Organised crime gangs threaten UK high streets with fake businesses | UK | News

Organized crime gangs operate fake business fronts on such a large scale across Britain that they are seen as the “number one threat” on the high street. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute believes the sheer scale of organized crime in Britain’s shopping districts is impacting on the country’s level playing field for business, so severe that it could jeopardize future ambitions to grow the economy.

They warn that additional funding is essential this week from Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and also call for a range of policies for the Government to tackle problems with organized crime that are negatively impacting Britain’s nation of tradesmen. They say Government funding needs to be urgently added to the budget to tackle the crime epidemic with proven multi-agency initiatives to crack down on criminal gangs.

This includes long-term funding for the Clear, Hold, Build plan, a three-step plan developed by the Home Office for police to tackle serious and organized crime, which first involves clearing an area of ​​criminals with broad arrest powers. In this case, it is crucial to hold the territory to prevent other criminal groups from taking over and, thirdly, to build the society through partnerships and interventions that will make the society less vulnerable to crime.

Continued funding is also needed for Op Machimize, a multi-agency police operation aimed at tackling the “grey economy”. It focuses on disrupting criminal networks that use cash-intensive businesses such as barbers, nail salons, car washes and mini-marts as fronts for illegal activities such as money laundering, the sale of illegal and counterfeit goods such as illegal tobacco and electronic cigarettes, human trafficking, modern slavery and illegal labour.

The institute believes the current threat posed by organized crime is undermining legitimate businesses and depriving the Exchequer of millions of pounds of tax receipts needed to fund public services.

CTSI Chief Executive John Herriman said: “Serious and organized crime is a persistent blight on our high streets and communities up and down the country. Our Trading Standards profession has highlighted the issue as the most serious threat to the legitimate businesses and consumers they protect. Such criminals do not care about the damage they cause as long as they make a profit.”

Mr Herriman pointed out that the government’s repeated commitment to economic growth should be supported financially to help legitimate businesses thrive, rather than being left to struggle after the rise of criminal companies at their expense.

He added: “We are concerned that the growth in organized crime is undermining law-abiding businesses and depriving the Treasury of much-needed funding to support public services. Enforcement agencies involved in disrupting organized crime, including the police, the National Crime Agency and Trading Standards, need more resources to address threats to UK consumers and law-abiding businesses.”

The move comes after an investigation into store “fronts” revealed an organized crime dimension on the UK’s high streets, involving complex networks of distribution, storage and retail sales of illicit goods in high street stores. Such “fronts” are becoming an increasing problem for the UK’s Trading Standards workforce and are the scourge of the high street, sometimes used as a front to fund criminal lifestyles and other criminal activities such as modern slavery and human trafficking, arms and drug distribution, money laundering and the sale and supply of illegal and unsafe products such as counterfeit goods, illegal vaping and tobacco.