Four Bangladeshi men have been found to be working illegally at Raj Indian restaurant in Marlborough after an operation by Home Office Immigration Enforcement last Thursday.

Officers visited the restaurant in Kingsbury Street at 6pm and staff were questioned on their right to live and work in the UK.

The men were then arrested and transferred to immigration detention, where they were questioned further.

The Home Office said it was discovered that a 34-year-old man had entered the country illegally and he has been retained in immigration detention, pending removal from the UK.

The three other men, aged 26, 29 and 33, were found to have overstayed their visas.

The 26-year-old man will also stay in the immigration centre until he is deported. The other two men have been ordered to report to the Home Office regularly while their cases are considered.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Businesses in Wiltshire who employ illegal workers are defrauding the treasury of vital funds, undercutting employers who ply an honest trade and cheating legitimate job seekers out of employment opportunities.

“Employers who break the law will face the consequences.”

The business, owned by Amirul Haque Bablu, was served with a notice warning that a civil penalty of up to £20,000 per illegal worker arrested will be imposed unless proof is provided that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out, such as seeing a Home Office document or passport.

Mr Haque Bablu said: “If can’t show evidence then I will have to pay a fine, but I have evidence.

“They all showed me their documents when they started working here and I showed them to the officers.

“I have a passport for one who has been working here since July and has been paying his National Insurance and everything.

“The other two are students and one had a biometric card which allows him to work 20 hours a week and the other had shown me the documents which he’d sent to the Home Office for an extension.”