The Immigration Department is practising fraud by charging for work permits which never come and then charging again for landing permits, an angry employer has claimed.

The head of a medium size service company which brings in a lot of foreign workers said she dealt with immigration on a daily basis for more than 20 years but was now being ripped off.

"We are all being held to ransom," she said. "You pay for a permit, which has gone up in price, but you're not getting them."

Then businesses must pay another $25 for a landing permit to let workers in every time they fly off the Island, she added.

"To me this is fraud. I pay through the nose. If you have already paid $559 for a work permit why have you got to pay another $25 for a landing permit? How long can some smaller companies keep forking out $25?"

International companies rely on having staff fly in and out, she said. "One company is paying $300 a month in landing permits."

But yesterday Chief Immigration Officer Dr. Martin Brewer said if businesses can show their work permits have been unduly delayed through no fault of their own, they will not be charged when they need landing permits.

"If the employer has not completed the application accurately and completely, they are required to purchase landing permits, however," he said.

The employer who raised the issue said she didn't believe Immigration staff were responsible for the problems and remained pleasant despite the pressure of their jobs.

"I know a lot of people up there dread coming to work. Screaming and shouting at them won't do any good it's not their fault. Every employer I speak to has had a problem. They can all give chapter and verse of incidents that have happened to them. You can call immigration six times, talk to six different people and get six different answers."

"Fast track systems are supposed to talk five to eight days but the last one took five weeks. It's got to be hurried up."

But Dr. Brewer said if employers feel they have been charged improperly that should make complaints to the immigration department.

"If we have charged them in the past for landing permits and it can be shown it was our fault, they can be reimbursed," he said.

But the irate employer suggested delays have increased since the Cabinet shuffle which brought Minister Terry Lister to Labour and Home Affairs.

She said staff were being pedantic about errors and pulling up employers for missing information that was totally irrelevant.

"I don't want to say it's the minister but that is what I am hearing," she said.

"When Paula Cox was there everything was fine, it was running very smoothly. The staff are doing everything they can."

She said service had got worse since last year's reorganisation aimed at speeding up the process.

Dr. Brewer denied their was any slowdown related to the ministerial handover.

He said the department get busier during the winter months as hotels and restaurants recruit staff for the busy season.