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Immigration Solicitors

Seven-year disqualification for restaurateur who employed illegal workers (31 July 2017)

Date: 31/07/2017
Duncan Lewis, Immigration Solicitors, Seven-year disqualification for restaurateur who employed illegal workers

An East Sussex restaurateur who employed workers not legally allowed to work in the UK has been disqualified for seven years.

Mohammed Eleas Hussain, 58 – director of Bengal Palace in Seaford, East Sussex – was disqualified for failing to ensure the restaurant did not employ illegal workers.

He gave an undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which prevents him from becoming directly or indirectly involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for seven years.

Hussain was the director of Hussain Bros Ltd, trading as Bengal Palace, from 9 September 2010 until Liquidation. The company’s registered office was Church Street, Seaford in East Sussex.

On 13 December 2013, Home Office Immigration Enforcement Officers discovered that the restaurant was employing three staff members who were not eligible to work in the UK.

The company went into liquidation on 5 November 2015, owing £821,733 to creditors – of which £15,000 was outstanding of the £15,000 penalty imposed by the Home Office Immigration and Enforcement for employing three illegal workers.

The unfit conduct that led to Hussain giving the undertaking was that he failed to ensure that Hussain Bros Ltd complied with its obligations as an employer under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.

Deputy Head of Investigations with the Insolvency Service, Martin Gitner, 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 tax payer and undercut honest competitors.

“The public has a right to expect that those who break the law will face the consequences – and this should serve as a warning to other directors tempted to take on illegal staff.”


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, which show a person is entitled to work in Britain.

On 27 June 2017, the Secretary of State accepted a Disqualification Undertaking from Hussain, effective from 18 July 2017 for a period of seven years.

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