Stanislav Carpiuc, jailed for two years, has been removed from Britain, the Home Office says. The Russian-speaking Telegram contact who ordered the attacks has not been publicly identified through the courts.
Stanislav Carpiuc, 28, has been deported from the UK after being convicted over a series of arson attacks targeting a car and properties linked to Sir Keir Starmer, the Home Office has announced. The Romanian national was sentenced to two years in prison. The Old Bailey heard that he and a Ukrainian, Roman Lavrynovych, 22, acted on the orders of a Russian-speaking Telegram user called “El Money”. The Home Office confirmed on Friday that Carpiuc had been removed from the country.
The Home Office statement
A Home Office spokesperson said: “This was an abhorrent attack, and the conviction and imprisonment of these men should send a clear message to anyone blinded by the promise of money from strangers.”
The spokesperson added: “You will be caught and face severe consequences. This individual has now been deported from the UK.” Anyone deported from the UK is subject to a ban on re-entering the country.
The Home Office statement does not give the date of removal or the country he was sent to. It does not say how much of his sentence he served in prison or in immigration detention.
The attacks
The court heard that a Toyota RAV4 which once belonged to Sir Keir was set alight in Kentish Town, north London, in the early hours of 8 May last year. On 11 May, a fire was started at the door of an Islington flat where he had previously lived. His constituency home was attacked on 12 May 2025.
Sir Keir’s sister-in-law, Judith Alexander, who moved into the Islington property after he entered Downing Street, told the court she heard bangs and saw smoke while her partner and daughter slept. According to the research notes, her daughter was nine. At another building, a resident escaped onto the roof after finding smoke in communal areas. No one was killed, but the court concluded that the fires created serious risks to life.
‘El Money’ and the Telegram messages
The court heard that “El Money” offered Lavrynovych £3,000 in cryptocurrency if the fires were filmed and reported in the news. Carpiuc, who had a short-lived modelling career, supported and encouraged his friend and was going to help him turn the payment into cash, jurors were told.
Police recovered more than 320 Telegram messages between Lavrynovych and the organiser, dating back to September 2024, months before the attacks. They showed that the organiser wanted the fires recorded and publicised. After the attacks, the organiser reportedly encouraged Lavrynovych to leave London and offered help if he was arrested. Evidence at trial indicated that the promised payment was never received. Messages also revealed discussion of other paid activities, reportedly including painting vehicle windscreens black and putting up anti-Islam posters in mainly Muslim areas of London. These were separate from the arson attacks.
Prosecutors also relied on evidence of reconnaissance by Lavrynovych, mobile phone location data, communications between the defendants, and photographs and videos of the damage. Lavrynovych returned to photograph the damage after one attack, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
The three defendants
| Defendant | Outcome | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Stanislav Carpiuc | Convicted of conspiracy to commit arson | 2 years |
| Roman Lavrynovych | Convicted of conspiracy and two counts of arson reckless as to whether life was endangered | 7 years |
| Petro Pochynok | Acquitted of conspiracy | None |
Carpiuc’s defence argued that his role involved helping to convert cryptocurrency into cash, not starting the fires. Lavrynovych was arrested at his home in Sydenham, south-east London, on 13 May 2025. Carpiuc was arrested at Luton Airport on 17 May, as he prepared to board a flight to Romania. There is no finding that his journey was an attempt to escape prosecution. There is no confirmation that Lavrynovych has been deported.
At sentencing on 19 June, Mr Justice Garnham described Lavrynovych as someone who had been used by an unknown organiser. The judge accepted that neither convicted man had instigated the attacks, but said Lavrynovych had knowingly carried out dangerous acts for payment without adequate regard for people inside the buildings.
Questions over who was behind it
After the convictions in June, the BBC reported that a 23-year-old Russian diplomat, Evgeny Lyukshin, was suspected of being behind the attacks. Other reporting linked “El Money” to a network operating from Russia. These are reports and suspicions. No Russian official has been charged, the prosecution did not establish the organiser’s identity at trial, and Counter Terrorism Policing said it had found no evidence conclusively linking the attacks to Russian state direction. The defendants were convicted of criminal offences, not national security offences.
Reuters reported in June that security agencies across Europe were investigating the online recruitment of inexperienced people, sometimes paid in cryptocurrency or cash, to carry out arson, vandalism and surveillance. Polish authorities have recently alleged Russian involvement in a September 2026 attack on a Starlink-related facility. These cases give context, but do not show that the same organisation was behind the Starmer attacks.
