Dodgy high street bosses using vape shops or barbers as fronts face fresh crackdown

Dodgy high street shops face a fresh Home Office crackdown under a £1.5million-backed plan to tackle illegal working.

Ministers will this week unveil an education and compliance campaign to target stores involved in money laundering and serious organised crime, the Mirror can reveal. Bosses failing to comply face tough enforcement measures including jail time or fines worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Under the plans, organised criminal gangs who are flooding British high streets with illicit goods, illegal drugs and other serious crime will be targeted, as well as those who use dodgy stores such as barber shops, mini marts, vape and sweet shops as fronts for their criminality.

Businesses hiring illegal workers can already face hefty penalties including fines of up to £60,000 per worker, closure notices and potential prison sentences for bosses of up to five years.

The latest three-year programme will see immigration officers heading directly onto the high street to bear down on rogue businesses through in-person visits, educating them on the impact of illegal working and the consequences of failing to comply with Right to Work legislation.

Ministers said the scheme will at first focus on specific towns before being rolled out more widely.

The Home Office says illegal working is not a "victimless crime" as it fuels illegal migration and supports organised immigration crime. They also say it undermines honest, British business on the high street by undercutting local wages and encourages the supply of illicit goods like illegal vapes and tobacco which are a public health risk and allows labour exploitation to thrive.

Under the new programme, intelligence will be shared with regulatory bodies, the police and the National Crime Agency to ensure all illegal high street stores face the full force of the law.

Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris said: “Too many crooked bosses are using high street stores as fronts for their organised crimes, with illegal workers frequently used to facilitate this. These bosses will face the full force of the law. We will close your business and send you to prison.”

Alongside this action, the government is cracking down on companies hiring illegally in the gig economy by making them legally required to carry out checks to confirm anyone working in their name is eligible to work in the UK.

As well as this, the government has announced asylum seekers found working illegally in the shadow economy will be stripped of their asylum payments and accommodation.

These measures build on the government’s action to increase Immigration Enforcement activity to record levels, with an 83% rise in illegal working arrests and 77% rise in raids since July 2024.