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Ivars Mezals and Juris Valujevs guilty of illegal gangmaster charges Ivars Mezals and Juris Valujevs guilty of illegal gangmaster charges
(35 minutes later)
Two men have been found guilty of acting as unlicensed gangmasters in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. Two men who exploited migrant workers into "back-breaking" work for less than £1 a week have been found guilty of acting as illegal gangmasters.
Ivars Mezals, 28, from Wisbech and Juris Valujevs, 36, from King's Lynn, were found guilty after a trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in London. Ivars Mezals, 28, from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and Juris Valujevs, 36, from King's Lynn, Norfolk, used fear and debt to control people brought to the Fens from the Baltic States.
Mezals has been found not guilty of conspiracy to breach immigration laws. Blackfriars Crown Court heard the workers lived in cramped homes and some received death threats for owing money.
The Latvian pair were arrested after raids led by Cambridgeshire Police in October 2013. They will be sentenced on Friday.
The court heard Mezals and Valujevs acted as illegal gangmasters between January 2009 and Oct 2013. The Latvian pair were arrested after raids led by Cambridgeshire Police in October 2013. They had carried out the offences since January 2009.
They are expected to be sentenced on Friday. The BBC exposed them last September after a four-month investigation, which found dozens of workers from Latvia and Lithuania trapped in a widespread network of exploitation.
'Back-breaking' work The jury was unable to reach verdicts against Valujevs, his wife Oksana, 33, and their friend Lauma Vankova, 26, all of whom were charged with conspiracy to help breach UK immigration law by arranging sham marriages. Mezals was found not guilty on the same charge.
The jury was unable to reach verdicts against Valujevs, Valujevs' wife Oksana Valujeva, 33, and their friend Lauma Vankova, 26, all of whom were charged with conspiracy to help breach UK immigration law by arranging sham marriages. During the nine-week trial, the court heard the workers travelled to the UK voluntarily to pick vegetables in the fields of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
Mezals, from Conference Way in Wisbech, Valujevs and Mrs Valujeva from Cresswell Street in King's Lynn, and Ms Vankova, from Turbis Road in King's Lynn, were arrested in October last year in raids led by Cambridgeshire Police. They were promised regular and well-paid work, decent accommodation and the "hope of a better life", Gregory Perrins, prosecuting, said.
During the nine-week trial, the court heard Mezals and Valujevs used fear and debt to control people brought to Britain from the Baltic States, who sometimes received less than £1 for a week of "back-breaking" work picking vegetables in Cambridgeshire.
The migrant workers travelled to the UK voluntarily, but signed up for work when they were promised regular well-paid work, decent accommodation and the "hope of a better life", Gregory Perrins, prosecuting, told the court.
Sham marriages
Instead they were forced to live in cramped and dilapidated homes, paid fines for "fanciful" reasons including smoking, and were threatened if they complained, he said.Instead they were forced to live in cramped and dilapidated homes, paid fines for "fanciful" reasons including smoking, and were threatened if they complained, he said.
'Modern-day slave drivers'
The jury heard workers who fell into debt were told "if you don't pay, your life will be ended like Alisa's (Dmitrijeva)" - the Latvian teenager found murdered on the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk in 2012.The jury heard workers who fell into debt were told "if you don't pay, your life will be ended like Alisa's (Dmitrijeva)" - the Latvian teenager found murdered on the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk in 2012.
One female worker was fined £100 a day when she was unable to work because her child was ill, the court heard.One female worker was fined £100 a day when she was unable to work because her child was ill, the court heard.
Mr Perrins said some other female workers who fell into debt were "offered the opportunity to clear their debts if they entered into sham marriages". Cambridgeshire Police said a further female witness stated Mezals suggested paying back debt by selling her organs because she did not drink or smoke.
All four defendants denied the charges relating to sham marriages. Det Ch Insp Donna Wass, said: "Valujevs and Mezals ran an illegal operation that left many people in abject poverty and debt and a feeling there was no way out of their situation.
"They ruled through fear - playing on their reputations to ensure their workers stayed in line and did not seek outside help - and approached the exploitation of people as a business opportunity."
Paul Broadbent, chief executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, said: "It is pleasing that the defendants in this case have been exposed as modern-day slave drivers and will now face punishment for their heinous crime."