UK Care Home Agency Owner Jailed For Illegally Hiring Indians

A director of a care home agency based in south-east England has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after being found guilty of repeatedly employing immigrants from India with no right to work in the UK.

Benoy Thomas was convicted after a trial at Lewes Crown Court in July and sentenced on Friday, the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

The 50-year-old was found to have recruited Indian nationals to work as care assistants through his A Class Care Recruitment Ltd at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, despite being aware of their illegal migration status.

"Benoy Thomas knowingly breached immigration laws by employing people who had no right to work in the UK," Katie Samways, Specialist Prosecutor for CPS South East, said in a statement.

"Many of those he illegally employed were working with some of the most vulnerable people without adequate training or medical expertise, putting the safety and well-being of those who needed care at significant risk.

“The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to prosecute those who exploit our immigration system,” she said.

An investigation by Immigration Enforcement, an agency of the UK Home Office, determined that Thomas assisted the “unlawful immigration” of 13 individuals between 2017 and 2018.

He was sentenced to a total of two-and-a-half years in prison and disqualified from being a company director for eight years, the CPS said. It noted that Thomas himself arrived in the UK legally in 2007 from India before becoming a British citizen in 2012.

The court heard that he had used his contacts in southern India and knowledge of the UK immigration system to undertake the illegal hiring operation. His trial was told that he also attempted to conceal employment documentation from immigration officers in a garage before his arrest.

“Prosecutors presented extensive evidence to the jury, including timesheets, invoices, text messages, bank statements, handwritten office notes and diary entries, which showed that Thomas deliberately organised work for people he knew were in the UK illegally and had no right to work," the CPS stated.

His trial, over four months ago, found Thomas guilty of 13 counts of assisting unlawful immigration to a member state, contrary to Section 25(1) of the UK's Immigration Act 1971.  

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