Gang treated migrant worker like ‘slaves’
A gang recruited migrant workers and then treated them as “slaves”, forcing them to live in dirty, cramped conditions as they picked leeks that would ultimately be sold to Tesco and Waitrose, a court heard today.
But after promising the eastern Europeans wages, accommodation and good working conditions, they were put to work in harsh conditions, often beaten or threatened, and housed in “inhuman” conditions, Northampton Crown Court heard.
Gurdip Singh Somal, his wife Manjinder Kaur Somal, Jujhar Singh, Santokh Singh Nizzar, Varinder Singh, Fateh Singh Bal and Ania Jemiola all deny conspiracy to exploit migrant workers.
They deny two charges between December 2004 and November 2008 - Gurdip and Manjinder Somal, Jujhar Singh and Jemiola deny conspiracy to exploit by arranging arrival in the UK.
And all defendants except Jemiola deny conspiracy to exploit by arranging travel within the UK.
Prosecutor Jonathan Kirk QC told the court Gurdip Somal ran the multi-million pound business providing agricultural labour to farmers, recruiting workers to harvest leeks in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Cambridgeshire.
He said: “The case against them is that they cruelly mistreated and criminally exploited these migrant workers.
“The workers came here on the promise of good wages, conditions and accommodation.
“When they arrived they were put to work in the leek fields, where many were intimidated, threatened and beaten.”
He said the gang used a harvesting machine to collect the leeks and workers who could not keep up were knocked to the ground.
They were not given protective equipment so when the machine hit them, they were cut to the bone by the knives they used to trim the leeks, and suffered skin infections from acid in the leeks.
Mr Kirk said they were taken to the fields in overcrowded and dangerous minibuses then made to work “inhumane hours, without breaks, through the winter rains; soaked to the skin and late into the darkness”.
The gang then cheated them by paying them less than promised and deducting money from their wages, the court heard.
Despite promises of decent accommodation, they were crammed into housing that was “dirty, unsafe and in some cases unfit for human habitation”, Mr Kirk said.
He said in one example more than 20 workers were crammed into a three-bedroom terraced house with a single toilet that did not work.
Mr Kirk said in just four years, the Somals raked in more than £10 million from the farming companies that owned the leek fields, adding:
“Ultimately that GBP10 million came from Tesco and Waitrose, where the leeks were sold.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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