They came, they saw, but will they conquer? That’s the big question the Gangmaster Licensing Authority has to answer in the next few months.

Its chief executive, flanked by representatives of the T&G union and the police superintendents association, talked a very bullish game at a press conference last week. The intelligence is safely gathered in, he said, before confidently predicting that the GLA has its sights focused and the first prosecutions under the new law will take place early next year.

The trade and the media will be looking for almost immediate results and I for one wish the GLA compliance team and their accomplices all the luck in the world. It’s an extremely tough ask to rid any industry of its entire dark side. And they cannot do it on their own - all labour users in this trade have a pivotal role to play in the clean-up act.

Unlicensed labour providers cannot survive in the food industry if they have no takers for their illicit workers. In two months, it will be punishable by jail to use an unlicensed gangmaster - as long as the industry adheres to this, the rogues will be starved of the ill-gotten cash that provides their oxygen.

They may well move into another area to continue their practices, but operators in the food and processing sectors should be thankful that this is the arena from which they will first be banished.