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A fish and chip shop owner has been handed a “devastating” £40,000 fine by the Home Office after hiring a man who had allegedly forged his identity, as ministers face calls to reduce the size of such penalties for small businesses amid a surge in enforcement.
In March, Home Office immigration officers stormed Big Fry Fish & Chips in Egham, Surrey, in a raid that left staff “terrified”. Officers took away a man, who was employed by the shop, on the alleged grounds that he did not have to right to work in the UK.
When the man was hired in early 2023, he provided the chippie with a national insurance number, proof of student loan payments and housing benefit receipts from the local council. He also provided a photocopy of his British passport and was paid via pay as you earn (PAYE) through HMRC.
The business did not see the original copy of the man’s passport, which its owner, Mark Sullivan, said was a “clerical error”.
The Home Office alleges the man was using another person’s identity and the passport had a name that was not his real one. All of the other documents he provided matched the name on the passport.
“It wasn’t done deliberately, we owned up when we found out,” said Sullivan. “We told them what happened, but we were given no right to defend ourselves.”
In correspondence seen by the Guardian, the Home Office told Sullivan that “national insurance numbers, student loan payments and housing benefit receipts are not proof of an individual’s identity or right to work in the UK”.
When the £40,000 fine came in, Sullivan was presented with two choices. Pay up within 21 days for a 30% discount, bringing the fine down to £28,000 or object to the decision, which a lawyer advised against as the sum could have soared to £80,000.
He opted for the former because the latter option would have led to the “end” of his business. “The fine that we had is devastating. We’re just a small business,” said Sullivan. “I’ve employed people all my life. I’ve never employed anybody working illegally deliberately.”
The company was given a £5,000 discount for being cooperative. It could have received another £5,000 off if Sullivan had reported suspicions about the man, whom he described as “extremely pleasant and polite”, to the UK Visas and Immigration hotline.
“He had a bank account, he was already working when he came to work for us, he’d had a university education and we were paying back the loan for him,” said Sullivan. “Where were the red flags for us?”
Last year, such fines for businesses rose from £15,000 for each worker to £45,000. The increased penalty came as the Home Office stepped up enforcement and raids on businesses. This fine is the same no matter the size of the company. From July 2024 to March of this year, the Home Office issued 1,508 civil penalty notices.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said there was widespread worry among small business owners about falling foul of complex Home Office rules, which could lead to potentially “fatal” fines for companies. It called on ministers to “accept that the size of employer now gets reflected in Home Office fines and systems”.
The executive director of the FSB, Craig Beaumont, said: “Small employers take their responsibilities seriously when it comes to necessary documentation checks, but ultimately, they are not immigration officers. They need a system which treats genuine mistakes proportionately rather than punishing them with crushing fines large enough potentially to threaten the existence of their business.
“In this case, a fish and chip shop engaged with the Home Office in good faith to resolve an issue when a one-off honest mistake came to light, only to be handed a massive fine with no right to appeal or chance to explain – and a ticking clock to force payment before the cost dramatically increases.
“It’s disappointing to see a genuine effort to do the right thing met with such an inflexible response. That kind of approach feels more like punishment than enforcement.”
Enforcement against illegal working, which has already ramped up, looks likely to increase further. Earlier this month, speaking after announcing an agreement with France over small boat crossings, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the government was undertaking a nationwide crackdown on people working illegally, which he claimed was happening “on a completely unprecedented scale”.
Last month, the UK’s three largest food delivery companies announced increased security checks for riders after ministers summoned them to a meeting. The change came shortly after the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, claimed to have found people working illegally for the companies during a visit to a hotel used to house asylum seekers.
People granted the right to remain in the UK still reside in such housing for a short period before leaving and are legally allowed to work. Those still waiting for a decision are given £8.86 a week for essential living costs, a sum they may need to live on for months or years amid a huge backlog of unprocessed asylum claims.
A government spokesperson said: “Employers are responsible for carrying out right to work checks and there is comprehensive guidance and support on how to do this. The checks are free and take minutes to complete, with businesses able to utilise digital ID verification technology to support the process.”
