By John Scheerhout

Copyright manchestereveningnews

A top celebrity restaurant been handed an £80,000 fine after illegal workers were found in its kitchen. Home Office immigration enforcement officers found staff from Algeria and Brazil when they visited Cibo in Hale, and an investigation concluded three of them were ‘illegal workers’. The Italian restaurant, currently closed for renovation, is a favourite for celebrities including Sir Alex Ferguson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohammed Salah and Tyson Fury. Bottles of wine can fetch up to £350. The eatery was fined and later hauled before a council licensing committee which has now handed out a warning and imposed new conditions on its licence. Home Office immigration enforcement officers, acting on a tip-off, visited the restaurant on Victoria Road in Hale at 8pm on Saturday, June 15, and saw one man in a chef’s uniform in the kitchen who ‘attempted to leave the premises along with other members of staff’, according to a report which went to Trafford Council’s licensing sub-committee on July 24 this year. Never miss a story with the MEN’s daily Catch Up newsletter – get it in your inbox by signing up here Checks revealed the man arrived in the UK in 2008 on a family visa which did not give him a right to work in the country and which expired in March of the following year, according to the report. “Since then he has overstayed his visa and made no attempt to regularise his immigration status. At the time of the visit, (the man) had no legal right to live or work in the UK,” continued the report. The man admitted during an interview with officials he had worked at the restaurant for four years, earning a weekly wage of £600 and reporting to the restaurant’s head chef. He said he couldn’t remember who hired him, that it was ‘maybe the owner’ and that the only documentation he had provided was a National Insurance number. The report revealed a second member of staff, with a tea towel tucked into his waistband, attempted to leave the premises out of the back door when enforcement officers arrived. Checks revealed he had entered the UK in March 2024 on a six-month visitor visa which does not permit employment and so he was working ‘in breach of his visa conditions’, according to the report. He told enforcement officers it was his first day in the job as a cleaner and that he had been told he would be working five-days-a-week for £9-an-hour paid in cash, according to the report. He claimed he had been offered the job by the sous chef who had not enquired about his immigration status, says the report. Immigration officials also found a third man who they saw was washing dishes. Checks revealed he entered the UK in December 2023 and was granted leave to enter for 180 days which ‘did not give him the right to work in the UK’, according to the report. The man told officials he had been working at the restaurant for four months and that he was paid £1,000 cash-in-hand by the ‘restaurant boss’, the licensing committee was told. The man admitted he had not provided any documentation. The report noted that two of the people stopped were paid ‘below or just under’ the national minimum wage. The report reveals enforcement officers also spoke to a fourth man, the ‘general manager’ of the restaurant, who confirmed he was responsible for hiring staff. He told officials right to work checks were the responsibility of another branch. He said the ‘family-run’ business was run ‘based on trust’ and that checks were often carried out after new staff had started, according to the report. The report stated: “The right to work check is a mandatory legal requirement for all employers and must be completed before employment begins. It is not optional.” The Home Office said the restaurant employed the ‘illegal workers’ for ‘commercial reasons’, says the report. The licence holder at the time, named as Valbon Sejdiu in the report, ‘has been found employing illegal workers’, it says. The Home Office told the licensing committee: “The business has clearly failed to meet the prevention of crime and disorder objectives. The license holder would have been aware of his responsibilities to uphold the licensing objectives as they are clearly defined as part of the premises license application. “Three individuals were found working at the premises without lawful immigration status. Regardless of the duration of their employment – whether it was their first day or several years in – the responsibility to conduct right to work checks lies with the employer. These checks must be completed before employment begins, and they apply to all prospective employees, irrespective of the nature or length of the engagement.” The Home Office took action and the restaurant was initially fined £120,000. This was reduced to £80,000 although a further appeal was still ‘ongoing’, according to the report. The Home Office also asked Trafford Council to review the restaurant’s licence at a licensing sub-committee hearing on July 24, which handed the licensee an official warning after concluding they had ‘failed to uphold the licensing objective of preventing crime and disorder’. The premises had removed the ‘Designated Premises Supervisor’ in post at the time of the visit and had appointed advisors to ensure ‘only those with a right to work were employed’. The company’s efforts were ‘just sufficient to persuade the sub-committee that revocation of the premises licence was not required’, the committee said. However, extra conditions were added to the restaurant’s licence including that no staff member should be employed without checks being carried out on their identity and work status, and that they should be paid into a bank account rather than in cash. Alex Norris, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, said: “We are coming down hard on illegal working right across the UK, ramping up arrests and enforcement visits by 50% and removing people with no right to be in the country. “We will also continue to ensure employers and those facilitating this type of criminality face the full force of the law.” A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: “We were disappointed to hear that this business did not check to make sure employees had the right to work in the UK and failed to pay the correct National Minimum Wage in two instances. “We thank our counterparts at the Home Office who undertook this investigation to help keep employment standards high in Trafford and make sure businesses are run properly. The vast majority of bars and restaurants in the borough adhere to the law and this case shows that anyone who does not can face serious consequences.” Cibo has been approached for comment.