Detectives say behind the front of high street businesses, “the main criminality could be modern slavery, exploitation, and drugs.”
Despite the high income of the barbershop, police find an unpaid £7,000 petrol bill, along with seized cash and illegal steam.
A legitimate barber says he wants to see a registration scheme and crackdown on uncruel operators. Gareth Penn, chief executive of the Hair and Barber Council, said the rise of illegal barbers has led to fungal infections such as ringworm from inappropriately cleaned equipment.
“This has a huge impact on legal businesses because you can't compete with people with little cost that a real barber has,” Penn said.
The NCA estimates that £12 billion of illegal cash is washed in the UK each year, with some of it being washed through high street crime front organizations. Their numbers appeared to be surged as food stalls grew in the wake of the pandemic and created openings for crime gangs.
Politicians began to demand action, urging law enforcement, tax, immigration and transaction standards agencies to develop this coordinated response.
The NCA should track the network behind these shops and analyze what mechanization operations have been revealed for evidence of fraud and money laundering in order to try to stop the flow of criminal cash.
Rachel Herbert, the NCA's Deputy Director of Economic Crimes, said the existence of the crime front organisation “gives community awareness that criminals have high street runs and contributes to the end of the shopping centre.
“Money laundering is not a casualty-free crime. It relates to some of the hardest and most violent crimes on the street,” she said.