'A lot of dishonesty' at Windsor restaurant that hired illegal immigrants, meeting hears

A Royal Borough councillor said there was ‘a lot of dishonesty going on’ at a Windsor restaurant after illegal workers were hired.

Plate at No. 6, a tapas Mediterranean restaurant in Market Street, was visited by Home Office Immigration Enforcement officers in February 2025, after they had received intelligence that the business was employing illegal workers.

Three employees were identified as not having the right to work in the UK during the visit.

During the visit, one of the workers confronted his employer about not being paid for five weeks and claimed he was owed £2,175.

The Home Office also interviewed Zhengmao Cheng, the designated premises licence holder and designated premises supervisor (DPS) of the restaurant.

He told enforcement officers he was ‘confident’ that right-to-work checks were carried out by the HR team. He added that he paid all of his employees via bank transfers.

But no evidence of the checks was provided during the visit.

On Wednesday (March 11), a licensing and public space protection order sub-committee meeting heard hiring illegal immigrants ‘undermines’ the prevention of crime and disorder.

A £135,000 civil penalty was issued to the restaurant, but no payment has yet been made by its parent company – and it has thus been referred to a debt collection agency.

Mr Cheng did not attend the licensing meeting and did not engage with the Home Office regarding the civil penalty ‘at all’, the meeting heard.

Speaking at the York House meeting, Garry Farnan, a licensing compliance officer from the Home Office, said: “The ability to work illegally is a key driver of illegal migration.

“It encourages people to break the UK’s immigration laws and…abuse legal visa routes.

“It encourages others to take risks in trying to enter the UK illegally, putting their lives in the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers that leave them vulnerable to exploitative employers.”

He added that illegal working can also be linked to breaches of the minimum wage and tax evasion.

“Illegal working results in businesses that are not playing by the rules and undercutting legitimate businesses that are,” he said.

Revoking the premise licence of the restaurant is considered ‘appropriate and proportionate’ to prevent further crime and disorder, Mr Farnan added.

Other options include suspending the licence, removing the current premise supervisor, modifying the conditions of the licence, or removing a licensable activity from it.

The meeting heard that the Home Office carried out checks on the Government’s tribunal employment website.

These showed Mr Cheng has judgements against him for not paying legal workers – withholding holiday pay and making sporadic payments that obscured what staff were owed.

Mr Farnan said it felt like ‘no rules are being complied with at all’.

“There are concerns over the way this business is being run,” he said. “There needs to be some remedy to that behaviour and a significant way of ensuring that it will not be repeated.”

Panel member Councillor Julian Tisi (Lib Dem, Eton and Castle) said: “Bluntly, this sounds like a lot of dishonesty going on here, with regards to this person, Mr Cheng.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited Plate at No. 6 before the meeting and the restaurant appeared to be closed. 

The application will be decided within five working days of the meeting.