A Cheshire-based timber firm is facing the possibility of a heavy fine for employing illegal immigrant labour.
Following a tip off, officers from the UK Border Agency raided the depot of P&S Ashley Timber of Sandbach last week and arrested nine Romanian nationals who were working there.
Officers are now investigating to see what checks the company, a timber and fencing supplier, made to ensure that the workers were not working illegally.
The agency has the discretion to levy a fine of up to £10,000 per worker, leaving the company with a possible fine of £90,000.
The nine workers – seven men and two women aged between 20-46 – were arrested for breaching their visa conditions and working illegally in the UK. They were handed fines of £1,000 each.
Eddy Montgomery, operations director of the UK Border Agency in the north-west, said the raid was the latest in a series of operations it had carried out to tackle immigration crime in Cheshire, with more operations planned.
“These operations are among many being carried out across the country following the success of a major crackdown on immigration crime during the summer, which generated a large number of arrests, cash seizures and prosecutions as well as fresh intelligence,” said immigration minister Damien Green.
Mr Green said illegal immigration put huge pressure on the public purse “at a time when the country can least afford it”.
P&S Ashley, which has operated for more than 30 years, supplies sawn timber, decking, gates and fence panels, fence posts, garden products and railway sleepers.
