Three Lithuanian men have been convicted of gangmaster offences in Northern Ireland following investigations carried out by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).

Both Rolandas Linkevicius, 39, of Mountain View Drive, Newry, County Down, and Aurimas Andrijauskas, 37, of Maple Grove, also in Newry, were each fined £750, plus offender levies of £15 after pleading guilty to acting as unlicensed gangmasters.

Their company Coastal Seafoods Ltd was found to have been operating a business with eight workers out picking shellfish across Northern Ireland without a GLAA licence between October 2016 and May 2017.

The GLAA also said that a third man, Airidas Grabausks, 34, of Clonmore, Newry, County Down, was prosecuted. Grabausks, a director of A&A Seafood Ltd in the city, admitted acting as an unlicensed gangmaster between November 2016 and May 2017 by similarly employing workers to pick shellfish across Northern Ireland. He was fined £500 plus an offender levy of £15.

Speaking at Newry Magistrates’ Court on Monday 20 August, District Judge Eamonn King said that in both cases there was a degree of enterprise to make money but nothing more sinister.

GLAA Director of Operations Ian Waterfield commented, “These successful prosecutions demonstrate our continued commitment to ensure that those people who break the law in our regulated sectors are brought to justice.”

“In both cases, the defendants took a risk that they would not be caught without a licence,” Waterfield said. “However, their attempts to flout the law have backfired and these cases should act as a lesson to all gangmasters in the shellfish industry. We will find out and we will prosecute.”  

According to the GLAA, it is a criminal offence to provide labour in the shellfish sector without a GLAA licence. The maximum penalty is ten years in prison and a fine. It is also an offence to use labour provided by unlicensed labour providers. This offence carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a fine.