Dorset firms hit by £120,000 in fines for illegal workers (From Dorset Echo)

Dorset firms hit by £120,000 in fines for illegal workers

8:00am Saturday 9th January 2010 in

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DORSET businesses caught employing illegal migrant workers were hit with fines totalling almost £120,000 in 2009.

Almost 140 immigration offenders have also been removed from the country in the past 12 months, after being found living or working illegally in Dorset by the United Kingdom Border Agency.

In Weymouth, three Chinese and two Malaysian men were discovered to be working illegally at a raid at the Sea View Chinese restaurant at the Pier Bandstand, The Esplanade in October.

Officers handed out an on-the-spot notice, warning employers they risked a large fine unless proof was provided that necessary document checks had been carried out.

Four illegal workers were found during a raid at the town’s KFC fast food restaurant in August.

Two Indian men, aged 23 and 24, were deported after they were found to be working in breach of their visa and two Sri Lankan men, aged 29 and 34, were found to be illegal immigrants and are now waiting to be deported.

The Weymouth KFC branch was issued with an on-the-spot penalty notice for employing illegal workers and may now face a fine of £10,000 for each illegal worker.

In Dorchester, a 33-year-old Malaysian man and a 30-year-old Malaysian woman were arrested in a raid at Lee Oriental Restaurant in High West Street in June.

The pair had been working illegally and were both later removed from the UK.

The business was recently fined £10,000 after no evidence was provided to the agency about legally-required document checks.

The agency’s Dorset team, based in Poole, carries out operations against suspected immigration offenders across the county and in parts of neighbouring Wiltshire and Somerset.

This year, 36 illegal working raids took place at businesses suspected of employing foreign staff who had no legal right to work in the UK.

So far, fines totalling £117,500 have been confirmed for 14 of those businesses.

Between January and December, 138 Dorset immigration offenders were removed from the UK after being detained in illegal working raids, visits to residential properties or during other immigration operations.

Jane Farleigh, regional director of the UK Border Agency in Wales and South West, said: “Our raids targeting illegal working are all part of an ongoing crackdown to reduce the attractiveness of the UK to illegal immigrants.

“Anyone who takes on a foreign national without permission to work in the UK is breaking the law, undermining law-abiding businesses and faces a big fine.”

She added: “There are strict rules about which foreign nationals can get a job in the UK and businesses have a clear responsibility to carry out the right checks.

“We also carry out immigration raids outside businesses – such as visits to home addresses and joint operations with the police – so offenders in Dorset have no place to hide.”