Record fine for Sydney 7-Eleven boss

The owner of a Sydney 7-Eleven has been fined more than $200,000 after a court found he short-changed two migrant employees almost $50,000 and falsified records.

Harmandeep Singh Sarkaria, who owns and operates the Blacktown 7-Eleven fuel outlet, underpaid two Pakistani staff $49,426 and routinely made false entries to the head office payroll system about the number of hours they had worked, the Fair Work Ombudsman found.

In a Federal Circuit Court judgment Judge Justin Smith said he was not convinced Sarkaria was truly sorry for his conduct, and issued the record fine of $214,200 as a warning to others who might be tempted to engage in similar conduct.