Immigration officers raided an Indian restaurant finding illegal workers and rental laws being broken.

Border Force officials swooped on the Star of Bengal in Harbour Street, Whitstable earlier this week.

As part of an intel-led operation on Wednesday, officers discovered two of the seven employees were found to be working illegally and were in breach of their immigration status.

Further details about the nature of the immigration breach has not been disclosed.

The restaurant was served with an illegal working civil penalty while the owner was slapped with a right to rent civil penalty.

The law states offenders can be sent to jail for five years and have to pay an unlimited fine if found guilty of employing someone they knew or had reasonable cause to believe did not have the right to work in the UK.

Employers can also be penalised £60,000 per worker if someone does not have the right to work and they did not do the correct checks, or do them properly.

The restaurant is open and operating as usual.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are determined to clamp down both on illegal working and the exploitative treatment of illegal workers.

“Vulnerable individuals can find themselves trapped in unsafe and insecure conditions, facing exploitation and even modern-day slavery, often facilitated by organised criminal gangs.”