Five illegal workers face deportation and a Bradford supermarket could be fined up to £50,000 after an immigration raid following a tip-off.

Illegal staff from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India were arrested after a Home Office Immigration Enforcement operation at the Al Falaah supermarket in Manningham Lane yesterday.

A man, believed to be the supermarket manager, has been arrested on suspicion of employing illegal workers and was last night being questioned.

Acting on intelligence, the officers went to the shop and checks on the immigration status of staff revealed two men aged 39 from Bangladesh, two men aged 24 and 31 from Pakistan and a 22-year-old man from India, who had all overstayed their visas.

They were arrested and have all been detained pending their removal from the country. A Home Office spokesman said that the business will be served with a civil penalty notice for employing the illegal workers.

If the employers are unable to provide evidence that legally required pre-employment checks were carried out, a fine of up to £50,000 will be imposed.

Colin Flynn, assistant director of the Home Office’s Yorkshire and Humberside Immigration Enforcement Team, said: “Illegal working is not a victimless crime. It defrauds the taxpayer, undercuts honest employers and cheats legitimate job seekers out of employment opportunities.”

The raid comes after two Bradford businesses owing a total of £15,000 in fines were named and shamed by the UK Border Agency in March.

That brings to seven the number of firms in the district exposed for employing illegal workers in the last six months.

Ian Milner, head of enforcement operations, said at the time that border officials were cracking down on businesses in Bradford, with illegal workers taken to immigration centres or in some cases deported.

More than 200 raids have taken place in the city in the last three years at factories, restaurants, nursing homes and car washes where workers were thought to be employed illegally.

Anyone with information about immigration can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org. Employers unsure of the steps they need to take can visit ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk.