Four illegal workers have been arrested after a raid on a north Norfolk Chinese restaurant which could also face a £40,000 fine.Three Chinese men and Malaysian woman were arrested after UK Border Agency officials swooped on the Le Moon restaurant Cromer at 6pm on Thursday.

FOUR illegal workers have been arrested after a raid on a north Norfolk Chinese restaurant which could also face a £40,000 fine.

Three Chinese men and Malaysian woman were arrested after UK Border Agency officials swooped on the Le Moon restaurant Cromer at 6pm on Thursday.

They sealed all the exits and searched the Prince of Wales Road premises before checking workers' identity documents.

The agency, which said it carried out the raid "acting on intelligence", said steps were now being taken to remove the illegal immigrants from the UK as soon as possible as they had no right to work in the country.

The business was also issued with an on-the-spot warning for employing illegal workers, and may now face a fine of up to £40,000 if it cannot prove to the UK Border Agency that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out.

Gail Adams, the agency's regional director, said: "We are working hard to pull the plug on the illegal jobs which lure illegal immigrants to come to the UK in the first place.

"Illegal working is unfair on honest employers who recruit staff with the right to work in the UK and who pay them a proper salary. Employers who don't play by the rules will get struck off our register, lose the right to recruit staff from outside Europe, face on-the-spot fines and could potentially end up in jail."

A tough new civil penalty system was introduced in February to provide a fast and effective way of tackling bosses who fail to carry out proper checks on workers from outside Europe. A fine of up to £10,000 can be imposed for every illegal worker found at a business.

Earlier this year, Fu Feng Lin of the Palace Chinese restaurant in Lowestoft, was fined £25,000 for having five illegal workers, and the PT Job Consultancy at the Silk Road restaurant at King's Lynn received a £10,000 fine for having two, according to the agency's list of local cases.

Guidance for employers on preventing illegal working can be found on the UK Border Agency website www.ukba.homeoffice

.gov.uk/employingmigrants or by calling the UK Border Agency Employers Helpline on 0845 010 6677.

If you suspect illegal workers are being employed in Norfolk, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.