Restaurants face £30,000 of fines after illegal workers found

Three restaurants in Gateshead and South Shields were yesterday found to be unlawfully employing illegal workers and may now collectively face fines of up to £30,000.

Acting on intelligence, Immigration Officers from the UK Border Agency targeted a restaurant in South Shields, Radhunj Balti Restaurant on 88-90 Ocean Road. On entering they found a Bangladeshi male working illegally.

He was arrested and detained on suspicion of overstaying his visa. The UK Border Agency will now take steps to remove him from the United Kingdom.

Immigration Officers then went targeted two restaurants in Gateshead. The first, Ali Geez on 6 Wellington Street, in Gateshead, they encountered an Iranian male who is failed asylum seeker working illegally. The second restaurant, China City, 8 Wellington Street, they found a Chinese national who had entered the United Kingdom illegally. He was arrested and detained pending removal.

The employers of all three restaurant may now be liable to fines of up to £10,000 per illegal worker. They will have 28 days from receipt of the Notification of Potential Liability (NOPL) to provide the UK Border Agency with evidence that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out.

Steve Lamb, regional operations director of the UK Border Agency in North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "We are working hard to pull the plug on the illegal jobs which lure illegal immigrants to come to the UK in the first place. Illegal working is unfair on honest employers who recruit staff with the right to work in the UK and who pay them a proper salary."

Words: Clare Riley

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