Gang denies running modern-day slave trade - Local News - Harborough Mail

Gang denies running modern-day slave trade - Local News - Harborough Mail: "HIGH-profile court case where a gang stands accused of treating migrant workers like slaves has links to the Harborough area.
Farm workers were forced to live in filthy, infested homes while they picked leeks destined for the supermarket shelves of Tesco and Waitrose, Northampton Crown Court heard this week.
It is claimed that in four years, gang leader Gurdip Singh Somal, of Kettering, made £10m from the farming companies who owned leek fields in Lincs, Notts and Cambridgeshire.
When police made arrests in November 2008 – which officers said was the largest investigation of its kind carried out in the UK – a property in Harborough was raided as well as a business at Eckland Lodge, Desborough.
It has not yet been revealed at court what part Harborough and Desborough played in the alleged crime ring – the trial is expected to last for several months.
Jurors heard that workers were promised good wages, accommodation and working conditions, but in reality were put to work in fields with no safety equipment, were beaten, threatened and sustained numerous injures."