A popular Brighton restaurant has been given a reprieve by a council licensing panel after the Home Office called for the business to lose its licence.
Donatello, in Brighton Place, was given a warning after the licence review hearing at Hove Town Hall last week.
The Home Office initially called for the premises to have its licence revoked and – after hearing about its “compelling mitigation” – urged Brighton and Hove City Council to suspend Donatello’s licence.
At first, Sussex Police supported the Home Office call for Donatello’s licence to be revoked but it dropped its support before the licence review last Wednesday (11 January).
The review was held after Home Office immigration officials raided the family-run business in November and found six illegal workers although five had visas for agricultural work.
One of Donatello’s directors, Mikele Addis, told the hearing that the situation was an honest mistake because five visas said: “Temporary worker (seasonal).”
The error was compounded in part because the visas were checked by a manager who was not a native English speaker.
The word “seasonal” is commonly used to describe workers in Brighton’s tourism and hospitality sector but has a more specific meaning in immigration law.
Mr Addis said that the five workers with visas, four from Uzbekistan and one from Russia, were on the payroll and paying tax, national insurance and even into pension schemes.
One worker, an asylum seeker from the Ivory Coast, had started working at the restaurant on a trial basis two days before the raid on Wednesday 9 November.
Last month the Home Office raided the other restaurant owned by Pietro Addis and Sons – Pinocchio in New Road – but found no illegal workers.
The company has since started using a specialist company, Bedrock Human Resources, to vet all staff at both restaurants.
And as well as issuing a warning, the licensing panel, consisting of three councillors, added two conditions to the premises licence aimed at tightening up “right to work” checks for staff.
At the hearing, Mr Addis that said he had “dropped the ball” after a series of traumatic events over the previous two years. These included the death of his mother, Sue Addis, and his father, Pietro.
His nephew Pietro Addis, 19, has admitted stabbing his 69-year-old grandmother to death at her Brighton home, pleading manslaughter. Next month he faces a trial by jury, charged with murder, which he denies.
Mikele Addis said, after receiving the licensing panel’s verdict, that he felt the “weight of the world” had been lifted off his shoulders.
He said: “It’s now a case of moving on and keeping the business going. I want to make my mum proud, raise money for her charities and put this all behind us.”
He added: “We’ve learned hugely from this mistake and now have conditions on our licence. We never thought to take on an HR company – and we’ve got them working alongside us which will aid us a great deal.
“Since mum passed away – she was the big boss of everything – we’ve reopened after covid for one full year and it has been a learning curve. We’re there now and trying to provide for the community.”
The licensing panel was chaired by Conservative councillor Dee Simson and included Labour councillors Chris Henry and Clare Moonan.
In a letter to Mr Addis, the panel said: “This is the first intervention by review and there are significant mitigating circumstances as described and already acknowledged.
“However, the discovery of six workers on the premises who were not entitled to work in the UK is a serious matter.
“The panel thus signals in response to this review, in addition to the conditions added, it is issuing a clear warning or ‘yellow card’.
“The licence holder must ensure that all the staff it employs are properly checked and legally entitled to work in the UK.
“Should a further review on the same issue come before us, the consequences would be extremely serious.”
