Chip shop owner 'devastated' by £40,000 Home Office fine

A fish and chip shop owner has been handed a "devastating" £40,000 fine by the Home Office after hiring a man who had allegedly forged his identity, prompting calls for ministers to reduce the size of penalties for small businesses amid a surge in enforcement.

- Sammy Gecsoyler

Immigration officers stormed Big Fry Fish & Chips in Egham, Surrey, in March. Officers took away a man, who was employed by the shop, on the alleged grounds that he did not have to right to work in the UK.

When hired in 2023, he had provided the chippy with a national insurance number, proof of student loan payments and housing benefit receipts from the local council. He provided a photocopy of his British passport and was paid via pay as you earn (PAYE) through HMRC.

The business did not see the original copy of the man's passport, which its owner, Mark Sullivan, said was a "clerical error". The Home Office alleges the man was using another person's identity and the passport had a name that was not his real one. All of the other documents he provided matched the name on the passport.

"It wasn't done deliberately - we owned up when we found out," said Sullivan. "We told them what happened, but we were given no right to defend ourselves."