A RAID on an east Kent salad packing plant ended with 49 illegal immigrants being detained. Police and immigration officers surrounded the Tilmanstone Salads site in Wigmore Lane, Eythorne, at 6.30am on Saturday.

In a secret liaison with the management, the agency workers were rounded up in the canteen. Tilmanstone Salads, owned by the multi-national Geest group, had for several weeks helped the investigation into workers employed by an outside agency which supplies seasonal labour to them and other companies.

It is now under police investigation and faces a fine of up to £245, 000. According to the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996, employers knowingly or negligently employing people who have no permission to work could receive a maximum penalty of £5,000 for each illegal employee. Of the 52 agency staff only three, all South Africans, had valid visas and were able to return to work. Tilmanstone Salads is now planning to give them permanent contracts. The illegal immigrants, many from Russia, were taken to the immigration reception centre at the former young offenders institute at Dover's Western Heights. They are likely to be deported to their home countries.