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.
The eastern European victims had been promised wages, accommodation and a good working environment but were put to work in harsh weather, often beaten or threatened and housed in "inhuman" conditions, Northampton Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Jonathan Kirk QC told the court Gurdip Singh Somal ran the multimillion-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 defendants, including Mr Somal, were arrested by police and other authorities in November 2008 as part of Operation Ruby, the biggest operation of its kind targeting the exploitation of migrant workers.
They all deny the charges brought against them
