Blackburn furniture store fined over illegal workers (From Blackburn Citizen)

Blackburn furniture store fined over illegal workers

5:20pm Saturday 6th February 2010

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By Chris Hopper »

A FURNITURE store has been fined £15,000 after three illegal workers were found during an immigration swoop.

UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers discovered two Indian men and another Pakistani man when they raided Emerald Upholstery, Daisy Street, Daisyfield, Blackburn.

All three had overstayed their visas.

UKBA checked 36 members of the staff at the showroom, but the remaining 33 workers were cleared.

Riaz Moosa, owner of Emerald Upholstery, said the three staff, who had since been sacked but are still thought to be in Britain, had forged their visa documents.

He said: “We cleared their visas and as far as we were concerned, everything was in order.

“We believe the men in question lied on their papers. It was not our fault.

“We always check staff documents are in order so I was surprised when the UKBA officers turned up.

“We have now re-checked all our staff following this incident.”

The raid on Emerald Upholstery was carried out by the UKBA’s North West’s officers in March last year.

However, the swoop and subsequent £15,000 fine has only just been revealed by the UKBA as Emerald bosses appealed against the decision.

A UKBA spokeswoman said all avenues of appeal were now closed.

Jo Liddy, UKBA’s regional director for the North West, added: “Employers who use illegal workers deny legitimate job hunters the opportunity to find work.

“This civil penalty shows that we will crack down on employers who fail to carry out the simple checks into a foreign national’s right to work in the UK.

“We support and encourage employers to comply with the rules but when they fail to do so we will crack down on them.”

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