THE owner of three Cumbrian restaurants has been warned he could go to prison for employing illegal immigrants.

Mohammed Hifzuil Rahman, 46, gave seven men board and lodging in exchange for their working part-time at his restaurants in Grange-over-Sands, Sedbergh and Keswick.

At Carlisle Crown Court he pleaded guilty to seven charges of “assisting unlawful immigration by providing living accommodation and employment which facilitated a breach of the immigration laws”.

The restaurants involved, the court heard, were the Spice Merchant, in Main Street, Grange, the Taj Mahal in Main Street, Sedbergh, and the Red Fort in St John’s Street, Keswick.

Prosecuting counsel Tim Evans told the court that Rahman had originally been charged with offences involving 16 illegal immigrants, but some of them had since been deported or had simply disappeared “back into the black economy”.

He said the businessman had already had to pay a £55,000 penalty in a civil case brought against him by the UK Border Agency involving the same illegal workers.

In spite of that warning, Mr Evans said, Rahman had continued employing many of the same people, most of whom lived in “small, multi occupied rooms” at the restaurants.

“The conditions in which they were housed were not palatial,” he said.

Rahman admitted that as the owner he had been responsible for the men working at his restaurants, even though they had been overseen by managers, not by him.

His barrister Philip Tully said he pleaded guilty on the basis that the restaurants had never offered paid employment for the immigrants, but had provided food and shelter in return for part-time work.

“These people were desperate people with regard to finding somewhere to live,” he said.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said he accepted that Rahman had not “exploited” the workers, though he said he had to have regard to the “way in which they were housed and used”.

One important question, he said, was “was the work done in return for the accommodation or was the accommodation provided in return for the work?”

Such offences carry a maximum possible sentence of 14 years in prison, but the circumstances of this case mean such a sentence will not be passed on Rahman.

Even so, the judge said, there was a “strong prospect” that he would be going to prison.

Rahman will be sentenced early next year, probably on January 10.

In the meantime he was released on bail.