Criminal network behind UK mini-marts enables migrants to work illegally

According to a BBC inquiry, a Kurdish crime network is enabling migrants to work illegally in mini-marts on High Streets throughout the United Kingdom. The fake company directors are paid to submit their names to official documents, and thousands of companies are listed on Companies House, but are not interested in running them. Two undercover reporters, who were themselves Kurdish, were told how simple it would be for them to own and run a store while still profiting from illegal vaping and cigarettes. More than 100 mini-marts, barbershops, and car washes have been linked to the crime network, from Dundee to south Devon. However, a financial crime investigator told the BBC that the investigation is much larger. The Home Office announced that it would look at the BBC's reports.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said,

Illegal functioning and a closely linked criminality creates an incentive for people to come here unlawfully. We will not stand for it.

We can see the inside workings of a criminal system that allows asylum seekers to work in plain sight on UK High Streets in mini-marts that mainly profit from illegal cigarettes and vaping for the first time. One man told us that illicit tobacco use at his store could go

sometimes, up to £3,000. The men who support it all - so-called

ghost developers

- have hundreds of companies on Companies House, but in many cases, they are not involved in running them. One of them told our undercover reporters,

The store doesn't belong to me; it's just under my name. Many of the companies were defunct after about a year, and then reopened with minor updates to official paperwork. According to a financial crime investigator, these companies have all the red flags associated with organised criminality.

During our investigation we found:

The two Kurdish journalists who were interviewed in our probe know that immigrant tensions are high. They are concerned that such coverage of illegal activities within the Kurdish community could reignite hostilities. One of them, a former asylum seeker himself, says, "I wanted to participate in uncovering these illicit activities [. [They do not represent us] unless they openly state that they do not identify us.

We followed a Kurdish Facebook group where businesses from all around the UK were listed for purchase over four months. New adverts popped up every week. In Crewe, Hull, and Liverpool, the reporters got in touch with three people who advertised mini-marts for sale. They stated that they were keen on running a mini-mart and selling illicit cigarettes.

The man behind a Crewe mini-mart, Top Store, said he would sell his shop to one reporter for £18,000. Surchi, the shopkeeper, told our reporter that you don't need anything to own and run a mini-mart as an asylum seeker. Surchi revealed that he was a Kurdish asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK in 2022, but that his claim had been denied. He told us he had papers proving his right to work when the BBC later confronted him. We asked if he could hand over these papers, but he hasn't.

Although their claim is being investigated, asylum seekers generally do not have the right to work in the United Kingdom. Permission to work is only granted in limited circumstances and is subjected to stringent restrictions. If asylum seekers are allowed to work, they can only apply for eligible positions on the Immigration Salary List. They do not include being a shop owner or shop assistant. Surchi, like our undercover reporters, told us he was from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, an area that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. The region is often referred to as Kurdistan, but it is not a separate nation.

Surchi said he paid someone named Hadi about £250 a month to be identified on official papers in order to prevent scrutiny by the authorities.

He works at it, and he has 40 to 50 stores under his name. There is no problem, but he doesn't care what you sell,

he said. Surchi was able to go under the radar of immigration control and sell whatever he liked as a result of this arrangement. He said he had never paid any council tax and that our undercover reporter would not have to register the organization. Surchi said during his sales patter, immigration enforcement officers had only come by once in the last five years, when he was out. They never returned, he said.

Surchi said Trading Standards had searched the store once more, and he had been fined £200 for selling illegal cigarettes and vaping. Although shop owners in the United Kingdom caught selling these items can be fined up to £10,000, the benefits that can be made from such products far outweigh the penalties. Surchi led us outside to a so-called stash car where he said he hid the majority of his stock until 17:00 a night, when Trading Standards officers arrived for the day. He also told our reporter that you could make a hiding spot for the product in the store's basement, where he also demonstrated how to fool with the electricity meter to avoid paying utility bills. When we were at the store, Surchi sold vaping to a group of teenagers.

I have 12-year-old clients, and I have no problems with them,

he said. According to the author, customers converted a card machine into a bank account. Both of these items belonged to his uncle, who owned a mini-mart 15 miles away in Stoke, who said he was from Stoke.

'Fine craftsmanship' to fool sniffer dogs

We discovered Kurdish developers who would be able to help us avoid illicit vaping and cigarettes on Facebook. One of our reporters reported that he had purchased a mini-mart in Manchester and was looking for

a specialist to create a space to conceal cigarettes in the store. Six builders got in touch. One of them sent us a video of what seemed to be a vending machine for illicit cigarettes concealed in a loft, which then pushed packets down a chute to a hidden vent below, which led to spotting packets falling from a ledge to uncovered vent below The builder said it was

fine craftsmanship" and cost £6,000, claiming that it was supposed to fool Trading Standards' sniffer dogs.

A network of ghost directors

A network of ghost writers began to emerge as we delves into who legitimately controlled these mini-marts. Hadi Ahmad Ali, the Birmingham man to whom Surchi told us he was paying his monthly rent, was one of the names that kept popping up. We discovered Mr Ahmad Ali on Companies House as being from Iraq, in his 40s, and a founder of more than 50 other companies - mini-marts, barbers, and car washes. One of our reporters called him a stranger who is trying to purchase illegal cigarettes in Crewe. Mr Ahmad Ali said that the store did not belong to him, but that the lease was under his name. For a monthly fee of between £250 and £300, he said he could keep it in his name for our undercover reporter. He also said he might try to get a bank card for the shop.

I will give you a 50% guarantee that I will get you financed. In Hull and other towns, I have six to seven shops under my name. Mr Ahmad Ali is also listed as an active director of several companies on Companies House. He had been barred from being a company officer for five years since October 20, 2024, according to our reports. The ban came after unlawful cigarette sales at a store in his name in Chorley, Lancashire, including to a 16-year-old. He pleaded guilty to his complicity in the selling of illicit cigarettes in Lincolnshire and was sentenced to six months in jail, suspended for 18 months. These mini-marts had nothing to do with him, and he had contacted Companies House to get his name removed from the company's database when later interviewed by the BBC.

Now has greater authority to share information and support law enforcement investigations,a spokesperson for Companies House said.In the case where criminality is suspected, facts and intelligence are shared with appropriate partners.

Our study connected Mr Ahmad Ali to Ismael Ahmedi Farzanda, who we discovered was a ghost director and was responsible for 25 mini-marts. Mr Farzanda's name was revealed when Companies House reports revealed that he had taken over as company director from Mr Ahmad Ali at seven mini-mart companies. On one shop in Blackpool, the two brothers also shared a co-directorship. Mr Farzanda was able to be called by one of our reporters using the same front story as he had told Mr Ahmad Ali.

I just put the shops under my name for people,

Mr Farzanda, who, like Mr Ahmad Ali, was based in the West Midlands. He told us that an

accountant

will handle the paperwork, bank accounts, and payments, and that he would have no problem with us selling illegal cigarettes. He had only one request: If the undercover reporter was ever apprehended by the cops, he should let him know right away.

If you're caught, tell us so we can change the name and not get in trouble for the interviews. Our reporter told us,If we know you's not caught. According to local reports, Mr Farzanda was fined £4,500 in August after one store, registered in his name in Haslingden, Lancashire, was caught offering illegal vaping to a 14-year-old. According to Trading Standards reports, seventeen stores under the names of Mr Ahmad Ali and Mr Farzanda have been searched since 2021, confiscating illegal cigarettes and vaping. Despite being identified on official documents as being from Iran, Mr Farzanda told our undercover reporter that he was actually from Iran's Sharazoor district in neighboring Iraq. Both our undercover reporters are aware of Kurdish people who have arrived in the UK on small boats and pretended to be Iranian, claiming that their asylum claims would have a greater chance of thriving. Mr Farzanda denied all charges made against him by the BBC when he was later presented with our evidence. A troubling pattern emerged when we looked into official records attached to all of the companies listed for Mr Ahmad Ali and Mr Farzanda. Companies were expected to be established for a year, dissolving, and then restarting a little different spelling of the company's names. The men's names and birthdays will also be changed slightly.

Why are they doing that? When we showed our reports to financial crime investigator Graham Barrow, it's most likely to avoid tax and avoid scrutiny by authorities. We also confirmed the names of two additional ghost writers, with 40 companies listed between them.

All the red flags that I would associate with organised criminal organisations are present in this UK-wide network of more than 100 company directorships in the names of just four people,Mr Barrow said. Mr Barrow:I certainly think it's hundreds.

The BBC's network of businesses identified by the BBC could extend far and wide around the world. It could possibly be larger than that,

he said. More than a dozen mini-marts were linked to this network of ghost writers. Everywhere we went, it was the same story - the shops were on rundown High Streets in some of the UK's most impoverished markets, such as Blackpool, Bradford, Huddersfield, and Hull. None of the shops sold fake or smuggled cigarettes for about £4 per pack, rather than the usual UK price of £16 for a pack of 20. Our inquiry, as well as Surchi's account in Crewe, revealed that other Kurdish asylum seekers were unlawfully employed illegally. We learned that a mini-mart employee in a Blackpool store linked to one of the ghost builders told us he had left an asylum-seeker hotel in Liverpool to work 14 hours at the store. I get £60 to £65 [per day] in exchange, he told us.

I worked for £50 [per day] for three months. He was interviewed by the Home Office four months ago, but he hasn't heard anything since. He told us that Trading Standards had searched the store three times, but he described it as

nothing. Just give them any name and they'll walk away, he said, adding that if he asked who he was, he'd ask the name of a well-known Kurdish singer, Aziz Waisi. However, he did seem worried about immigration enforcement.

They [Trading Standards] smoke and leave, but immigration requires you to fingerprint fingerprints.

We also discovered another Kurdish shopworker in a Salford shop who was registering under Ismael Farzanda's name, who said he was in

I've been here for six months and I haven't applied for asylum,

he said. The 42-year-old said he first arrived in the United Kingdom as an infant before returning to Kurdistan. He returned to the United Kingdom this year and

they discovered my old fingerprint reports, but nothing came of it. He said he was staying with friends.

We're all here here, and we don't know what to do.

The government claims that raids have increased by 51% this year and that fines for employers have been increased to £60,000 per person found illegally. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, confirmed that the government has

seized millions of pounds worth of unlicensed products, barred dodgy operators, and deported over 35,000 people with no right to be in the UK.