Nail bar in Portsmouth faces £40,000 penalty after '˜illegal workers' found in raid

Immigration Enforcement visited Diamond Nails, in Havant Road, Drayton. They found a 21-year-old man was a failed asylum seeker.

‘He has been detained while steps to remove him from the UK are taken,’ a Home Office spokeswoman said.

A 17-year-old boy was found to have entered the country illegally and has now been passed to the care of social service.

But Hin Bui, a friend of the shop owner Huong Nguyken, said the men had only come into the shop to charge their phones and were not employed by the nail bar. Mr Bui said: ‘Those guys came in at the wrong time. They just came in to charge their phones and it suddenly happened.’

He said the owner is the only person working at the shop, which opened in September.

The spokeswoman added: ‘Diamond Nails has been served a notice warning that a financial penalty of up to £20,000 per illegal worker found will be imposed unless they can demonstrate that appropriate right to work document checks were carried out, such as seeing a passport or Home Office document confirming permission to work.

‘This amounts to a total of £40,000.’

Anyone with concerns about immigration can visit gov.uk/report-immigration-crime or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.