A West Midlands gangmaster has been stripped of his licence after he was ‘untruthful' in interviews and was found to lack both the competency and knowledge to run a business in line with GLA licensing standards.
Sanjeev Sahonta originally claimed to have left his job as a full-time telephone operatorfor electricity provider N-Power to look after the day-to-day control of PremierResources in High Street, Rowley Regis.
But the company director, from Handsworth, later changed his story, admitting he wasstill working full-time on the phones and claimed he was running the recruitmentbusiness in his spare time.
When questioned, however, he appeared to know very little about the workings of thecompany - which provided temporary workers for harvesting vegetable and fruit cropsfor a number of farms in the Midlands.
Premier’s licence was revoked in December 2012 but the company appealed, allowing itto continue trading until the legal process was concluded. That appeal has nowbeen withdrawn and the licence revocation finally took effect on Friday (25 April).
GLA Chief Executive Paul Broadbent described Premier’s case as another clearexample of a company ‘playing the appeals system’ to delay its revocation and makeextra money.
“This is a case that we are pleased to have concluded as it proved particularlyfrustrating for the GLA,” he said.
“Though it was clear the company had no chance of winning its appeal, throughemploying numerous delaying tactics it was able to eke out more time and make moremoney through operations that breached many of our standards.
“From speaking to Mr Sahonta it was clear that while he claimed to be responsible forthe day-to-day running of the business, he had little knowledge of, or involvement in itsoperations and was merely ‘a front’ for other operators.”
Broadbent said the GLA had serious concerns over how the current appeals systemcould be manipulated by businesses to delay the inevitable loss of their licences.
“We will be seeking a review of these processes at the earliest possible opportunity,” headded. “I will be talking with the Home Office to investigate how we might change the current system - where lodging an appeal grants non-compliant companies considerable periods of grace to carry on flouting the rules.
“It is providing an unfair advantage over those legitimate businesses in our regulatedsector that play by the rules. That is plainly wrong and should not be allowed tocontinue.”
Enquiries at three different companies, who employed workers from Premier, revealedthat none of them had any dealings with Sahonta. He also gave an incorrect answerwhen asked where one of his clients was based.
On inspection by the GLA, penalty points are accrued on a gangmaster’s licence –similar to those collected for driving offences. A licence may be revoked when a total of -or exceeding - 30 points has been reached. This is the value attached to the failure of asingle critical licensing standard.
Premier Resources amassed a total of 146 points – gained from breaching three criticaland seven non-critical standards.
Two of the critical breaches were for failing the ‘fit and proper’ and ‘competency’ tests,while the third was for failing to keep sufficient records to verify that workers were paidthe National Minimum Wage.
Premier has also made no returns to HM Revenue andCustoms for PAYE or National Insurance in the past year despite the continuing supplyof workers.
Other issues unearthed included: failing to provide any training for workers or thenecessary protective equipment, providing illegal workers to farms and a lack of propercontracts for workers or agreements with labour users.
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