The former director of an award-winning Indian restaurant has been banned for employing two illegal workers. 

Mohammed Miah, 36, was commercial director of iNaga on Croydon Road in West Wickham when he hired two Bangladeshi men who did not have the right to work in the UK. 

During a raid on iNaga in February last year Immigration Enforcement found two men in their 30s and 40s working at the restaurant. 

One told investigators he had only very recently started at the restaurant while the other said he had been employed for two months.   

Immigration Enforcement fined the company £20,000 but the penalty remained unpaid when the company went into liquidation in June with more than £75,000 of liabilities. 

The iNaga restaurant now continues to operate at the same address under a different company name and Miah is no longer the director. 

Miah, of Deal Street in Whitechapel, has been banned from acting as a company director for six years. 

Kevin Read, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Mohammed Miah employed two people who did not have the right to work in the UK, breaching immigration legislation and the standards we expect of company directors.  

“His directorship ban means he cannot now be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company in the UK until September 2030.” 

David Tripp, the Home Office’s Immigration Compliance Enforcement lead for South London, said: “Business owners play an important role in ensuring the workers they employ have the right to work.  

“It is clear Mohammed Miah failed to do so, which is why he can no longer operate as a company director.  

“We’re dedicated to tackling illegal working as it undercuts honest employers and disadvantages legitimate job seekers.”