Eleven Lithuanian trafficking victims who suffered severe exploitation while working as chicken catchers on British farms have won a high court case against “the worst gangmaster ever”.

Three of the Lithuanian workers told the court about the brutal conditions experienced by workers between 2009 and 2012 while under the control of DJ Houghton Chicken Catching Services, a Kent-based gangmaster firm.

The company, run by the British couple Darrell Houghton and Jacqueline Judge, supplied migrant workers to large farms from Penzance to Scotland, including several producing eggs for the leading supplier to major supermarkets.

The Lithuanians said they had been forced to work almost continuously for days and nights at a time, allowed only to sleep upright in their minibus seats while travelling between farms. They said they often went hungry and were denied toilet breaks.

The workers were given no protective clothing, and described vomiting because of ammonia fumes from faeces in the chicken sheds, and being bitten constantly by fleas from the birds. Several workers suffered injuries, with one saying he passed out from sleep-deprivation and broke his front teeth as he fell.

When they were returned briefly by company drivers to overcrowded, flea and bed-bug infested housing in Maidstone, a Lithuanian enforcer working with the Houghtons used violence, threats, and aggressive dogs to keep them under control.

Both the enforcer and Judge frequently and arbitrarily docked their wages, said the workers, sometimes meting out collective punishment to a whole house of workers for minor infringements of rules, such as leaving a cup unwashed.

Entirely fictional hours of work were recorded on their payslips, so they received much less than the legal minimum wage. Houghton and Judge also made unlawful deductions for work-finding fees and rent.

In a landmark decision, Justice Peter Lane ruled that Houghton and Judge were personally liable to the workers for statutory and contractual breaches committed by the limited company of which they were officers, rather than the company alone being liable. The company no longer has significant assets. Damages will be set at a later date.

The judgment follows a civil case for compensation brought by another group of six Lithuanians against the same company, which was settled with a payout of more than £1m in December 2016.

In 2012, a Guardian investigation revealed that the trafficked Lithuanians were working in supply chains producing premium free range eggs for McDonald’s, Tesco, Asda, Marks & Spencer and the Sainsbury’s Woodland brand. The farm sheds they cleared of chickens also produced eggs under the Freedom Food brand, and included some sites producing for Noble Foods, the company that owns the Happy Egg brand. There is no suggestion that any of these named brands were aware of the exploitation or the trafficking.

Noble Foods is the UK’s largest egg company and both the firm and its former chairman, Peter Dean, have been major donors to the Conservative party.

Giving evidence during the latest trial, Robertas Urbonas said he had been recruited by the enforcer in Lithuania in 2009 and worked for the gangmaster firm until 2011, when he ran away. He told the court he had typically worked 100 hours a week, never knew where he was being sent and often went unpaid. Urbonas said he weighed 100kg when he arrived, but only 67kg when he left due to lack of food and rest.

Tadas Balciauskas worked for the company from 2009 until late 2012 and was sent to many farms, including some owned by Noble Foods. He said he typically worked almost continuously from Sunday afternoon through to late the following Friday night, with no chance to wash or change clothes. He said he was sometimes not paid at all as an arbitrary punishment, and was once punched by the enforcer for no apparent reason.

Fear, hunger and dirt: Lithuanian migrants on life as chicken catchers Read more

Balciauskas said that after a group of workers had a party at their house, he was evicted by the enforcer without pay. He and three other Lithuanian men then lived in a tent for more than six weeks, until they became so hungry and destitute they pleaded to go back to work. He was put in a house with 14 men and sent back to work in the chicken sheds in flip-flops because he had no other shoes.

Police raided houses controlled by Houghton and Judge in 2012 and freed several suspected victims of modern slavery. A total of 38 workers were eventually found to have been trafficked by the National Crime Agency. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, as it was styled at the time, described the company as “the worst gangmaster ever” and revoked its licence.

Mary Westmacott, a solicitor from Leigh Day, who represented the Lithuanian men, said: “I’m delighted that the individuals responsible for my clients’ appalling exploitation have finally been held to account in court. This case highlights how victims of modern slavery are hidden in plain sight in the UK.”

The Lithuanian enforcer is a defendant along with Houghton and Judge in a criminal prosecution in Lithuania over their treatment of the men.