Hesketh Bank Gangmaster has licence revoked following investigation

May 26 2011 by Tom Bristow, Ormskirk Advertiser

A GANGMASTER firm which abused and humiliated Southport workers has been stripped off its licence.

Riccadonna Produce, based in Hesketh Bank, first featured in an Advertiser investigation last November which exposed alleged abuses.

Now the firm, run by the Edge family, has “with regret” withdrawn an appeal against the Gangmaster Licensing Authority (GLA) to revoke its licence, while strongly denying the investigation’s findings.

Abuses confirmed by the GLA investigation include:

Physical and mental mistreatment.

Owner Grace Edge and her daughter, Sarah, set up a lunchtime race for workers to win the right to stay in their jobs for the afternoon.

And when the GLA came to inspect the reports of abuse they were confronted with a torrent of abuse by Grace Edge.

Debt bondage

Despite the abuse, some workers were unable to escape as their documents were taken by Riccadonna.

They could not get them back until they paid £105, binding the workers in debt to the gangmasters.