Two brothers who have ran a restaurant for 25 years have had their passports confiscated and ordered to pay the council £2.5 million after they installed an extractor fan.

Ahmet and Sahin Gok, who run Meze Mangal in Lewisham, are facing ruin after being dragged through their council’s bureaucratic purgatory after ‘trying to do the right thing’.

Lovers of Turkish cuisine across London have visited the restaurant – including Lewisham council officials.

But the same council has now handed them a £2.5 million bill or a 14 year jail sentence after the restaurant installed an extractor fan – vital equipment in any major kitchen – without the correct planning permission.

Worse still, they have had their passports taken off of them as they were deemed a ‘flight risk’, despite living and workin

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