An owner of fast-food shops in the north-east has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for modern slavery offences after he was found to have forced vulnerable people to work for him in return for accommodation and food scraps.

Harjit Bariana, 46, housed people described as being “at a low ebb” in properties he owned in central Blyth, Northumberland. He forced them to work at his businesses in Blyth and Sunderland for free, often in poor conditions, and supplied them with alcohol and drugs.

Following a trial at Newcastle crown court last month, Bariana was convicted of six modern slavery offences against four people and of supplying the class C drug diazepam. The charges related to a period between 2014 and 2016. He was cleared of two slavery offences and of robbery.

The judge Sarah Mallett told Bariana: “This was, in my view, commercial exploitation. Your business model was largely predicated on free labour and the most minimal expenditure into your business to extract the maximum profit.”

She said the defendant was guilty of bullying, threats and violence. “You exploited their vulnerability by way of addiction, you fed and encouraged their addiction to alcohol and, on occasions, drugs,” she said.

The court heard that Bariana’s victims were afraid they would lose their housing and be beaten up if they did not comply with his demands. Bariana was paid housing benefit to cover his tenants’ rent, but he demanded extra money for gas and electricity.

The jury was told that one victim was forced to clear out a sewage pipe without gloves and another had his shoes removed and was made to walk to work barefoot.



One 43-year-old man, who had recently been released from prison and had an alcohol problem, moved into Bariana’s property and was set to work tiling a takeaway, which took all night. The victim had two days off in five months and was paid in alcohol and Valium tablets.

The man paid Bariana £76 in housing benefit and £20 a week from other benefits in rent. Each night he would be given leftover food to eat and a bottle of hard liquor in return for £5.

Another victim told his probation officer he was being forced to work 10 hours a day for no pay and was given food and soft drinks instead.



Christopher Knox, for the prosecution, said: “They were in practical terms people who were at a low ebb and they were people who were easily able to be coerced and forced to work.”



The men desperately needed the roof Bariana was providing, Knox said, and could therefore be “prevailed upon to do other things for him”. “He did in some cases assault them, beat them,” he added.

Bariana, of Netherton Colliery, Northumberland, told police that his tenants were lying. He has previous convictions for dishonesty, illegal money lending, selling counterfeit goods and making threats.