‘Impossible situation’ put family out on the street
Saturday 16th October 2010, 2:30PM BST.
A CHINESE takeaway owner who faces being made homeless plus a £260,000 tax fine has defended his employing illegal workers.
Chi Hung Wong said that mounting debts, illness and supporting his four young children all forced him into an impossible situation that led to his Royal Court appearance on Thursday.
Speaking yesterday to the Guernsey Press Mr Wong (pictured), also known as ‘Jimmy’, spoke of his anger at the decision to bill him £268,556 and impose 180 hours of community service for employing three illegal male workers at Harbour View, the Bridge.
And he said he had tried to get local people to work in his restaurant but they would not do the long hours: ‘They work one or two days and then disappear.’
Cooking authentic Chinese cuisine, he said, also required knowledge of an extensive menu. Learning that was time-consuming and difficult.
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How did it take the authorities 3 years to find this man was employing illegal immigrants? He new the circumstances and therefore should be punished. I don’t understand how he can be angry either, it’s not anybody else’s fault other than his own.
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It is interesting to see that Mr Wong praises the island’s education system and the fact that there is no trouble here. Does he understand how the education system and Police are funded?
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I must admit that I cannot think of any Guernsey residents capable of cooking Chinese food as well as they do or would work the hours needed in a hot kitchen. Just a pity that the owner did not get the illegals ‘legal’ before employing them as the other foreign food restaurants seem to be able to do. Hope you do not go out of business tho’.
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Sorry Mr Wong, but if you’re going to come in to our island then you must employ people who are legally allowed to work here.
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Commonsense, decency, and a love of Guernsey has me totally agreeing with Mr G. This Chinese immigrant has clearly abused his good fortune in being permitted to live on, and do business on, Guernsey. He deserves the full weight of the law and must be made to pay back to Guernsey people the full half a million plus pounds in unpaid taxes that he owes.
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Mr G
Maybe you should get a job with immigration, you seem to know all about it….you sir are a clown. Most on here agree, despite childish name changes you are easy to spot.
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Tax fraud is a capital offence in China. Count
youself lucky Mr Wong that you have been allowed to live in a place where such a penalty does not exist – pity you abused its benevolence.
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Has he ever heard of split shifts or job share, if local people dont want to do his long hours there was alternatives, apart from his offer of a very low wage I think his co countrymen had priority to his available jobs, considering they lived with him also cost him very little. Anyone else would have the book thrown at them and suffer the consequences, glad he has been caught, but why so long. How did they get into Guernsey in the first place ????
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@Caroline
All they had to do was get on a ferry from the UK, no proper checks are done if you use this route of entry, would have been easy for them.
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dave…..are you kidding? For anyone in the world to enter Guernsey and stay in Guernsey they only have to get aboard a UK ferry and arrive in St Peter Port….no passport/immigration/customs check…..
please tell me it isn`t so….
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Had he employed low paid local people he would have paid them
£7 an hour x 12 hour days x 6 day week x 150 weeks (3 years) x 4 people = £302,400 – less the £100 a week he was paying them so that’s £242,400 saving he made.
Or in this case deferred payment.
He’s not really been fined at all – just made to pay the equivalent of back pay.
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I’ll go on to say he wouldn’t have had the open market house in the first place has he not employed illegals and forgot to pay tax.
I would like an open market house too so maybe I’ll just stop paying tax etc!
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You Guernsey folk make me laugh.
Here you are getting all excited about a quarter of a million quid!
You spent the thick end of £13 million deciding not to have an incinerator plus untold millions on the new airport terminal and port facilities in cost over-runs.
Now you moan about a relatively piddling amount of money lost at a little business which I bet most of you were quite happy to use!
And I agree with Mr Wong concerning employing local labour – experienced exactly what he complained about myself!
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I can understand where Mr Wong is coming from! And i can also see that certain people in Guernsey don’t want to work. Do you know just how easy it is to go on the doll? And how many people opt to do so instead of earning the money through hard work! Also the foreigners in Guernsey are much more willing to work than the locals are and it is a shame Mr Wong didnt get them legal before they started working there but knowing just how difficult it is for certain foreigners to get visa’s and work permits for Guernsey i do have to say i feel for him! And yes Guernsey is over populated but i know i would prefer people over populating the island working hard and contributing rather than the young teens falling pregnant on the doll and letting the cycle continue! It sickens me to my stomach that i work a 6 day week working my butt just to help some 20 year old mum with 4 kids bring up her children! If i can get up and find work, then i am pretty certain they can too!
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Dave – that is my point exactly, no checks when disembarking from the Ferry, dread to think how many illegals are living and working on the Island. That is why it is very frustrating when genuine people cannot get the permission required or made to leave after a few years, when they have given a lot back to the Island.
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Expat80
UK with plenty of illegals, condor only check name on documents matches booking, rarely anyone stopped by customs in St Peter Port if in a car, seen it dozens of times. “no passport/immigration/customs check…..” it is so :0)
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Paxman, couple of good points , I agree with you regarding the incinerator , not necesarily the points about the others but we all have our own opinions.
Like many I used to use the takeaway, trouble is its not in our powers to ask to see their documents everytime we order a takeaway , I would guess that a lot of hard working people will now no longer use the takeaway knowing that , while they have paid their taxes the business that takes your money hasn’t. there are is at least one other business doing the same as Mr W(r)ong and who have been reported to the authorities for doing so.
As a local man I take a slight offence about your comments of local labour, there are always people who dont want to work but the old saying of “treat people how you would like to be treated” does go a long way. Good companies are able to keep their staff , bad ones dont.
The above is in no way a personal comment to you because as far as I am aware we dont know each other.
Now if you pay a decent rate for a good job with decent conditions I would happily come to work for you in the New Year … and my references would be inpeccable ( slight sarcasm there as I have a great current employer )
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the onus with the “i dont want to work” group is with the Social Security Dept.
It should be NO WORK NO BENEFITS . if there isnt the employers out there then there are plenty of cleaning / hedge cutting / cliff paths that need clearing
Maybe the states should think about a spell of National Service ???
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“Impossible situation”? What rubbish. The guy stole public money by evading tax and acting like a people trafficker for years.
Many businesses hit trouble from time to time and they don’t resort to criminal activities to try and get out of it. That’s assuming (and it’s a huge leap of faith) that we can believe his story that he brought in the illegals in order to help out in times of difficulty.
To now try and tug on our heart strings because his criminal activities will mean that his family suffers is despicable. Your doing and your responsibility fella.
And all done in the knowledge of what happened to some of his mates in the UK who pulled the same scam.
Pay up, sell up and leave.
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Dave-thanks for your reply. I am shocked. It appears that Guernsey immigration is either non-existent or out of control….
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Ciao Main
Well said, you are spot on. How can he complain.
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Ace…. interesting numbers…
So you are saying that is how much he didnt pay.
If you are playing the “Guernsey lost out game”
Take off their tax benefit of around 9k and then take the prevailing tax rate and you find that the lost tax is two thirds of three eights of nothing.
Not worth the legal fees that were undoubtedly spent.
You’ve not fined the man, it’s so excessive theres next to no chance that he can pay.
Plus you leave another empty shop on an already shoddy looking bridge. Good one.
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Surely some Civil Servants must of popped in Jimmy Wongs for a meal none noticed the none License holders before.
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Paxman, you foreigners make me laugh whilst I eat my delicious locally caught cod.
We didn’t decide on the disgust you call the incinerator, the States did, and you can say “YOU VOTED THEM IN U STUPID LOCAL LOL”, but no I didn’t vote those ignorant people such as Bernie and Lyndon, as they are not in my parish.
I’ve never used this take away outlet, and I don’t plan too.
You go on to say “And I agree with Mr Wong concerning employing local labour – experienced exactly what he complained about myself!” if you want to employ foreigners why not go back to the UK, I hear they have plenty over there.
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If you are not capable of running a low margin business successfully, then why do it in guernsey??
There are plenty of takeaways over here that do very well, this fella shouldnt blame the states or the locals for his own foibles, he knew the conditions that existed here when he started.
If he didnt know, then he failed to do his research and again, thats also his fault, not Guernsey’s.
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No sympathy whatsoever. Tax evasion is a crime that carries well-documented and publicised heavy penalties. I can’t believe the guy actually feels so sorry for himself and expects the world’s sympathy. He has STOLEN from the people of Guernsey and now he has return what he has unlawfully gained. End of story. It’s the same for everyone.
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did you know that the only reason Al Capone was imprisoned was for tax evasion? Not suggestin ‘Jimmy’ is a master mafia criminal but a criminal nonetheless. I have no sympathy for Mr capone and no sympathy for Jimmy. Tough luck you got caught.
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Mr G
I know this is a bit “off-topic” but taking comfort from eating your apparently local caught cod is a bit silly -especially as it probably came here frozen from Grimsby Fish Market ! (Channel waters are now generally a bit too warm for Cod!)
Being serious: we have a lot of experience with local labour and I know it is dangerous to generalise. After several repeat experiences though, we have been very cautious.
Typically, although paying over the JIB rates and paying for both local and UK holidays and not being strict over sick-pay or insisting on employee use of Social Security benefits, typically we experienced:
No-show on Monday -still sobering up from the week-end.
Maybe show up Tues pm.
Work Wednesday
Work Thursday
Time off from Friday 2pm to go to pub and join mates.
Saturday/Sunday – no interest, even when offered overtime at very attractive rates.
Maybe it was a run of bad luck on our part but those experiences don’t do anything to inspire confidence in the work ethic of local people. Sorry.
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Deserves to be caught and deserves to be fined – Lesson learnt me thinks.
I do love the GEP headline though “Impossible Situation”… me thinks not.
Better headline…. “Man flouted tax legislation and immigration law” The GEP almost seeks to bring to the public’s eye the plight of this poor man illegally employing non-locals and tax evasion.
In the UK would he not be in jail?
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There’s currently an argument going on about whether £250k earmarked for Culture and Leisure to use for storing artifacts should be diverted to HSSD for bowel cancer screening.
Both are very worthy causes.
If Mr Wong had paid his dues, then maybe the money would be there for both.
Anyone still feel any sympathy for him?
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Further to my previous comments it is good to see that todays GP contains another establishment caught , strangely enough another Mr Wong
In all seriousness , this was NOT the establishment I commented about so it seems that ALL of the are possibly harbouring illegals
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In my experience, when you move to a new country (island), you accept the rough with the smooth, so, Mr Wong – and Mr ‘you locals-!’ Paxman – if it’s so very difficult to run a business here due to staffing issues, there are 2 very simple solutions –
1. DON’T move here (and take advantage of the CI’s comfy tax status etc…tho’ not relevant, I am sure…!?) or
2. Don’t try to run your own business, just be a humble employee, like most other people do.
No one FORCES people like Mr Wong to come over here and set up a (very profitable) business, Mr Paxman, and no one forced you to, either, so either deal with the down side of the choices that YOU have made, or stop complaining and go try somewhere else.
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