Four jailed for murder of Birmingham dad kidnapped and burned

Summarised from 2 outlets · 3 reports · Updated 9 Oct, 20:49 · Archive

Four men have been jailed for killing Tomasz Samel, 45, who was kidnapped and set on fire in revenge for a £1m cigarette seizure.

Tomasz Samel, 45, was kidnapped from his home in Handsworth, Birmingham on 27 March 2019. Three men claiming to be Interpol officers abducted him in front of his wife and children, bundling him into a white Peugeot van. He was driven to the Liverpool area where he was tortured, doused in petrol and set on fire. He suffered 75 per cent burns to his body. That evening he managed to reach a remote property in Lancashire and tell the householder what had happened. He was taken to hospital but died from his injuries on 21 June 2019, three months after the attack.

The kidnapping was carried out in revenge for the seizure of 10 million illegal cigarettes worth around £1m from Samel's unit in Aston in February 2019. Samel was part of an operation smuggling illicit cigarettes from Poland to the UK. Tobiasz Kozlowski, 39, and Neil Jones, 49, organised the plot. Kozlowski was from Kirkby in Merseyside; Jones had no fixed address and was already serving a 30-year sentence in Greece for trafficking cocaine worth £42m. Both were convicted of murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and jailed for life, with minimum sentences of 33 and 34 years respectively.

Kevin Wooden, 46, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, and Kye Arthur, 35, from Bristol, were two of three men hired to carry out the kidnapping. They were paid £18,000 to £20,000 for the abduction. Both were convicted of manslaughter after being cleared of murder and jailed for 23 and 22 years respectively. All four men had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and falsely imprison. Kozlowski's wife, Sandra Kozlowska, 38, was convicted of assisting an offender and received a three-year suspended sentence.

How it is being reported

• Four jailed for death of man tortured and set alightTomasz Samel was kidnapped and attacked over the loss of illicit cigarettes worth £1m.BBC Birmingham And Black Country · 9 Oct, 20:30
• Birmingham dad tortured to death 'to teach him a lesson' over £1m cigarette bustTomasz Samel was kidnapped from his home in front of his wife and childrenBirminghamLive · 9 Oct, 18:34
• Gang jailed for 112 years over Birmingham dad who was kidnapped, set on fire and killedTomasz Samel, aged 45, was killed out of revenge for £1m worth of illegal cigarettes being seized from his unit in Aston by HMRCBirminghamLive · 9 Oct, 16:11

In this story: Tomasz Samel · Tobiasz Kozlowski · Neil Jones · Kevin Wooden · Kye Arthur · Birmingham · HM Revenue & Customs

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem