Businesses in Beds caught employing illegal immigrants

[semaniseme]

Expensive week for Bedfordshire businesses

05 March 2010

Five Bedfordshire businesses are facing the prospect of substantial fines - potentially as much as £120,000 - after a week of illegal working operations in the county by the UK Border Agency.

Officers from the local immigration team for Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire (West) visited six businesses from 22 February to 1 March and found five of them were employing a total of 12 foreign nationals with no permission to be in the UK.

Inspector Robert Tompkins, who heads up the team, said:

'Employers have a responsibility to ensure their staff are legally entitled to work in the UK before they take them on. If they ignore that duty the financial consequences are serious.

'Bedfordshire businesses that are breaking the rules should know we are out there looking for them, they will be caught and they will be fined.'

A tough new civil penalty system was introduced in 2008 to provide a fast and effective way of tackling bosses who fail to carry out proper checks on workers from outside Europe. A fine of up to £10,000 per worker can be imposed for every illegal worker found at a business, unless the employer can provide that it carried out the necessary right-to-work checks.

The results in full are:

1 March, All Star Café, Allhallows, Bedford. A 23-year-old visa overstayer from China was found. Potential fine - £10,000.
1 March, Super Euro Halal, Iddesleigh Road, Bedford. A 25-year-old illegal entrant from Afghanistan and a 44-year-old visa overstayer from Pakistan were found. Potential fine - £20,000.
26 February, Dragon Inn Restaurant, North Street, Leighton Buzzard. A 46-year-old visa overstayer from Hong Kong who has already been removed from the United Kingdom was found along with four Chinese failed asylum seekers, a 37-year-old, a 39-year-old, a 36-year-old and a 47-year-old. Potential fine - £50,000.
24 February, Kashmiri Spice, Leagrave Road, Luton. Three visa overstayers from Pakistan were found, an 18-year-old, a 35-year-old and a 48-year-old. Potential fine - £30,000.
22 February, Southern Fried Chicken, St Johns Street, Kempston. A 27-year-old visa overstayer from India found. Potential fine - £10,000.