Immigration officer arrested 32 employees at the giant sandwich-making factory, Greencore, in East London, as it is said that they were illegal immigrants.
Greencore is the UK's biggest sandwich-maker, supplying to Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda.
Officers had caught people in the factory trying to discard fraudulent identity documents, and phoning their friends to warn them not to come to work.
Several lockers were forced opened using bolt-cutters. After being questioned, photographed and fingerprinted, it is said that the 32 workers, who were from Eastern Europe and Africa were arrested.
Nine of the 32 workers were charged with immigration offences and were remanded in custody, while one was released on bail, pending further enquiries.
However, it is said that the remaining 22 are being dealt with by the immigration officers and are likely to be deported “if appropriate”.
The Home Office spokesman said, “We are successfully cracking down on those who have no right to be here. We are targeting industries and areas where abuse is most common and we've doubled the fines for businesses which flout the rules.”
A Greencore spokesperson said, “Greencore closely follows the Home Office's guidelines and goes to great lengths to try to ensure that all of our employees fulfil the necessary criteria to work legally in the UK. There have been numerous occasions in the past on which we have spotted suspicious applications and notified the immigration services immediately. We are determined to keep pace with the increasingly high quality of false documentation that is being produced, and will do everything that we can to ensure that this kind of incident does not recur in the future.”
It is now said that Greencore and its recruitment agency could face fines of up to £20,000 per worker if it is found that they had failed to checker the workers' documents correctly.
A spokesperson for the agency, Prime Time Recruitment said, “Prime Time Recruitment wholly refutes any claims that it has employed illegal workers at the Greencore Bow factory. Prime Time supplies 400 workers a week to Greencore Bow and undertakes rigorous checks on all candidates to guarantee their eligibility to work in the UK.
