Two Indian restaurants in Surrey face fines over illegal workers

Acting on intelligence, the UK Border Agency officials visited the Shappi Tandoori on Vicarage Road in Sunbury on Thursday  August16, where they questioned staff to check if they had the right to work in the UK.

Two Bangladeshi men, aged 23 and 28 were arrested. One man was in the country illegally having overstayed his visa while the other had entered the UK illegally.

Both were detained pending their removal from the UK, while their employer was served a notice warning they could now face a fine of up to £20,000 - £10,000 for each illegal worker - unless Shappi Tandoori owners provide evidence to the UKBA authorities that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out prior to their employment.

The UKBA officials then moved on to the Shapla Indian Cuisine on Russell Road in Shepperton.

There, another 2 Bangladeshi men, aged 27 and 26, were arrested. The 26-year-old, who had overstayed his visa, was detained while the 27-year-old, who had entered the country illegally, was granted immigration bail while the UKBA works to remove him from the UK.

Shapla Indian Cuisine is also facing a potential fine of up to £20,000.

“We're carrying out operations like this almost every day, and where we find people who are in the UK illegally we will seek to remove them,” said Paul Smith, assistant director, UKBA. “Employers who take on illegal workers are both fuelling illegal immigration and damaging the UK economy.”

“Those who fail to carry out the legally-required checks on staff should know that we are out there looking for them and they will face heavy fines,” Smith warned.

The UKBA’s raid in the South East England county follows just a day after it raided two factories in West Midlands and arrested eight illegal Indian workers and caught three more Indian men working illegally.

Prior to that, six illegal immigrants from Nepal were deported from the UK after a UKBA raid on a house in Isleworth.

Every year, the border control agency imposes civil penalties on hundreds of companies which fail to carry out proper right-to-work checks on staff.

Also read: Supermarket giant Tesco faces £200,000 fines for employing workers on student visas