GLAA Employee Login
GLAA
  • Report Problems: 0800 432 0804
  • General Office Enquiries: 0345 602 5020
  • Home
    • Licence renewals
    • Licensing Portal Login
    • Active Check Portal Login
  • Who We Are
    • What we do
    • Our Aims and Objectives
    • The GLAA Board
    • Legislation
    • Vacancies
    • Modern slavery
    • Freedom of Information
    • Board Minutes and Papers 2021
    • Press Releases
    • Better regulation
    • Trade union facility time 2020/2021
    • Our partners
  • What's New
    • Latest news
    • News Archive
    • Briefs and guidance
    • Freedom of information requests
    • Parliamentary Questions
    • GLAA Newsletters
  • Our Impact
    • Who has a GLAA licence
    • How we inspect and prosecute
    • Who has been inspected
    • Revocations results
    • Appeals against the GLAA
    • Criminal offences and sanctions
    • Conviction totals
    • Performance Reports
  • Publications
    • GLAA Publication Scheme
    • Resources
    • Licensing guidance
    • GLAA Brief and Licensing News
    • Legislation
    • Corporate Publications
    • Implementation of the Regulators Code Principles
    • Labour Exploitation
  • Contact Us
  • Report Issues
    • English
    • Bulgarian
    • Latvian
    • Lithuanian
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Romanian
    • Slovak
  • Information for workers
    • Worker Information
    • Brexit
    • Worker's Rights Leaflets
    • Government Leaflets
    • Posters
    • What You Should Expect at Work
    • Who Else Can Help
    • Your Rights
    • How we can Help
    • Spot the Signs
  • Licence renewals
  • Licensing Portal Login
  • Active Check Portal Login
  • I supply workers
    • I need a GLAA Licence
    • I have a GLAA licence
  • I use workers
    • Labour User Best Practice
    • Inspections and Investigations
    • Keep up to date with Licence Changes
    • Supplier / retailer protocol
    • Construction protocol
    • Textiles Protocol
    • Public Register Checks and Formal 'Active Check' Guidance
  • What's New
  • Press Release Archive
  • Suspended sentence for Fenland gangmaster

Suspended sentence for Fenland gangmaster

17th March 2014

A Cambridgeshire gangmaster who admitted he deliberately destroyed payslips to enable him to underpay his workers has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Peterborough Magistrates’ Court was told that in one instance, a Latvian worker received just £151 for five 10 hour days – which works out at less than half the National Minimum wage.

In another example cited, a worker was employed by Slender Contracting Ltd, of March, for 20 hours over two days, but after deductions were made from his pay packet he was shown to be in debt.

Despite being licensed, Martyn Slender, of Steeple View, March, admitted on Friday that he had employed the services of unlicensed labour providers in contravention of the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act.

The 45-year-old, who committed the offence while managing director of Slender Contracting Ltd, was given a 12-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months and was also ordered to perform 200 hours of unpaid work.

The court heard Slender admit he had used two unlicensed providers to provide his company with workers who were then set on harvesting vegetable crops.

Slender also confirmed he deliberately destroyed a number of payslips to enable him to underpay some of his employees.

One Latvian worker, for example, received £60 a week less than some of his Lithuanian colleagues.

GLA Chief Executive Paul Broadbent said: “This is the latest example of the GLA working with other agencies to track down and tackle those intent on exploiting vulnerable people.

“Ultimately, Slender knew what he was doing was wrong but he decided the substantial additional profit he could make by unlawfully underpaying his workers, was too much to resist.

“As a result of his greed, he has lost his business, suffered the shame of being publicly exposed as a criminal and must work unpaid for a significant period as a result of his actions.”

The accused was one of nine people arrested in a series of dawn raids in the March and Wisbech area on 15 October last year. The large-scale operation involved around 300 officers in total from the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, Cambridgeshire Police and the National Crime Agency.

All the above agencies joined forces for Operation Endeavour - the culmination of months of investigative work carried out by the GLA and the police into organised crime rings operating in the Fens.

Around 80 workers were taken to a reception centre on the day of the operation and 35 entered the National referral Mechanism after being officially recognised as victims of human trafficking.

The licence of Slender Contracting was immediately suspended. At the time, the business had been supplying agricultural workers to harvest vegetable crops on a Fenland farm but it has now ceased trading.

Presiding District Judge Ken Sheraton told the court that Slender’s offences were so serious they warranted a custodial sentence.

However, he added that as he was a man of previous good character and had entered an early guilty plea he would suspend the sentence for 12 months.

ENDS

Press release issued by GLA Communications and Information Officer Paul Fearn. For more information contact 0115 959 7069 or email communications@gla.gsi.gov.uk.

Notes to editors

1. The GLA operates throughout the UK and is a Non Departmental Public Body.

2. The authority was formed in 2005 in the wake of the Morecambe Bay cockle picking disaster when 23 Chinese workers drowned on the sands.

3. The GLA licences companies that supply labour (gangmasters) to agriculture, horticulture, food processing and packaging and shellfish gathering.

4. Its main strategic priorities are to prevent worker exploitation, protect vulnerable people and tackle unlicensed and criminal activity.

5. Under the Gangmasters Licensing Act (2004) it is illegal both to operate as, or employ the services of, an unlicensed gangmaster.

www.gla.defra.gov.uk

Click here to return to the top of the page

© 2022 Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority

  • Privacy & Cookies
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Accessibility
  • Sitemap

Powered by 10 Digital