SEVEN illegal immigrants were arrested yesterday at the Hampshire farm recently at the centre of one of the South's biggest murder cases.

Little Abshot Farm, near Warsash, was raided in a joint operation by immigration officers and special branch detectives investigating the trade in illegal farm workers from Eastern Europe.

Other early morning raids at addresses in Portswood and Bitterne in Southampton netted a further three men and one woman.

And in a separate but linked swoop at a farm near Selsey, Sussex, five women and three men were arrested. Seven of those detained were expected to be deported today.

The suspected ringleader of the illicit trade was also thought to be among those arrested and was being questioned over document forgery.

Sussex Police gave their Hampshire colleagues the go-ahead to carry out the operation at Selsey and were ready to provide back-up.

A Hampshire police spokesman said: "The operation - codenamed Mansion House - is part of an ongoing investigation into an organised team who recruit people from Eastern Europe to work illegally in the UK.

"A team of 60 officers made up of staff from HM Immigration Department and police officers from Southampton and Portsmouth Central police stations were involved in the operation, which was co-ordinated by Totton-based Detective Inspector Tony Harris."

Little Abshot Farm, off Hook Lane, hit the head-lines when a tractor driver sparked a murder hunt in 1996 after his plough uncovered the decomposing corpse of 39-year-old Harjit Luther.

Two years later, following some of the most advanced forensic investigations ever used by Hampshire Police, the inquiry - called simply the body-in-the-field case - was successfully solved and Southampton resident Baljeet Rai jailed for life for the murder at Winchester Crown Court.

Ironically Rai was also an illegal immigrant who had worked on the farm. He had dumped the body there after murdering Luther by battering him with a hockey stick.

Following the trial Mr Nathan Dellicott, a man-ager of Barfoot's of Botley, which runs the farm, said he was worried the firm had used illegal immigrants.

At the time he said: "We are concerned but we do everything we can to identify the status of these people. But we are farmers, not detectives. We have to trust the agencies that supply us."

Nobody at the farm could be contacted for comment last night.

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