A courier company could be fined £100,000 after immigration officers swooped at their warehouse arresting ten of its workers.

Forty immigration officers stormed Yodel in Ellis Road, Mitcham, in the early hours of this morning in one of the largest operations of its kind staged in Mitcham by the Home Office.

The raid saw up to 100 workers rounded up and checked for immigration offences and was launched following an investigation based on information received from the public.

Those arrested are believed to be primarily from Brazil who have been working illegally in the UK.

Jill Smith, head of south London Home Office Immigration Enforcement, said: "It’s about reassuring the public that we are doing all we can to tackle illegal immigration.

"We do these operations almost every day now, not always on this scale, but we send teams out to a range of shops, businesses and home addresses every day.

"We get a very good arrest rate on restaurants and shops and commercial premises and we do a lot of joint operations with the police."

When asked about the public’s perception of illegal immigrants, she said: "I think that we are dealing with the problem in a much more public way and we do a lot of these operations very publically.

"We do a lot of high visibility stuff and that maybe means that people think that there is more of it going on."

"Our officers are very controlled and professional and carry out these types of operations day in day out."

Company bosses will now have to provide proof to the Home Office that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out on those arrested at the time of their employment.

If they are found not to have made the correct checks they will be fined £10,000 per employee.

Ms Smith said: "We are happy to work with businesses as well to help them get their act together so that we can tackle the problem.

"Illegal workers impact on the domestic job market, housing stock, public services and crime if they have committing crimes as well.

"If people have suspicions I would encourage them to bring them to us.

"You can remain completely anonymous.

"We will investigate and if there’s is an offence we will deal with it."

Anyone with information about immigration offenders can report via the Home Office website, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

 

UPDATE 3pm:

Of the ten men arrested this morning, four have been detained pending removal from the UK, four have been ordered to report to the Home Office regularly while their cases are progressed and two have been released with no further action.

The potential fine against Yodel now stands at £80,000.

Those in detention:
A 36-year-old Nigerian who had overstayed his visa
A 32-year-old Ugandan who had overstayed his visa
A 31-year-old Brazilian who had overstayed his visa.
A 35-year-old Brazilian who was working in breach of his visa conditions

Ordered to report to the Home Office regularly:
A 39-year-old Zambian man who had overstayed his visa
A 41-year-old Ghanaian who had entered the country illegally
A 45-year-old Brazilian who had overstayed his visa
A 36-year-old Ghanaian who had overstayed his visa

Released with no further action:
A 29-year-old Brazilian/Italian dual national.
A 29-year-old Brazilian / Portuguese dual national.