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A Hungarian man has been jailed after he trafficked one of his countrymen to Kirklees with the promise of building work only to exploit him by giving him little money or food return for his labour.

Leeds Crown Court heard Janos Bogdan told his victim, a 40-year-old man who was unemployed and virtually homeless, that he already had men working for him in the UK and was looking for more.

Bogdan drove the man to England and an address in Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor where he told him he would be living with him and his wife and his other workers.

Tony Kelbrick, prosecuting, said the man known as ‘Robert’ found himself sharing a room with five others and was given only a towel for a blanket.

He was expected to sleep on the floor and the room he was in was so crowded he had to crawl over others to get in and out.

He was told it was only a temporary arrangement but that was untrue. He was then taken to building jobs each day at 8am and collected at 5pm, working without being given any food or water.

When he got back to the house they were sometimes given a small amount of food such as bread and salami but on other days got nothing and were told one meal was more than enough.

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Mr Kelbrick said as for payment “if the defendant felt like it he would pay him £20 to £25 for a week, other times nothing.” Sometimes he went on the street to ask strangers for change to buy food.

Bogdan occasionally made him cycle more than 10 miles there and back to building jobs and shouted at him if he complained.

On one occasion when he asked for a cigarette, Bogdan gave him one to share with two other workers.

Mr Kelbrick said: “All this while the defendant was driving around in a Mercedes car smoking three packets of cigarettes a day.”

Mr Kelbrick said after nearly three months in 2013 Bogdan suddenly returned to Hungary, abandoning them all. They were helped by people in the community and the police were contacted.

Philip Boyd for Bogdan said he gave himself up in Dover earlier this year.

Bogdan, 46, admitted trafficking his victim for exploitation and failing to attend court in 2015.

Jailing him for a total of three years, Judge Tom Bayliss QC said the victim found himself being exploited in a strange land.

“That was deliberate degradation of a fellow human being,” he said.