Bradford firms named and shamed for owing £15,000 (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford firms named and shamed for owing £15,000

7:00am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in News By Dolores Cowburn, Bradford Chief Reporter

Two Bradford businesses owing a total of £15,000 in fines have been named and shamed by the UK Border Agency.

That brings to seven the number of firms in the district exposed for employing illegal workers in the last six months.

The latest businesses named on the UK Border Agency (UKBA) website have 28 days to pay the outstanding amounts for employing illegal workers or face bailiffs being approinted.

They are Suffah Halal Meat, at 542 Manchester Road, fined £10,000, and International restaurant, at 38-42 Mannville Terrace, Bradford, fined £5,000.

The firm’s Facebook page describes Suffah Halal Meat is a “one stop shop for all your 100 per cent Halal and genuine poultry and meat” and is run under the supervision of a trusted and reliable Muslim scholar.

The company declined to comment when contacted by the Telegraph & Argus yesterday.

No-one at International Restaurant was available for comment.

Last December the T&A revealed that five Bradford businesses owing £28,750 in fines were owing cash to the UKBA, which had also revealed that 70 raids had taken place across the district resulting in 69 arrests within 12 months. They were Ahmed Halal Meat in Lilycroft Road; Chicking in Manningham Lane; Dhoom Design in White Abbey Road; Kash Takeaway in Leeds Road, and Awadh Restaurant in Manchester Road.

All of those businesses are no longer named on the website because they are in discussions with the UKBA about the payment of the fines.

Ian Milner, head of enforcement operations, said border officials were cracking down on businesses in Bradford, with illegal workers taken to immigration centres or in some cases deported.

More than 200 raids have taken place in the city in the last three years at factories, restaurants, nursing homes and car washes where workers were thought to be employed illegally.

Mr Milner said: “Our officers carry out regular operations throughout Yorkshire to target unscrupulous employers who hire illegal workers.

“Illegal working is not a victimless crime as it cheats the taxpayer, undercuts honest employers and potentially exploits some of society’s most vulnerable people.”

Bradford Council leader Councillor David Green has said those employing illegal workers did so to pay low wages or because they worked in dangerous conditions. Anyone who suspects illegal workers are being employed at a firm can visit ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk