Latest news and updates
Illegal workers found in Tam's cantonese restaurant
16 November 2009
Tam's Cantonese Cuisine restaurant in Cross Hills was targeted in an intelligence-led illegal working operation on Thursday 12 November by UK Border Agency officers.
Officers entered Tams Cantonese Cuisine Restaurant on 13 Main Street, Cross Hills, around 1900 questioning those inside and checking their documents to see if they were entitled to work.
They found four Chinese nationals, all failed asylum seekers, believed to be working there illegally in the kitchen. Three were arrested, two males and a female, as they had absconded and were not reporting to the UK Border Agency. A fourth was dismissed from the premises and will be investigated for working illegally.
The four illegal workers were aged between 25 and 44. Further investigations will now follow for all four illegal workers and the UK Border Agency will be seeking to remove them from the United Kingdom.
The employer was served with a Notice of Potential Liability (NOPL) in relation to the four illegal workers, which means he could face collective fines of up to £40,000. The employer has 28 days to provide the UK Border Agency with evidence that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out or face a fine of up to £10,000 per illegal worker.
Steve Lamb, Regional Operations Director of the UK Border Agency in North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, said:
'As this successful operation shows, we will act on intelligence to target those businesses that ignore the rules and remove those with no right to be in the UK.
'There are simple ways of checking a foreign national's right to work and there is no excuse for not checking the identity of those applying for jobs. We support and encourage employers to comply with the rules but when they fail to do so it is right that we crack down on them.'
The enforcement operation is one of an average of 70 that take place across Yorkshire and the North East in a month to tackle illegal working in the region.
Anyone who suspects that illegal workers are being employed at a business can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where anonymity can be assured.