A total of six people have been caught working illegally at businesses in Sidmouth, according to recent reports from the UK Border Agency (UKBA).
Officials from the UK immigration department received intelligence regarding employees of the Jade Wok and Yummy Express in the town. They latest conducted simultaneous raids on the premises and found a number of people who had no right to be working in Britain.
Yummy Express will be facing a fine of up to £30,000 as all three of the staff members on duty had no legal right to be working. Among them was a Chinese failed asylum seeker, a Malaysian woman who had entered the country illegally and a Malaysian man who had remained in the country after the expiration of his UK visa.
Three further Malaysians were found working at Jade Wok having entered the UK illegally, leaving this business also facing a possible £30,000 fine. The establishments will be able to avoid the costs if they can prove that the correct right-to-work checks were performed before the workers were hired.
Kenny Chapman, head of local immigration for the South West at the UKBA, commented: “If people want to live or work in the UK, there are ways they can come here legitimately. But if they break the law we will catch up with them.
“It is the legal responsibility of all businesses to check their staff have the right to work in the UK. Anyone who fails to make these checks could get hit with a big fine.”
Five of the offenders are now being held in UK immigration detention while awaiting deportation, while one has been placed on immigration bail and is required to report to a police station each week until arrangements have been made for his removal.