An Angus man who illegally supplied workers to a number of Scottish vegetable farms and paid them below the legal minimum wage was yesterday ordered to perform unpaid community service. 40-year-old Rimantas Sulcas, of Hillview, Brechin, had pleaded guilty to the offence of acting as a gangmaster without a licence at an earlier hearing at Stonehaven Sheriff Court.

On Wednesday, Sulcas was sentenced to 180 hours unpaid Community Payback work. If this is not completed within nine months he faces being brought back to court for re-sentencing.

The unlicensed gangmaster's offences took place over a period of more than two years, starting in 2010. Sulcas supplied agricultural workers to farms in Aberdeenshire and Angus and paid them below minimum wage.

The court in Stonehaven was told that despite several attempts to speak to him in connection with offences, Sulcas had not been prepared to be interviewed.