Bar loses licence for employing illegal chef

A restaurant and nightclub in Wolverhampton has lost its licence after employing an illegal worker as a chef.

Isi Lucky Idahor, owner of Calif Bar in Stafford Street, had shown a "total lack of compliance with rules and regulations" and was unfit to run the venue, according to the city council's licensing subcommittee.

The club was fined £45,000 last year after the Home Office's immigration enforcement officers discovered Idahor had employed a female chef in 2025 who had no right to work in the UK.

Rob Edge, representing the bar owner, argued for a licence suspension at Wednesday's hearing, adding that it would be "disproportionate and unfair" for the council to revoke it.

The woman was arrested by immigration officers following an inspection at the bar last May.

Officers were given false personal details by the unnamed member of staff who later said she had been employed by the club for around a year as a chef, working three hours a day, once or twice a week.

She was given food and £40 in return for the work, and admitted she had not provided Mr Idahor with any ID or documents concerning her right to work.

However, Idahor, who has run the venue since 2014, contradicted this, later telling officers that the woman had worked for him for around two months doing small jobs on an irregular basis.

He also told officers that he had seen a page from her passport but was unaware she had no right to work in the UK.

Officers found she had held a valid visiting visa from September 2007 to March 2008 but did not return when it expired, and had never held the right to work in the UK.

The hearing's chair councillor Zee Russell said it appeared as though Idaho had "no idea" over the process to check if workers had the legal right to work in the UK.

Idahor told the hearing he had put the club into liquidation in September because he was unable to pay the £45,000 fine, or a £14,000 fine from magistrates for six breaches of food safety and hygiene standards in 2022.

Edge, representing Idahor, said revoking the licence "would go beyond what is necessary to promote the [licensing] objectives, punish lawful employees and the business disproportionately and ignore the fact that remedial actions have been taken".

West Midlands Police had supported the review as well as the Home Office's calls to revoke the licence.

The force said evidence from immigration compliance enforcement (ICE) showed the premises was "totally complicit" in employing an illegal worker to maximise profit and and minimise expenditure.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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