Neil Jones and Tobiasz Kozlowski have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Tomasz Samel, who was kidnapped from his Birmingham home in 2019. They were given minimum terms of 34 and 33 years respectively. Polish prosecutors and investigators also helped bring the perpetrators before a British court.
Birmingham Crown Court, which deals with serious criminal cases, imposed the sentences on 9 October 2026. According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the prosecution service for England and Wales, both men were found guilty of murder following a trial in August that year. The minimum terms of 34 and 33 years are not fixed-length sentences and do not mean automatic release once those periods have passed: both men are serving life sentences.
Kidnappers posed as Interpol officers
The CPS says the perpetrators took Samel from his home in Handsworth, Birmingham, in March 2019, posing as Interpol officers executing a European arrest warrant. They drove him to Merseyside, where he was brutally beaten and abandoned. Samel managed to reach a nearby property to seek help. He received medical treatment but died from his injuries two months later.
Prosecutors link the attack to retaliation over a consignment of illegal cigarettes belonging to an organised crime group that had been seized by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the UK’s tax and customs authority. Jones and Kozlowski had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and falsely imprison. They were also found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
In the same case, Kevin Wooden and Kye Arthur were found guilty of manslaughter, a separate offence from murder under English law. They received prison sentences of 23 and 22 years respectively. Sandra Kozlowska was sentenced for assisting an offender to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for three years.
A joint investigation involving Poland
The case required cross-border co-operation. The CPS and West Midlands Police worked with Polish prosecutors and investigators through a joint investigation team established with support from Eurojust, the EU agency that supports co-operation between criminal justice authorities. The CPS also points to co-operation with Greece and the Dominican Republic, which helped secure evidence and bring the perpetrators before a British court. Its statement identifies Tobiasz Kozlowski as a Polish national.
The evidence included CCTV footage, automatic number plate recognition data, telecommunications data and other forensic evidence. According to the CPS, bringing these findings together with international co-operation enabled convictions for a crime committed more than seven years earlier.
