Immigration officers have arrested four men during a raid at a Suffolk Indian takeaway.

Last night Home Office Immigration Enforcement officers entered The Old Counting House, in Old Street, Haughley, at 5.30pm.

Checks found the four male members of staff - aged 29, 27, 23 and 21 - had overstayed their visas.

They were released on bail while the process to remove them from the UK begins.

The business could be fined up to £40,000 - unless it can demonstrate that appropriate pre-employment checks were carried out such as seeing a passport or Home Office document.

Mark Gear, from Home Office Immigration Enforcement, said: “Operations like this are carried out across the UK every day as we continue our work to track down and remove from the country those who seek to abuse our immigration laws.

“The public can be a huge help and I urge people with information about suspected immigration offenders to get in touch.”

Abdul Malik, director for The Old Counting House, said it was “never the restaurant’s intention” to employ workers who were not entitled to be in the UK.

“Everybody we take on provides us with National Insurance and passport details - we follow the rules,” he said.

“We have been paying taxes on these people - we could not verify they were fraudulent - if we had known we would have contacted the authorities.”

Anyone with information about immigration crime can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org