A BOSS who exploited, threatened and bullied a vulnerable man by forcing him to share a bed with two other men and work for £30 a week has avoided prison.

A judge at Southampton Crown Court described the actions of 30-year-old Zydrunas Zdanevicius as “degrading” after the court heard the Lithuanian victim was woken at 5am before being forced to work until 9pm at night seven days a week.

The labour involved delivering and picking up thousands of charity bags full of clothes across the south of the country.

After three weeks Zdanevicius, of Cornel Road, Southampton, realised the man was not capable of working as hard as he would like and the victim was given £40 and dumped at a train station.

Detective inspector Phil Scrase, senior investigating officer in the case, said that a large number of inquiries were carried out after the alarm was raised regarding the conditions the man had worked in.

He said: “It’s not always obvious that someone is being exploited. There may be certain signs, for example they may be held in difficult conditions, they may be doing a very poorly-paid job, and they may be from a foreign country or they may be from this country.

“So if people do have concerns I would urge them to contact the authorities.”

The operation, which was run out of a building on The Polygon in Southampton, came to light as part of an extensive police investigation.

In mitigation Robert Gray, representing Zdanevicius, highlighted his client’s lack of previous convictions and noted that he had a “stable and permanent” home with a partner and two young children.

Zdanevicius was found guilty of forced labour at a trial in April.

He was given a 21-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 240 hours’ unpaid work and pay £600 compensation to the victim.