Press release: Restaurant boss gets 7 year ban for employing illegal workers

Mrs Rokeya Monir, the sole registered director of Nawab Lounge Ltd, which traded as Nawab, an Indian restaurant and takeaway in Thatcham, Berkshire has been disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years having given disqualification undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which commenced on 28 September 2017 for employing three illegal workers.

Monir’s disqualification follows investigations carried out by the Insolvency Service and Home Office Immigration Enforcement.

Having inspected the premises in January 2015, Home Office Immigration Enforcement officials found three illegal workers and imposed a penalty of £30,000.

On 27 February 2015, Home Office Immigration Enforcement issued Nawab Lounge Ltd with a Notification of Liability for a Civil Penalty for £30,000 in respect of the company’s employment of three illegal workers. Payment was due on or before 31 March 2015, however, on 5 August 2015 Nawab Lounge Ltd went into liquidation and the penalty remained unpaid.

Commenting on the disqualification, David Brooks a Chief Investigator with the Insolvency Service said:

The Insolvency Service rigorously pursues directors who fail to pay penalties imposed by the government for breaking employment and immigration laws. We have worked closely in this case with our colleagues at the Home Office to achieve this disqualification.

The director sought to gain an unfair advantage over her competitors by employing individuals who did not have the right to work in the UK in breach of her duty as a director.

The public has a right to expect that those who break the law will face the consequences. If you fail to comply with your obligations, the Insolvency Service will investigate and you run the risk of being removed from the business environment.

Notes to editors

Rokeya Monir, 49, was the sole registered director of Nawab Lounge Ltd, company number 08732028, which was incorporated in October 2013 and traded as an Indian restaurant and takeaway from The Broadway, Thatcham, Berkshire.

Mrs Monir resides at Battery Hill, Winchester, SO22 4DD and her date of birth is 25 July 1968.

She has been disqualified for a period of 7 years commencing from 28 September 2017.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

  • act as a director of a company
  • take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
  • be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

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Link: Press release: Restaurant boss gets 7 year ban for employing illegal workers
Source: Gov Press Releases