A Federal Court has fined a western Sydney 7-Eleven operator more than $200,000 for deliberately short-changing two migrant employees and falsifying records.

In the ruling, Judge Justin Smith said Harmandeep Singh Sarkaria deliberately underpaid two people at his Flushcombe Road, Blacktown outlet a total of $49,426.

The underpayments were the result of the men often being paid about $10 an hour.

Mr Sarkaria has been penalised $35,700 and his company Amritaria Four Pty Ltd has been fined a further $178,500.

The ABC's Four Corners program and Fairfax last year revealed workers at 7-Eleven convenience stores were systematically paid about half the minimum wage, with many of those affected being foreign workers.

Judge Smith said Mr Sarkaria had "deliberately flouted his legal obligations" and engaged in "a sustained and deliberate process of deception" aimed at maximising financial return.

"One of the aims of imposing a penalty is to mark a warning for others who might be tempted to engage in similar conduct," Judge Smith said.

"There was evidence of substantial non-compliance by other 7-Eleven franchisees."

False payroll entries made, inspectors given false time sheets

The court heard most of the underpayment related to a migrant employee from Pakistan, aged in his late 30s, who was short-changed a total of $43,633 between March 2012 and March 2014.

Another employee, also from Pakistan and aged in his mid-20s, was underpaid $5,793 between August 2013 and March 2014.

The court found Mr Sarkaria also made false entries to the 7-Eleven head office payroll system about the number of hours the employees had worked.

The entries gave the appearance the employees were paid about $25 per hour.

He also made entries that the employees had worked only 10 hours per week, despite them working significantly more hours and provided Fair Work inspectors with false time sheets, the court heard.

'This kind of conduct has absolutely no place in Australia'

Judge Smith said despite being "perfectly aware" of legal obligations relating to pay and record-keeping, Mr Sarkaria had used records to "hide the fact that he was not paying two employees properly".

"This was part of the respondents' business model. In my view, this approaches the worst type of each contravention."

Judge Smith said despite Mr Sarkaria admitting the contraventions and apologising in court, he did not accept he was contrite.

A spokesman from the Fair Work Ombudsman, Craig Bildstein, said it was unacceptable.

"This kind of conduct has absolutely no place in Australian workplaces at all," Mr Bildstein said.

"Anyone tempted to try to implement a business model ... which revolves around the deliberate exploitation of workers, and workers from non-English speaking backgrounds, vulnerable workers, international students should clearly think again.

"Since July 2009, we've put eight matters involving 7-Eleven franchisees before the courts, part of a number of enforcement actions we've taken into these stores.

"And this is by far the largest penalty decision to come down thus far and in the words of the judge in the court it's to mark a warning for others, who might be tempted to engage in similar conduct."

He said any employer that was not aware of their obligations "should not sit on their hands or second guess", but contact the ombudsman.

Mr Bildstein said they provided a free service which would explain everything they needed to do.

