As an aside, I’ve seen this happen elsewhere as well. Classic play for wage theft. When I was working as a bartender in London to make ends meet, I had a coworker from Mexico on an expired visa. Great guy and the most hardworking. Well won’t you guess it, guy got picked up by immigration authority on payday.
I’m not doubting the events of that London story, but under UK law knowingly employing illegal workers is an unlimited fine plus 5 years jail time, and even employing one by mistake after not doing the correct checks is up to a £60,000 fine, so it was deliberate than it was quite a gamble…
I couldn’t tell you. This is almost 20 years ago now and I know my colleague disappeared from one day to the next after payday.
Ah right, the rules changed about 10 years ago.