Restaurant owner avoids jail for enslaving worker
A Victorian restaurant owner has avoided jail after being found guilty of enslaving an Indian woman and forcing her to work for free for more than a year.
Farok Shaik threatened the migrant worker with deportation while forcing her and her husband to work unpaid between 2012 and 2013.
While working at Shaik's regional restaurants the couple were also made to live in the storeroom above one of the shops.
Shaik was meant to be sponsoring the woman's permanent residency but in fact never lodged the paperwork.
Shaik was handed an 18-month prison term after pleading guilty but doesn't have to serve it after entering into a court-enforced undertaking to be of good behaviour for three years.
Judge Michael Cahill made concessions for his guilty plea and the delay in his court case.
"You abused the power you had over her and exploited her on threat of deportation for your own financial gain," the judge said.
"You told her no one would catch you out because you are an Australian citizen."
Shaik was previously fined more than $50,000 in the Federal Circuit Court and has only paid half that amount so far.
Sheridan Randall, 24th June 2020
