Money laundering shops why no action?

[NoisySnail]

Where I live there are a number of shops that are very obvious money laundering fronts. For example a dessert place that is hardly ever open, has no menu or prices, and when it is open has one scary looking man behind the counter and motorbikes going inside and leaving with a package.
Or the takeaway that has never been open in three years. Or the shop with very limited opening hours that has hardly anything to sell - just some pop and chocolate bars.
I am not someone who knows anything about money laundering but I can spot these dodgy premises a mile away. So why does no one do anything about thus?

Same reason nothing is done about nail bars that are cash only, staffed by unhappy looking women patrolled by smoking men.

Because no one cares enough.

Slowly slowly.. they might be going for the bigger fish to bring down the whole empire

Have you reported them?

No. But they are beyond obvious. And friends I have spoken to see similar where they live. Its as if no one in power really gives a shit about this issue.

Nail salons, tanning shops, vape shops, barbers, anywhere that takes cash

It’s the overwhelming amount of them I think. In our area we have money laundering shops selling desserts, phone cases, clothes, barbers, nail bars, car washes and fake Italian restaurants run by Albanians. We also have a huge traveller site which has modern day slavery operating from there. I don’t think the council/police/trading standards/inland revenue know how to even start

Same. Or hand car washes that charge £10 for a full valet and have 20 cold-looking Eastern European men standing in the forecourt year-round.

Cool . Perhaps you can take the required evidence to the police because unfortunately convictions aren't obtained on speculation.

Most of these do not even take cash as they are never open for actual customers. They are just obvious fronts.

People say report them, what for? We can see it's a front for trafficking with the car wash and nails for example, but how are we the public meant to show proof?Mention we had to hand over cash and everyone looked miserable? Would anything actually be done? Tradesmen never get investigated and they get cash in hand.

@Spirallingdownwards surely it is about forensic accounting as evidence? How much are they declaring on tax accounts versus how many hours are they actually open and how many customers over a window of time?
As I said one takeaway has never been open in three years. But is set up on the shopfront as if it is open for business. The place selling only pop and chocolate can not possibly make enough to even pay rent and rates.

Police don't have time to observe every dodgy shop in the high street in every town.

There are far more issues which have them all spinning the plates to answer 999 calls to morons who need to learn how to keep their hands to themselves (seriously, if more men could keep their hands to themselves the levels of assaults, theft, rape, burglary, criminal damage etc would plummet).

They need people like you to report your concerns.

Not just to police (you can use the 101 online service for any police force), you can also report to your local council trading standards if you suspect fake or counterfeit goods being sold or if its a vape shop you think is serving underage kids....

You can also use Crimestoppers for anything you prefer to be anonymous - suspected modern slavery for example, or suspected fronting businesses which could be drugs, human trafficking, child exploitation, county lines, you name it.

If no one reports, everyone who says they knew but did nothing is complicit IMO.

Most places don’t just have fraud detectives wandering the streets every day to spot when something is open or not.

if you don’t report it won’t be on their radar.

you comment also shows that you don’t care about the issue. So if no one cares nothing gets done.

No. They know exactly who and where the big fish are. The big fish have huge houses, expensive security, lawyers and accountants and plenty of minions running the drugs and guns.
Nobody in authority cares until an innocent bystander gets killed. Then there is much hand wringing. Then when the headlines have died down it gets forgotten.

Fine I promise I will report them. Lets see if anything happens.

Accountants are bound by law to report suspicious financial activity, such as money laundering, tax evasion, etc. It's a common topic at conferences, courses, etc., that HMRC never act on such reports! After all, we'd know if any enquiry or investigation was started as we'd get notification from HMRC by virtue of us being their accountants. It's now a standing joke that we just go through the motions and not to expect any action. Someone, somewhere will be compiling statistics of numbers of reports and analysing them, but no one actually bothers to do anything about it! When the reporting regime first came in, maybe 15 years ago, we'd make a report and expect a response. But as the years pass, we almost certainly know that nothing will happen. In our firm, we must have made a few dozen reports (tiny accountancy practice), but not a single enquiry/investigation has ensued, and some of these reports were about tax evasion of several tens of thousands of pounds, so not just a couple of hundred!! If HMRC can't be bothered when the facts are handed to them on a plate, they're hardly going to start being proactive to find illegal activity themselves by observing dodgy premises!

Yes.

I've worked raids on nail bars and car washes. We pulled lots of frightened people out and the conditions were terrifying.

Emaciated men subsisting on store brand energy drinks and packet food, with cigarette burns on their bodies from their controllers to keep them in line. Filthy mattresses stuffed in cupboards and pulled out each night to sleep on the floor of the car wash office.

Young women who believed they were going to be working as housekeepers but taken to nail bars or brothels to work. Rape is used as a weapon.

Look at the places you're in. Are they safe working conditions? Are there bare wires near water for example, are they using appropriate equipment for the task? Are the prices too good to be true compared with other businesses? Is the place littered with energy drinks? Any evidence of bedding? Do the staff smell and look clean? Do they speak English? Are they different every time you go? Are there spare men lurking about, not working, looking like they might be controlling or providing security in the area? Lots of things you'll see if you start to look.

Tradies not declaring cash is not even close. That's a personal decision, not human trafficking or abuse.

I used to live opposite one of these. Then one day movement. A car arrived. The driver opened the car door to a short fat man dressed in a mayoresque gown with a collection of medallions round his neck.

The door of the shop opened for 5 minutes. The mayor of criminal land entered. Five minutes later he left. Then his phone must have rang. He handed it to another assistant who actually stood on the pavement and held the phone to the mayors ear.

Then that was it. Back in the car. Never to be seen again.

But atleast he really did try to make his 3 yearly shop check into a town event.

The two places I am thinking about are very well used and have been in business for over 5 years. One is a car wash and one a nail salon. Both are in well heeled towns. If I and say 15 friends all suspect trafficking, are you trying to tell me no one who is a policeman/woman or knows one hasn't used these? They are very popular with the car place being next to a garden centre with workers in full view... Of course, now you've said they need the public to report I will, but I do find it odd that no one in law enforcement ever seems to do this off their own back.

@taxguru would you not report via a SAR though? In which case it would go to the NCA, not HMRC

We absolutely do care !! But the enforcement of this is down to the HMRC minimum wage team .. which currently consists of 6 people across the south east ... so much easier to prosecute Mr P who might of under declared his income..,

Same with fraud investigations. I was on a case once where the fraud was clear, the evidence clear, and we essentially wrapped it up for the SFO in a bow and they still did nothing.

OP - the economy runs in part on laundered money and the rich criminals have the means to make any issues go away. There isn’t the will to stop the corruption.

Because we are told to believe that EVERY single newcomer to the UK is a hard working, net tax contributor, thus any evidence to the contrary is waycist.

It's all part of the enriching process, so nothing to see here.

@RespiceFinemKarma i live on the same street as one of these carwashes, once i went to ask if they had received a parcel for me and was followed out by someone who was clearly not well (whether drugs or just tired/starved), the carwash is really popular i don't know if it's an open secret and if reporting a good thing to do? who do you report to? the police?