Liverpool firms fined £165,000 over illegal staff

Blade Barbers in Sefton was one of three Liverpool business fined by the Home Office

A supermarket, barbershop and car wash on Merseyside were among three businesses hit with a combined £165,000 in fines for employing workers illegally.

The businesses were sanctioned as part of a Home Office crackdown on the number of people working without permission in the UK.

The penalties were handed out across the three businesses following visits carried out between April and September last year.

Nationally, there were 489 penalties issued with 771 illegal workers found, and £29.2m in fines handed out.

The government publishes an updated list of businesses it has sanctioned every three months in a bid to encourage others to not employ illegal workers.

That data showed that in April last year, immigration enforcement officers carried out a visit to Blade Barbers on St John's Road in Waterloo, Sefton.

'Crackdown'

One person was found to be working illegally and a civil penalty of £40,000 was issued.

A further visit was carried out at Capital Auto Wash, which provides car wash services at the Liverpool ONE's shopping centre's Q-Park car-park as well as sites in Birmingham, Chelmsford and Belfast.

The business was found to be employing two workers illegally and was fined £80,000 by the Home Office.

Less than a month later, Aram Supermarket at Hughes House in London Road was targeted and was hit with a civil penalty of £45,000 for employing one worker illegally.

Earlier, it was revealed that a Wirral restaurant was hit with a £180,000 fine for the same breaches of the law.

Portofino Italiana, on Marine Promenade in New Brighton, was handed one of the largest penalties given out by immigration officials.

The Home Office described organised immigration crime as "a multi-million pound industry" which stretches from "trafficking routes thousands of miles away" to the highstreets of the UK.

"This government is cracking down on that criminal industry at every level where illegal working is taking place and increasing our enforcement action both against illegal workers and the people who employ them," the department said.

Capital Auto Wash, Blade Barbers and Aram Supermarket were contacted for comment.