A Bexleyheath business owner has told of sleepless nights as an £80,000 fine loomed over him – after his fish and chip restaurant was dramatically raided by six police and border force officers.

Dan Beneng, who runs Top Quality Fish Bar, was facing the fee over four Indian men who were found to be working illegally in his takeaway earlier this year.

He says he could have been forced to close down in the wake of the scandal.

After proving he carried out proper right-to-work checks, and that the men had forged their documents, the Home Office cancelled Mr Beneng’s fine on April 10 – and he is now looking to clear his restaurant’s reputation.

Mr Beneng said: “I was panicking. £80,000 is a lot of money to pay, selling chips.

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Belinda Downing serving a customer

“They said, ‘you are employing illegal immigrants’. I said, ‘no I’m not’.

“The woman from the Home Office said someone grassed me up.

“I had done nothing wrong. I want to let people know I am all cleared.

“I was only employing people, they showed me their IDs.

“They all showed me the papers. One boy was here for 10 years. I was paying his pay slips and tax.

“The other guys were only here temporarily. One was only here four days, one a week-and-a-half.

“My customers couldn’t believe it. My staff were so friendly with people.

“I lost a lot of trade over this. I want to let people know I am cleared.”

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Mr Beneng said when the raids happened, two officers rushed in the back door and four in the front.

It was a quiet Friday afternoon, between 2.30pm and 3pm, and the startled staff were all in the kitchen having a cup of tea.

His son Soni Beneng said: “Apparently they (the officers) just came piling in, really scary.”

Mr Beneng has been trading in Pickford Lane since 1982 and runs a family business, with his two sons and daughter-in-law all helping out behind the counter.

However, they have seen a drop in fish sales following the raids.

Soni added: “This has harmed us, unfortunately. We want to set the record straight.

“If people want to think bad of us that’s up to them, but the truth is the truth. We have nothing to hide.

“Regular faces we used to see, we don’t see them anymore.

“It looks like we’re dodgy when we aren’t. We want to clear the reputation, it’s just not us.

“We have been in the business 34 years. We are not one of those flash in the pan businesses, here today and gone tomorrow.

“We are part of the community. We work with so many charities – that’s the kind of people we are.”

The four illegal workers were detained on January 22.

One of the men had entered the country illegally, while the others had overstayed their student visas.

Top Quality Fish Bar has 4.5 stars on Trip Advisor, and is rated among the top 20 restaurants in Bexleyheath.