Four found guilty of forcing vulnerable men into servitude Four members of a family police described as "an organised criminal group" have been found guilty at Luton crown court of forcing destitute men into servitude. Tommy Senior, James John, Patrick and Josie Connors were convicted of controlling, exploiting, verbally abusing and beating the men for financial gain and face a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. During a 13-week trial the court heard that vulnerable men - many of them homeless, addicted to alcohol or drugs - were recruited in soup kitchens and outside dole offices and promised cash payments for manual labour. But once in the family's grip they were forced to work up to 19 hours a day for no pay while being routinely abused, under-fed and housed in filthy sheds and horse boxes. A pre-dawn raid in September released 23 men from the Greenacres caravan site at Little Billington, Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, in a significant operation involving armed police, sniffer dogs and helicopter support after a worker contacted officers after fleeing the site. The site, a mixture of pristine chalets and smaller caravans sitting on well-kept paved yards, was the scene of abuse and exploitation, according to police. Destitute men were picked up and made to perform manual labour such as Tarmacking and laying paving stones, and menial tasks such as cleaning their bosses' homes. When police found them, they were living in sheds that were "unfit for human habitation" with no heating. One picture of the sheds in which the men lived showed a sheet covered in human excrement, with discarded budget food wrappers littering the floor. Frances Oldham, QC, for the prosecution, said during the trial: "They were controlled in such a way that in many cases they could not see it. They became conditioned to do what the defendants wanted. The reason for their exploitation was money. They may not in the strict sense have been slaves, members of the jury, but the prosecution say this: they were not free men. Of the 23 men found at the site, 13 co-operated with police in a vast investigation that is seen as a key test case in the use of new anti-slavery legislation. The court heard the men were told to call Tommy Connors Senior "Pa," or Lyncham. His son-in-law, James John Connors, was accused of attacking workers with a broom handle, while his son Patrick used a claw hammer as punishment for a worker who he said had lied about drinking, the court heard.