Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Licensing Sub Committee Hearing Panel - Thursday, 27th September, 2018 10.00 am

Venue: Room 132, Level 1, Town Hall, Manchester

Contact: Beth Morgan 

Items
No. Item

140.

Application for a Review of a Premises Licence for Pearl City Restaurant, 33 George Street, Manchester, M1 4HQ pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Minutes:

The history of non-compliance was outlined by the immigration officer.

 

On the 19/01/2018 a visit was made by immigration following intelligence that the premises Pearl City Restaurant was employing illegal workers. 10 immigration offenders were arrested with 9 been detained. The Committee were advised a civil penalty was issued for the sum of £90,000 for employing illegal workers which still remains outstanding.

 

On the 13/04/2018 another enforcement visit took place and a female was detained as she was overstaying her visa, however it was not proved that she was actually working at the premises.

 

On the 04/05/2018 another enforcement visit took place and on this occasion one of the chefs were arrested as an illegal entrant. A further male who had been arrested on 19/01/2018 was sat at a staff table near the kitchen but declared not to be working.

 

A referral notice was again served and the officer is still awaiting a decision from their civil penalty team whether another civil penalty will be issued.

 

It was submitted by immigration that the licence holder failed to meet the licensing objective of crime and disorder by allowing illegal working to take place at the premises and therefore requested revocation of the licence.

 

During questioning at the hearing it was confirmed by immigration that the owner had not been interviewed about the matters. Further it was confirmed by immigration whilst they could have applied for a compliance order from the Magistrates Court, one was not sought as it was not deemed to be ‘proportionate’ due to the number of illegal worker found at the premise and it was not proportionate “to close the premises down”. Further immigration were questioned by the Committee that if they didn’t think it was proportionate to close them down previously why are they now asking the committee to close them down by seeking revocation of the licence?

 

The representative for the Respondent submitted that his client (the owner of the premises) was a man of good character and the premises had never been subject to review proceedings. It was explained to the Committee that the owner did attend the premises daily however there was a general manager called ‘Alex’ who was in control. The Committee were advised that the owner was not present during any of the inspections that took place.

It was accepted by the owner that the civil penalty remained unpaid but it was submitted by the Respondents representative that this was civil debt and not a consideration for this Committee. 

 

In regards to the illegal workers it was explained by the Respondent’s representative that Chinese New Year took place on 16th February 2018 and during this period a lot of the staff at the restaurant wish to return home so take time off. The company therefore have to use temporary staff during this period and employ such staff from January to cover this period. It was accepted by the Respondent that the necessary checked were not carried out. It was submitted on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 140.