One firm was hit with a £90,000 fine
Supershine Hand Car Wash & Valeting Centre was hit with a £90,000 fine (Image: Copyright Unknown)
Seven Merseyside businesses were fined a total of £320,000 after being found to have employed illegal workers, according to the latest Government data. The penalties were issued as part of the Home Office’s most recent update on illegal working civil penalties, covering the period between April 1 and June 30 last year.
Across Liverpool, the list includes several car wash and valeting businesses as well as a takeaway.
The full list of Merseyside businesses and their fines are:
- Capital Auto Wash, Q-Park Liverpool ONE, Liverpool, £55,000
- Green Lane Hand Car Wash, Woburn Hill, Liverpool, £40,000
- Euro Hand Car Wash & Valeting Centre, Bowring Park Road, Liverpool, £40,000
- Supershine Hand Car Wash & Valeting Centre, Orrell Road, Bootle, £90,000
- The Lodge Lane Hand Carwash, Lodge Lane, Liverpool, £55,000
- Munchies, Granby Street, Liverpool, £40,000
Outside of Merseyside, businesses in the wider region also appear on the Government’s quarterly roundup. Four Seasons, on High Street in Runcorn, which is listed as temporarily closed, was fined £45,000 during the same period.
Also on the list is Splendid Hand Car Wash, on Deacon Road in Widnes, which received a fine of £80,000.
The quarterly report details fines given to “employers who have not paid or are not making regular payments towards a penalty 28 days after they have exhausted all their objection and/or appeal rights.”
Fines can also be given to “employers who have been served with a second or further penalty once they have exhausted all their objection and/or appeal rights regardless of whether any payment has been made.”
Civil penalty notices include a fine of up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and up to a maximum of £60,000 for repeat offending. The Home Office publishes the penalties once all objection and appeal rights have been exhausted.
A 2020 report from the Local Government Association and Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner: “Tackling labour abuse and modern slavery in the hand car wash sector”, identified a series of exploitative labour practices prevalent in the car wash sector.
The report highlighted how the car wash sector has become common in our high streets and communities, but added that local residents may be unwittingly using victims of labour exploitation or even modern slavery to wash their cars.
A spokesperson for the Home Office previously said: “Illegal working undermines honest employers, undercuts local wages, and fuels the criminal industry of immigration crime.
“This government is determined to clamp down on that illegal activity in every sector where it occurs, including car washes.
“Under this government, enforcement action nationwide has increased, with visits and arrests up by around 50% on the previous 12 months, and we will be stepping up that action further in the year ahead.”