Democracy doesn't work when people don't know  Upgrade to paid

NEWS

Home Office fails in bid to shut down local restaurant

Hearing following December immigration raid revokes premises supervisor’s authority and briefly suspends but stops short of revoking premises licence.

Peter Cleasby

An application by the Home Office Immigration Enforcement directorate to revoke the premises licence at Belluno, an Italian restaurant in Newton St Cyres, has failed.

Two Home Office immigration enforcement officers told a Mid Devon District Council licensing committee hearing on Tuesday that an “intelligence-led” raid on 9 December last year had revealed that the restaurant was employing staff whose immigration status disqualified them from employment in the UK.

The Licensing Act 2003 requires that businesses selling alcohol, including restaurants, hold a valid premises licence and that such premises also have a designated supervisor who holds a personal licence.

The premises licence at Belluno was held by Kirton Ventures Ltd, the building’s owners, and the designated supervisor was Haqif Derti, who operated through his own company and had day to day control of all aspects of the business.

The Home Office application to the council requested the revocation of the premises licence, which is the maximum sanction available under the Licensing Act.

It said anything less would be “insufficient to act as a deterrent to the licence holder and other premises licence holders from engaging in criminal activity by employing illegal workers and facilitating disqualified immigrants to work illegally”.

Belluno Italian restaurant in Newton St Cyres Belluno Italian restaurant in Newton St Cyres

Repetition of this mantra by the immigration enforcement officers at the hearing led to objections from Mr Derti’s solicitor that it was concerned only with the implications for the Belluno licence holders of the circumstances on 9 December, not with general deterrents intended to support government immigration policy.

The solicitor’s view was robustly upheld by the licensing committee chair, Tiverton councillor Lance Kennedy, who also prevented the two officers from attempting to introduce new information relating to a previous position held by Mr Derti.

There was some disagreement between Mr Derti and the immigration enforcement officers about the detailed findings of the raid, including the content of statements made by the workers which Mr Derti suggested may have been signed under a degree of duress.

The licensing committee also heard that another Home Office unit had already issued a penalty of £40,000 against Mr Derti for employing illegal workers which he had not challenged.

Mr Derti’s main argument in mitigation was that he had now outsourced the checking of employee immigration credentials to his company accountants.

Subscribe to The Exeter Digest - Exeter Observer's essential free email newsletter

Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy

The licensing committee members concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, illegal working had taken place for which Mr Derti was responsible.

The committee revoked his authority to act as a designated premises supervisor with immediate effect and imposed a suspension of the restaurant’s premises licence for one weekend during October on a date of the licensees’ choosing.

The restaurant can otherwise remain open but cannot serve alcohol until a new designated premises supervisor is in place. Mr Derti can continue to work there without any licensing responsibility.

The details of the decision will be published on the Mid Devon District Council website. The parties have 21 days to appeal.

Democracy doesn't work when people don't know

Public interest news that holds power and influence to account is more important now than it has ever been.

Democracy doesn't work when people don't know who is deciding what on whose behalf and what the costs and consequences of those decisions will be.

Exeter Observer was created to deliver the independent investigative journalism our local democracy needs.

It exists because people who think what we do matters are willing to chip in each month to help cover our costs.

We need more of our readers to contribute like this so we can keep producing and publishing our essential reporting.

137 of the 300 paying subscribers we need have signed up so far. Join them today to help us reach our goal.

If you value the work we do please support our work from less than £2/week. It's a small investment for a very big return.

Upgrade to paid

More stories
Illustrative view of proposed co-living blocks from Heavitree Road

Heavitree Road police station student accommodation and “co-living” scheme consultation extended

Developers revise application for full planning permission for 813-bed seven-block complex submitted in May as similar proposals proliferate across city centre.

Boneyard arcade games

Unique retro games arcade to create new Sidwell Street venue after long search

Boneyard arcade seeking permission to change use of empty Brighthouse retail unit after making way for “co-living” block at previous Red Lion Lane location.

Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.

On Our Radar
Jo Eades

FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER 2025

Spork! Dead Poets Slam 2025

Halloween spoken-word special featuring Jo Eades and Samuel L. Cohen with a £100 cash prize poetry slam.

EXETER PHOENIX

Carmen with rose graphic

SATURDAY 8 & SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2025

Carmen

Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier.

EXETER CASTLE

Exeter Philharmonic Choir

SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2025

The Weather Book

Exeter Philharmonic Choir performs a new weather-inspired work plus pieces by Brahms, Poulenc and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

EXETER CATHEDRAL