Solicitor General Alex Chalk has failed to persuade appeal judges that the sentence given to a man who admitted helping exploit a worker made to live in a horse box, a disused caravan and a cramped shed for 40 years was unduly lenient.
Peter Swailes , 56, from Low Harker, Carlisle, Cumbria, admitted conspiring with his father, also called Peter, to financially exploit the man from July 2015, when the Modern Slavery Act came into law.
He was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months, by Judge Richard Archer at Carlisle Crown Court on February 4.
Prosecutors accepted Swailes’ guilty plea on the basis that, although he had known the victim for many years, he was unaware of his living conditions.
A barrister representing Mr Chalk on Tuesday argued, at a Court of Appeal hearing in London, that the sentence was unduly lenient.
Peter Ratliff told Lord Justice Holroyde, Mrs Justice Farbey and Sir Nigel Davis that a longer sentence should have been imposed and the jail term should not have been suspended.
But Lord Justice Holroyde said judges had concluded that neither the length of the term, nor the suspension, was unduly lenient, given the basis of Swailes’ guilty plea.
He said the case was “complicated and difficult”.
The vulnerable victim, who had a “very low” IQ of 59, was used and exploited during that period by Swailes’ father, who was his “boss” at the various “accommodations” over the years, judges heard.
Swailes’ father, who was 81 and died last year while awaiting trial after being accused of modern slavery offences, approached the man when he was aged about 18 and invited him to work with him doing various jobs.
In October 2018 the man was discovered by police living in a rotting, leaky shed near Carlisle, with no heating, no lighting and no flooring.
Swailes accepted that, from “time to time”, his father would contact him and arrange for the victim to undertake work with him, and that, “on occasion”, he paid him less than his minimum entitlement.
The case came after a three-year investigation by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, supported by Cumbria Police and the National Crime Agency.
The victim, in his 60s, now lives in supported accommodation outside Cumbria and has been helped by City Hearts, a charity providing long-term support to survivors of modern slavery.
