First conviction under gangmaster laws

Fiona Jane Clark, from Perth, admitted acting as a gangmaster without a licence while overseeing a group of up to 20 workers. She had been supplying labour for picking, processing and packing potatoes. At a hearing at Forfar Sheriff Court, Ms Clark pleaded guilty to supplying labour without a licence from November 1 to 30, 2006. She will be sentenced on May 29.

She is the first person to be convicted under the Gangmasters Licensing Act of 2004, a UK-wide act with prosecutions carried out through the Procurator Fiscal service in Scotland. The legislation was introduced following the death of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay in February that year.

Ms Clark had been working as a gangmaster for some time from a base in Blairgowrie, Perthshire. A law making it a legal requirement to get a licence came into force in October 2006.

She oversaw a group of between 15 and 20 workers who picked, packed and processed potatoes. The workers came from Scotland, Poland and Lithuania.

She applied for a licence, but this was refused for several reasons, including a lack of identity checks on her workers and no deductions for tax and national insurance on several pay slips. Despite this, the gangmaster continued to supply workers to businesses in the area.

A business that used workers supplied by Ms Clark also received a written warning, as they were committing the offence of using an unlicensed gangmaster.