Agenda and minutes

Councillor Dr David Willingham was elected as Chair of the committee.

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The meeting started and then was adjourned until 18.35 as the applicant wanted to add additional papers to the hearing.  These had not been received prior to the committee.  The Chair along with the Legal Officer gave permission for the papers to be circulated to all parties.

The Licensing Team Leader introduced the report as published.  He also explained the options that were available to the committee which were: removal of the DPS, suspend the licence for up to 3 months or revoke the licence.  It was also explained that any action will not take place until 21 days of the written decision.

The Immigration Officer addressed the committee and made the following points:

-       The visit to the premises was intelligence led as they had received an allegation that there was 3 named males employed illegally and living at the address. 

-       When the raid occurred there were 12 workers in the property in total.  2 of them being the people that were named on the warrant a further 3 who had an adverse reaction to the visit.  All 6 of those people were not allowed to be present in the UK and confirmed to the officer that they had been supplied with wages and somewhere to live.  They were escorted from the premises and into police custody.

-       Mr Hussain fully admitted to having employed the 6 men and Koloshi Gold was issued with a fine of £90,000, the decision was not appealed therefore they accepted liability.

-       The business has the statutory obligation to promote the licensing objectives, that had not happened in this case as 6 illegal persons who had no status in the UK were employed, the right to work checks had not been carried out and disregard for the legislation was shown.

-       Employing people who have no status in the UK has a huge negative impact on the UK and is harmful to legitimate businesses, it is also a breach of the national minimum wage.  The Home Office is committed to tackling illegal working.

-       Mr Hussain was aware of the checks that he was supposed to undertake and has carried them out for the other staff members.

The committee then had the opportunity to ask the Immigration Officer questions and the responses were as follows:

-       It was stated that the names on the late documents were unlikely to be the people involved in the raid.

-       It was confirmed that the company that was prosecuted was Koloshi Gold Ltd.

-       It was confirmed that the DPS was not present at the time of the raid.

-       The thought was that there had been a change of staff at the property since the raid. 

The legal representative for the licence holder then addressed the committee and made the following points:

-       Everything that the immigration officer has said with regard to the raid cannot be commented on by him as the current licensee did not become the owner until after the raid.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

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