The High Bailiff, Michael Moyle delivered one his notorious broadsides when a Director of Spice Catering Ltd, Mohammed Hoque appeared before him in court last week (6^th Jan 09).

Mr Hoque’s company, which trades as Spice of India, was charged with employing four people without work permits following a raid in September 2008.

It was claimed by Mr Hoque that two of the employees had only been taken on recently and that the work permits of the other two had expired (one several months earlier) and he had overlooked reapplying. Apparently the paperwork was ‘lost’ among all the other papers on his desk; and he pointed out misplacing paperwork was not unique to his business as the court had overlooked his appearance today. He said he had turned up that morning, as summonsed, to find nobody was expecting him.

It has been confirmed to the Manx Herald that owing to an ‘administration error’, which was claimed to be infrequent - and accepted as so as the Manx Herald is sure Mr Moyle wouldn’t stand for too much sloppiness - Mr Hoque’s summons had not been inputted into the system; but that error has since been corrected.

Mr Hoque also claimed the work permit legislation was unfair and worked against small businesses, who couldn’t afford to pay someone for perhaps 6 weeks while waiting for a work permit. He said with the current high demand for qualified chefs if he didn’t take them on, in advance of a permit, they would be employed elsewhere before the permit was approved.

However, Mr Hoque’s defence didn’t wash with Mr Moyle and the company was found guilty and fined £500 for each employee for whom permit had not been applied for; and £1000 for each of the other two employees whose permits had not been renewed.

Commenting on the case Mr Moyle was very scathing of the Department of Trade and Industry, who are responsible for the ‘Control of Employment’ legislation, and the prosecutors, the Attorney General’s chambers.

He wondered why Mr Hoque wasn’t appearing as a defendant in his own right, as opposed to appearing on behalf of the company. He made it abundantly clear that he perceives that the work permit legislation is not being rigorously enforced and stated that this matter demonstrated the “incompetence and inconsistency” in the application of the legislation.

Jane Hughes, appearing for the Attorney General’s chamber, acknowledged Mr Moyle’s concerns and said she would look in to the matter.