Manager of Indian restaurant in UK banned for 5 years over illegal workers

London: The manager of an Indian restaurant at Herefordshire in the West Midlands region of England has been banned as a company director for five years after employing two illegal workers from Bangladesh.

Masoom Khan, a 35-year-old British national of South Asian heritage, hired the men at Jalalabad Akbari Cuisine, branded as an Indian restaurant, on Etnam Street in the town of Leominster.

He came under suspicion of employing illegal workers and the premises were raided by UK Immigration Enforcement officials in 2021 and discovered two male workers in their 30s from Bangladesh with no right to work in the UK.

One told investigators he had worked at the restaurant for two months while the other said had been there since before the COVID pandemic.

UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds has now accepted a disqualification undertaking from Khan for his five-year ban to begin on Tuesday.

"This longstanding investigation into illegal working in Herefordshire and the resulting penalty for Masoom Khan is a great example of collaborative working between government agencies to combat breaches in employment legislation,” said Matthew Foster, the Home Office’s Immigration Compliance Enforcement lead for the West Midlands.

"Employers have a responsibility to carry out thorough checks on individuals prior to employment to ensure that they have the right to work in the UK. A failure to do so may lead to further action being taken by the regulator,” he said.

The ban prevents Khan from becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Immigration Enforcement also fined the now dissolved company, Jalalabad Leominster Limited, GBP 20,000. But the penalty remained unpaid when the firm went into liquidation in December 2021, with liabilities of more than GBP 73,000.

“Masoom Khan employed two people who did not have the right to work in the UK, contravening the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. This represents a serious breach of legislation and of the standards expected of company directors,” said Kevin Read, Chief Investigator at the UK’s Insolvency Service.

“As a result of this breach, he cannot be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company in the UK until September 2029,” he said.

Khan is said to have employed the Bangladeshi workers without conducting proper checks to cofirm they had the right to work in the UK.

According to the Insolvency Service, a restaurant continues to operate from the same address at Herefordshire under a different company name, but Khan is not its director.

Individuals subject to a disqualification order or undertaking in the UK are bound by a range of restrictions in terms of employment.