Immigration Enforcement wants Sutton to review Taste of Ceylon's licence: four of five workers had no right to work. Comments close 14 October.
The Home Office has asked Sutton Council to review the alcohol licence held by a Wallington restaurant, after officers found that four of the five people working there had no right to work in the UK.
The application was signed on 15 September 2026 and is now on the council’s public licensing page. Anyone who wants to comment on it has until 14 October.
It concerns Taste of Ceylon, 47 Stafford Road, Wallington SM6 9AP, and premises licence 24/01214/LAPREM (Sutton Council: current licence applications).
Nothing has been decided. The allegations in the application are untested, the licence holder has not yet answered them in public, and it is Sutton’s own licensing sub committee that will rule on the case.
Who has applied, and why that matters
The applicant is the Immigration Enforcement Licensing Compliance Team, based at 2 Ruskin Square in Croydon. It is not a resident or a rival business. Since April 2017 the Home Office has sat on the list of responsible authorities in the licensing system, which means it can object to licences and request reviews in its own right.
That change came in through section 36 and Schedule 4 of the Immigration Act 2016, which amended the Licensing Act 2003 to add immigration safeguards to licensing. The stated purpose is to stop illegal working in premises licensed to sell alcohol or serve late-night refreshment.
The review is brought on one of the four licensing objectives: the prevention of crime and disorder. The other three, public safety, public nuisance and protecting children from harm, are not raised.
What the application says happened
Immigration Enforcement officers visited the restaurant on 5 June 2025 and found five people doing work-related activity. Later checks established that four of them had no permission to work. The application sets out each one, with names redacted:
- one person who had no lawful basis to remain in the UK and no right to work
- one person on immigration bail with no permission to work
- one person in the UK as a visitor, and prohibited from working
- one person with an outstanding protection claim whose immigration bail conditions prohibited employment
The document says the evidence showed those people were doing work “integral to the operation of the restaurant”, including food preparation, cooking, cleaning and other kitchen tasks. It adds that several of them admitted carrying out regular duties “over extended periods of time”, and being paid in food, accommodation and money for personal expenses.
The Home Office’s conclusion is blunt. It says that 80% of the workforce encountered having no right to work “demonstrates a serious and systemic failure by the management of the premises to carry out adequate right-to-work checks”, and that the employment of people without permission to work “was not an isolated incident but formed part of the day-to-day operation of the business”.
The £90,000 civil penalty
The review application also records a separate piece of enforcement that has already concluded.
Under section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, an employer can be fined by civil penalty for employing someone without the right to work. That process is run by a different Home Office team from the one seeking the licence review.
A civil penalty notice of £90,000 was issued on 12 February 2026 over two of the workers. No objection was received. The penalty became payable on 16 March 2026. According to the application, it “remains outstanding in full”.
The Home Office says that non-payment was taken into account when it decided to go after the licence.
What the council can do
The statutory guidance under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 is unusually direct on this point. Paragraph 11.27 says certain criminal activity should be treated particularly seriously, including employing someone disqualified from working in the UK because of their immigration status. Paragraph 11.28 goes further: revocation of the licence “even in the first instance” should be seriously considered in such cases.
Immigration Enforcement argues on that basis that the crime and disorder objective has been “seriously undermined” and that a review is “both necessary and proportionate”.
A licensing sub committee can do several things at a review. It can take no action, modify the conditions on the licence, exclude a licensable activity, remove the designated premises supervisor, suspend the licence for up to three months, or revoke it altogether. Any decision can be appealed to the magistrates’ court.
Sutton’s Licensing Sub Committee has no hearing scheduled at the time of writing, and the Licensing Committee meeting listed for 28 September is marked cancelled on the council’s calendar.
What it means for you
If you live or work near that stretch of Stafford Road, this is the point at which your view counts. Once a review is lodged there is a 28 day window for responsible authorities and members of the public to make representations, and here that window closes on 14 October 2026.
To be taken into account, a representation has to be:
- in writing, by post or email, to the council’s licensing team
- accompanied by your full postal address
- about the effect on one or more of the four licensing objectives
The council warns that representations it considers vexatious, frivolous or repetitious will be disregarded, and that the Licensing Act requires it to pass your representation in full to the applicant, which means the licence holder sees your name and address. If representations are received, there must be a hearing, and everyone who made a valid one is invited to speak.
Three other licence applications in the borough are open for comment at the same time: the Co-op at 89 to 93 Banstead Road, Carshalton (closes 29 September), McDonald’s at 168 to 172 High Street, Sutton (9 October), and a new licence for Stanley Express, 47 Stanley Road, Carshalton (15 October).
Applications are taken off the council’s page once the comment deadline passes, so if you want to read the paperwork yourself, do it before the date.
More Sutton local information: planning applications, bin collection days, council tax bands and parking.
Sources: the Home Office Immigration Enforcement review application for Taste of Ceylon, 47 Stafford Road, Wallington, published by Sutton Council; the Licensing Act 2003; the Immigration Act 2016; and the Home Office’s revised guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.
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