03:19PM, Friday 20 March 2026
Image: Plate at No.6
Royal Borough councillors have unanimously decided to revoke the licence of a Windsor restaurant after a Home Office investigation found illegal workers at the business.
Plate at No. 6, a tapas Mediterranean restaurant in Market Street, was visited by Home Office Immigration Enforcement officers in February 2025, after they had received intelligence that the business was employing illegal workers.
Three employees were identified as not having the right to work in the UK.
During the visit, one of the workers confronted his employer about not being paid for five weeks and claimed he was owed £2,175.
A licensing and public space protection order sub-committee meeting last week heard that hiring illegal workers ‘undermines’ the prevention of crime and disorder.
Speaking at the York House meeting, Garry Farnan, a licensing compliance officer from the Home Office, said: “The ability to work illegally is a key driver of illegal migration,” he said.
“It encourages people to break the UK’s immigration laws and…abuse legal visa routes.
“It encourages others to take risks in trying to enter the UK illegally, putting their lives in the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers that leave them vulnerable to exploitative employers.”
Revoking the premise licence of the restaurant is considered ‘appropriate and proportionate’ to prevent further crime and disorder, Mr Farnan added.
Councillors unanimously agreed to revoke the licence following the meeting.
In their deliberations, the panellists – Cllr Julian Tisi, Cllr Genevieve Gosling and Cllr Clive Baskerville – said there was the risk that the premises ‘could further exploit workers’ because this had already happened.
During the Home Office visit last year, Zhengmao Cheng, the designated premises licence holder and designated premises supervisor (DPS) of the restaurant, was also interviewed.
He told enforcement officers he was ‘confident’ that right-to-work checks were carried out by the HR team. He added that he paid all of his employees via bank transfers.
In their discussion after the meeting, councillors said there was ‘considerable dishonesty’ from Mr Cheng with a ‘pattern of behaviours’ from him.
A £135,000 civil penalty was issued to the restaurant, but no payment has yet been made by its parent company – and it has thus been referred to a debt collection agency.
Mr Cheng did not attend the licensing meeting and did not engage with the Home Office regarding the civil penalty ‘at all’, the meeting heard.
He also did not provide any written submissions for the subcommittee to consider.
The investigation into the restaurant had been ongoing for 13 months and the meeting where councillors were due to discuss the matter had been adjourned on multiple occasions.
The decision was made so that Mr Cheng could seek legal advice, but this had not happened.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) had visited the restaurant prior to the meeting, and the venue appeared to be closed.
Councillors referenced that Plate at No.6 was indeed ‘boarded up’ and that Mr Cheng had left the country, ‘making it apparent that the business had ceased functioning’.
They said: “Anything less than revoking the licence would be inappropriate.”
Thus, the ‘safest option’ would be to revoke the licence entirely, mainly because the prevention of crime and disorder objective of the licence was not upheld, they added.
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