A West Midlands gangmaster has been found to have been deceiving the GLA and exploiting workers following a GLA investigation.

Director of New Horizons Personnel, Kashmir Singh, has had two licences revoked and one licence application refused. In the judgement rejecting his appeal against the latest revocation decision, Singh was declared “not a fit and proper person” to act as a gangmaster after repeated exploitation of vulnerable workers and repeatedly attempting to mislead the GLA.

John Sherratt the appointed person who heard the appeal said: “Mr Singh as the principal authority, has exploited workers by depriving them of the pennies in their wages and that he has caused the company to fail to comply with obligations to Vehicle & Operator Services Agency (VOSA). The wages issue was in my judgement a persistent and systematic exploitation of the workers.

“To allow the appellant company time to take steps to wind down its business and to terminate the employment of the workers in an orderly fashion and in compliance with the Employment Rights Act 1996 this decision will take effect at 17:00 on Tuesday 31 March 2009 after which time the appellant company must cease trading within the sectors regulated by the GLA.”

The GLA predicts that he would have made £3,900 a year from rounding down workers’ pay, although the workers would have been paying National Insurance Contributions and tax on the full amount.

Three vehicles used by Singh were not tested to ensure they met mandatory safety standards. Singh did all he could to conceal this from GLA inspectors. However, along with support from the VOSA and the GLA ensured his attempts to mislead were unsuccessful.

Paul Whitehouse, chairman of the GLA, says: “We have come across Singh before.

His actions have harmed the workers, given him an unfair competitive advantage over hard working, legitimate gangmasters and defrauded the public of tax revenue.”