Restaurant at the Office probe loses alcohol licence

A TIVERTON curry house has lost the ability to sell its customers booze as part of a Home Office crackdown on the premises over illegal workers.

- BRADLEY GERRARD Local Democracy Reporter [e-mail]

The Mumbai Kitchen in Tiverton has lost its alcohol licence

Mumbai Kitchen had been accused of employing illegal workers by the Home Office, which had then sought to revoke its alcohol licence.

Members of Mid Devon District Council's licensing committee heard immigration officials had visited the restaurant in 2022, 2024 and last month, on each occasion finding one individual or more who did not have the correct paperwork to allow them to work at the curry house.

The licensee, Joy Abraham, attended the hearing but outlined that he had handed day-to-day responsibility for licensing to Jamal Uddin Ahmed, while a third individual, Maroof Ahmed, has been named in official documents as the restaurant manager or business owner.

The committee heard Jamal Uddin Ahmed was currently in Bangladesh, while Maroof Ahmed told the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the hearing that the restaurant would still be trading and was not closed.