6 March 2013
A restaurant that employed two illegal workers was fined $80,000 at Shatin Magistrates' Courts today (March 6).
During an anti-illegal worker operation mounted on November 19, 2012, two former domestic helpers who were found working at the restaurant as a waitress and a cleaner were arrested. The two former domestic helpers were charged with breaching conditions of stay and the restaurant was charged with two counts of employing a person not lawfully employable. The restaurant was fined $40,000 for each count, making a total fine of $80,000.
"It is an offence to employ people who are not lawfully employable. The maximum penalty is a fine of $350,000 and imprisonment for three years," an Immigration Department spokesman said.
The spokesman also stressed that any person who contravenes a condition of stay in force in respect of him shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for two years.