It was a daring and audacious rescue mission. Upon its success rested the freedom, perhaps even the lives, of up to 45 men locked into a back-breaking life of slavery and forced to live in the most appallingly squalid conditions.

An unlikely squad of former policemen and soldiers working for the charity Hope For Justice – whose mission is to end human trafficking – had uncovered their plight.

And after weeks of detective work and meticulous planning, they were determined to free them.

The team had been tipped off about a suspected trafficking ring centred on the bed-making firm Kozee Sleep in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

In a highly secret mission, they put the factory under surveillance and made tentative contact with some of the Hungarian workers.

After much coaxing, they identified a house in Bradford, where the men were being held captive.

And in a clandestine operation in the early hours, an undercover worker for the charity who was leading the operation gave the order to move in.

The men were just some of scores of vulnerable Hungarian immigrants who have been lured to this country with the promise of well-paid work. But in reality this is a shameful tale of people trafficking and slavery.

Some had their passports stolen by unscrupulous masters and were forced to slog for up to 16 hours a day for just £10 a week… all to make beds sold in High Street stores including John Lewis and Next.

 Eight men were able to flee their hellish existence that night, with the charity's help – but it was tricky.

The men were told to leave the house and meet the charity's undercover team at an agreed spot, from where they would be taken to safety.

But the first rendezvous point was abandoned because the men were terrified that the traffickers were on to them and would hunt them down.

The petrified men were eventually picked up in a supermarket car park, hiding in the darkness, behind recycling bins and bushes.

The police, who were kept fully informed by the charity and were able to prepare a prosecution, would later learn that the men had been trafficked to Britain by slavemasters who were getting rich by selling their labour for £3-an-hour to a local furniture maker, while paying the workers a pittance, with a few extras thrown in such as cigarettes and basic food.

And they were housed in appalling conditions. At one address, scores of men were found to be crammed into one squalid three-bedroom house.

After a major police operation, Mohammed Rafiq, the 60-year-old owner of Kozee Sleep, last month became the first company boss to be convicted of human trafficking and running a sweat shop in the UK.

This pillar of the local business community had been harbouring a shameful secret – an army of slave labour. He was sentenced to two years and three months in jail.

It seemed unimaginable to me that slavery could be alive and well in Britain almost 200 years after it was abolished. But during my investigation, I heard some remarkable stories from victims. 

One of the Hungarians – 'Daniel' (not his real name) – told me how he was lured from the poverty of his homeland by the promise of a well-paid factory job but instead was held captive in Britain with veiled threats that his family would be harmed if he left.

He was promised up to £1,000 a month but, to his horror, when he arrived in Dewsbury he earned less than £2 a day. 

He told how, to supplement their income, he and other men were given tobacco and food. In some cases, passports were confiscated, leaving them trapped. They slept in dingy, overcrowded houses with mattresses in every room. The buildings were filthy and sometimes rat-infested.

At weekends, the men were expected to work for free doing house renovations, painting and gardening from 9am until 7pm.

Daniel said: 'I was very happy when I was on my way. I thought, 'I am in work, I can earn, I can support my children' But I was told I was only going to get paid £10 a week and maybe a few smokes and some food and I had to work sometimes 15 or 16 hours a day.'

Daniel and the other migrants were piled high into flats and houses. 'There were 14 sharing one bathroom and one toilet. All cooking was done in one pot. It was dirty, crowded and it stank. They said they knew where my family lived and they could get hold of them,' he said.

It emerged that, to get his slaves, company boss Rafiq had used a go-between named Janos Orsos – jailed for people trafficking last year – to contact Hungarians and win their trust with promises of riches.

Rafiq's bed business had once been worth millions but he had hit hard times and was desperate to cut production costs. He was tipped off about the slave trade operated by Orsos, who promised him cheap labour for Kozee Sleep.

Rafiq managed to keep the operation secret and had been considered a fair-minded company owner within the local business community.

The police and Hope For Justice are now co-operating in similar investigations across the country. And it's not just migrants who are targeted for slavery.

Take the case of Darrell Simester, born and bred in Kidderminster in the West Midlands. He ended up enslaved for 13 years on a farm in South Wales before his family tracked him down.

Darrell, who was later diagnosed with a mild form of autism, told his parents he had been offered a job and somewhere to live before moving away and eventually cutting off contact with his family.

His captor, horse dealer David Doran, from a traveller background, was sentenced to four and half years in jail after pleading guilty to forcing Darrell to perform forced labour.

So why didn't Darrell just run away, especially when he was responsible for locking up the farm most nights? I came to realise that his captor had kept him wrapped up in psychological chains.

Psychologist Dr Katy Robjant explains it simply. Victims become dependent on those they rely on for their food, for their accommodation, for human contact. She said: 'People go from being physically restrained to psychologically restrained.'

It's believed there may be many more people like Darrell out there. Separate investigations have already identified two other victims.

A number of police officers I met during my investigation have left their mark on me. Tremendously dedicated, smart and laden with moral courage, they are the front line in today's battle against this ancient scourge.

In the West Midlands, I went on an early morning raid with the police in search of a suspected trafficker and his victims. I met Detective Chief Inspector Nick Dale who is heading a major investigation in the area. His morning's work ended in disappointment.

The suspect was arrested and three men, all suspected modern-day slaves, were taken away to a local police station for a de-brief. What happened next was an eye-opener for me.

The three men, whom police believe were being paid just £60 a week, said they didn't want any official intervention. Instead, they wanted to get away from the police station and get back to work. The police were making them late.

DCI Dale wasn't surprised but, back then, I was. I'm not now. I've learned that many victims of this type of exploitation are targeted precisely because they are vulnerable, perhaps homeless, or long- term unemployed. Others may have served jail time. All are desperate.

And there's something else: pride. Some victims are reluctant to admit they have been conned into servitude. How do they explain to their family back home that they have been duped and that all their dreams have turned to a form of hell?

Three years after he was rescued from the Kozee Sleep factory in Dewsbury, Daniel still hasn't told his family back in Hungary exactly what happened to him. I asked him if it was because he was embarrassed, because he had become a victim of traffickers.

'Yes,' he said. And then he began to sob. 'I have no one but my children.'

I got in touch with Next and John Lewis. I was astonished that these companies, known to have robust ethical trading policies, had been involved with Kozee Sleep.

They told me the bed-maker had hoodwinked them and that lessons had been learned.

A John Lewis spokesman told me: 'As soon as evidence of illegal and unethical practices came to light in 2013, we ended the contract with the factory and also co-operated fully with the police throughout the investigation and court proceedings.'

Next was supplied for a short while with mattresses by a subsidiary company of Kozee Sleep.

The retail giant gave evidence in the court case that helped nail Rafiq. Kozee Sleep has since ceased trading.

There's no doubt that the High Street companies that Kozee Sleep made beds for were fooled. Though they might not admit it, I think I know why. I don't think they expected to find people working in these slave conditions in the UK.

In fact we are all closer to exploitation than we think. Don't imagine it is always out of view.

Just walk down any High Street, in any town, and you could be closer than you ever imagined to the exploited. In some of the nail bars, fast food restaurants, even the £5 car wash, there are modern-day slaves – hidden in plain sight.

I met some who work in the estimated 19,000 unregulated car washes in the UK. They do ten-hour days for just £4-an-hour, way less than the minimum wage. One employer even made his workers buy their own protective gear.

David Ford, an outreach worker who has worked with such exploited people at car washes, told me we had to take action – and use our common sense. He said if the price is too low, and the workforce appears to be made up of migrants – drive on.

I used to take my car to one of three car washes I pass every day going to work. It was cleaned spick and span. Inside and out. Hand washed. Hand dried. For a tenner. Think about it.

Slavery has many drivers: poverty, mass migration, greed and even our own desire for cheaper goods.

The war against it may not easily be won. What is certain is that none of us can plead ignorance any more.

Courtesy Daily Mail