be the proceeds of crime.
Last week, Judge John King, sitting at Midleton District Court, remanded Mr Bubencik on his own bond of €600 and an independent surety of €20,000 and gardaí asked to be allowed check the suitability of Mr Bubencik’s brother Tomasz as an independent surety when he told the court he had €20,000 for bail.
On Tuesday, Sgt Majella O’Sullivan told Judge Roberts that gardaí had no objection to Tomasz Bubencik as a surety and he presented a bank draft for €20,000 to allow his brother take up his bail, which prompted Judge Roberts to issue the warning about attendance on March 26th.
Objecting to bail for Ladislav Bubencik at last week’s hearing, Det Garda Shane O’Donoghue said he feared he would commit further offences, including interfering with witnesses in the case if granted bail while accepting that the three people named in the charges were no longer living in Ireland.
He said Mr Bubencik was operating a recruitment agency from his home at Railway Road in Charleville which he believed was “trying to be the legitimate face of a human trafficking operation”, bringing vulnerable people to work in various businesses in north Cork.
Det Garda O’Donoghue said that he and his colleagues had examined six bank and credit union accounts belonging to Mr Bubencik or L & B Recruitment and had found that “hundreds of thousands of euros” had gone through the accounts in the past three years.
Det Garda O’Donoghue said Mr Bubencik, who was sending €500 a month to an account in Slovakia, was a member of a large family network with members in Ireland, the UK and Slovakia and “it is my belief that he is the head of this organised crime group”.
Cross-examined by Mr Bubencik’s solicitor, Charlie O’Connor, Det Garda O’Donoghue accepted that Mr Bubencik had denied all the charges both at interview and when they were put to him after caution when he was formally arrested and charged.
On Tuesday, a co-accused, fellow Slovakian Marian Vavrek (44), was remanded by Judge Roberts in continuing custody with consent to bail to also appear again on March 26th after he failed to take up his bail on his own bond of €600 and independent surety of €20,000.
Mr Vavrek, with an address at Kontiki, Rooskey, Co Roscommon, also faces a charge that on dates in 2021, he trafficked each of the named injured parties for the purpose of exploiting the named people, contrary to Section 4 of Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008.
Mr Vavrek is charged with one count of money laundering where it is alleged that he engaged in handling or using €290 from the AIB Bank Account of a named person, knowing it to be the proceeds of crime contrary to Section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2021.
- Listen to our Inside Politics Podcast for the latest analysis and chat
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
