An illegal worker in a Lincolnshire shop was paid less than £8 an hour, Lincolnshire Police say.
They discovered the man working at Vino Convenience Store on Metheringham High Street in October.
The police force says it has “no confidence” in the people running the shop, which is part of the Premier Stores group, and has called for its licence to be revoked.
The employee had arrived in the UK on a skilled working visa for health and social care and had briefly worked in a care home.
However, the man, who isn’t named in the report, had left that job and had no legal right to work in a shop.
The man told police he was paid £600 each month in cash for around 80 hours work at the shop, and never received a payslip.
This is around £7.50 per hour, much lower than the national minimum wage of £11.44 per hour for people over 21.
The premises licence holder is Vino Convenience Store Ltd, whose directors are Thanusha Kaliyaperumal and Sureshkanth Arumugam.
Mr Arumugam told police he believed the man had the right to work there.
Lincolnshire Police say he was “irresponsible” not to check and he “may have simply chosen to overlook the worker’s restriction to benefit his own cause”.
The man’s case has now been passed to the Immigration Enforcement Team.
Alcohol was found on sale at the shop without the required price markings, according to the report.
The force says it has also received “high confidence” intelligence that the shop sold vapes to a 14-year-old girl, who then sold them onto children aged between eight and twelve years.
A committee at North Kesteven District Council will decide next week (December 17) whether the shop should lose its licence.
The committee has the options to revoke, suspend or modify the shop’s licence, or not take any acton.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has contacted Premier Stores for comment, and has been unable to reach Vino Convenience Store.
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
