A restaurant which was found to be employing illegal workers has had its premises licence revoked.
Immigration officers from the Home Office first visited Cookson Spice in Chester-le-Street , County Durham in November 2017, when they discovered a number of members of staff who did not have the right to work in the UK.
As a result, extra conditions were added to the restaurant’s licence but a joint enforcement operation by immigration officers and licensing enforcement officers found further breaches.
During the inspection by Durham County Council in May, officers found further illegal workers at the premises and breaches of other licence conditions.
In response, the council decided to review the business’ premises licence and at a meeting this week, members of the authority’s statutory licensing sub-committee decided to revoke the licence.
Joanne Waller, the council’s head of community protection, said continued failings with the management and running of Cookson Spice put the public at risk and undermined licensing law.
She added: “It is essential that premises are managed, maintained and operated so as to ensure the continued promotion of the licensing objectives, protection of the public and compliance with the Licensing Act.
“Furthermore, by enabling people to work illegally, employers are supporting illegal migration, which often sees people putting their lives at risk or leaving themselves vulnerable to exploitative employers.
“It also enables employers to undercut legitimate businesses and can be linked to other labour market abuse such as tax evasion, breach of the national minimum wage and exploitative working conditions.”
