Too many barbers?

[orpingtoneagle]

Cash only barbers, hmm.

It's slo clearly dodgy yet just allowed to carry on for years. Scandalous

It's virtually impossible to stop. You raid them and take away a van full of contraband and within an hour it's restocked.

You send bills to the company running it and that company disappears to be replaced by another.

It is is just another version of every dodgy scam shop that has existed over the years...

Police/local councils/HMRC/trading standards do not have the powers or resources to stop it.

 

[Mattconrov]

Forget the conspiracy theories the answer is simple they are just the new way to sell dodgy fags and counterfeit goods.

Also black market imported drugs where you don't need a prescription.

I think you've just created a new conspiracy theory. Lol

 

[PalazioVecchio]

simply go in there a minute or two before they close & simply rob the place, these joints must be stacked with cash, drugs & firearms

My image of those barbers is empty cashless husks.
And every few hours a lad walks into the local bank with another magic suitcase of cash...."i just trimmed a load of beards there boss, honest, now lodge it please Nigel, the usual account"

No smell of drugs in the barber shop.....is my guess. And Tony Soprano never smelled of garbage disposal.

 

[HKOwen]

It's virtually impossible to stop. You raid them and take away a van full of contraband and within an hour it's restocked.

You send bills to the company running it and that company disappears to be replaced by another.

It is is just another version of every dodgy scam shop that has existed over the years...

Police/local councils/HMRC/trading standards do not have the powers or resources to stop it.

So if a shop is caught red handed selling illegal goods such as drugs, illegal vapes, stolen goods etc it cannot just be closed and boarded up? If this is so, the laws and powers need to be changed immediately and one agency tasked with this problem which will likely cover areas such as criminal activity, immigration and employment offences.

 

[PalazioVecchio]

So if a shop is caught red handed selling illegal goods such as drugs, illegal vapes, stolen goods etc it cannot just be closed and boarded up? If this is so, the laws and powers need to be changed immediately and one agency tasked with this problem which will likely cover areas such as criminal activity, immigration and employment offences.

Why sell drugs in a shop ? Especially when u can sell them around the corner in total anonymity ?

 

[Joseph Paxton]

So if a shop is caught red handed selling illegal goods such as drugs, illegal vapes, stolen goods etc it cannot just be closed and boarded up? If this is so, the laws and powers need to be changed immediately and one agency tasked with this problem which will likely cover areas such as criminal activity, immigration and employment offences.

The much-maligned BBC has done an extraordinary amount of good work on this recently with some brave Editors and Reporters prepared to go undercover on multiple high streets across the country to expose what really funds these mini-marts/vape/barber/nail bar establishments.

It's not going unnoticed at highest levels of new govt. Bravo

Councils to get more powers to stop vape and betting shops, PM announces

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says town centres have been "hollowed out" by decades of decline.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[HKOwen]

Why sell drugs in a shop ? Especially when u can sell them around the corner in total anonymity ?

Well documented many such shops supply drugs, same as petrol stations. Not sure standing on a corner is not going to be noticed.

 

[DanH]

The much-maligned BBC has done an extraordinary amount of good work on this recently with some brave Editors and Reporters prepared to go undercover on multiple high streets across the country to expose what really funds these mini-marts/vape/barber/nail bar establishments.

It's not going unnoticed at highest levels of new govt. Bravo

Councils to get more powers to stop vape and betting shops, PM announces

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says town centres have been "hollowed out" by decades of decline.

www.bbc.co.uk

It’s exceptional proper journalism. But no one on here will give them any credit for it.

 

[orpingtoneagle]

So if a shop is caught red handed selling illegal goods such as drugs, illegal vapes, stolen goods etc it cannot just be closed and boarded up? If this is so, the laws and powers need to be changed immediately and one agency tasked with this problem which will likely cover areas such as criminal activity, immigration and employment offences.

Not that easy.

Imagine you own a shop or two. You lease it to ABC ltd. You don't care who that is as you get paid. ABC ltd is based in Panama. They sub lease to DEF ltd based in say Cyprus. Maybe add a few more sub leases to the chain. End user is XYZ ltd who run a shop selling illegal goods alongside legit ones.

Trading standards raid it and seize said goods. They have to test them and prepare a prosecution. They can't just shut the shop as it will also sell in theory legit stuff. So the dodgy stuff just get re stocked and trade carries on for a bit.

By the time the court case is due or HMRC comes knocking for tax you find the shop is now run by XYZ (2) Ltd who say ah that's a different company nothing to do with us and as the last company was based in another jurisdiction getting anything from them is not possible.

And so it goes on....

This was a model perfected over years and sadly it works.

 

[Badger11]

It’s exceptional proper journalism. But no one on here will give them any credit for it.

It's proper investigative journalism, I would disagree that it is exceptional but then again fleet street standards have fallen so low since the Times Insight team of the seventies and eighties.

Well done BBC credit where credit is due.

So how do we tackle it. My advice would be to make all high street shops have a licence, rather like betting shops and off licences do.

To gain a licence the shop would have to have clear ownership and not hide behind offshore trusts. If would also need HMRC approval only granted if there are no tax issues and revoked for failing to pay and so on. If caught selling illegal goods they lose their licence.

Anyway you get the idea.

 

[Teddy Eagle]

Not that easy.

Imagine you own a shop or two. You lease it to ABC ltd. You don't care who that is as you get paid. ABC ltd is based in Panama. They sub lease to DEF ltd based in say Cyprus. Maybe add a few more sub leases to the chain. End user is XYZ ltd who run a shop selling illegal goods alongside legit ones.

Trading standards raid it and seize said goods. They have to test them and prepare a prosecution. They can't just shut the shop as it will also sell in theory legit stuff. So the dodgy stuff just get re stocked and trade carries on for a bit.

By the time the court case is due or HMRC comes knocking for tax you find the shop is now run by XYZ (2) Ltd who say ah that's a different company nothing to do with us and as the last company was based in another jurisdiction getting anything from them is not possible.

And so it goes on....

This was a model perfected over years and sadly it works.

Even if the authorities try to take action it's still very difficult. There is an ongoing case being reported in the paper locally where a closed down pub was turned into a convenience store without any of the necessary permissions. Trading Standards visited and the owner just said he wasn't aware that any planning or other permission was needed and carried on trading after submitting a post dated application to the council. Which was refused. Police then went round and the owner claimed he wasn't selling vapes despite there being 80/100 in the window. The council seem powerless to do anything after 18 months.

 

[HKOwen]

It’s exceptional proper journalism. But no one on here will give them any credit for it.

Stopped clock is right twice a day etc

 

[Badger11]

Even if the authorities try to take action it's still very difficult. There is an ongoing case being reported in the paper locally where a closed down pub was turned into a convenience store without any of the necessary permissions. Trading Standards visited and the owner just said he wasn't aware that any planning or other permission was needed and carried on trading after submitting a post dated application to the council. Which was refused. Police then went round and the owner claimed he wasn't selling vapes despite there being 80/100 in the window. The council seem powerless to do anything after 18 months.

Agreed. The law has to be changed so that the police can forcibly close these places down.

 

[HKOwen]

Agreed. The law has to be changed so that the police can forcibly close these places down.

That we have allowed this situation to develop is unbelievable . I suspect as these dodgy shops are owned and staffed by non whites there is a reluctance to act for fear of racism allegations.

 

[orpingtoneagle]

That we have allowed this situation to develop is unbelievable . I suspect as these dodgy shops are owned and staffed by non whites there is a reluctance to act for fear of racism allegations.

I don't even think it is a race issue, it's a crime issue. Chances are the staff are probably from overseas but this is organised crime. It is not about race or left or right wing politics.

It's all.about money and it is just as likely to be funding a war somewhere as simply paying for a big house in Cheshire.

In the past for instance the troubles in Northern Ireland were funded by enterprises like this.

 

[Badger11]

That we have allowed this situation to develop is unbelievable . I suspect as these dodgy shops are owned and staffed by non whites there is a reluctance to act for fear of racism allegations.

I think a lot are Albanian. I think the real issue is that the local councils don't have the power and so probably don't care, it's just too hard.

It's human nature to address problems that are easy. A robust law that gives power will be actioned by the local police and councils as an easy win.

 

[orpingtoneagle]

I think a lot are Albanian. I think the real issue is that the local councils don't have the power and so probably don't care, it's just too hard.

It's human nature to address problems that are easy. A robust law that gives power will be actioned by the local police and councils as an easy win.

I also think there is an element of self preservation here. Take Oxford St for example. The place is no longer the top shopping street it was, it's full of candy shops and dodgy souvenir places. They won't shut them down and see them boarded up as it simply does not look good......

 

[ASCPFC]

They'll be completely willing, in fact want to, pay higher rents. Thus making it to ever more unaffordable for genuine business to compete in the rental market.
Every legitimate pound/ Euro they spend wipes the tax liability of their endless cash crime money.

The troubles in northern Ireland was not funded this way - it was funded by the Irish community in the US largely.

 

[HKOwen]

I also think there is an element of self preservation here. Take Oxford St for example. The place is no longer the top shopping street it was, it's full of candy shops and dodgy souvenir places. They won't shut them down and see them boarded up as it simply does not look good......

The Candy shops are working a scam where they open for a while, get some kind of council funding then change ownership and repeat the scam, can't remember the detail but that's the gist of it, again, non whites only, coincidence of course