Key Points
- 46-year-old Kevin Wooden of Banbury was jailed for 23 years at Birmingham Crown Court on 9 October 2026.
- Wooden had been found guilty of manslaughter and had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and false imprisonment of Tomasz Samel.
- Tomasz Samel, 45, had been kidnapped in March 2019 from his Handsworth home by some men pretending to be Interpol officials and subsequently taken to North-West England.
- He had been covered in petrol and burnt before being left in Lancashire and ultimately passed away in hospital on 21 June 2019.
- The incident is said to be related to the disappearance of an illicit cigarettes shipment worth around £1 million that had been confiscated by HM Revenue and Customs.
- Kye Arthur, a co-defendant, received a 22-year sentence for manslaughter. Neil Jones and Tobiasz Kozlowski got life sentences with 34 and 33-year minimums respectively.
- Sandra Kozlowska received a three-year suspended sentence for helping an offender.
Liverpool Crime (Liverpool standard) October 10, 2026 — Kevin Wooden was sentenced to 23 years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court on for his role in the kidnapping and death of Tomasz Samel. The Oxford Mail reported that Wooden, 46, was convicted of manslaughter, having previously admitted conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to falsely imprison Samel. His co-defendant Kye Arthur, 35, was sentenced to 22 years for manslaughter.
Kevin Wooden 23-year sentence is the central outcome of a Birmingham Crown Court case in which four men were sentenced over the kidnapping and death of Tomasz Samel.
Wooden and Arthur were cleared of murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm, but the jury found them guilty of manslaughter. The Crown Prosecution Service said they were directly involved in carrying out the abduction, while the two men identified as the main organisers Neil Jones and Tobiasz Kozlowski—were convicted of murder.
The sentences were imposed more than seven years after Samel was taken from his home in Handsworth, Birmingham. He was 45 and a father of two. The case was linked by prosecutors to an organised crime group’s response to the seizure of a large consignment of illicit cigarettes.
How was Tomasz Samel abducted?
The BBC reported that Samel was taken from his home in Handsworth in March 2019 by three men posing as Interpol officers. The Crown Prosecution Service said the men represented themselves as officers executing a European Arrest Warrant. The kidnapping took place on 27 March, according to the CPS account of the case.
BirminghamLive reported that the abduction happened in front of Samel’s wife and children. The men took him to a white Peugeot van and drove him away from the family home. Police said Wooden had acquired the van and bought a police-style earpiece online to support the impersonation of an Interpol officer, according to BirminghamLive’s account of statements from West Midlands Police.
The CPS said Wooden and Arthur carried out the abduction with a third man whose identity was not established in the material provided. The men took Samel from Handsworth towards Merseyside, where he was subjected to violence. The court heard that Wooden and Arthur had been recruited and paid to help execute the kidnapping.
What happened after the abduction?
Samel was attacked and set alight with petrol before being left in a remote part of Lancashire. The BBC reported that, despite extensive burns, he managed to reach a nearby home in Bickerstaffe and ask for help. He was taken to hospital but died on 21 June 2019.
The judge, Mr Justice Wall, said Samel was “vulnerable at the time he was set alight – he was naked and outnumbered”, the BBC reported. In sentencing remarks, the judge said the victim had been stripped, was seated and defenceless, and had petrol thrown over him before being set alight. He also said Samel had suffered extensive burns and remained in hospital for almost three months.
The Oxford Mail reported that the attack was intended to punish Samel over the loss of cigarettes valued at £1 million. The CPS described the consignment as an illegal shipment worth millions of pounds and said the organised crime group believed Samel was responsible for its loss.
Who else was sentenced?
Neil Jones, 48, and Tobiasz Kozlowski, 38, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Jones received a minimum term of 34 years and Kozlowski a minimum term of 33 years, according to the CPS. The BBC reported that the judge described them as organisers who had a financial motive to punish Samel.
Arthur, who was convicted of manslaughter alongside Wooden, received a 22-year prison sentence. Both had previously admitted conspiring to kidnap and falsely imprison Samel.
Sandra Kozlowska, 38, Kozlowski’s wife, was convicted of assisting an offender and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for three years. The CPS said she helped her husband evade capture by moving money through bank accounts on his behalf. The Oxford Mail also reported that she was found to have helped hide evidence and avoid police detection.
The CPS said Jones and Kozlowski had also been convicted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. Jones had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in addition to the conspiracy charges before his murder conviction at trial.
What did the court and investigators say?
At sentencing, Mr Justice Wall described the events as a “truly horrific series of events”, the BBC reported. He said the kidnapping was planned and that Wooden knew violence would be inflicted on Samel after he had delivered him to those behind the plot. The judge said the verdicts made clear that Wooden knew Samel would be subjected to violence.
The CPS said the investigation required years of work with West Midlands Police and international partners. Prosecutors said they used CCTV, automatic number plate recognition, telecommunications data and other forensic evidence to build the case. The inquiry also included witness and digital evidence.
According to the CPS, the investigation involved cooperation with authorities in Poland, Greece and the Dominican Republic. Wooden was arrested in the Dominican Republic under a false name and extradited to the UK for trial. Jones was located in a Greek prison, where he was serving a sentence for drugs importation, and was temporarily transferred to the UK for proceedings.
Kate Seal, a specialist prosecutor for the CPS, described the case as a “sustained and merciless attack” on a man taken from his home. She said international cooperation and evidence-gathering were central to securing the convictions. The CPS also said Samel’s family had shown strength throughout the proceedings and expressed hope that the sentences would provide some sense of justice, while acknowledging that nothing could undo their loss.
What is the background to the case?
The prosecution linked the killing to a cigarette-smuggling operation involving illicit and counterfeit cigarettes brought into the UK from Poland. The BBC reported that HM Revenue and Customs seized the cigarettes from a unit Samel kept on Elkington Street, in Birmingham’s Aston area, during a raid in February 2019.
BirminghamLive reported that the seized consignment comprised about 10 million cigarettes worth approximately £1 million. The CPS said Kozlowski and Jones believed Samel was responsible for the shipment’s loss and recruited others to kidnap and assault him. Those details describe the prosecution’s account of the motive and should be distinguished from the court’s findings on each defendant’s individual offences.
The case also involved different criminal findings for the five defendants. Jones and Kozlowski were convicted of murder; Wooden and Arthur were convicted of manslaughter; and Kozlowska was convicted of assisting an offender. Wooden and Arthur were not convicted of murder or conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
How could the sentences affect the audience?
For Samel’s family, the sentences mark the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against the defendants covered in this case, but the CPS and police statements acknowledged that imprisonment cannot reverse the loss or the effects of the crime.
For residents of Banbury and the wider Oxfordshire area, the case concerns a local man sentenced for a serious offence committed as part of a kidnapping plot spanning several regions and countries. The investigation also illustrates how police and prosecutors relied on cross-border cooperation, digital and forensic evidence, and extradition to bring defendants to trial in the UK.
For the public, the court’s separate verdicts and sentences are important: Wooden received 23 years after a manslaughter conviction, while the two men convicted of murder received life sentences with minimum terms of 34 and 33 years. Those outcomes reflect the offences for which each defendant was convicted, rather than a single verdict applying to all five people.
