After a “shocking catalogue of failures” discovered at a Lancashire gangmaster business - including paying workers well below the minimum wage and forcing them to use a mould-covered toilet - the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) has revoked the company’s licence.

The record failures totalled 242 points in non-compliances, when 30 would be enough to revoke the licence.

Many workers were paid as little as £3 an hour as fruit and vegetable pickers on farms and in factories.

Jose Rosa was the director of Plus Staff 24 based in Skelmersdale, but previously revoked gangmaster Maria Baptista was “lurking in the background” raising suspicions that Rosa, who used to operate as a driver for her, was acting as a front to continue her exploitative ways, according to the GLA.

A group of more than 30 Latvian fruit pickers were subjected to appalling treatment that kept them trapped in the employment of Rosa, the workers did not receive minimum wage and deductions left at least one worker owing the gangmaster money after a month of toiling in the fields. If the workers needed money they were allegedly given loans with a repayment rate of six per cent

In a statement, the GLA said workers were not paid the national minimum wage (NMW) as charges for transport, worker registration scheme and accommodation reduced the wages to below the NMW; deductions from wages were not included on the wage slip but was hidden on a separate document and workers lived in “filthy and dangerous houses without suitable bedding and any electrical safety documentation whilst having to use a toilet covered in mould”.

It also said holiday entitlement and sick pay was not recorded or had not been paid to the workers despite being this being included in their terms and conditions while workers were ferried to the fields in an uninsured minibus sometimes driven by an underage driver.

It is alleged Rosa lied to the GLA when he claimed a former revoked gangmaster Maria Baptista was working for him for free when a payslip for her was found while it claimed the methods of deducting money from the workers exactly mimicked the methods used at Maria Baptista’s previous business.

GLA chairman Paul Whitehouse said: “This is a flagrant abuse of power over workers. When a human being has worked hard for a month and gets paid nothing after deductions and even owes the gangmaster money, how are they supposed to survive?”

West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper said: “I am calling on all the authorities to use every power they have to ensure companies are operating according to, and within the law. No-one should be exploited in such a greed-driven and cynical way. These practices belong to history not in the 21st century.”

Rosa can appeal the decision, according to Whitehouse. If he carries on trading then he will be working illegally and criminal action could be taken against him. Rosa could not be reached for comment.

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