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Original poster

Money laundering fronts/shops/cafes...how is your high st..??

224 replies

bumblebee1000 · 22/12/2023 23:43

Just curious really.....our high street now has appx 9 cafes all have the same flashy design and interior, some have a shisha area out back. very very few customers, just the odd few, males chain smoking and glued to phones, never see any women inside or outside in smoking areas, often big expensive cars parked outside. Also have the 4 barber shops which are always empty and now have one of those american candy and vape shops, this shop sold my friend fake tobacco yesterday and offered him a load of duty free tobacco from Holland, he has reported this shop to trading standards and hmrc as threw away the tobacco. So how is your high street....is it similar ? Has anyone reported these places and seen any action. Personally find them depressing. we are in London.

OP posts:
RaininSummer · 23/12/2023 12:58

Loads of suspicious barber shops here. Actually counted 17 Turkish barber shops on one small high street.

TroysMammy · 23/12/2023 13:04

CasperGutman · 23/12/2023 06:14

Nothing like that round our way in south Wales. The cafés all seem genuine. Lots of actual customers (or not, and struggling).

Edited

I'm in Swansea, there is a vape shop that has opened near where I live at the end of August, I've yet to see a customer in it. There was an Albanian restaurant in the city centre and the only people in it were men, probably Albanians. Obviously not the market for Albanian cuisine as it wasn't open for long. There are also barbers everywhere 5 or 6 on one street alone.

HRTQueen · 23/12/2023 13:07

I was driving down Lordship Lane which is in East Dulwich every other shop is now a place to eat how many artisan bakeries are needed in the area

Catford SE London has always had a very high number of small empty restaurants/cafes it’s not really a place where you get lots of shoppers walking about apart from school children after school who go to the chicken shops

Oxford street has done this for years in the 90’s it was full of luggage shops when other shops had to close down

Lesina · 23/12/2023 13:16

There are a few suspicious tanning shops and a restaurant that the locals refer to as the laundry… :)

BlueDayBritishIdiot · 23/12/2023 13:22

RachelSTG · 23/12/2023 12:44

What's the correlation between deserts and Muslims?

Show quote history

Maybe Allah decreed all Muslims should eat honey and floral flavours in perpetuity. Would account for the tasty desserts that have sprung out of the middle east and the amount of delicious foods that have lemons and pomegranate in.

StoneTheCrone · 23/12/2023 13:31

Yes, there are a lot in my Midlands town (vape, phone, nail bars, barbers etc..) and Ive also spotted them in other Midlands towns too. The giveaway is the fancy, pimped out cars outside (Black Range Rovers usually),no customers but loads of shady looking men sitting idly around, smoking.

Igmum · 23/12/2023 13:37

I'm convinced all vape shops are dodgy - can't imagine how they could make money.

Near us we have a cake delivery shop that opens 7 pm to early hours of the morning. Never seen anyone in there. It has three liveried delivery cars. Think they might offer additional services

Original poster
bumblebee1000 · 23/12/2023 15:15

hi
we are in leyton . e10. all these cafes and barbers shops are run by one particular group, display their flags in windows or signage etc.

OP posts:
Original poster
bumblebee1000 · 23/12/2023 15:23

Southpoint · 23/12/2023 07:50

Where do you live OP?

we are in leyton. e10.

OP posts:
Goatymum · 23/12/2023 15:23

In London too and have loads of barbers/hairdressers/ethnic food shops/mobile/vape/coffee shops.
I live between 3 high streets (approx a mile in each direction). They’ve all gone a bit downhill in recent years, sadly, even the one with the waitrose and M&S.

Goatymum · 23/12/2023 15:25

Nail bars def dodgy, I have a nail tech that comes to the house - def not dodgy!

SwedishEdith · 23/12/2023 15:31

sleepyscientist · 23/12/2023 09:02

Then the shops will be empty and the council won't get its rates. I use our nail bar the staff are happy and live locally we see them out in town on a night. No doubt fiddling the books but so are most trades!

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In my local town, a lot of the shops are owned and rented out by a wealthy local family. Some of whom either now live in America or the management of the rents has been outsourced to a US based company. They clearly must do no due diligence on who is renting properties. One of the ways things will only tighten up when there are financial consequences for landlords.

IHS · 23/12/2023 15:46

We have some sort of discount foods store which is always empty and suspiciously expensive - particularly as it's in a poor area. Me and dh reckon it's a front for money laundering.

Original poster
bumblebee1000 · 23/12/2023 15:54

Ireolu · 23/12/2023 09:01

You have described our London area quite well in the OP. We have a new cafe open fortnightly. Lots of men outside smoking in the more established ones. The newer ones have no one in them. Everyone in the area speaks about it being a front for money laundering. Lots of very high value cars in front of the parade of cafes. Some school mums actively avoid walking around there. Not many American candy shops though.

where are you ?...we are in leyton, one short shopping parade up the road has all the genuine shops and cafes, but the high road has all the fake ones. they all display the albanian flag in windows. the cars all outside, the smoking etc. A neighbour went into one and it all went silent inside and everyone glared....I told her that its a mafia cafe....!!

OP posts:
roarrfeckingroar · 23/12/2023 15:58

There's a v smart empanadas shop by Wandsworth Town station and I'm convinced it must be a front for something. No one ever goes in and that rent won't be cheap.

ImCamembertTheBigCheese · 23/12/2023 16:00

bumblebee1000 · 23/12/2023 15:15

hi
we are in leyton . e10. all these cafes and barbers shops are run by one particular group, display their flags in windows or signage etc.

I'm in Walthamstow so back up your assertions on the high streets around here.

Isseywith3witchycats · 23/12/2023 16:13

we have one street in our town that has more food shops than you can shake a stick at and as Asda is not that far away they cant all have enough customers to make any real money, and where we are these chai shops that never seem to have any customers , there is one road on the way into the local city that seems to be wall to wall chai shops , small food shops phone shops and takeaway food places that are always empty whenever we go past them no matter what time of day or night, ive been saying front shops for ages

WhateverMate · 23/12/2023 16:29

East London here and exactly the type of 'cafes' and barber shops as described upthread, are thriving.

The 'cafe' on the high street has been there for 8 or 9 years now. They don't sell hot food even though the sign says 'Grill' and I've never ever seen a woman in there.

They don't have an alcohol license either, yet I find it difficult to believe all these men are drinking coffee every night, into the early hours of the morning.

UncleHerbie · 23/12/2023 16:35

I know someone who’s beauty salon and nail bar was set up using drug money from her father in the late 90s. Now totally legit she now runs her business from home in a garden room

greengreengrass25 · 23/12/2023 16:55

Slightly off topic

All those delivery drivers on motorbikes with L plate, do,they ever have to pass a test. They all seemed to appear after lockdown

Pushkinini · 23/12/2023 17:05

We've got a couple of Turkish barbers in our nice town of c.8000 people in the SW. Both opened within weeks of each other last year. DH goes to one as it's the cheapest in town and they both seem to have real customers. We do have 5 other barbers so I don't know how long they'll all stay in business though. The nail bars and candy shops haven't reached this far west yet.

megletthesecond · 23/12/2023 17:06

green I'm obsessed with all of the moped delivery drivers having permanent L plates. There's a couple I reported to the police for driving on the pavement, pre-pandemic, and the same blokes still have L plates now. I assume they don't have insurance as well as never passing a test. Again, I suspect the authorises don't have the people-power to crack down on them.

LBOCS2 · 23/12/2023 17:22

megletthesecond · 23/12/2023 17:06

green I'm obsessed with all of the moped delivery drivers having permanent L plates. There's a couple I reported to the police for driving on the pavement, pre-pandemic, and the same blokes still have L plates now. I assume they don't have insurance as well as never passing a test. Again, I suspect the authorises don't have the people-power to crack down on them.

That tends to be because you don't have to pass anything other than a CBT to ride a moped, and taking the test costs money 🤷🏻‍♀️ I knew a lot of people as a teenager who had mopeds and never bothered to take their full bike tests.

greengreengrass25 · 23/12/2023 17:49

megletthesecond · 23/12/2023 17:06

green I'm obsessed with all of the moped delivery drivers having permanent L plates. There's a couple I reported to the police for driving on the pavement, pre-pandemic, and the same blokes still have L plates now. I assume they don't have insurance as well as never passing a test. Again, I suspect the authorises don't have the people-power to crack down on them.

Yes it's not right

Especially when the law abiding residents are hammered for having tax, insurance, paying Ulez etc

queenofthewild · 23/12/2023 17:57

The tiny "supermarket" which has opened opposite Waitrose. Took them a year to get round to opening up and I don't think they've ever actually served a live customer.

There's also an alarming turf war between Chinese and Albanian pimps chucking paint at each other's brothels. Of course the residents of the naice town are more concerned at the mess the paint is making rather than the actual scale of human trafficking going on under their noses.