Bell and Bottle could lose licence over illegal workers

The Bell and Bottle near Littlewick Green could see its licence revoked for employing illegal workers.

Representatives from the Bath Road pub and restaurant appeared at a council licensing sub-committee meeting today following a Home Office application to review the venue’s licence.

The meeting heard how immigration officers visited the venue on June 15 after receiving allegations of illegal working.

Upon arrival, officers found one member of staff working at the venue despite their Right to Work in the UK expiring in 2014.

A second worker had a valid student visa but this only entitled them to work for 20 hours per week during term time.

The meeting heard how this worker told immigration officers he worked 35 hours per week, receiving just £234.

Raj Hundal, a senior officer from Immigration Enforcement, told the meeting: “The worker claimed to work for 35 hours per week.

“If you do the working out between what he was paid and what he was working, either he’s getting grossly below minimum wage or the alternative being that person was paid £234 on the books for 20 hours of work and then working additional hours off the books.”

Surendra Panchal, representing the Bell and Bottle’s licence holder Surinder Kumar Rajput, told the meeting that the company’s employment ‘blunders’ were due to the previous designated premises supervisor (DPS) who was removed in January this year.

He told the meeting that the previous DPS had been told by the worker without a Right to Work in the UK that his passport was currently being renewed.

But councillors questioned why the venue’s new DPS, Sachin Rajput, had not resolved the issue before immigration officers visited in June this year – six months after his appointment.

Mr Panchal responded: “By the time he (Sachin Rajput) took over and looked into what was going on we had an immigration visit in June. We realised the employment was not right and we rectified that immediately.

“We apologised for what happened and we are making sure we learnt the lessons from that.”

He told the meeting that licence holder Surinder Kumar Rajput was an ‘honest person’ who had helped comply with 60 visa sponsorships during his work as a businessman.

The venue’s legal representation said measures will be put in place to ensure the same mistakes do not happen again and argued for a suspension of the licence rather than it being revoked.

Senior Immigration Enforcement officer Raj Hundal told councillors: “The Home Office doesn’t wish to be involved in unnecessarily restricting genuine successful businesses like the one we have here.

“However, we have serious concerns about the way the business was being run and feel there needs to be some remedy to that.”

A decision is expected to be made within five working days.