Two of the 12 addresses raided were in Viking Close, Kettering, and had seven people staying in each of the three-bedroomed homes.

Each of them had mattresses thrown on the floor, alongside piles of bills and eviction notices. The fridges were filled with the leeks the workers had been picking during the day.

Each of the houses only had one bathroom for all seven people living in them.

Neighbours described how they saw minibuses and vans arriving through the day and night dropping people off and picking them up.

One even said they would come back covered in mud late in the night and would often be drinking, smoking, shouting and urinating in the gardens.

Neighbour Jamie Dillon said yesterday: "All we knew was when the police turned up today and said something was going on.

"They told us they might have to dig the garden up to see if there any drugs or anything buried in the garden.

"They said they were trying to stop human trafficking, which is the first we had heard about it.

"There were a middle-aged couple and three or four other people but we never thought anything of it.

"They weren't really sociable; we just saw them coming in and out."

Another neighbour in Viking Close who did not want to be named said: "I didn't know anything was going on until this morning.

"Over the last year there have been a lot of minibuses with lots of people going in and out at all hours of the day and night.

"They was a constant flow of people but we never thought anything of it. They were always nice enough."

Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "We have no end of problems with the noise.

"Two men would pick them up every day in a Land Rover and then they would come back at all hours of the day or night and bang around.

"It made life unbearable."

Readers reacted on our website throughout the day yesterday.

Mark Winspear of Kettering said: "The authorities should be congratulated upon their efforts, although I suspect that they've only touched the tip of the iceberg."


Reporter Becky Inman got the chance to go into one of the houses in Kettering where the workers were forced to live. This is what she found.

"Entering one of the houses where seven people lived for months, the first thing to hit me was the smell – a mixture of mould, damp and tobacco.

The floors were covered in post, with red letters saying Eviction Notice.

The carpets were covered in pieces of mud and the kitchen was covered in cigarette butts, dust and more mud.

In one of the fridges was a bottle of milk, some slightly mouldy leeks and something which smelt awful, wrapped up in a blanket.

In each of the bedrooms there were mattresses with no sheets or
blankets crammed into the rooms and there were no personal belongings in any of the rooms.

In the second house in Viking Close, bags of clothes were left on sofas and there were holes kicked in the door and decking around the back.

There was a huge fence keeping people from going in or out with a lock on."