A long-running family restaurant has had its alcohol licence suspended after a Home Office raid found an illegal worker in its kitchen.

Latino Ristorante Italiano, in Commercial Way, Woking, was raided by 10 immigration officials and two Surrey Police officers, after receiving a tip-off the restaurant hired people with no right to work in the UK.

Following a meeting of Woking Borough Council’s licensing sub committee on Tuesday, the restaurant has been banned from selling alcohol for one month. 

Owner Giuliano Pugliese was told it could have been permanently stripped of its licence.

Mr Pugliese pleaded with the committee that four families’ livelihoods depended on the restaurant and that they had been long time contributors to the borough’s economy.

He said: “We work very, very hard every day and I feel very bad to be in this kind of situation.”

He told the hearing that losing the licence would “mean we would shut down”.

He added: “I have two small kids, I know it doesn’t make a difference. We’ve got another three families around this restaurant” who he said also depended on the business.

He told the committee they were “big contributors to all the English systems, including council tax and VAT” and that closing “would be a big loss to the town centre”.

“I don’t hide anything, I feel I did a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

Working “on intelligence”, officers raided the busy restaurant on January 19 and carried out checks on staff, eventually finding a kitchen porter who had no right to be working in the UK.

The man was served his paperwork and his departure date, booked for February, was brought forward to January 25.

Immigration officers also grilled the owner who, according to their report, told officials the worker was in for a trial on the night of the raid.

They said: “It appears that the manager of this premises is using his restaurant business to employ illegal workers.”

The report added: “Home Office, Immigration Enforcement, request that the licensing sub-committee revoke the premises licence to prevent further serious crime and to protect the community from further harm.”

The owner was also asked why proper procedures were not followed when the male was employed at the restaurant. He said: “Most of the time, they don’t work with passport, insurance number.

“When we let somebody come, we trust them, we ask them to bring everything the next day. 

“It’s not everything straight away. 

“As a restaurant, we really struggle. If someone asks for a job, sometimes we need people straight away, we would say come for a try out and after we would ask for documentation. 

“We do not ask for documentation on first day.”

Following a short recess the three-panel committee, chaired by Councillor Steve Dorsett, decided against the complete revocation of the Latino restuarant’s licence.

Instead, it was decided to strip Mr Pugliese as the designated premise holder and insist the restaurant keep all  staff paperwork for at least a year after they  leave, and to suspend its current alcohol licence for one month.

After the hearing, the owner and chef spoke of the impact it would have on their business and how they would need to contact their bookings to let them know they should bring their own alcohol for the next month.

Mr Pugliese said: “It’s not good, it’s going to be bad.”