Discover Hertford Online Forum

Yet another raid at Bollywoods last week, in which three illegal immigrants were found to be working on the premises. This follows the 2009 raid which also found illegal workers. Given that the owner can be fined £10,000 for each offence, I can only assume that it's worth the risk. The £40,000 fine they got in 2009 for flouting Health & Safety laws clearly hasn't damaged their business so something must be working for them, although I'm not sure it's the restaurant.

If they can afford 40k without too much trouble you would think that they might be able to manage some new upstairs windows

And last week they were fined £3000 for unauthorised building work.

http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/H ... 174354.htm

I am assuming that any fines have been paid???? It seems some people think its acceptable to flout the law whilst expecting if the boot is on the other foot for justice to support them.......

Personally, I vote with my feet.

If the owner(s) of the premises feels the need to compromise the safety of the customers (through building regulation abuse) AND continue to flout border agency employment laws then, when people don't visit the establishment, I can only see this place becoming another example of an empty value to Hertford's trade.

Without knowning the explicit details, I would say it's pretty harsh to assume Bollywood's owners risked it.

As far as I am aware, by talking to friends in the catering industry the rules were changed a few years ago, that even if you took someone on good faith (such as, they showed your proof that they are legally allowed to work here) and subsequently was found that the details are fraudulent, the fine still applies. If they can prove you employed someone illegal on purpose the penalty could include prison.

It was introduced I believe on the basis that, owners were using the excuse they were "duped".

While it may be the case that is correct in some cases, it does open the door, that there is always going to be the case that some people really are duped say with fake work visas.

Whether the owners of Bollywood's where "duped" or not, it's impossible from the outside to tell.

There is no excuse for flouting the building regulations of course.

daskier wrote:Without knowning the explicit details, I would say it's pretty harsh to assume Bollywood's owners risked it.

As far as I am aware, by talking to friends in the catering industry the rules were changed a few years ago, that even if you took someone on good faith (such as, they showed your proof that they are legally allowed to work here) and subsequently was found that the details are fraudulent, the fine still applies. If they can prove you employed someone illegal on purpose the penalty could include prison.

It was introduced I believe on the basis that, owners were using the excuse they were "duped".

The size of any penalty is dependant on how much the employer has done to "vet" their workers and co-operated with the UKBA - From the UKBA website:

"The size of a civil penalty depends on the type of eligibility checks that the employer has made on its workers, the number of times when we have issued a warning or imposed a civil penalty, and the extent to which the employer has cooperated with us. The civil penalty code of practice, which is one of our guidance documents on preventing illegal working, contains more information"...

This does give them the flexibility to take into account how much "duping" has been going on. You can bet that if a substantial fine is imposed that the employer has either known they were in breach, not completing sufficient checks and/or were "uncooperative" with the agency.

They should learn the lesson.

If in doubt of the cred of the person, do not employ.

Perhaps they are going to turn it into a mosque and are being funded from elsewhere ? Lol.