Employment, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Transport, Wages

Ivars Mezals.

Ivars Mezals (28), Juris Valujevs (36), Oksana Valujeva (33) and Lauma Vankova (26) are accused of illegal employment mediation, blackmail, and fraud.

All have pleaded not guilty.

Evidence indicates that Mezals forced his victims into laboring in the fields for wages as low as GBP 1 per week. Meanwhile, large sums of money amounting to several thousand pounds appeared in Mezals' bank account on a regular basis. Mezals claimed that the said money was his salary and debt repayments.

Nevertheless, investigators indicate that in a time period between 2012 and 2013, Mezals received a number of payments of about GBP 2,500 from "NV Gang Work". The money was marked "wages" on bank account summaries.

The police carried out raids linked to suspected exploitation of migrant workers in Cambridgeshire.

The police freed 80 workers from the Baltic States who were forced into slavery.