Tackling the 'grey economy': Officers target crime on the high street

Suffolk Police and Immigration Enforcement officers visited a car wash to check the identity and working status of employees

It's mid-morning on a Thursday in September.

At a building in the north of Ipswich, a team of officers from the police, Immigration Enforcement, trading standards and the National Crime Agency (NCA) are preparing to swoop on cash-based businesses across the town.

It is part of Operation Machinize, which the NCA says is "the ongoing coordinated action to target criminality through cash-intensive businesses on the high street".

Starting earlier this year, it has so far visited more than 380 premises across the country, making 35 arrests and safeguarding 97 individuals against modern slavery.

There are 15 targeted raids taking place at barbers', car washes, mini-markets and takeaways across Ipswich and I've been invited along to observe.

We set off in a convoy of police cars and unmarked vehicles.

PC Alan Besley from Suffolk Police says the operation is intelligence-based

Our first stop is at a barber's and a sweet shop.

PC Alan Besley from Suffolk Police, who is leading the operation, says: "There was intelligence linking the two shops.

"The premise was identified via Immigration from their intelligence system. Each organisation has key properties they wish to look at and take action on."

The law enforcement agencies are looking at the "grey economy" of cash-based businesses, where offences can include money laundering, exploitation of workers, illegal workers, people trafficking and the sale of illicit goods such as counterfeit or bootleg tobacco and disposable vapes.

Barbers' shops are among the types of businesses visited by enforcement agencies

Immigration officers search the cellars in both shops in Ipswich, looking for any signs people have been living there.

They are dirty, damp and full of mould. A bed is found in one but the owners insist no-one lives there.

PC Besley tells me Immigration is carrying out checks on all the workers and the police are running them through their systems.

John French is Suffolk Constabulary's modern slavery vulnerability adviser

Next we head out of the town centre to a petrol station and car wash.

Immigration officers swing in first, with police cars descending on the forecourt.

All the workers' documents are checked.

John French, Suffolk Police's modern slavery vulnerability adviser, says they are "open minded" about what they will find when they go on raids.

"The things we're looking for are two-fold: for perpetrators of criminal acts, but also we're looking to identify victims... people who are being forced into doing things against their will through a whole range of different methods," he says.

"So they could be coerced into doing something through threats of violence or debt bondage."

Asked what impact this has on local communities, Mr French says: "It can be a catalyst for antisocial behaviour; it can encourage criminal activities such as sexual exploitation/prostitution; it can be linked to things like drug dealing, drug trafficking, people smuggling, people trafficking.

"All of those things will have a negative impact on the local community."

Nationally, the NCA says it "estimates £12bn of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year".

Moston (left) and Leo are trained to sniff out tobacco and money

Several enforcement agencies are taking part in the raids: the NCA, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, Suffolk Police, the police's Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU), Suffolk County Council's trading standards and environmental health teams and His Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

Each agency is working on tip-offs to build a picture of where they need to go.

At the car wash, everyone's identification checks out.

Then we are alerted to another raid across town. Trading standards officers, with the help of search dogs, have found a haul of illicit tobacco and vapes.

At the new location I meet Luci Sutton of independent firm Specialist K9, which has been hired by the agencies.

Her two cocker spaniels, Moston and Leo, have been in a shop detecting illegal tobacco.

Ms Sutton says: "They're looking to see if there's anything hidden in the walls. Previously, we found things through brick walls or in bookcases that aren't really bookcases."

The dogs successfully indicate there is a compartment behind the shop counter and there is something about "a white van" parked outside the shop and registered to the shop owner.

Stuart Hughes says illicit goods such as tobacco and vapes are bad for "consumers... the economy... the taxpayer"

The dogs' detection work leads senior trading standards officer Stuart Hughes to remove a shelf in the shop, revealing a magnetic switch mechanism opening up a concealed compartment full of disposable vapes, which are now illegal.

"We've found a van with the same vapes in, quite a lot of them, and also illicit tobacco infringing the trademark [in] non-standardised packaging," he says.

"I know it looks to the consumer like a cheap product, but ultimately you're taking a huge risk in buying cheap unregulated goods.

"It undermines taxpayers who are paying hard-earned cash for public services, because no tax gets paid on these goods, and also it undermines the strength of local businesses because they can't compete when people undercut them with illicit goods.

"So it's bad for consumers, it's bad for the economy and it's bad for the taxpayer."

A haul of illegal tobacco and vapes are found in a van outside a retail business in Ipswich

So what is the outcome of the raids, which have visited 15 premises in total and are also part of Suffolk Police's Clear, Hold, Build initiative?

The force says "at one restaurant there was an arrest for immigration offences and a referral for a Civil Penalty".

It adds "unauthorised sleeping accommodation for multiple workers was also discovered with referrals made to the local authority and fire service inspectors."

Trading standards officers using their powers to raid premises entered five retail outlets.

At the two I observed, they found more than 500 packets of illegal cigarettes, 6.6kg (14lbs) of illegal hand rolling tobacco and more than1,000 illicit vapes. Nothing was found at the other three shops.

Investigations are continuing.

The bagged-up illicit tobacco Suffolk Trading Standards officers found on the day of the raids.