Merseyside police and Home Office officials from the department’s Border Force division have made two arrests following a raid on a hand car wash in Liverpool.
Officials had received information that Supershine Hand Car Wash in Bootle, Merseyside, was using “illegal workers”, according to the Liverpool Echo, and when officers visited the business they found two “overstayers”.
The paper reports that the Home Office had previously visited the site in January but returned in late March after receiving further “intelligence”.
Merseyside Police confirmed that two men, aged 27 and 41, had been arrested at the scene for immigration offences, and granted bail pending enquiries. The Echo says Scottish Power also attended the raid, and found the site’s electricity metre had been tampered with.
Speaking to the Echo, Chief Inspector Steve Robinson from urged members of the public to ”come forward with any information you have about immigration crime because we rely on the support of our communities to stop these offences taking place”.
The Home Office is said to be cracking down on car washes that employ staff who do not have the right to work in the UK. The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has previously said that businesses that exploit illegal immigrants create “a dangerous draw for people to risk their lives by crossing the Channel in a small boat”, with such practices amounting to “the abuse of vulnerable people, the immigration system and our economy”.
