Business owners hit by slavery orders
Two business owners have had strict conditions placed on how they run their Black Country business after West Midlands Police secured court orders related to the use of slave labour.
The men – aged 47 and 26 from Birmingham and West Bromwich respectively – were arrested following raids at CAP Recycling in Elwell Street, West Bromwich, and sister firm Black Country Recycling in Union Road, Oldbury, last September.
The pair, alongside a 52-year-old man and 50-year-old woman, remain on police bail as detectives pursue further lines of enquiry.
However Birmingham Magistrates’ Court have placed Slavery and Trafficking Risk Orders on the men, which last for four years.
It requires them to provide police with details of all employees, to pay staff via bank accounts and not cash in hand, and bans them from providing any kind of accommodation or transport for workers.
West Midlands Police Detective Inspector Colin Mattinson said: “It’s about removing the control, the power employers can exert over workers. We find victims put up in cramped, sub-standard conditions, paying excessive rent to their employers, being ferried to and from work, and having no control over their finances.
“These orders force them to supply all details of people they employ; that means we can make regular checks on their welfare to ensure they have not been trafficked or are being exploited for slave labour.”
