The Australian Federal Court has slapped a heavy six-figure fine on a Japanese restaurant in Surfers Paradise after getting caught paying overseas workers as little as $8 an hour and then attempting to cover-up the evidence.

The Samurais Paradise yakitori restaurant on the Gold Coast was fined $246,400, and its owner/operator Shigeo Ishiyama was ordered to personally pay a further $38,000 for the labor violations. 

"The aggravating circumstances of the falsifying of records and the provision on two occasions of false records, shows that this case is in a very serious bracket,” said Federal Circuit Court Judge Salvatore Vasta.  "The making of false records, as I have already said, is a most heinous offence.  The Respondent was warned not to make false records, but did any way and those false records gave quite an improper picture of what was happening."

The Fair Work Ombudsman alleged that Mr. Ishiyama used fake records to cover up its tracks in paying workers below legal rates.  Nine workers at Samurais Paradise - mostly Japanese citizens and were working in Australia under the 417 working holiday visa - were paid as little as $8.00 an hour over four months.  This saved $60,000 in payroll costs, an illegal savings wiped out by the massive fine.

"It is close to the maximum penalty that's available for the court to give in this case," said Mark Lee from the Fair Work Ombudsman's office to MyGC.