Tiverton curry house gets alcohol licence back

Mumbai Kitchen can serve alcohol again

A Devon town’s curry house can once again serve the likes of Cobra and Kingfisher beer after bagging its booze licence back.

Mumbai Kitchen, on Tiverton’s Bampton Street, lost the ability to sell its customers alcohol towards the end of last year as part of a Home Office crackdown on the premises over illegal workers.

Members of Mid Devon District Council’s licensing committee heard in December last year that immigration officials had visited the restaurant in 2022, 2024 and in November 2025, on each occasion finding individuals who did not have the correct paperwork to allow them to work at the curry house.

The licensee at the time, Joy Abraham, attended the hearing but outlined that he had handed day-to-day responsibility for licensing to Jamal Uddin Ahmed, while a third individual, Maroof Ahmed, has been named in official documents as the restaurant manager or business owner.

Now an individual named Jamal Uddin is the licence holder for the restaurant, which appears to have had a new licence confirmed at the end of March, according to records on Mid Devon District Council’s licensing register.

The designated premises supervisor is named as Layekur Rahman, and the new licence states alcohol can be served Monday to Sunday from midday to 11pm. That includes on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and Day too.

The restaurant was contacted for comment, and a worker there confirmed the restaurant did have its alcohol licence back.

A host of conditions have been attached to the licence, most of which appear to be routine for any premises licence.

But in Annex 3 of the licence, there are four conditions that are “attached after a hearing by the licensing authority”, presumably referring to the 1 December 2025 hearing.

Those include that the premises licence holder must carry out right to work checks in accordance with the guidance issued by the government (which is available on the gov.uk website) on all employees (including current employees) employed by the business.

It also asks for a register of right to work checks to be maintained, that this be available for inspection by the council and Home Office Immigration Enforcement, and that copies of relevant documents are kept.

Mid Devon’s licensing sub-committee in December heard that a Home Office visit to the restaurant on 16 November last year revealed three people were working illegally, prompting immigration officials to apply for a closure notice, which was granted by South & West Devon Magistrates Court on 17 November, and Mid Devon District Council notified the following day.

Such an order means immigration officials will visit the restaurant bi-monthly for a year.

The committee heard that one person’s working status had been accepted in the 2024 Home Office visit but that the circumstances of that individual had changed in the intervening period.

But Gary Fairnan, from the Home Office, said: “One worker there from last year had the right to work for 20 hours a week, but for his sponsor, or within the area he lives, which is East London.”

He added: “Working in Tiverton is not the role he has got the visa for.”

Mr Fairnan earlier told the committee the ability to work illegally was “a key driver of illegal migration” and that it encouraged the breaking of UK laws and was a practical means to remain here.

Fiona Hinds, a solicitor from Everys Solicitors, said during the 1 December committee meeting that her client, Mr Abraham, “recognised the significant and serious failing in the way the business has been run”.

“He has taken steps to rectify this,” she said.

Ms Hinds added that Mr Abraham was in the process of identifying a third-party that could conduct right to work checks on staff at the restaurant, and claimed such a structure would be a requirement for his tenant.