Border agency arrests four following factory raid

BOSSES at a Manchester-based textiles firm face the prospect of a civil penalty of up to £40,000 after a raid by the UK Border Agency found four illegal workers on its premises.

The agency said that following an “intelligence-led” raid on textiles firm Beechrow Clothing at Paragon Works on Lomax Street last week, it arrested four Pakistani staff – three women aged 22, 27 and 33 and a man aged 33. The arrests were all for overstaying visas and obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception.

One woman remains in detention pending removal from the UK and the other three have been released on immigration bail.

Eddy Montgomery, operations director of the UK Border Agency in the North West, said: “Businesses which operate outside the law should be warned that they will be found and they will be punished.”