Shock as gangmaster gets fine after forcing workers to scavenge for food
An illegal gangmaster, who kept Romanian workers in an unheated outbuilding in Lurgan and forced them to scavenge for out-of-date food, has been fined £500.
Gangmasters Licensing Authority Chief Executive Paul Broadbent said he was ‘shocked and appalled’ by the ‘derisory sentence’ imposed on 35-year-old Gheorghe Ionas by Craigavon Magistrates Court on Tuesday and would appeal.
Ionas pled guilty to acting as a gangmaster without a licence. Such was the level of exploitation that three men were classified as potential victims of trafficking and given access to specialist support.
For the full story, read this week’s Lurgan Mail