Stourbridge-based Raja and Sons Ltd was found to have contravened the GLAA licensing standards in two critical areas following an inspection in February 2018.

Principal authority Lobina Azeem challenged the refusal but her appeal was dismissed by an employment judge, who ruled the GLAA’s decision to refuse her a licence was valid.

Miss Azeem applied for a licence in January 2018 but a subsequent application inspection the following month raised concerns about her father's influence on the company.

Mohammed Azeem had had his licence revoked in 2013 after his company Foxwell Ltd, also based near Stourbridge, breached 11 licensing standards in supplying Romanian workers to a vegetable farm in Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire.

Inspectors felt that Miss Azeem had not been “candid and truthful” about the role of her father in the company and considered the application to be an attempt by him to get a new licence when he was deemed not fit and proper by the GLAA.

Miss Azeem also failed to demonstrate an adequate understanding of the licensing standards and did not show that she had sufficient management processes in place.

Her licence application was officially refused in May and despite appealing within days, that original decision was upheld.

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