Employers slide out of migrant fines

Less than 6m of the 40m in penalties was paid and financial information published by the UK Border Agency was misleading and lacked transparency, independent chief inspector John Vine said.

The agency has been too accommodating towards employers' attempts to reduce penalties and the system failed to create a hostile environment for those who benefited from illegal working, he added.

The inspectors said: "Rather than being a deterrent to employing illegal workers, we believe that this leniency and perceived passivity may actually have had the opposite effect."

The critical report of the agency's operation of the civil penalties scheme in the North West found that while it exceeded its targets during the last financial year, they were not ambitious enough.