A restaurant has lost its licence after it was found to be employing an illegal worker twice in five years.

Immigration officers suspected three people of working illegally at Lebaneat on Yarm High Street when they visited on the night of March 26. The restaurant was fined £45,000 this month in a civil penalty for employing an illegal worker, and its licence hung in the balance as councillors considered its case this week.

Stockton Council licensing officer Polly Edwards said immigration enforcement officers found five people thought to have been working at the eatery, including three “working in breach of their immigration bail conditions”. One person eventually owned up to working illegally while two others denied working doing so and it was not proved they were.

The restaurant had lost its licence in 2019 for employing an illegal worker. This was appealed, but with pandemic court delays the eatery was allowed to continue trading with more right-to-work checks.

Joanna Henderson from Home Office Immigration Enforcement, which applied for the licence to be reviewed, told the council’s licensing sub-committee of the March visit: “We encountered three illegal workers out of a total of five members of staff.”

She said they found it concerning that one of the people appeared to be a manager and had been at the restaurant for some time, while the other two had outstanding claims in the UK and asylum registration cards: “Whether it’s by negligence or wilful blindness, illegal workers were engaging in activity at the premises. All employers are duty-bound by law to conduct these checks.”

Home Office reports said two of the suspected workers were found in the kitchen wearing Lebaneat aprons. One said he was expecting to be paid then claimed he was working “to get pizza”, while the other said he was helping with food for no money.

The third, who was refused permission to stay in the UK in 2014, was in the main restaurant and claimed he was there to see a friend. When a delivery driver and waitress referred to him as a manager, he said he had been left in charge for a couple of hours, but a licensing officer had seen him there three times before.

All three had entered the UK illegally but were described by Ms Henderson as “non-removable”. She said they were dealt with at the scene and asked to leave the restaurant.

Licensing officer Elliott Beevers said: “The licensing authority have no confidence right-to-work checks have been carried out following the Home Office’s code of practice.” Cleveland Police supported the review and licensing officer PC Andy Thorpe said Lebaneat assured authorities they would check workers in 2019.

He said: “It’s obvious there has been a failure at some point with these checks, whether wilfully or without malice. But those checks obviously haven’t been done for these people and we’re in exactly the same position as we were in 2019.”

Duncan Craig, representing Lebaneat, stressed the £45,000 civil penalty was only for one employee but said: “I have to concede the condition on the licence is clear and it has not been complied with. There’s no escaping from that.

“We’ve got the situation here of fake IDs, but I have to concede on this occasion it’s absolutely obvious the checks undertaken were insufficient. I can’t say otherwise.”

He said company director since 2021 and premises supervisor Oksana Sayed was away at the time of the officers’ visit and had trusted a member of staff to deal with recruitment: “Obviously that’s fallen short. That member of staff has now been dismissed.

“My client has recently given birth. She is looking to step back from the business significantly. She is looking into the potential prospect of franchising the business. She understands the seriousness of this.

“I would just invite you to step back from revoking this licence and suspend this licence. Suspension can act as a deterrent… but not jeopardise people’s employment.

“This is a well-established and well-liked restaurant in Yarm. The food is very good.”

Announcing the decision to revoke the licence, committee chair Councillor Eileen Johnson said: “The committee can see no evidence that employment practices have improved, and no lessons appear to have been learned since the revocation in 2019. The sub-committee feel that revocation is only option.”