To think that (some) vaping shops and barbers are fronts ....

[crockofshite]

..... for dodgy dealings? There are so many of these shops in every high street, how can there be enough customers to support them?

To obtain work visas for family and friends? - (in response to the estate agent question)

I brought this topic up and another thread and was told that I was rascist for even mentioning that some(most) of these shops are a front.

I walked into one shop with my young DD thought it was a newsagents, it had a couple of boxes and a man asleep in a bed by the door!

Our country is becoming a bit of a joke really.

@bookmarket
Who do you think would do the checks? The only potential person would be the landlord. They're hardly in a position to investigate the financing and business plan of a tenant, even if they wanted to risk losing the let!

No one has mentioned car washes,something extremely dodgy about one near us, pretty sure there is a modern day slavery /trafficked people issue.

I think they do but they close one down and another pops up and then they again have to investigate, find evidence, build up a case, get a warrant etc.

The criminals know the rules and their rights. The actual people making decisions and making money will be insulated from illegal enterprise and the people fronting the operation will be disposable.

One near us shut down without warning and a couple of months later, the building got raided and it turned out to be a massive cannabis farm!

You can actually help out on the car wash front by downloading the app and reporting back on conditions https://theclewerinitiative.org/campaigns/safe-car-wash

Anyone can put Crimestopper reports in too, if you see or hear obvious references to dodgy dealings, like that barbershop example up thread, it's always worth reporting into Crimestoppers to help with the overall picture. The police can't do anything when all they know is 'that place looks a bit sketchy.'

Please hurry up! How do I apply for this job?

I've never given this much thought - but now you've raised the subject, just looking at my little town that I live in, I can easily identify one vape shop that on reflection ive never seen anyone in/open, at least 2 barbers often empty and a "beauty" place that seems to have silently appeared (and on research has been here a few years now) which has no online presence, nothing on Facebook- not even the local Facebook community pages ...... interesting

Of course they are. You can add in
Hand car washes.
Nail bars...People trafficking , money laundering, tax avoidance
American candy sweet shops.

There are many people involved in shutting these places down including trading standards, environmental health, the courts. It takes a lot of work.

There was a shop here that had been closed for ages. Former beauticians, woman who ran it gave up after a bereavement (I think). Had workmen inside building counters and shelving etc. Shop signage put up, saying it was a vape shop. Stayed shuttered for a couple of months, never opened.

Now a (genuine) hairdressers. Just odd to spend all that and never even open the door!

Have a read of this and despair www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/20/the-cannabis-farm-scandal-how-a-rogue-lettings-agency-destroyed-countless-homes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Definitely are near me. Three towns recently had vape shops raided and shut down, primarily for illegal vapes but they had mostly reopened after being shut down less than 6 months ago and I expect them to repeat the process.

It's just money laundering, the "contractors" etc. are in on it too.

I think it happens everywhere. There is a little shop in my picturesque tourist town. It has some overpriced antiques in the window and is never open, I’ve lived here 12 years and have been past at all times of day, every day of the week pretty sure it’s the same crystal glasses and decanter set in the window.

Money laundering. There’s a hairdresser not far from me that I used to use, but TBH she’s not very good (could always get an appt. PDQ) and I often used to wonder how on earth she could make enough even to pay the business rates, but she’s been going for ever. Until it dawned - from what she’s told me there’s an evidently successful family business, too….

The ‘American Candy Stores’ were well known for it. There was a hideously garish pink one in our local High St - it didn’t last long so thank goodness had evidently been sussed.

Ditto sunbed shops and hand car washes

There’s a house near me that was used for a cannabis farm. End of terrace old cottage you’d never of imagined it’d of been a cannabis farm. Police raided and it was like a scene out of breaking bad. The owners were an elderly couple who had bought it as a buy to let were distraught. They locked the door and have never been back. It’s been three years and it just sits there looking slowly more dilapidated.

You think too much.
At least they pay rent.
"A lovely little gift shop" would hardly last.
Not everyone is dodgy.
Been both a commercial and domestic Landlady for 25 years, both London and Prague.

So you just turn a 'blind eye' to make money. You are part of the problem.

There's a Lord Peter Wimsey book from the 1920s where drug dealing is a topic; the police know about it but there's no point in them wasting resources on stopping the little guys (the ones actually selling drugs to users) because they're so easily replaced. The focus goes on trying to break the large-scale operation, particularly the people bringing the drugs into the country in the first place.

There's been all sorts going on behind the scenes in some Turkish kebab shops in north London for decades.

I thought this about those herbal tea shops you see. Who goes in there?

Yes have you seen Breaking Bad series. It makes you understand how it happens.

Yeah, there seems to have been a few stories on the news about stabbings in barbershops in recent years. I remember being in a nail shop and coming out to a crime scene and pool of blood - outside a barbershop.