Polish drug dealer Witold Kowalski, 27, was jailed for eight years after subjecting a student to a violent attack and robbery at his university accommodation in the coastal resort town of Bournemouth.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Kowalski had tied up 19-year-old Tsz Fung with cable ties and then robbed him of watches, a laptop, and a computer hard drive before beating the student over the head with a baseball bat, reports the Bournemouth Daily Echo.
Mr. Fung had let Kowalski into his off-campus student accommodation just before midnight on Sunday, October 15, 2017, after the Polish national, whom he did not know, accused him of dealing drugs on his “turf”.
The student denied that he was a drug dealer, but Kowalski searched his room and then proceeded to rob and beat his victim in an attack described by Detective Constable Garry Weston of Bournemouth CID as “violent and frightening”.
Kowalski then demanded £1,500 from his victim and told him he would return in three weeks for the payment, leaving a name and phone number of a piece of paper before he left.
Detectives later confirmed the migrant’s DNA on the cable ties he used to restrain his victim as well as his distinctive orange coat and the stolen laptop being found at the flat where Kowalski, who has no fixed abode, was arrested.
The drug dealer denied robbery, despite the evidence, and was unanimously convicted by the jury.
Kowalski, who entered the UK thanks to European Union Free Movement rules, was told that he would ‘likely’ be deported back to Poland after his sentence was served.
In February, Prime Minister Theresa May had said that she would battle the EU over Free Movement rights to the UK, stopping new migrants arriving after the country leaves the bloc on March 29th, 2019, from automatically gaining the right to remain.
But uncontrolled migration will continue for member states during the ‘transition period’ until the end of 2020 after the prime minister capitulated in March, meaning that EU citizens can move to the UK after Brexit day and have their residency rights and those of their families guaranteed.
One million more EU migrants are estimated to come to the UK during the transition period.
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