Illegal workers fleeing a Fife hotel during a raid by the UK Border Agency resembled a scene from the Keystone Cops, the region’s licensing board has heard.
Acting chief immigration officer John McTamney told members two workers from Kirkcaldy’s Beveridge Park Hotel broke through a police cordon, with one breaking his ankle and the other making off across the railway tracks nearby. Although the man with the broken ankle was taken to hospital, he managed to abscond and neither has ever been traced, he said.
Mr McTamney said the hotel’s owner, Bobby Kumar, was later viewed on CCTV footage trying to usher a group of Asian workers out of the hotel at the start of the raid in March, a claim strenuously denied by Mr Kumar.
The Border Agency employee was giving evidence as part of the body’s bid to strip the popular wedding venue of its licence to sell alcohol, after 11 foreign nationals were caught working there illegally during a 20-month period between July 2010 and March this year.
After a lengthy discussion on Monday, the board narrowly decided to allow the hotel to keep its licence and will instead issue a written warning.
The licensing board heard there were three raids at the hotel and Mr Kumar has since been ordered to pay a civil penalty of £15,000 in relation to three of the men, and received a £1,500 fine at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to a charge relating to a further two.
Representing Mr Kumar, advocate Robert Skinner argued the immigration issue had no bearing on the hotel’s alcohol licence and pointed out Mr Kumar had already suffered ”swingeing penalties” in relation to the case.
Appealing to members to dismiss the application to revoke the licence, the advocate said all the men at one point had visas allowing them to work in the UK but some had recently expired, one was on a student visa but had stopped attending college and one had a visa which only allowed him to work at a restaurant in Falkirk.
All of the men were from India and all worked in the kitchen.
Mr Skinner added that Mr Kumar had no idea they were working illegally and told the board all of the men involved were given wage slips, were paid the minimum wage and paid tax and national insurance.
”There is no evidence people were trying to flee,” he said. ”The guidelines in respect of employing foreign students are complex and until recently the systems the hotel had for checking were a bit of a shambles.
”Steps have been taken to ensure a far better system is in place. This has nothing to do with the licensing aspects of the hotel and I would submit the board should take no action. It amounts to four students working on visas which had expired or working more hours than they entitled them to. Another was someone entitled to work in the country but just not in that hotel.”
However, Mr McTamney said: ”When the Border Agency arrived in November 2011 it was like a scene from the Keystone Cops with everyone running all over the place. CCTV clearly shows Mr Kumar making a ‘get out’ motion to staff and ushering them out of the premises and it happened in previous visits.
”We have documents which show some people were paid cash in hand.”
Carolyne Lindsay from the UK Border Agency’s Criminal and Financial Investigation team told the board: ”It’s not only employing people, it’s actually facilitating them being in the country. This has a number of consequences for the public, as we know nothing of their background, criminal convictions or their health.”