AN Indian restaurant in a Somerset village has been stripped of its licence after two people were found working there illegally amid a host of food safety issues, writes John Wimperis.

Yatton Tandoori will no longer be able to sell alcohol or provide late night refreshment after 11pm, following the judgement by North Somerset Council’s licensing subcommittee on July 14.

Immigration officers, the council’s licensing and food hygiene teams, and the fire service conducted a raid and inspection of the restaurant on April 20.

An asylum seeker with no right to work in the UK and a student, who was allowed to work 20 hours a week but is believed by immigration to have been exceeding this allowance, were arrested for working at the restaurant illegally.

Marcus Johnson, of immigration enforcement ,said the restaurant’s owners — who also own Nailsea’s Posh Spice restaurant which lost its licence for employing three illegal workers in April — had shown a “blatant disregard for UK immigration law and the conditions of their licence.”

Mr Johnson said that the student had been exceeding his hours and working for another company, and that it was the restaurant’s responsibility to make sure they were employing people legally.

Surendra Panchal, the agent for owner Golap Miah, said that both the student and asylum seeker were related to the family and had been at the restaurant for the end of Ramadan, when food is traditionally served. Mr Panchal said: “That’s why they were there. That’s my understanding.”

April 20, the date of the inspection, was the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan.

But Mr Johnson said: “Regardless, [the asylum seeker] should not be in a commercial kitchen cooking food on Ramadan.”

He added: “He admitted that he works there when I spoke to him. He said he does it in exchange for money.”

However, neither party allowed the other to supply additional evidence to support their claims.

Jane Day, the council’s head of food and commercial safety, also delivered a representation warning that Yatton Tandoori had “consistently failed” to achieve the required food hygiene standards.

She said that the inspection had found open food stored in “filthy conditions,” cooked ready-to-eat meat removed from the freezer and stored on work surfaces and a trolley by an open door, a 20cm hole — potentially used by rodents — into an attic space where takeaway containers were openly stored, beds upstairs that could only be accessed by stairs through the restaurant, and the smoke or heat detector in the kitchen wrapped in plastic — which was described as a “life-threatening nonconformity.”

The restaurant received a zero hygiene rating. 

Shaju Miah, who was recognised as the food business operator, was not on site when the inspection happened. Ms Day added that only one person who was on site had a level two food safety in catering certificate, and they were arrested and removed by immigration officers.

When the licensing hearing for Posh Spice was held in April, owner Golap Miah came in person to present his case but immigration officers did not turn up, leading to the meeting being adjourned for over an hour while council officers tried to get in contact with them over a video call.

This time it was Golap Miah who did not turn up, who was reportedly in Bangladesh. His brother Shaju Miah attended instead and Mr Panchal argued that the hearing should be postponed until Golap Miah was back in the country.

But licensing officers said the correct process had been followed, and the committee questioned why the other premises licence holder Abdul Anwar could not have attended.

Summing up, Mr Panchal said that the restaurant had provided food to the community in lockdown and sold discounted food two days a week. He said that improvements were being made and asked the council to suspend the licence and said the restaurant would work with responsible authorities to improve.

He said: “I understand that there is more work to be carried out at the premises.”

The licensing subcommittee voted to revoke the licence.

Delivering the decision, chair of the licensing subcommittee Mike Solomon said: “We have listened carefully to both sides.”

He said: “We have come to the unanimous decision that we are going to revoke the licence in its entirety.”