article_snippet: There is thought to be more than 13,000 people in the UK who are being exploited as cheap foreign labour by organised criminal gangs.
article_snippet: the Gangmasters Licensing Authority is currently investigating 300 gang leaders suspected of trafficking foreign workers, although the Gangmasters Licensing Authority's feared the number of could be much higher.
article_snippet: Anyone found supplying illegal workers can be jailed for up to ten years and fined, while people employing from an unlicensed gang leader can be fined and jailed for a year.
article_snippet: The report for the Centre of Social Justice found that law enforcement had left an 'open goal' for organised crime to build up around immigration.
article_snippet: This had led to crime syndicates using fake universities, sham marriages, forged documents and a network of solicitors and accounts to illegally traffic people.
article_snippet: The gangs would claims The gangs  victims owed The gangs  for The gangs  travel fee and documents and would force The gangs  to work by deducting money for food and accommodation.
article_snippet: The court heard the group would recruit at centres for the homeless, soup kitchens or simply on the street with the promise of well-paid work.
article_snippet: The men would have The men heads shaved, paid little or nothing, worked seven days a week and were verbally abused and beaten.
highlights_snippet: Paul Broadbent warned there are 13,000 people exploited as cheap labour .
  
highlights_snippet: Gangmasters Licensing Authority investigating 300 gangs linked to slavery .
  