Britain Today

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Today -as Spike would say from the movie 'Notting Hill', we have an absolute classic.

"Diversity is our strength" can be often heard from the virtuous TV talking-heads and those elected to fail
in Government circles, we even had a coin struck to announce how principled we are in the UK.



However, being benevolent and needing to feel righteous over other people to salve one's inner-issues
can be exploited by some folk who perceive the world a little differently.

Unsure on what I mean...? Maybe one of the biggest dependents of these childish emotions can explain.
Please welcome, the BBC.

The sale of illegal cigarettes signals a deeper problem with UK high streets

'It's pitch black and we're crawling along a secret underground tunnel beneath a high street in Hull.
We pass rotting beams propped up precariously by stacked breeze blocks. A rusty car jack is helping prevent
the shop floor above from falling in.

Through the rubble, we follow a Trading Standards Officer, his torch swinging back and forth in the darkness
until it rests on a hidden stash of thousands of illegal cigarettes.


Rack 'em and stack 'em.

This is just one such surreal experience while investigating the sale of illegal cigarettes in Hull. In one week
we repeatedly witnessed counterfeit and smuggled tobacco being sold in high street mini marts - and were
threatened by shop workers who grabbed our cameras when we tried to film them.

This is now a familiar story being repeated across Britain. In April, the National Crime Agency (NCA) raided
hundreds of high street businesses, many suspected of being supplied by international crime gangs. Trading
Standards teams have also found a thriving trade in illicit tobacco.

One leading criminology expert called the networks behind the supply of illegal cigarettes the "golden thread
for understanding serious organised crime", because of its links to people trafficking and, in some cases,
illegal immigration. So, in some ways, these high street shop fronts connect the various domestic problems
facing Britain today. Political researchers claim it's also damaging trust in police and the government - and
turning our high streets into symbols of national decline.

'We're losing the war'
Alan, a former detective and now a Trading Standards officer, searches for counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes
sold under the counter in mini marts, barber shops and takeaways around Hull, which he says have spread
across the city at an alarming rate.

Under the floorboards of a mini mart called Ezee Shop, a network of these secret tunnels hide contraband stock.
As battered suitcases and black sacks stuffed full of cigarettes are heaved up through the makeshift trap door, a
man who we're told helps out in the shop watches on laughing.

"It's not something dangerous, it's only cigarettes," he says. "Everywhere has it; barber shops, takeaways."
Some shops, he adds, are selling drugs including crack cocaine.


BBC join police on illegal cigarette raid.

Alan estimates that there are about £20,000 worth of illegal cigarettes in this haul, a tiny proportion of a crime
that HMRC says costs the country at least £2.2 billion in lost revenue. Today's raid won't change what's happening
on Hull's high streets, he says. He has been to some shops at least 20 times and he estimates that there are
some 80 shops selling illegal cigarettes in the city. "We're losing the war," he says.

He has been with Trading Standards for many years but didn't want to be fully identified because he's worried
about the organised crime gangs often supplying these shops. It's not long before someone claiming to be Ezee
Shop's owner turns up. Alan says he is a Kurd from Iran. He is furious with us filming his illicit stock being taken
way.

Dead flies and asbestos in cigarettes
Some of the illegal cigarettes sold across Britain are made in this country. Others are produced cheaply in
countries like Poland or Belgium. Some are designed to imitate established brands. Illegal cigarettes are sold
without the necessary taxes and duties, and many do not conform to safety standards.

Previously the Local Government Association warned that some black market cigarettes contained "human
excrement, dead flies and asbestos". We went undercover, visiting 12 shops in Hull, some multiple times,
to try and buy these cheap cigarettes, and secretly filmed the responses. The windows of many of these
shops are covered with large pictures of fizzy drinks, sweets and vapes, obscuring what's going on inside.

Nine sold us illegal cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco. Two told us where we could buy cheap packs.
We were openly offered a selection of brands with packets costing between £3 and £7 - instead of the
average UK price of about £16. None of the businesses we bought illegal cigarettes from in Hull responded
to our request for a comment. But this is not only a Hull problem.

Data shared with the BBC from investigators working for an international tobacco company say that last
year they identified more than 600 shops selling illegal packets, with several cities including Bradford,
Coventry and Nottingham flagged as hotspots. The BBC is unable to verify these figures. In Bradford
alone, they say they found 49 stores selling fake products in just two days. In the end, they had to stop
the test purchases because they didn't have enough test bags to put the items in.

Are fines and penalties too low?
All of this is a growing problem - but it is also one with specific causes: profits, a lack of resources to
enforce the law, a complex criminal supply network and in some cases organised immigration crime.
Professor Georgios Antonopoulos, criminologist at Northumbria University Newcastle, believes money
is at the heart of it. "Legal tobacco products in the UK are subject to some of the highest excise taxes
in the world," he says.

Illegal cigarettes are sometimes sold for as little as £3 to £5 per pack - compelling for some customers
during a cost of living crisis. In some cases, the financial penalties issued to criminals may be much lower
than the profits they can make. In the case of Ezee Shop in Hull, the shop owner had been convicted for
selling illegal cigarettes in the past and was fined £80, plus costs and a £34 victim surcharge.

Tougher rules introduced in 2023 mean those convicted now can face higher fines of up to £10,000 - but
this may still be lower than the value of the stash.

After the raid, we went back to the shop, covertly. Within a few hours it had reopened, restocked - and was
selling illegal cigarettes once again.

Struggles with law enforcement
Leading criminologists tell the BBC that UK authorities are struggling to deal with the problem.
Prof Antonopoulos says teams are "chronically underfunded". He claims that police prioritise violent crimes
and drug trafficking - "which is understandable," he adds.

Some Trading Standards officers are frustrated with the powers available to them. "The general public don't
understand why they can't be closed down," Alan says. They can use anti-social behaviour legislation to close
shops for up to three months - but it can require statements from other businesses and members of the public.
We were told that after some shops shut down, the criminals simply reopen nearby. Alan wants a 'three strikes
and you're out' policy to permanently close law-breaking businesses.


The BBC visited 12 shops in Hull. Here, the BBC's UK Editor Ed Thomas speaks to a shop assistant.

Last year, the previous government provided £100 million across five years to support HMRC and Border Force
to tackle the illicit tobacco trade. But since then, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute warned that some
broader forms of organised crime - including scammers and rogue traders - could effectively become decriminalised,
due to a lack of funding. As for the suppliers, HMRC says there are so many organised crime groups operating
across borders that it is hard to limit the flow of goods into the UK.

In May, Hungarian authorities raided a factory where they found warehouses full of fake cigarettes. And there's
even production in Ukraine, according to legitimate tobacco firms, with authorities there stretched because of
the war.

Chinese triads have a 'vast business'
There is also a "significant production" of illicit tobacco here in the UK, says Prof Antonopoulos.
A Trading Standards team in south Wales told us that counterfeit hand-rolling tobacco is often sold cheaply.
They claimed that some of it was made using forced labour, controlled by Chinese gangs. Dave McKelvey,
managing director of TM Eye private investigators, which works with tobacco firms to gather evidence on
the illicit trade, claims that Fujian-based Chinese triads operate a "vast business" here in the UK.

And trying to track down the people in charge of these criminal enterprises is a challenge.
Trading Standards told the BBC that those named as the company director often have no real involvement in
the company. Instead, they may be paid a small sum each month to be listed as the director on official documents.
Later this year, Companies House will receive new powers to better identify business owners.

Employing illegal workers
Authorities are trying to clean up British high streets. Just this year, we joined dozens of raids led by the NCA
in barber shops and mini marts, in a month-long operation. But the former senior detectives who worked with
the BBC's undercover team said they need more time to fully expose the organised crime supplying some of
the shop fronts.

Throughout our time with Trading Standards in Hull and in the dozens of raids we've been on with police in
Shrewsbury and across Greater Manchester, officers claimed that tobacco operations are often staffed by Kurds
from Iran and Iraq. Some may not have had the right to work.

In Hull, Alan believes that some people working in the shops he visits may be recruited from asylum seeker
hotels. "They're expendable, if they get caught they just replace them with another. Rochdale Trading Standards
has made similar observations.

Criminology professor Emmeline Taylor argues that these criminal supply chains behind the supply of illegal
tobacco are linked to other forms of crime - and the damage can't be overestimated. "They're not just dealing
in tobacco," she says. "It's firearms, it's drugs, it's people trafficking, it's illegal immigration."

The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, told us it is a "total disgrace" that "criminal gangs are trying to abuse
our high streets by using shops as a front for organised crime". She also accused gangs of "undermining our
border and immigration systems by employing illegal workers".

Pockets of criminality on high streets
Of course, there have long been pockets of criminality on the UK high street. But now experts tell us that this
illicit trade is harming people's trust in authority - and, at a basic level, their sense of fairness. "If you're a law
abiding business following the rules, you're jeopardising your own livelihood and the viability of your own
business," argues Prof Taylor. "And to me that's not fair that someone can succeed by not playing by the rules."

Josh Nicholson, a researcher at the Centre for Social Justice, believes that perceptions of crime are worse than
ever. "From research we have done there is a feeling of powerlessness, a lack of respect for authority like the
police," he says. "Are the police... seen to be tackling low level offences? When they don't see it tackled, people's
perception is that things are getting a lot worse." And people tend to trust the government less when they think
access to good shops has declined in their area, says Will Jennings, a political science professor at the University
of Southampton, based on studies he has done.'

Archived BBC Article:

 Auntie Beeb... yer' gotta love their false naivety! It always makes me think of red-cheeked children
dancing in the sun-enriched corn and wondering if they're going to have Fullers angel-cake and Robertsons
marmalade for tea!