Daff Firm In Dark About Workers' Squalor

May 11 2008 By Steve Dinneen

A FLOWER firm that hired foreigners from an illegal gangmaster says it knew nothing about their squalid conditions.

Jonathan Beckson, 40, supplied Polish pickers to Grampian Growers in Angus, who pick seven million bunches of daffodils a year.

But the firm say they had no idea staff were paid 4p per bunch of daffs - £24 for a nine-hour shift - from Beckson's Timberland Homes Recruitment.

Beckson was banned after the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) found "forced labour, intimidation and abuse".

The workers, based at Crofts Farm, Arbroath, endured low pay, overcrowded living space and threats to their families.

Police have contacted the procurator fiscal about the state of the vans used to transport them.

A Grampian Growers said: "We had no knowledge of any wrongdoing."

A GLA spokesman said: "We hope to bring charges against Beckson soon."

Beckson, who plans to appeal, said: "We look after our workers."

Gangmaster Fiona Jane Clark, 34, of Perth, is the first in the UK to be convicted of supplying illegal workers. She could be jailed this month.