London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2025

Slavery: Three on trial accused of enslaving Latvian man

Slavery: Three on trial accused of enslaving Latvian man

A vulnerable man brought to the UK was forced to work and his wages taken from him, a court has heard.

Latvian Rolands Kazoks was allegedly stripped of his passport and bank cards and denied showers and clean clothes.

Kept in a house in Newport against his will, he was made to clean, forced into spiralling debt and told if he did not pay off the money his family in Latvia would be targeted, a jury has heard.

Two men and a woman, from Newport, deny slavery charges.

Normunds Freibergs, 40, of Morley Close, Jokubas Stankevicius, 59, and Ruta Stankeviciene, 57, both of Capel Crescent, Newport, are standing trial charged with requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.

Mr Freibergs also denies arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to exploitation, and acting as an unlicensed gangmaster.

Newport Crown Court heard Mr Kazoks had been living in Germany and wanted a better life in the UK.

Mr Kazoks looked for jobs on Latvian social media site Draugiem, where he was introduced to Mr Friebergs whose profile picture showed him at a desk in an office with the logo for a firm named Thomas Recruitment behind him.

That and other pictures on his account were aimed to give the impression he worked for the recruitment firm, the prosecution said, which he did not.

After being told he would be able to work in a bakery for £8.20 an hour and only pay £85 a week living costs, Mr Kazoks travelled to Wales.

He had saved £1,000 in Germany and used this to pay between €600 (£502) and €800 to Mr Freibergs, which the defendant claimed was a deposit for accommodation.

Jokubas Stankevicius kept a chart of Mr Kazoks' supposed debt on the fridge, a court heard


But, the court heard, on arrival he was told he would be living in a small room in the house of Ms Stankeviciene and Mr Stankevicius, on Capel Crescent.

Despite getting jobs in various factories, the court heard his debt to the three defendants spiralled as they erroneously charged him for things such as £50 for a National Insurance number, and £300 for getting a job in a chicken factory.

While unemployed, Mr Kazoks' debt soared and the defendants added interest.

The court heard they increased his living costs to £95 to pay for internet and to £150 because of Brexit.

Mr Stankevicius was said to keep a chart of Mr Kazoks' supposed debt on the fridge, which ran into thousands of pounds.

Lowri Wynn-Morgan, prosecuting, said: "Mr Kazoks will say that whilst living at the Capel Crescent address he was threatened by Mr Freibergs and Mr Stankevicius.

"They told him, in effect, that if he said anything or left without paying his debt he would be in trouble and his family would suffer.

"They told him that bad people in Latvia would force his family to pay the money, and that Mr Stankevicius had been to prison and knew other criminals.

"The prosecution's case is that these threats were designed to force Mr Kazoks to work by intimidation, to live in poor conditions and hand over the majority of his wages to the defendants."

The trio are alleged to have taken control of Mr Kazoks' payslips, work email and opened bank accounts in his name.

They gave him small amounts of money.

Normunds Freibergs denied arranging the travel of a person with a view to exploitation


Ms Wynn-Morgan said that if he asked for money, he was told he could buy what he wanted when his debts were cleared.

It is alleged the three took about £10,000 of Mr Kazoks' wages in total.

But when he began working at Abergavenny's Faccenda Foods in December 2017, colleagues noticed how little food he had, and that he kept wearing the same clothes.

A collection was held for him to buy trainers after he turned up in winter wearing sandals.

Some said they shared food with him after they noticed him watching them eat.

In October 2018, the court heard, he went with a colleague to the company's HR department and said he was "ready to talk".

The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and police were called and the three defendants were arrested.

All three denied the allegations and claimed to have "felt sorry" for the victim and helped him gain employment.

When asked about the £10,000, Ms Stankeviciene said she believed Mr Kazoks had used it to "send money to his mum, and also buy nice clothes and nice food".

Ms Wynn-Morgan said: "Mr Freibergs recruited Mr Kazoks to come to the UK in order for him to be exploited."

She said Mr Freibergs knew "Mr Kazoks would be placed with accomplices Mr Stankevicius and Mrs Stankeviciene, his wages pilfered, and that he would be threatened and kept in miserable conditions and required to work to pay off contrived debts".

The case continues.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
×