COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson's firm could face a £10,000 fine after a waiter was arrested on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.


Officials raided Wozza's Kew Grill in Richmond, West London, this week and found a 33-year-old man with a fake French passport working there. He was detained and faces deportation.

The celebrity chef, 58, was not at the restaurant at the time of the raid. But his firm AWT Restaurants has been formally issued with a "notice of potential liability" by the UK Borders Agency.

Officers will investigate and decide whether his firm faces the civil fine - a maximum of £10,000 for each illegal immigrant found - or gets a warning. An immigration source said: "Officers found an Algerian man who had previously applied for asylum but had failed and then disappeared. He was using a counterfeit French passport which he may have used to get the job." The arrest comes in the wake of a bad year for the chef, whose chain of restaurants went into administration last February. He later bought several back.

pollyanna wrote:What's the betting that he wont get fined

pollyanna wrote:Our local chinese was caught employing illegals and he was fined the max. for each one - can't remember how much.

You're right Rebbonk - the likes of you and me would be fined heavily.

We could be proved wrong

StevieG wrote:

pollyanna wrote:Our local chinese was caught employing illegals and he was fined the max. for each one - can't remember how much.

You're right Rebbonk - the likes of you and me would be fined heavily.

We could be proved wrong

Did he put his prices up to get the customers to pay for the fine