A councillor whose former company employed three illegal workers has had the Labour whip withdrawn after being banned from being a company director.

Montaz Ali Azad was caught out by Home Office immigration officers after the company he headed, Eurolinen UK, was found to have taken on illegal staff.

He was disqualified from acting as a director for six years in September following the probe, launched by the Insolvency Service.

Eurolinen UK, which is now defunct, ran an industrial laundry on Plantation Industrial Estate in Ashton-under-Lyne.

The firm went into liquidation in September 2014 owing £105,367 to creditors, having ceased trading a month earlier.

Councillor Azad, who represents the Coldhurst ward on Oldham council, was found to have failed to ensure the company complied with immigration laws following a visit from Home Office immigration inspectors in September 2013.

He was slapped with a £15,000 civil penalty, which remained unpaid at the date of liquidation a year later.

Coun Azad, who was the company’s sole director, also failed to ensure Eurolinen UK correctly operated a ‘Pay As You Earn’ scheme by failing to declare the illegal employees to HMRC - and accounting to HMRC for any deductions made from their wages.

Coun Azad, of Burnley Lane, Chadderton, has now had the Labour whip withdrawn indefinitely after Oldham’s Labour group voted on how he should be disciplined.

The 53-year-old has the right to appeal to the North West Regional Labour Party against the decision.

Coun Azad will be unable to take part in Labour group meetings and decision-making.

A senior party source said there was ‘a lot of frustration’ among councillors that Coun Azad didn’t immediately stand down following the Home Office investigation - and that ‘the law didn’t allow him to be removed from office’, with the matter dealt with by way of a civil penalty.

When a member of the public asked council leader Jean Stretton ‘how people could trust Coun Azad’ at a meeting earlier this month, she replied: “The council has no powers to force Coun Azad to stand down.

“A councillor is only disqualified if an offence is criminal and a sentence of more than three months is given. For that reason, the Labour party is invoking its own disciplinary procedures.”

(Image: Vincent Cole)

Following the Labour group’s latest meeting, Coun Stretton said: “The decision to withdraw the whip was taken after an internal Labour Party investigation.

“The public has a right to expect high standards of their elected representatives. In our view this member’s conduct does not meet those expectations.”

The M.E.N. has attempted to contact Coun Azad for comment.