A hearing to decide whether to revoke the licence of a Chinese restaurant accused of employing illegal workers has been deferred for a third time.

In June, the Home Office made a request to Medway Council that Jade Garden in Chatham High Street have its license revoked following a visit from officers.

The request was made after the Chinese restaurant and takeaway was visited in December last year by enforcement officers and the owners were accused of hiring illegal immigrants as workers.

Five people working at Jade Garden, which is run by Mr Shunxin Ke and Ms Xueyan Chen, were arrested on suspicion they did not have the right to work in the UK.

The application for the removal of Jade Garden’s license was originally supposed to be considered at a licensing hearing panel on July 23, but representatives from the restaurant were unable to make the meeting.

It was due to reconvene on August 20, however at this meeting Jade Garden asked for an adjournment as their solicitor was unable to attend.

And now a third attempt to have a hearing about the issue has ended with another delay.

The hearing panel was to meet to discuss the case yesterday (September 3), but an adjournment was once again agreed in order to give all parties the chance to consider evidence provided by Jade Garden’s solicitor at 8:30pm the night before.

Councillors were initially reluctant to accept another delay, but lawyers for the restaurant argued the significance of their submission required proper consideration before a decision could be made.

A key element of the new evidence was that the Home Office had pursued no further action for four of the five people arrested in December under suspicion of being illegal workers, and the £15,000 civil penalty notice (CPN) issued is the subject of an appeal.

The Home Office has been approached by KentOnline for more information regarding the arrests.

Lawyers for Jade Garden said the already submitted evidence from the government department was therefore out of date and dismissed, so to make a judgement based upon it would not be right.

Counsel for Jade Garden said: “Because the CPN that the Home Office has produced has already confirmed no further action against four of the five people said to be illegal, and there’s further review and consideration of the fifth, a huge part of what’s in your pack has already been dismissed.

“There is a huge possibility of an enormous natural justice error if you make a decision today based upon what is before you.”

Harry Taylor, chief immigration officer from the Home Office’s south east immigration, compliance and enforcement team, said he was not aware no further action was being taken against four of the five people, or the appeal on the CPN.

Chairman of the panel, Cllr Matt Fearn (Con) initially said counsel had had ample time to provide evidence well in advance of the meeting.

He said: “The date of these hearing panels have been clear. We’ve deferred twice on the request of the license holder.

“You knew the date of the hearing today, you could’ve submitted it way in advance, you didn’t. Personally, I don’t accept another adjournment.”

There was a short pause of the meeting while the panel’s legal advisor provided advice to the chairman, after which it was agreed to delay the decision to a later date.

The panel decided the evidence was significant enough that it required consideration and there was not enough time to consider it effectively without an adjournment, however strict deadlines were set to make sure there would be no further delays.

It was agreed that the solicitors for Jade Garden would submit all of their evidence to be considered by 4pm that day (September 3), the Home Office would serve their reply by a week later (September 10), and Jade Garden would provide any rebuttal to the Home Office’s evidence by a week following that (September 17).

The case will then return to the licensing hearing panel for a final decision on October 1 - ten weeks after it was initially meant to be decided.