Scottish gangmaster sentenced to community service
29 May 2014
An Angus man who illegally supplied workers to several Scottish vegetable farms and paid them wages below the legal minimum was sentenced yesterday (28 May) to 180 hours of unpaid community work.
Thu, 29 May 2014An Angus man who illegally supplied workers to several Scottish vegetable farms and paid them wages below the legal minimum was sentenced yesterday (28 May) to 180 hours of unpaid community work.
Rimantas Sulcas, of Hillview, Brechin, pleaded guilty to the offence of acting as a gangmaster without a licence, which he committed over a period of more than two years starting in 2010.
Under the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act, it is a legal requirement that anyone who provides workers for roles in agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering, or any associated processing or packaging, has a licence.
Sulcas began his illegal operations while working at Sootywells Farm, in Laurencekirk, in 2010.
It was then that he started to supply workers, increasing to as many as 16 people, who helped with the potato harvest. Sulcas had no GLA licence and paid his employees at a rate that was below the legal minimum wage.
He supplied workers to Mains of Logie Farm, in Logie near Montrose, and provided another worker to Dendoldrum Farm, as well as providing more labour to Jacobsen, at Grange of Kineff in Inverbervie.
Workers were paid in cash. No attempt was made by Sulcas to register as an employer with HMRC or to pay the relevant tax and National Insurance contributions on behalf of his workers.
Rimantas Sulcas, of Hillview, Brechin, pleaded guilty to the offence of acting as a gangmaster without a licence, which he committed over a period of more than two years starting in 2010.
Under the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act, it is a legal requirement that anyone who provides workers for roles in agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering, or any associated processing or packaging, has a licence.
Sulcas began his illegal operations while working at Sootywells Farm, in Laurencekirk, in 2010.
It was then that he started to supply workers, increasing to as many as 16 people, who helped with the potato harvest. Sulcas had no GLA licence and paid his employees at a rate that was below the legal minimum wage.
He supplied workers to Mains of Logie Farm, in Logie near Montrose, and provided another worker to Dendoldrum Farm, as well as providing more labour to Jacobsen, at Grange of Kineff in Inverbervie.
Workers were paid in cash. No attempt was made by Sulcas to register as an employer with HMRC or to pay the relevant tax and National Insurance contributions on behalf of his workers.
