Twenty company directors from sixteen restaurant and takeaway businesses were recently issued disqualification orders, following investigations by the Insolvency Service. 18 directors were banned for being company directors or being involved in company management for six years each, whilst 2 directors were disqualified for seven years.
Employers are responsible for ensuring that their companies do not employ workers who do not have the right to work within the UK. The company must undertake, and prove that it has undertaken, checks on workers to establish their entitlement to work prior to recruitment. Following Home Office Immigration investigations, the companies were issued with penalty notices totalling £505,000 which remain unpaid. The Insolvency Service pursued civil disqualification rather than a criminal prosecution.
