A trader who secretly employed illegal immigrants at his Aberdeen takeaway has been banned from running companies.
Qiqing He, 54, was running a firm named QQ Holburn Ltd based at 170 Holburn Street when Home Office officials got a tip-off about improper practises.
A senior judge has now revealed how the firm’s entire business model used illegal workers – at a time when accounts show it was making £30,000 a year for Mr He.
Investigators raided a takeaway registered to QQ Holburn in September 2022 and found that three of four staff were illegal immigrants.
Illegals were getting cash in hand
The first worker told officials he had been working for about two months as a cook earning £400 a week.
He told the Home Office that Qiqing He was paying him cash in hand and giving him a free place to live.
The second worker told immigration staff she had been working at the takeaway for more than a year as a kitchen assistant.
She too was being paid £400 cash in hand and was given free accommodation.
The third worker told officials he had been working there for four months and was getting £550 a week cash in hand plus free accommodation.
The firm continued trading until March 2024 when it was dissolved.
That means that any current users of their former premises are in no way associated with QQ Holburn.
Home Officials fined QQ Holburn £30,000 – and even though it was halved due to the firm’s cooperation, they never paid the fine.
According to the court papers, the Home Office said another director of QQ Holburn had cooperated with their probe into the illegal workers, but Mr He did not.
‘He knew they were not allowed to work here’
They added: “Qiqing He failed to engage and had not accepted responsibility for his actions, nor had he responded to an information request.”
Arguing in favour of banning Mr He from being a director, a Home Office representative addressed the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
He said: “It was clear that Qiqing was the person who hired the employees in
question, and that he did so in the knowledge that they were not entitled to work in the UK, or at least suspecting that they were not.
“He was the person who paid them and told them what tasks to perform.
“At least until May 2022, he had the sole responsibility to ensure that the company had appropriate processes in place to comply with legislative requirements, by correctly employing people.
“However, he had failed to provide evidence that any such processes were in place.”
In a written ruling that has now been published, Lord Baird ruled Qiqing He should be disqualified from being a director for seven years.
‘Name and shame policy’
“This was due to the substantial number of illegal employees (compared with the total staff), the company’s failure to pay the civil penalty, the evidence of deliberate wrongdoing and the length of time for which the company paid employees cash in hand, from which Qiqing He personally benefitted as sole shareholder.”
According to court papers, Qiqing He did not make any representations against the Home Office’s application to ban him from running companies.
Lord Baird added: “There is no doubt that the company operated its business using illegal workers, for which the respondent was personally responsible.
“The gravity of such conduct as the respondent’s lies in the fact that it gives an unfair competitive advantage to the company; it gives an opportunity for the exploitation of migrant workers who are usually in a precarious state to begin with; and it exposes the company to a fine.
“The company’s business model, such as it was, appears to have been predicated on the employment of illegal workers. That had potential harmful consequences.”
We reported last November that four other north-east eateries had been caught with illegal workers.
The Home Office now publishes this data as part of a policy to name and shame rogue traders.