Yarm restaurant will be heavily penalised, loses licence for employing illegal worker AGAIN
A restaurant’s license was revoked when it was discovered that it had hired an unauthorized worker twice in the previous five years.
When immigration agents went to Lebaneat on Yarm High Street on the evening of March 26, they had suspicions that three of the employees were working there unlawfully. The restaurant’s license was in jeopardy this week as councillors heard its case after it was hit with a £45,000 civil penalty this month for hiring an unauthorized worker.
Immigration enforcement police reportedly discovered five persons believed to have been employed at the restaurant, three of whom were “working in breach of their immigration bail conditions,” according to Stockton Council licensing officer Polly Edwards. In the end, one individual admitted to working illegally, while the other two denied it and could not produce any evidence.
For hiring an undocumented worker in 2019, the restaurant’s license was revoked. This was challenged, but due to court delays caused by the epidemic, the restaurant was able to carry on operations with additional right-to-work checks.
During the March inspection, the council’s licensing subcommittee was informed by Joanna Henderson of Home Office Immigration Enforcement, which submitted the application for the license to be reviewed: “We encountered three illegal workers out of a total of five members of staff.”
She stated that they were concerned about the fact that one of the individuals seemed to be a manager and had worked at the restaurant for a while, while the other two had cards registering them as refugees and had unresolved claims in the UK: “Illegal workers were participating in activities at the premises, whether through carelessness or willful blindness. The law requires all employers to perform these inspections.”
