The owner of an Indian restaurant raided by Home Office officials has been fined £3,000 after he admitted employing and housing illegal workers.
Jahed Ahmed was found to have knowingly allowed three men to work at the Raj Mahal in Kinross despite concerns over their right to work in the UK.
After police visited in October it emerged two of the men had once had visas but that in each case they had expired more than a decade earlier.
Perth Sheriff Court heard a third worker had previously applied to remain in the UK “by deception” but had never been in the country legally.
Ahmed admitted he had concerns about the men’s status but had been distracted by caring duties for his mother, who had been seriously ill.
That led him to overlook their apparent inability to provide paperwork. He also accepted his judgement had been clouded by friendship with the men.
Though Ahmed was the owner and day-to-day manager of the popular restaurant, Perth Sheriff Court heard another man – now dismissed – had been directly responsible for recruitment.
Ahmed, 39, of Bruce Gardens, Dunfermline, admitted facilitating a breach of immigration law on November 6 last year by knowingly employing and accommodating three named people who were not citizens of the EU.
Police and Home Office officials were sent to the High Street restaurant following a tip-off that suggested illegal workers were being employed there.
Ahmed had also been providing the men with houses in an adjacent cottage.
