Two have been jailed for exploiting 41 workers from Romania, the UK Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority reported Wednesday.

Alexander Goran recruited workers from Romania. Once the workers were in the UK, Goran controlled their wages; directed them to live in cramped, substandard housing; and gave some false identities in order for them to work two separate shifts at a food processing factory in Greater Manchester, according to the authority. His wife, Ana Marie Goran, supported him.

The two were arrested and questioned in March 2018 following an enforcement action. However, the Gorans, who are Romanian nationals, later left the UK only to be arrested by Spanish authorities in Valencia. They were subsequently transported back to the UK by Merseyside Police and appeared in court on 30 August 2019.

Alexander Goran pleaded guilty to acting as an unlicensed gangmaster and conspiring to commit fraud by abuse of position, according to the authority. He was sentenced to 3½ years in jail after appearing before Liverpool Crown Court on 3 December. Ana Marie Goran was sentenced to 15 months at the same hearing.

“This case sends out a clear message to those who criminally exploit vulnerable people that we will come and find you,” Senior Investigating Officer Martin Plimmer said. “In the case of the Gorans, once they knew we were after them, they fled to Spain and thought that they were going to get away with it.”

The convictions follow sentences of the Gorans’ accomplices Josh Beesley and Christopher Beech in July 2019, according to the authorities. Beesley, of Lockerbie Place, Wigan, was jailed for 20 months for aiding and abetting an unlicensed gangmaster and conspiring to commit fraud by abuse of position. Beech, of Lilac Court, Congleton, was handed an eight-month sentence suspended for 18 months and community order for the same gangmaster offence.