A number of car wash businesses – including one operating from an MFG forecourt – have been fined £2.73m for employing staff with no right to work in the UK.
Recently published Home Office figures for civil penalties issued in the third quarter of 2025 to companies employing illegal workers detail that 42 car wash and valeting firms fell foul of immigration rules.
The highest fine levelled was £180,000, issued to Hotspot Car Wash in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, while a car wash-business operating from an MFG site in Croydon, South London, was issued an £80,000 penalty. Another, based at an MFG site in Telford, Shrops, was issued a £40,000 fine, but this penalty was cancelled by the Home Office after correspondence was submitted to its Immigration Enforcement arm.
An IMO car wash in Bootle, Merseyside, was also caught employing staff with no right to work in the UK, and was issued a penalty of £45,000.
But while fines for breaching immigration employment laws remain stiff, their enforcement has been historically lackadaisical: a Freedom of Information request made by the Car Wash Association in 2024 revealed just 5% of penalties had been paid within a year of being issued.
This article was updated to reflect the cancellation of the Telford site’s penalty.
