IMMIGRATION officers swooped on a busy Chinese restaurant in Weymouth during dinnertime service and arrested five illegal chefs.

The UK Border Agency officials acted on intelligence about the workers employed by the Sea View Restaurant at the Pier Bandstand on the Esplanade.

After surrounding the building, officers raided the restaurant and removed two Malaysian men and three Chinese men – who were found to have no legal right to work in the UK.

The restaurant was forced to close that night and a sign on the door of the Sea View Restaurant today tells customers ‘due to the shortage of staff we will be closed for two weeks’. Immigrations inspectors issued the oriental eatery with an on the spot penalty notice, which could be as much as £50,000 for employing the five illegal workers.

The two Malaysian men are being transferred to an immigration detention centre and will be removed from the country shortly.

The three Chinese men have been placed on immigration bail and must report weekly to Weymouth Police Station which the agency takes steps to remove them from the UK. Jane Farleigh, UK Border Agency Regional Director in Wales and the South West, said: “We act on intelligence to target businesses which employ illegal workers and will work to remove anyone we find with no right to be in the UK.”

Sea View manager Steven Lee claims that he saw the five chefs’ documents but did not realise they were forged.

He said: “I am shocked that this has happened because they have worked for me for such a long time.

“I have been told their National Insurance numbers were fake and I have seen these when they started but did not realise they were fake.

“They have been having no problem and paying tax for years.

“The officers arrested all my chefs and now I only have four staff left so I need to get more before I can re-open.

“It’s not fair to me because I did not know and I have had to ring my customers all day to tell them.

“I am sorry to our customers for having to close.”

Customer Ian Watkins, of the Esplanade, who turned up with friends to eat in the restaurant to find an empty restaurant and a closed sign, said: “I’m really surprised – this is one of my favourite restaurants and you just assume that the staff would have been legal.”

Nigel Reed, president of the Weymouth and Portland Chamber of Commerce, said: “As a chamber, what we would like in place is to see some sort of charter which would make people agree to a standard of business.”

This summer immigration officials have arrested 14 illegal workers in Weymouth and Dorchester after targeted raids on what they call ‘rogue employers’.

In August a targeted raid at the KFC Fast Food restaurant resulted in the deportation of four illegal workers.

In June four illegal immigrants were arrested after two separate raids at the Golden Island Chinese takeaway on Portland and the Lee Oriental restaurant in High West Street, Dorchester.

Three illegal Malaysian workers and one Chinese man were deported. Another Malaysian man was arrested and deported earlier in June after a raid on a brothel in Bath Street.