Oxfordshire businesses have been fined nearly £350,000 for employing illegal workers, including at a car wash, corner shop and takeaway.
In Oxford, JJ's Car Wash, based at the Kassam Stadium in Grenoble Road, was caught with illegal immigrants working at its site.
Immigration Enforcement, which published details on the car wash, said JJ's had been fined £90,000 for who it employed.
Elegent Car Wash Ltd is now liable to pay for the fine, but there is an active proposal to strike off the company on Companies House.
Meanwhile, Gratia Cura Residential, of 6 Park Road in Didcot, was hit with a £40,000 fine following an Immigration Enforcement investigation.
In its most recent Ofsted inspection carried out in April 2025, Gratia Cura Residential was rated as being 'inadequate'.
Ofsted said: "Staff did not read key plans from the placing authority that provide rich guidance on how to support the children.
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"As a result, this led to the children being involved in serious incidents that placed them at significant risk of harm."
Reform Didcot councillor Hao Du said: "The children have to come first in this story.
"Ofsted found two of them at significant risk of harm, and the same provider has now been fined for employing someone without the right to work. That is basic compliance.
"If a business can't get it right, it's fair to ask what else it was getting wrong — and the Ofsted report suggests a great deal.
"Families in Didcot expect homes looking after vulnerable children to be run properly, and expect problems to be picked up quickly.
"I will be following up with Oxfordshire County Council to ask what they are doing to ensure homes operating in our area are meeting the standards children deserve."
Carterton Indian takeaway Bilash Tandoori was also visited by Immigration Enforcement recently and had received a whopping big fine of £280,000 for employing illegal workers.
J&K Cuisine Ltd, the registered company of Bilash, fell into liquidation after Immigration Enforcement paid a visit in the summer of last year.
Details of this raid and how many illegal workers were found have not been publishing in the recent list by Immigrating Enforcement.
However, as a general rule, businesses that have been caught with an illegal worker on site receive a fine of up to £45,000 per illegal worker.
And near Banbury, Immigration Enforcement officers visited Rai Convenience Store, also known as Sanderz News, on Main Road, Middleton Cheney after a tip-off was made.
Public Home Office documents say that during an interview with the illegal worker, she admitted that she had worked at the shop for "the last three to four years".
She was paid £6 per hour for her work stacking shelves four days a week for three to four hours per day, the documents say.
The business was fined £45,000.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "There is no place for illegal working in our communities.
"That is why we have surged enforcement activity to the highest level in British history so illegal migrants in the black economy have nowhere to hide.
"I will stop at nothing to restore order and control to our borders."
Eddy Montgomery, director of the Home Office’s immigration, compliance and enforcement teams, said he is "hugely" proud of the "unwavering efforts" to tackle illegal working.
"While this is a great achievement, our activity won’t stop here," he added.
"We will continue to bear down on this criminality in our towns, cities and villages to ensure there is no hiding place from immigration laws."
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