Fronts for crime...

[TestMangler]

I don't disagree with that, in fact the more legit money they turnover the easier to hide the laundering.

I'm not putting myself forward as an expert on the subject or anything, but I suspect, the people doing the barbering may have little of nothing to do with the money laundering :-)

[Gibbon]

The fact that the barber(s) working in the place may be very good is neither here nor there.

I don't disagree with that, in fact the more legit money they turnover the easier to hide the laundering.

[SueEllen]

Pretty sure some cafes are dodgy as well.

I purchased a bacon roll in my local cafe, paid with a fiver and watched the bloke behind the counter put four transactions through the till before giving me 50p change.

Yeah they are.

There was a local cafe near me. It managed to stay "open" for three years until Covid hit but it was never open so it was impossible for it to have any regular customers. When someone I knew managed to go into it in the 3 years it existed, I was informed the food and coffee were terrible.

All the other cafes near me actually have customers and their opening times are publicised on their doors. During Covid because they all managed to have regular customers they could do takeaways.

[TestMangler]

Barbers being used for money laundering isn't news. That's been going on for decades. Any business where you have (potentially) a lot of small cash transactions with little or no transfer of physical goods is ripe for laundering. When you see multiples of them in the same small stretch of street, then it becomes obvious. Sunbed shops, nail bars, dog grooming etc.

The fact that the barber(s) working in the place may be very good is neither here nor there.

The burden of proof when it comes to money laundering takes many hours/weeks/months to put together and is pretty manpower intensive. HMRC etc don't have the resources. They're too busy with the easier targets, like contractors who get paid via dodgy brollies.

[vetran]

Sadly NSS, where you use cash then its probably getting significant abuse.

With the cost of card processing falling its sensible to mandate card offering and even publicise "card stops trafficking". Also one assumes that these companies are limited maybe mandate at >3 employees or subs. Now we have MTD we should be able to see all those with odd transactions (compared to similar organisations).

[Gibbon]

There's a Turkish Barber opened near me and at first I was cynical about after reading earlier reports. However, after been ripped off by one local barber and the other hardly been open I gave them a try. Best cut I've had since posted in Cyprus and a fantastic wet shave too. Very professional, yes it could be been used to 'launder' but the service is second to none and they are very busy. Because they are reliably open, I can just walk up when WFH and be back at work < 30mins.

[TheDude]

Pretty sure some cafes are dodgy as well.

I purchased a bacon roll in my local cafe, paid with a fiver and watched the bloke behind the counter put four transactions through the till before giving me 50p change.

[SueEllen]

First it was dry cleaners, then it was nail bars and American Candy stores and now it's barber shops....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...-sources-warn/

Barber shops could be used as fronts for criminal gangs to conceal human trafficking, slave labour, and drugs, a security expert has warned.

The explosion of barber shops in London and other major cities across the UK has led experts to call for an investigation into the businesses as some could be being used by criminal gangs in the same way that nail bars and car washes have been used in the past.

It is feared some are being run by Albanian and Kurdish gangs, who make money by smuggling migrants into the UK.

Former Metropolitan Police officer Ali Hassan Ali told The Mail on Sunday there had been a boom in barber shops opening since the pandemic.

“A lot of these shops have thousands of pounds of equipment but no customers,” he said.

“While in some cases the shops will be involved in legitimate business, from my own experience, there is strong reason to believe a large number, particularly those owned by Albanians, Turks and Kurds, have links to organised crime.”

The organised crime could involve people smuggling or drugs, he said, adding: “We know the people smuggling gangs in Calais have been traditionally operated by Kurds but they are now working with the Albanians.”

According to the National Hair and Beauty Federation, there are over 46,000 hair and beauty businesses in the UK, with three-quarters of these employing fewer than five people.

It said that while the pandemic caused some shops to close, numbers are increasing quickly, back to pre-pandemic levels.

The police officer behind the UK’s first child modern slavery prosecution previously warned that traditional Turkish barber shops are using slave labour, urging men who use the services to look out for exploitation.

Det Insp Charlotte Tucker’s two-year investigation into the forced labour of Vietnamese teenagers at Deluxe Nails in Bath and Gorgeous Nails in Burton-on-Trent resulted in the conviction of three people.

The young salon workers had been trafficked into the UK and were forced to work 60-hour weeks for little or no recompense.

In 2018 a kitemark-style scheme was introduced for car washes, to crack down on modern slavery, where the public would be able to choose a car wash displaying the scheme’s logo, meaning the site had passed an audit.

A National Crime Agency (NCA) spokesperson told The Telegraph: “Money laundering is a key factor of serious and organised crime.

“Businesses who trade in cash can be exploited by those seeking to conceal and legitimise their criminal gains.

“The NCA and its partners in law enforcement, government and the private sector are committed to disrupting the flow of illicit cash and preventing organised criminals from benefiting from their crimes.”

Last year, an NCA investigation found an Afghan barber from Cricklewood was using his barbershop in north-west London as a front to commit organised crime.

Gul Wali Jabarkhel had been offering lorry drivers thousands of pounds to illegally bring people into the UK from France and Belgium. He was jailed for 10 years alongside three other associates.