Kilkenny restaurant owner convicted of making illegal deductions from employee under Employment Permits Act

A Kilkenny employer has been convicted of an offence under the Employment Permits Act 2006, for making deductions from an employee’s wages to cover the cost of his work permit.

Ayhan Sahin, 5 Main Street, Bagenalstown, Carlow, pleaded guilty to two counts under the act.

Detective Garda Roisín Reynolds of the National Protective Services Bureau gave evidence in Kilkenny District Court in relation to the matter.

Det Garda Reynolds said she investigated the case following an email to the bureau. She then met with the injured party in the case and made contact with his employer, Mr Sahin of Anatolia Café in Kilkenny.

A multi-layered investigation followed, including use of CCTV and examination of bank accounts.

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Mr Sahin had applied for an employee permit and that form states that as an employer he agrees not to charge the employee for arranging the work permit.

It transpired that Mr Sahin gave the injured party a bill, in Turkish, charging him for the services of a recruitment firm he had used, a magazine advertisement for the job and the arrangement of the work permit.

The complainant has since left work at the café.

The bill totalled €2,533.50, Det. Garda Reynolds said.

Solicitor Joe Farrell said his client had no previous convictions and when interviewed gave answers. The garda agreed he was communicative.

When Mr Farrell said Mr Sahin had arranged the sum of €3,000 to offer to the complainant the garda said he would be grateful for that.

The solicitor said the business is something Mr Sahin is doing to try to advance his family.

The job was advertised, the other man answered and was ‘delighted he was being brought across to Ireland’.

Mr Farrell said his client had arranged the paperwork and it was ‘quite an expensive process’.

Mr Sahin has a ‘day job’ in IT and a criminal conviction will cause problems for him there, the solicitor said. He is ‘quite contrite’ over the matter.

Mr Farrell said his client understood it was a cost he had incurred and he was dealing with a business and the bottom line, maybe he should have been more concerned with the human element of the process.

Judge Geraldine Carthy convicted Mr Sahin on one of the two charges.

She imposed a fine of €1,500 on the basis Mr Sahin would also pay €3,000 to the injured party.
Recognisance was fixed in the event of an appeal.