Perfect Fried Chicken on Wokingham Road has been accused of breaching a number of licence terms

Perfect Fried Chicken (PFC) on Wokingham Road will be quizzed by Thames Valley Police (TVP) and immigration officers at the hearing.

The eatery was visited by Reading Borough Council's licensing team on November 7 and they found a 24-year-old Pakistani man working in the kitchen.

He was escorted from the premises and detained, pending his removal from the UK.

At a separate inspection in September, council staff saw a man climb over a fence and run away from the shop as soon as they walked into the premises.

The report produced by the licensing team reads: "The offences outlined in this review are particularly serious.

"The employment of an illegal worker and their possible exploitation for financial gain is clearly an extremely serious criminal offence.

"There are no acceptable excuses or justification that can be offered for this. A licence holder and responsible employer should, as a bare minimum, be checking their potential employees are eligible to reside and work in the UK.

"Allowing this premises to continue to operate with the benefit of a premises licence will merely serve to perpetuate the criminal activity already apparent from the findings of the licensing authority, TVP and colleagues in Immigration Enforcement."

The chicken shop is only permitted to continue with 'licensable activities' until 1am, but council staff believe this has been breached on a number of occasions.

It is a legal requirement to comply with the hours of operation and failure to do so may result in a £20,000 fine, as well as a two-year prison sentence.

A number of applications have been submitted and refused to extend the opening hours.

The report adds: "Through our interactions and observations of the premises, it is clear that they have been operating in clear breach of the premises licence and conducting unlicensed activity.

"The first record we have of this is back in 2010 and the most recent record is from May 2018."