Immigration Solicitors

The director of a Birmingham-based cooked foods wholesaler has been disqualified from acting as a director for seven years after hiring illegal workers.

Satinder Kumar, 50, from Birmingham was a director of RK Food No 1 Limited from 16 May 2013 to 21 November 2014.

In October 2013, while Mr Kumar was the director, the company was found to be employing a worker not eligible to work in the UK.

Subsequently, in June 2014, the company was also found to be employing another illegal worker while Mr Kumar was the director.

Both breaches of immigration law resulted in penalties against the company by Home Office Immigration Enforcement, involving fines of £5,000 and £15,000, respectively.

At the date of liquidation, £19,051 of this total remained due.

The business was a wholesale supplier and prepared cooked foods – when
it went into liquidation, a total of £85,793 was owed to creditors.

The Insolvency Service – working with the Home Office – launched an investigation into the company.

Following this, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills accepted Mr Kumar’s seven-year Disqualification Undertaking – which, from 22 March 2016, bans him from acting as a company director or from managing, or in any way controlling, a limited company until 2023.

Chief Investigator of Insolvent Investigations Midlands & West at the Insolvency Service, Sue MacLeod, said:

“Illegal workers are not protected under employment law and, as well as cheating legitimate job seekers out of employment opportunities.

“These employers defraud the taxpayer and undercut the honest competitors.

“Mr Kumar, having been caught employing illegal workers on two separate occasions, has been disqualified for seven years – which should serve as a warning to other directors who may feel tempted to break the law.”

The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 makes employers responsible for preventing illegal workers in the UK – to comply with the law, a company must check and be able to prove documents have been checked prior to recruitment that show a person is entitled to work.

Mr Kumar did not dispute that he had failed to ensure that RF Food No1 Limited complied with its obligations as an employer under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, by causing RK Food No1 Limited to employ two illegal workers.

Duncan Lewis Immigration Solicitors

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