‘American-style candy stores are the frontline’: money laundering expert warns high streets being hollowed out by criminal fronts
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/american-candy-stores-money-laundering-5HjdMtk_2/
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
‘American-style candy stores are the frontline’: money laundering expert warns high streets being hollowed out by criminal fronts
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/american-candy-stores-money-laundering-5HjdMtk_2/
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
23 Comments
Really? I would never have guessed. Our politicians and public authorities have let this farce spiral out of control. Every town in the country has a pic n mix of vape shops, mini-marts and barbers. Yes some are absolutely genuine but so many quite clearly aren’t.
Two new vape shops have popped up in my town recently complementing the existing two vape shops.
Don’t patronise and insult the public on this issue.
Money Laundering Expert? Pretty sure any Joe blogs could’ve told you the same thing. Do keep up
UK is a joke. Everyone on reddit has been repeating this for months and years, it’s so obvious.
The only people who can’t see it in front of their eyes are the police and anti-terrorism and money laundering investigators. Well, according to the article they finally acted on it in October.
It’s ridiculous. I have to travel a lot for work and have seen them opening up in new cities. Everyone knows what they are so I don’t understand how they’re still opening.
* Impose a tax for cash payments to certain retail sectors
Hair dressers
Launderettes
Sweet shops
Vape stores
Nail salons
* Implement a transaction cost free payment system/QR for struggling small businesses who can’t afford the visa fees
Use the tax to fund money laundering force
At least it’s prettier to look at than yet another betting shop, spoons or hair dressers.
This is the country our supposed peers have fostered.
It’s the criminal gangs hollowing the high street. They are just filling a space already created.
A symptom, not a cause
HOLY SHIT?! THESE SHOPS ARE MONEY LAUDERING OPERATIONS?!
In all seriousness not even Kaya is shocked by this
20 years late. Half the shops on any high street are money laundering fronts.
I thought this was well known and why these kinds of stores sort of vanished.
I’m just curious as to why these are considered ‘American style’. I’m from the US and haven’t seen any candy stores like this ever. We get our candy from supermarkets and drugstores, mostly. There’s occasionally a boutique candy shop that has fancy chocolates and scandinavian licorice, along with allsorts and other british candies (let’s face it, Brit candy beats the ever living pants out of US candy, don’t even @ me.)
They are?! Oh dear, can’t even trust a tuck shop anymore, well, at least my cash-only Turkish barber is still good and trustworthy…..right?
In five years time they might look at Turkish barber shops. We have high streets around here of 16 units where 10 are Turkish barber shops full of people sitting and playing on their phones all day with no customers
no shit, they could literally employ someone to sit in front of the store and use the lack of customer footfall as a reason to audit. when I used to work at a takeaway, we literally had someone from HMRC sit in the takeaway counting how many comes in.
There are 6 mens barbers in my village, not town, village. All look identical and never have customers, just an Asian guy sat on his phone. They are Turkish barbers owned by the same Albanian gang that have taken over the drug trade here.
Hollowed out or propped up?
Who else does the government think will be taking on these units? The smart ones that are actually using it as a long term front to launder criminal funds will be paying rent and rates.
Part of the problem is that “Money Laundering” now seems to encompass a whole array of offences. The candy store con is different in that it’s a short term scam based on taking as much income as possible, paying no bills and then scarpering, at which point somebody else starts a “new” business and it repeats until cities get wise and move them on (which lots have). That’s just common or garden fraud, rather than a “front”.
Effective front businesses are the opposite of this; bills paid on time, accounts filed on time, tax paid, anything to avoid suspicion or not give the authorities an excuse to poke around.
They will share a lot of the same characteristics as the “candy stores” (often staffed by young middle eastern men with poor English, usually cash intensive businesses) by necessity but a lot of these are established businesses which would leave a significant hole in local finances if they went (and took regular rent and rates paymebts with them).
This is is the conundrum nobody seems to want to deal with. It’s acknowledged now that there are organised crime links with a number of a certain type of small business; vape shops/mini marts, “Turkish” barbers, fast food and other takeaway joints, candy stores. Whilst some of these are just doing straight up obvious fraud, others are just conduits for illegal money that has a byproduct of propping up a lot of ailing local high streets. It’s an uncomfortable thought for many, but it’s not unrealistic to suggest drug money is making a significant contribution to local government in some areas.
They should look at the mobile phone case/repair shops as well. There’s 12 in our town. Fucking 12. Never a soul in any of them whatsoever.
And who buys cases in person anyone? Don’t most people just buy a case online and that’s it’s for 2 years?!
Get rid of cash. That’s literally all you need to do, these places will close down overnight
Candy stores. Barber shops.. kebab restaurants..vape shops… they’re all in on it.
If ever there was a sign that the regulatory and tax burden on high street retail premises was way too high in the UK, you need look no further than the fact that every high street is now dominated by blatant money laundering operations with no intention of adhering to either, and charity shops which are exempt from both. For everyone else it simply isn’t a viable business any more.
Everyone knows this (barbers and vape shops are more common I think), but it is presumably difficult to *prove* that it’s a front.
Canterbury is prime example of this. Its vape and tech shop after vape and tech shop, all with similar names, multiple semi-permanent tech shop stands, Kent Barber’s 1 through 3, numerous ‘tourist’ shops and an American ‘candy’ store. For such a beautiful city of historic importance, the town centre is shite in that respect
There’s one in my town. It only seems to be open for an hour or so in the afternoons and I’ve never seen any customers in there.