A Dorset farmer who illegally supplied farms with milking workers and then failed to pay wages has been ordered by Weymouth Magistrates’ Court to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work.

Andrew Newsam pleaded guilty to a charge of acting as an unlicensed gangmaster over a two-year period beginning in August 2009, following an investigation from the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). Newsam will also have to pay £2,500 towards prosecution costs.

The court was told Newsam placed advertisements offering relief dairy workers in the Western Gazette and Blackmore Vale Magazine through his business AMN Services. 

Providers of such services require GLA licences; Newsam was informed in a meeting with GLA enforcement that he was operating illegally as he did not have a licence, but continued to trade and did not attempt to obtain a licence.

Prosecutor Alexander White told the court: “The workers who have provided statements variously complain that AMN failed to provide contracts of employment, was late paying wages or never paid at all, failed to respond to concerns regarding safety and failed to pay any taxes or provide P45s on the termination of employment.”

In a separate case, last month GLA chief Paul Broadbent said he was “disappointed” that a group of 15 dairy farms using workers from an unlicensed labour provider escaped punishment, although the labour supplier involved is due to be sentenced in April.