Paul Broadbent is new Gangmasters Licensing Authority chief

Mr Broadbent worked in policing for more than 30 years

The new head of a body which licenses gangmasters hopes his experience as a police officer will help him to protect migrant workers.

Paul Broadbent, previously an assistant chief constable at Nottinghamshire Police, is now chief executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA).

The GLA aims to protect workers in the agricultural industries, including Lincolnshire where there is a concentration of migrant workers.

Mr Broadbent said some are exploited.

'Very entrepreneurial

"We are trying to protect people from serious and organised criminals," he said.

"They are very entrepreneurial, and they will bring people across from other parts of Eastern Europe, maybe, on the promise of good work, good pay, good wages, and none of that comes to fruition."

The GLA has previously described Spalding and Boston, both in Lincolnshire, as "hotspots" and based its first community enforcement officers there in 2010.

The association also protects workers in the horticultural, shellfish gathering and associated processing and packing industries.

It was set up in the wake of the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster, in which at least 21 Chinese cockle pickers drowned in rising tides.

Mr Broadbent said he was attracted to the GLA role because of the similarities with his previous experience.

He started his new role on 7 January and is based at the GLA offices in Nottingham, where a third of the GLA's staff are based.