Implementing document checking practices in your business could be a mitigating factor if illegal workers are found.

It was not offered as an excuse but it was clearly a mitigating factor.

The judge said the main mitigating factor was the defendant's altruism.

If it was, it would surely have been mentioned as a mitigating factor during the court case?

The fact that he was drunk at the time and couldn't remember what he was doing seemed to be a mitigating factor.