Illegal workers caught in chip shop
Three workers at a Northampton chip shop were found to be illegal immigrants following a swoop by officers from the UK Border Agency.
After receiving a tip-off, officers went to the Kingsley Fish Bar in Kingsley Park Terrace where they found two Pakistani men and one Indian man who did not have permission to work in the country.
The regional director of the agency, Gail Adams, said: "We're 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.
"Employers who don't play by the rules will get struck off our register, lose the right to recruit staff from outside Europe, face on the spot fines and could potentially end up in jail."
All three men had been working behind the counter at the Northampton chip shop since April this year.
One was a 39-year-old Pakistani who had entered the country illegally.
Another man from Pakistan, who was aged 28, had overstayed his visa, as had the third man who was 32 years old and from India.
The UK Border Agency is now taking steps to remove the Pakistani men from the country as soon as possible.
The Indian man has been charged with ID card offences by Northamptonshire Police and is due to appear in court at the end of July.
Following the raid on June 25, the owners of the chip shop were issued with an on-the-spot fine for employing illegal workers and face a fine of up to 30,000 if they cannot prove they carried out the proper checks before employing the men.
But a spokesman for the chip shop insisted they had done their best to make sure the men were in the country legally.
She said: "We took them on in good faith and made all the checks we could. We are not passport experts.
"If we knowingly took them on when we knew they were illegal that would be a different story, but we really had no way of
knowing."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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