An investigation by the Fair Work Agency has led to the sentencing of an unlicensed gangmaster who supplied workers to an abattoir.
Peter McGuigan, 56, of Shop Lane, Telford, pleaded guilty to one count of acting as an unlicensed gangmaster under S12 of the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004.
He pleaded guilty to the offence at Coventry Magistrates’ Court on 15 July and was fined 1,000 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of 400 and court costs of 85.
Set up under the Employment Rights Act 2025 in April this year, the Fair Work Agency consolidates several agencies, such as HMRC’s Minimum Wage Unit and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, with powers to investigate and penalise breaches of labour laws.
Between January 2022 and June 2023, McGuigan was supplying workers to an abattoir near Kenilworth, Warwickshire.
Businesses supplying workers into sectors including agriculture, horticulture, food processing and shellfish gathering must hold a valid gangmaster’s licence to protect workers from exploitation.
McGuigan supplied about 125 workers to the abattoir without a licence, and in August 2024, following an investigation, he was interviewed. He claimed that because the workers he supplied were licenced slaughtermen, he did not require a gangmaster’s licence.
The Fair Work Agency found that McGuigan had been investigated in 2017, where he was told he needed a licence, and in 2019 his licence was revoked by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority after an inspection...
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