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Five face removal after Amersham raid
24 February 2012
Four men and a woman from Bangladesh are in detention and face being removed from the UK following a UK Border Agency raid on a restaurant in Amersham.
Acting on intelligence, officers visited the Blue Orchid on Sycamore Road at approximately 12:30 on Monday 20 February. They questioned staff to check whether they had the right to work in the UK.
Three Bangladeshi men who were working there, aged 30, 31 and 36, were arrested for being in the country illegally after their visas expired. They were all detained pending their removal.
The employer now faces a fine of up to £30,000 (up to £10,000 per illegal worker) unless it proves to us that it carried out the correct right-to-work checks.
Another 3 Bangladeshi nationals, who were all in the UK illegally after overstaying their visas, were found in residential premises above the restaurant.
A 40-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were arrested and detained pending their removal. A 63-year-old woman was granted immigration bail and must now report to the UK Border Agency while her case is dealt with.
Assistant director Rob Scott, who heads the UK Border Agency's Buckinghamshire local immigration team, said:
'We carry out hundreds of operations like this every year across the Thames Valley, and where we find people who are in the UK illegally we will seek to remove them.
'But we are also looking to target the employers who take on illegal workers and fuel illegal immigration.
'Those who fail to carry out the legally required checks on staff and choose to break the law should know that we are out there looking for them and they will face heavy fines.'
Every year, the UK Border Agency imposes civil penalties on hundreds of companies which fail to carry out proper right-to-work checks on staff.
If employers are unsure of the steps they need to take to avoid employing illegal workers, they can find information in our Preventing illegal working section.
If you suspect that a business is employing illegal workers, you can report your suspicions anonymously to the UK Border Agency or Crimestoppers.