Diners were tucking into their upmarket Indian lunch when the Ice agents slid through the restaurant’s back fence. Armed with stun guns and clad in stab vests, the 11-strong unit blocked off every entrance before moving in on their target: Mandira’s Kitchen. This wasn’t a scene from California or Texas. It happened near Guildford, England, among the rolling Surrey Hills.

Before the Home Office’s immigration compliance and enforcement (Ice) officers stormed the restaurant in September, they came up with a codeword in the event they were attacked with any weapons that might be at hand in a kitchen. What they found were customers eating biryani and samosas in a converted barn decorated with plants and a rickshaw bicycle hanging from the ceiling. When they reached the kitchen, they found five junior members of staff cooking. The officers demanded to see their passports. “They didn’t explain. They didn’t ask for permission,” says the restaurant’s owner, Mandira Moitra Sarkar. That 11 officers could burst into her business with no warrant and question staff is “astounding”, she says. Moitra Sarkar was on holiday in Tanzania when Ice arrived; she was notified by a frantic call from a member of staff.

Moitra Sarkar made her name in the restaurant industry after being lauded by culinary giants including Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. Her prepared dishes, which can be bought online for home delivery, were featured on a Channel 4 competition to find the country’s best ready meals for Aldi. But this wasn’t enough for the Home Office. Its crackdown on illegal working has left many business owners and employees reeling from its heavy-handed tactics.