Blackburn furniture store fined over illegal workers (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Blackburn furniture store fined over illegal workers
5:20pm Saturday 6th February 2010 in
-
- By Chris Hopper » Reporter
A FURNITURE store has been fined £15,000 after three illegal workers were found during an immigration swoop.
UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers discovered two Indian men and another Pakistani man when they raided Emerald Upholstery, Daisy Street, Daisyfield, Blackburn.
All three had overstayed their visas.
UKBA checked 36 members of the staff at the showroom, but the remaining 33 workers were cleared.
Riaz Moosa, owner of Emerald Upholstery, said the three staff, who had since been sacked but are still thought to be in Britain, had forged their visa documents.
He said: “We cleared their visas and as far as we were concerned, everything was in order.
“We believe the men in question lied on their papers. It was not our fault.
“We always check staff documents are in order so I was surprised when the UKBA officers turned up.
“We have now re-checked all our staff following this incident.”
The raid on Emerald Upholstery was carried out by the UKBA’s North West’s officers in March last year.
However, the swoop and subsequent £15,000 fine has only just been revealed by the UKBA as Emerald bosses appealed against the decision.
A UKBA spokeswoman said all avenues of appeal were now closed.
Jo Liddy, UKBA’s regional director for the North West, added: “Employers who use illegal workers deny legitimate job hunters the opportunity to find work.
“This civil penalty shows that we will crack down on employers who fail to carry out the simple checks into a foreign national’s right to work in the UK.
“We support and encourage employers to comply with the rules but when they fail to do so we will crack down on them.”
Comments(12)
ponto52
says...
6:50pm Sat 6 Feb 10
Töny
says...
7:01pm Sat 6 Feb 10
How exactly do you 'clear' a forged visa?
Hopping mad
says...
7:13pm Sat 6 Feb 10
phoebesgrandad wrote:What the hell has the BNP got to do with it? UKIP are also concerned with Immigration, the only people who are not concerned about this problem is Labour by the looks of it. Never mind though because it won't belong before we have to take in the turks. Lets see you get a doctors appointment then.
What a surprise.More fuel to the BNP
BRFCBrabant
says...
12:25am Sun 7 Feb 10
Maybe if they had knocked by the neighbours they would have found more!!
Slimplynth
says...
12:28am Sun 7 Feb 10
Nad
says...
10:43am Sun 7 Feb 10
time.team
says...
12:14pm Sun 7 Feb 10
We’ve just mismanaged our country’s wealth not realising what was happening and are now experiencing a reducing workforce and hay, there’s going to be an election soon.
Not our fault guv!
justcool
says...
1:05pm Sun 7 Feb 10
Sean Paul
says...
12:02am Mon 8 Feb 10
happycyclist
says...
9:40am Mon 8 Feb 10
stealer
says...
2:38pm Mon 8 Feb 10
1. Two Indians and another Pakistani
What happened re the other
Pakistani ?
2. UKBA only state they had over-
-stayed their visas ! Original visa
presume OK !
3. Owner checked original docs, failed
to check renewal of, owner guilty
as charged !
4. UKBA presumeably don't have
power to detain,hence miscreants
do runner !
5. Owner is sure miscreants are still
in UK, he should divulge what he
knows !
6. Why did owner need to re-check
the remaining staff, they had been cleared by the UKBA !
Incidentally one poster said he was sure Emerald products were superior
to DFS et al ! Was this knowledge or just a dig at TV adverts in the furniture trade ?
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phoebesgrandad says...
6:48pm Sat 6 Feb 10