Chippie owner given ‘devastating’ £40,000 fine by Home office for allegedly illegal hire
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/22/surrey-chippie-owner-given-devastating-home-office-fine-for-allegedly-illegal-hire-immigration?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
by bloodycontrary
30 comments
So it seems this bloke made what seems to have been an honest mistake – not checking the passport original – and as such was in breach of the rules.
But what caught my eye (emphasis mine):
> Last year, such fines for businesses rose from £15,000 for each worker to £45,000. The increased penalty came as the Home Office stepped up enforcement and raids on businesses. _This fine is the same no matter the size of the company._
I wonder why it’s a flat rate? What does this imply for companies who can afford to take the risk?
Just make the fine £1 billion and then find twenty business owners hiring one illegal
Bam, budget black hole fixed
The rules are very, very clear and unambiguous that employers need to see original documents, and it’s hard to give people the benefit of the doubt for giving it a go but not doing a proper job without giving every dodgy employer a heads up that you can just accept fraudulent photocopies to cover your back and get away with illegal hiring.
I wonder how much deliveroo and the like have been fined this year?
He won’t make that “honest mistake” again, will he?
Been there in Egham before friendly enough people chips were good!
I am torn on this.
I am glad that the fine for hiring an illegal is this high, and I am glad that it is per person. This system is actually functioning in a much needed way now.
But this appears to be an honest mistake, and he allegedly owned up as soon as he discovered that the illegal handed a number of fraudulent, copied documents.
Nevertheless, it is negligent not to check *original* documents when hiring someone so some punishment should be handed down. This feels excessive considering it seems he was tricked by an illegal.
Zero sympathy. The rules are the rules. Ignorance or stupidity is not a defence. A very costly mistake. If these rules aren’t in place then lots more people would be hiring people they are not allowed and just saying ‘sorry, it won’t happen again’ if caught.
Support such a fine 100%. And we need every business to fear hiring illegal migrants.
Allow people to work, you can’t cry “they come and sit on benefits doing nothing” while stopping them from getting a legal job
Wonder how many of the Uber Eats profile re-sellers for substitutes are going to be hit by £40k fines… One fine will likely wipe them out in one go…
That’s rough .. sounds like the guy did everything in good faith and still got hammered with a huge fine..
I get cracking down on illegal working but £40k for a small chippie over one forged ID feels way over the top.. there should be some flexibility for genuine mistakes not rules that treat a small family business like some big company deliberately breaking the law..
Where are all the 40k fines for just eat and deliveroo bosses?
For a local chip shop owner he’s been in the press a lot over the years.
I love stories like this. “Business owner admits to being shit at owning and running a business, and expects sympathy”
It’s very hard as an employer but not impossible. We recently had an employee whose visa had expired and this was discovered during a routine check. They were a cleaner. Our only action was to suspend them immediately and move to terminate. We gave them 30 days to get a valid visa but they couldn’t so we had to let them go and we self reported.
It’s part of our hiring process that original documents must be checked, and copies made, at the start of each interview to ensure that we don’t find ourselves in this situation. I don’t have a lot of sympathy as it negligent not to do it.
You have to be real careful and have to do due diligence in Uk identity checks, although it’s an honest mistake he should’ve confirmed identity details with the HO.
Now go after Uber, just eat and Deliveroo oh and try Sesco
Realistically it’s time for a digital ID that employers can just type your code into the system and see if you have the right to work. It needs to be incredibly secure and privacy conscious, as well as working without the need for a smartphone app, but it’s time.
Honest question: Are there services in place, paid or otherwise, to help small businesses with this sort of thing?
If not, maybe there should be.
he should have got advice from Baroness Scotland on all this
The fact that small businesses are being charged like this whilst companies like deliveroo exist and haven’t paid a penny is an abomination.
I wouldn’t have anything against tough penalties like this if the biggest facilitators of illegal hiring weren’t legally protected by idiotic loopholes.
Came here for the puns, oil be leaving disappointed.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/delivery-firms-to-bolster-rider-security-checks-to-stop-illegal-working
Part of the problem is that the government has outsourced a lot of immigration enforcement to people who aren’t actually immigration enforcement experts, such as estate agents and chippies.
So there’s a lot of unnecessary rework, confusion, and mistakes. (Also some legit people get wrongly denied, as well as Bad People being wrongly accepted).
Right now there’s a government department which writes lots of complex rules about who’s allowed in the country, who’s allowed to work, what paperwork &c. But they expect *everybody else* to master all that, and enforce it. Things would be much better for everyone if that department offered a checking service. Like the government service to check your driving license before a car rental company hands you some keys.
Hired a worker in a dodgy fashion and have to pay for it compoface
“Illegal working” harms nobody and contributes to the economy. There’s no practical difference between this worker and any other worker.
Well, I can think of one difference which gets people who comment in these kinds of threads frothing…
This is why we need universal ID cards. This sort of stuff is why illegal immigration occurs – It’s easy to get fake or dubious information and pass it off as legitimate to give the perception of having the right to work here.
a national ID scheme which shares a common database (rather than this absolute rubbish or needing like 4 pieces of ID and proof of address to cross reference across like 3 government departments) is like a leaky sieve that lets this shit happen in the first place.
Before anyone rags on the shop for “Just trying to pay under NMW”
>When the man was hired in early 2023, he provided the chippy with a national insurance number, proof of student loan payments and housing benefit receipts from the local council. He also provided a photocopy of his British passport and was paid via pay as you earn (PAYE) through HMRC.
They were playing it by the book in terms of wages and tax.
God, I hate right-to-work laws so much.
Turning everyone into a border guard.
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