UK crackdown: Care-home boss jailed for hiring Indian migrants illegally

A care-home agency director in south-east England has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for employing 13 Indian nationals who had no right to work in the UK — a case that highlights rising scrutiny of employers hiring foreign workers without valid permissions.

 

Benoy Thomas was convicted after a trial at Lewes Crown Court in July and sentenced on Friday, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

 

The 50-year-old was found to have recruited Indian nationals to work as care assistants through his A Class Care Recruitment Ltd at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, despite being aware of their illegal migration status.

 

 

"Benoy Thomas knowingly breached immigration laws by employing people who had no right to work in the UK," Katie Samways, Specialist Prosecutor for CPS South East, said in a statement.

 

"Many of those he illegally employed were working with some of the most vulnerable people without adequate training or medical expertise, putting the safety and well-being of those who needed care at significant risk.

 

"The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to prosecute those who exploit our immigration system," she said.

 

What happened? 

The man, 50-year-old Benoy Thomas of East Sussex, ran A Class Care Recruitment Ltd, through which he recruited the migrants as care assistants between 2017 and 2018. The prosecution found that Thomas “knowingly breached immigration laws” by offering paid care-work jobs to individuals who lacked legal immigration status or right to work in the UK. 

 

At his trial at Lewes Crown Court in July, Thomas was found guilty of assisting the unlawful immigration of 13 individuals. Today he was sentenced to a total of two-and-a-half years in prison and disqualified from being a company director for eight years.

 

Thomas arrived legally in the UK in 2007 and became a British citizen in 2012.

 

The court heard how Thomas attempted to conceal employment documentation from immigration officers in a garage before his arrest.

 

Prosecutors presented extensive evidence to the jury, including timesheets, invoices, text messages, bank statements, handwritten office notes and diary entries, which showed that Thomas deliberately organised work for people he knew were in the UK illegally and had no right to work.  

As well as the prison sentence, Thomas is disqualified from being a company director for eight years. 

 

The conviction comes amid intensifying enforcement from the UK government against illegal working, as part of broader measures targeting migrant exploitation and curbing unauthorised employment. 

 

The UK’s immigration enforcement strategy over recent years has increasingly targeted illegal working. Under the law, anyone who knowingly employs a person without the right to work is committing a criminal offence, subject to fines or imprisonment — especially if the employer exploited vulnerable migrants. 

 

The convicted case is part of a broader clampdown: recent raids on a variety of sectors — including factories, delivery services and small businesses — have led to arrests of many Indian nationals found working in breach of visa conditions. 

 

For older migrants and new immigrants especially, the message is clear: the window for lax oversight has shrunk; due diligence by both employers and employees is no longer optional.