Harpreet Sandhu KC and Sarah Slater were instructed by the CPS’ Complex Casework Unit to prosecute five defendants who were convicted following an eight-week trial before Wall J.
Tobiasz Kozlowski and Neil Jones were convicted of murdering Tomasz Samel after arranging for him to be kidnapped from his home in Birmingham and falsely imprisoned as he was taken to Merseyside where he was tortured. He was set on fire and sustained 75% burns. He was later left by a roadside in Lancashire, from where he was able to knock on the door of a nearby remote property and told the residents he had been driven from Birmingham and tortured. He later died from his injuries in hospital.
Mr Samel was targeted because he held was responsible for the loss of an illegal cigarette shipment worth millions of pounds. Kozlowski and Jones recruited others to help kidnap, imprison and inflict serious violence on him as punishment.
Mr Samel was kidnapped from his home in Handsworth by Kevin Wooden and Kye Arthur and a third male who posed as Interpol officers executing a European Arrest Warrant. Kevin Wooden and Kye Arthur were convicted of manslaughter.
Sandra Kozlowska was convicted of assisting an offender.
The defendants will be sentenced by Wall J on 9 October 2026.
Thomas Schofield KC and Sarah Allen were instructed by Newton Law to defend Kye Arthur.
Four guilty over torture death of man set alight | BBC News
Four guilty of killing Birmingham dad who was set on fire over £1m cigarettes raid | Birmingham Live
International investigation sees gang convicted of killing man | West Midlands Police
