Bournemouth restaurant fined again by UKBA

One year ago a Bournemouth restaurant was fined £30,000 for its role in employing illegal workers, now 12 months on the same restaurant has been caught again and is facing even larger penalties.

The Taj Mahal restaurant on Poole Rd, Westbourne, was raided by officers from the UK Border Agency on Wednesday evening as it sought to check the documentation of staff employed on the premises. The officials uncovered five men from Bangladesh who were all working in the UK illegally. The men, aged from 22 to 45 were all arrested at the scene and are currently in detention in the Poole police station. One of the five has been placed on probationary bail although the details were not released.

As has become increasingly commonplace in the south recently, the employer was given a penalty notice and will have to show evidence that the necessary right-to-work pre-employment checks were carried out or face a fine of £50,000 or £10,000 per person employed illegally. Another raid took place nearby on Ashley Rd in Upper Parkstone where the Himachol Indian restaurant was found to be employing another Bangladeshi man in the kitchen. The employer faces the mandatory £10,000 fine and the man is also out on bail.

The raid came exactly 12 months after the restaurant was hit by a similar raid from immigration officials. On that occasion six men, again all from Bangladesh, were found to be illegal workers. The owner of the Taj Mahal was afforded time to produce the required documentation but failed to do so, resulting in a fine on £30,000.