Chip shop owner fined £40k for hiring illegal worker

If you employ an illegal worker because of negligent recruitment practices, you can be fined up to a maximum of £45,000 for a first breach and £60,000 for repeated breaches. However, the relevant legislation provides you with a statutory excuse against liability for payment of this civil penalty where you can show that, before the worker’s employment began, you carried out either an online right to work check using the Home Office’s online right to work checking service, a manual right to work document check or a digital right to work check using Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) via the services of an Identity Service Provider (IDSP).

In the case of the fish and chop shop owner, he purported to conduct a manual right to work check on the worker and he had been provided with a photocopy of the worker’s British passport, along with a National Insurance (NI) number and some other documents that matched the name on the passport. However, it appears the worker was using another person’s identity.

If you conduct a manual right to work check, you must in all cases ask to see the original of any acceptable document, take and retain a photocopy of it and be satisfied (having regard to photographs or dates of birth) that it relates to the individual in question, is genuine, has not been tampered with and any expiry dates of any limited leave to enter or remain in the UK have not passed. You must check the document(s) in the presence of the holder (either in person or via a live video link) and keep a record of the date that you made the check. You must also retain the copies for the duration of the worker’s employment and for two years afterwards.

Unfortunately, the fish and chip shop owner had only been provided with a photocopy of a British passport, not the original document. NI numbers are also not proof of right to work in the UK. Had he viewed the original passport, he would either have presumably identified it as belonging to someone else and so not employed the illegal worker, or he would have established the statutory excuse.

You should refer to the government’s guide to right to work checks for the latest guidance on how to conduct compliant right to work checks.