The number of hospitality companies being prosecuted for hiring illegal workers has risen spectacularly following the introduction of new legislation in February 2008.

According to figures obtained by BBC, 137 business were caught employing immigrants during the two months since February – a tenfold increase on the year before.

The employers – many of them operators within the take away and late night restaurant sector – face fines up to £10,000 for each illegal immigrant they employ.

The news follows the introduction of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 – making it a criminal offence to knowingly employ an illegal migrant – which replaced the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 two months ago,

Under the new law, employers who employ someone subject to immigration control aged 16 or older who is not entitled to undertake the work in question will be liable to pay a civil penalty.