Restaurant employing illegal workers loses licence
GoogleAn Indian restaurant's licence has been revoked after Home Office officials found two people working there illegally.
Immigration officers visited the Bird in Hand, at Oulton, near Wigton, Cumbria, last year after receiving information the business was employing people who did not have a legal right to work.
An £80,000 penalty was subsequently issued, which a meeting of Cumberland Council's licensing sub-committee has now heard remains unpaid.
Representatives from The Bird in Hand did not attend the hearing at Carlisle's Civic Centre.
A Home Office report from April 2025 said officers from the North-West London Immigration, Compliance and Enforcement team visited the restaurant and "encountered two individuals [who] were both subsequently confirmed to be working in breach of their legal right to work in the UK".
The financial penalty was issued to the company behind the venture, Adam Tandoori Limited, in October and the company did not submit an objection.
'Serious criminal activity'
Alex Romano, from the Home Office's immigration enforcement department, told councillors the staff members had been on skilled worker visas.
However, they no longer worked for the named sponsor, which was a breach of conditions.
Councillor Jeanette Whalen, the committee chairwoman, said the premises licence holder had "not engaged with the review process" and it was "both reasonable and appropriate to proceed, to determine the application in their absence".
She added "appropriate right to work checks were not carried out and that individuals were permitted to undertake work at the premises including serving customers and working behind the bar".
Further evidence indicated "this was not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern of working arrangements at the premises".
"The sub-committee has also taken into account the failure to pay the civil penalty and the lack of evidence of meaningful remedial action," Whalen said.
She described the employment of people in breach of immigration status as "a serious criminal activity" and the committee concluded alternative steps such as imposing conditions on the licence or a suspension "would not be appropriate or proportionate".
Representatives from the Bird in Hand can appeal within 21 days of the decision notice, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.