Chick Out: East Grinstead Fast Food Shop Loses Late-Night License

An East Grinstead chicken shop has had its licence to sell late-night refreshments revoked.

RFC Chicken & Ribs, on Railway Approach, was visited by the Home Office Immigration Enforcement Team four times between April 2023 and March 2025.

On each occasion, illegal workers were found, with a total of nine arrests being made.

During a meeting of Mid Sussex District Council’s liquor licensing panel on Tuesday (April 1), councillors supported a call from the Home Office to revoke the premises licence which allows the shop to serve late-night refreshments from Thursday to Saturday.

A report from the Home Office said that licence holder Tharsan Kumarasingham had shown a ‘complete disregard’ for the immigration laws and an ‘unwillingness’ to improve his business practices.

The report added:

“The illegal workers who were discovered at the venue had all illegally entered the UK, with none of them claiming asylum or being granted permission to work in the UK.

“This highlights that the premises licence holder has failed to manage the premises either by way of a deliberate act or by gross incompetence.”

Before the licensing issue landed on the council’s doorstep, the Home Office had imposed two Civil Penalty Notices on Mr Kumarasingham, one for £30,000 and one for £60,000. Just shy of £87,500 is still to be paid.

On March 24, an illegal worker closure order was issued, closing the shop for 24 hours.

And a 12-month illegal working compliance order was issued in court, which will see the Home Office check on the situation every three months.

A spokesman for Mr Kumarasingham said the licence holder accepted that he had ‘made serious mistakes’ and was ‘fully remorseful’.

He insisted that he did not fully understand the rules and thought that providing food and accommodation for the workers – the latter of which the Home Office described as ‘poor and dangerous’ – meant that he could legally employ them.

Panel chair Janice Henwood said the decision to revoke the late-night premises licence was ‘proportionate’.

Mr Kumarasingham is otherwise still allowed to trade.