![\"illegal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/illegal-workers.png\")
<\/p>\nEighteen workers have been arrested following an immigration raid at a DPD depot in the Midlands as part of a crackdown on illegal working in the parcel delivery industry.<\/p>\n
Home Office officials carried out the operation at the company’s site in Dudley Port, Wolverhampton, on Tuesday this week.<\/p>\n
The collective of workers were detained on suspicion of immigration offences.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the business was issued with a Civil Penalty Referral Notice, triggering further investigations into whether it may have breached its legal obligations on right to work.<\/p>\n
If investigators establish that DPD employed illegal workers and failed to carry out the required pre-employment checks, the company could face fines of \u00a345,000 for each worker. <\/p>\n
That figure can rise to \u00a360,000 per worker for repeat offences, while the most serious cases could result in prosecution.<\/p>\n
A Home Office spokesman said: \u201cWe will not stand for illegal working.<\/p>\n
“Since coming into office, immigration enforcement activity has risen to its highest level on record under this government, with illegal working arrests up by 122 per cent.<\/p>\n
Eighteen workers have been arrested following an immigration raid at a DPD depot in the Midlands<\/p>\n
| HOME OFFICE<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have strengthened right to work requirements to cover the parcel delivery sector, helping to ensure appropriate checks are carried out.<\/p>\n
“Businesses failing to meet their obligations may face fines of up to \u00a360,000 per illegal worker and, in the most serious cases, criminal prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Footage circulated on social media appeared to show workers wearing DPD uniforms sitting beside their vans while listening to Home Office officials during the operation.<\/p>\n
DPD said it takes its responsibilities regarding the employment of workers seriously, and insisted that right to work checks are in place.<\/p>\n
![\"DPD](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dpd-van.png\")
DPD said it takes its responsibilities regarding the employment of workers seriously, and insisted that right to work checks are in place<\/p>\n
| GETTY<\/p>\n
In a statement, the company said: “At DPD we take our legal obligations extremely seriously and we have right to work checks in place for all of our people.<\/p>\n
“In addition, we have carried out a review of these procedures ahead of the new legislation that came into force recently, and we will continue to support and work closely with the Home Office on this issue. <\/p>\n
“We can also confirm DPD has not been served with a Penalty Notice.”<\/p>\n
The investigation will determine whether any immigration breaches occurred, and whether the company has any liability arising from the arrests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighteen workers have been arrested following an immigration raid at a DPD depot in the Midlands as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35884,84,924,59,285,50,56,54,55,3921],"class_list":["post-792648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-across-the-uk","tag-business","tag-crime","tag-gb","tag-migrant-crisis","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-west-midlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}