A licence holder “made a mistake” but was allowed to keep their licence as they were deemed not to be responsible for the employment of illegal workers.

The Home Office found three illegal workers at the Mem’s Mezze restaurant in Halfway Road, Halfway, on Sheppey, during a raid in January who were being paid with food and accommodation rather than wages.

But at a Swale council meeting on Tuesday (June 24), the licensing sub-committee decided to ignore a request for the restaurant’s licence to be revoked and instead chose to add new conditions.

Elvin Akis successfully argued that at the time of the raid, she had not been involved in the running of the restaurant and she was only the licence holder and designated premises supervisor (DPS) due to poor legal advice she had received when transferring the business to someone else.

She said: “I have held a licence for 20 years and I have never had a single problem, so when there has been no problem you leave everything as it is, you don’t take action.

“This wasn’t done deliberately; this was the first time I ever passed over one of my businesses to someone else, and I wasn’t advised properly by the legal advisors I had at the time.

“That was my mistake, and I’m really sorry about that.”

She accepted she had made a mistake in trusting Erhan Deliklitas to run Mem’s Mezze as it was he and his company EDT Meze Ltd which hired the illegal workers and has been issued a civil penalty notice of £120,000.

Ms Akis’s barrister, Gary Grant, explained she had taken over the licence of the “rundown” Halfway House Pub in December 2017 and turned it into an asset for the community.

She ran the restaurant until March 2022 when she decided to focus on other businesses and her young family.

She believed Mr Deliklitas to be a responsible person and so he took over the business. But she said advice she received at the time from a now-defunct firm of solicitors told her she would have to remain as the licence holder and DPS.

These roles are typically held by someone who has day-to-day involvement in the running of the business, which Ms Akis did not have, her barrister said.

However, these responsibilities mean, on paper, she held responsibility for upholding the licensing objectives - but had she known she was able to transfer the roles she would have done.

Mr Grant argued Ms Akis had no incentive to allow illegal workers at the restaurant as she only collected a fixed rent for the property and had no other financial involvement.

He also said the Home Office itself understood the extent - or lack thereof - of Ms Akis’s involvement in the employment of illegal workers as Mr Deliklitas had been fined £120,000 but she had not been fined at all.

She accepted she had made a mistake, should have known the role of DPS is for someone directly involved in the daily running of the business, and should have sought better advice.

But her barrister argued the total revocation of the licence, as was requested by the Home Office, represented by chief immigration officer Harry Taylor, was disproportionate.

However, Mr Taylor said as a licence holder of more than 20 years she should’ve known her requirements and was ultimately responsible.

He said: “As somebody with 20 years’ experience as a licensee, she should have known better than to not know the day-to-day on-goings in the restaurant which she owned and was the DPS for.

“If she wanted to take a hands-off approach, she should have sought a new DPS put in place that would’ve ensured the business was running as it should.”

Ms Akis said when she heard about the Home Office raid in January she contacted Mr Deliklitas who concealed the facts about the visit from the Home Office.

But in March, when she found out the truth of the matter, she instructed solicitors to terminate the lease with Mr Deliklitas and on April 9 she retook control of Mem’s Mezze - which was before the Home Office submitted its application for a licence review on April 30.

Mr Deliklitas no longer has any involvement with the restaurant in any capacity.

Mr Grant said as soon as Ms Akis knew of the illegal workers, she took action and had worked as quickly as possible to make things right.

He criticised the Home Office for taking such a hard line against Ms Akis, particularly as they had not acted quickly to bring forward the licence review since the raid occurred in January but the request was not made until the end of April.

He added that over the period of more than 20 years that Ms Akis had been licensed at various premises in Sittingbourne and Sheerness, she had never had any problems and had never been the subject of a review.

She provided eight character references from solicitors and accountants who she had worked with between 2017 and 2022 when she had been running the restaurant.

They confirmed she had properly conducted the employment checks which prevent illegal workers from being employed or exploited.

She also had two references from serving police officers - one of which had never provided a reference before but supported Ms Akis so strongly he felt he had to do so.

Ms Akis said she had paid a serious price in terms of her reputation in being associated with the illegal activity, but was committed to ensuring things were put right.

Mr Grant offered the panel conditions which they could apply to the licence to demonstrate Ms Akis was intent on running the restaurant properly, rather than revoking the licence entirely.

He said: “The best cure for a headache is not always a beheading. In this instance, revocation is not proportionate, necessary, or appropriate.

“It is not in the public interest for this to become another boarded-up old pub.

“These conditions mean a popular, valued asset of the community will not have to close for good and the jobs will be retained.

“Ms Akis’s good name, which she’s worked really hard at since she came here from Turkey and became a British citizen, really hard to build up, has been dragged through the mud.

“And if anything has been most upsetting, it’s that. Today is the opportunity for her to put across what actually happened and a solution.”

The conditions put forward were that it formally be put in writing in the licence that Mr Erhan Deliklitas not be involved directly or indirectly with Mem’s Mezze - something which was already the case but would be made a requirement.

Secondly, a condition that all employment checks be done by the licence holder, whereas the standard law is that they are only done by the employer.

And the third condition was that Ms Akis hire an independent company to perform random visits to assess the restaurant’s compliance with the licensing objectives and the law every three months for the following 18 months.

These would be completed at Ms Akis’ expense and the reports would be available to the police upon completion.

She had, following her regaining control of the restaurant, commissioned a report evaluating her running of the restaurant from Adrian Stud, an independent licensing advisor and he would continue monitoring it.

The panel accepted the conditions put forward and only added that the random spot-check reports must be provided to the council’s licensing team when completed.

Even if the council had revoked the licence, the restaurant would still be allowed to operate, but only till 11pm and it would not have been able to sell alcohol.

Councillors therefore decided not to revoke the licence, as had been requested by the Home Office.