On Soho Road in Birmingham’s Handsworth area, police and Trading Standards officers raided a mini-mart last week. Under the counter they found a makeshift weapon – a plank with a nail – and the shopworker, a student from Afghanistan, was arrested. Illegal cigarettes and snuff were seized. When asked why he was selling them, he replied: “Perhaps you should ask the manager, he’s the owner.” The owner was not about.
The raid came as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, whose constituency borders Soho Road, accompanied officers after months of BBC reporting into organised crime on British high streets. The investigation had exposed drug gangs, child sexual exploitation, money laundering and immigration crime linked to shops selling illegal cigarettes, vapes and drugs.
“Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood doubles maximum closure time to 12 months after BBC probe into organised crime.”
Now Mahmood has announced new powers to close such shops for up to 12 months – double the current maximum. Under existing law in England and Wales, authorities can shut a premises for three months, with an extension to six months using anti-social behaviour legislation. The change, prompted by the BBC’s work, will give investigators more time to gather evidence, pursue prosecutions and identify business owners, while preventing rogue operators from simply reopening.
“This is a massive national problem,” Mahmood said, praising the BBC’s reporting. People felt high streets were being taken over by “organised crime [and] immigration criminality”, she added, and the government was “not prepared to tolerate it”. This type of criminality, she said, “makes people lose faith, not just in their local area but in democracy, in what our country is, and we can’t let that happen”.
The announcement was welcomed by Trading Standards officers, who have repeatedly told the BBC they lack the necessary powers. John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), said: “Closure orders are a key enforcement tool… for tackling ‘dodgy shops’.” He reported “almost universal support” from his profession for the new measures. Other officers said the longer closures would make it less financially viable for unscrupulous owners to sit out orders and would force landlords to pay more attention to who they rent to.
For nine months, the BBC had repeatedly asked the home secretary for an interview about its findings. Last week, she invited the team to join the raids on Soho Road. The shopworker arrested there admitted that selling illegal cigarettes was wrong but deflected responsibility. The owner, he said, was not around.