money laundering. The answer is money laundering. Just like all those souvenier shops doing the same thing. Same gimmick, same crowd, same absurdly unviable business models.
Can you guide me through that? So these guys have money from some illicit operation, then they open a business that doesn't work in one of the most expensive London streets just to pay thousands in taxes and rent? How does the money go back to them?
@@sorh Renting stores on Oxford Street is basically a business expense to give them legitimacy. Because you asked the obvious question, “why there?” The assumed the authorities were less likely to investigate. And if you’re washing enough money through them, the rent will be insignificant. Declare sales, pay tax on that “income”, walk away with clean money.
In the 90’s I lived and worked in Key West, Florida for 6 months. I worked at a shop selling clothes that we would print decals on for tourists coming off the cruise ships. In Duvall St alone, there were around 5 or 6 of these all owned by a group of foreign nationals. The owners married local women for the visa after paying them a lot of money, and the female staff married men from the gay community in the same way. There were lawyers who would rush through the paperwork for a lot of money too. People were getting married all over the place and the local gay club, which had a suspicious fire whilst I was there, was frequented by the lawyers looking for people to marry their clients. I am not making this up. In the shop itself, nothing was priced and we had to learn a code to communicate how much things were. It was arbitrary how much we said because it depended entirely on how much we thought the person would pay. Sometimes $80 for a $1 t shirt and a 50c decal we printed on while they waited. We put on a show, constantly upselling, entertaining and extracting more money. I once charged Japanese tourists, the best to target I was told, $600 for some hoodies and T-shirts for a family. On request of my manager. The entire operation, we learned, was a front for the lawyers to provide work visa’s for cash and charge a fortune doing so. A form of people smuggling, but within the legal system. The owners themselves used the businesses to launder money too and were most likely involved in other criminal activities. Like drugs. The format and business model of these candy shops seems very similar, especially in a tourist hot spot and I’m amazed you can get away with this in Oxford St, let alone a small island off the Florida coast.
Getting a UK VISA/residency is one option to use such stores/businesses. Other use would be money laundering. I doubt it is for tax evasion purposes. I do think these stores are used to gain (sell) UK residency status.
In the UK in the 90's there was a guy who had a warehouse, he used it as a venue for raves... Of course tickets were cash on the door, drinks were cash at the bar, and all the DJ's MC's staff and security were well paid. Just one little missing detail, there never were any raves, just lots of cash from drug dealing being banked and cleaned. But, unlike the story in the video he was paying all relevant taxes and business rates on the large amounts of money he banked and no one seemed to care or check on what he was doing. As long as the right people get paid what they feel they deserve then you don't have too many problems.
Good points, & you may be right that they are up to something which is one or two layers removed from what people are looking at such as using it as a work visa scam or to move and store illicit goods. Its a mystery why they would choose somewhere so high profile though to run a front business, & even more crazy that they would choose to make them garish and stand out a mile) Perhaps their logic is the best hiding place is one that is right in front of you the whole time Lol
There are SO many in Edinburgh. It's actually really embarrassing to walk down the Royal Mile now. It used to be this place filled with culture and be a wonderful street for tourists. When I was there yesterday there were FOUR candy shops on the same small street block. All devoid of customers and taking up prime real estate. What the hell is going on? Please continue your investigation around the country.
Ulez Happened, in 2017 those mad SNP mob started increasing stupid taxes, high street just fell one after another and it is still happening. I know contractors who refuse to do any work in city centre now.
Fake American candy stores. No patriot to America sets up annoying over priced stores with an American flag in another country's town Square. Its just disrespectful. Someone is using our name and propagating a lie. Everything is done so surgically and yet it's still blatantly obvious. Should drag the owners of those stores out in the streets for messing with good people.
Money laundering is the obvious issue here, and it’s strange it’s not discussed. Certainly the prices and fake quality gives close to zero sales, but the cash machines can still produce numbers of papers balancing the the same amount of money feed back to the “sellers” of nothing. Certainly, it’s just extra income not to pay taxes.
Hmm, maybe one way would be to pay the exorbitant rent to the sub-letting shell company. The shop can show receipts for the dodgy 'candy' and make believe sales but has to pay outlandish rent to the shell company which is never passed on to the landlord. Even if the original landlord is paid, his rent is far less than the rent that the shell company charges.
It is clear these shops are not a genuine commercial business, as others have said in the comments they are a front operation for illegal transactions, likely not only involving money laundering, but probably also drug distribution hubs, import/ distribute fake goods etc. It is frustrating that as an individual if you try for example to open a new bank account or other official business you are subject to money laundering checks which sometimes border on the absurd in respect of the transactions which pass through your account, but these “ businesses “ seem immune. There needs to be a serious think about what the police should be targeting in terms of crime.
The other one of these is Turkish Barber shops. Our town now has 8 in one high street. You can never pay with card, only cash. Yet again authorities turn a blind eye as heaven forbid they accused of racism, so drug money from London is cleaned in our suburban town
we have shops like that nearby and even if you pay cash they never ring it on the tills... it just goes into the till tray as 'no sale' ...hmmm .. when I worked in bars and restaurants we had to ring everything up on the till and keep the printed till receipts (journal tape) for a set period of time for tax purposes ...
Ate, they've started to open open open on little Firs Parade in Matlock, Derbyshire. Staffers stare at public like dervishes of old repute. Throat slitters.
...and Westminster Council had no clue why all of a sudden a stackload of Candy Stores appeared within one year??? How poor is the business licensing department at Westminster Council???
How a shell company is allowed to rent a place in Oxford street ? An individual renting an apartment in London is liable and thoroughly checked out, that is ludicrous.
Shell companies buy mansions in Kensington Russian money, no questions asked. In fact loads of Tory MPs show these people around to show the houses for sale off to them
I run my own small business and the amount of paperwork I need to fill out for HMRC is a nightmare. How the hell are these places completely avoiding scrutiny? I also find it laughable that the council says "oh, they went out of business before the end of the tax year, we can't get any business rates from them". Can't you just, I don't know, inspect them and bill them monthly? I pay council tax for my house via direct debit monthly. Surely they can do the same for these businesses??
@@doctormoobbc Michael lambert started his RU-vid channel with a vid about companies registering with companies house, trading ( import Chinese shit and flog it in places like this) and then sell the company then wind it up all before the 18 month period before HMRC start to want paperwork. Tax evasion and money laundering on a grand scale and HMRC don’t seem to give a fuck. It’s well known and that’s why the city was a good dirty laundry for the worlds dodgy cash.
Well we are not checking goods coming in to Britain via our ports due to Brexit, the goods would have been stopped by other EU ports but now we are not in the EU, what the hell did they think was going to happen...
Controlling the borders really meant no borders. New speak complimentary of the Tory party. Lower taxes meant only for the rich and higher for the rest. I wonder when the people fooled by this will wake up. After all it’s 40% of the electorate. Isn’t 12 years of scammers enough or is Bojo “funny” hair attractive enough for his voters to keep on supporting his party even when he is gone.
I imagine the oligarch Brexiteer leaders were quite aware this might happen, or something like it. As with the rest of the Brexit burdens placed disproportionately on the vulnerable, however, they simply don't give a shit. That's assuming said Putin-cash-grabbing oligarchs aren't behind this latest criminality.
And this is quite possibly the right answer. Thanks - I wasn't sure about the business model behind these shops and it highlights a larger problem that is so far not being tackled. Fake junk coming into the UK with the failure of government to have any regulatory checks on imports because...Brexit.
I like how that Adam guy is really proud of ceasing them goods and totally skipping over the real issue. No one is buying the goods they are just for show, stuff to fill up the shelves.
He said it was just the tip of the ice berg and huge sums are owed in tax. So this is the start of it. He’s doing something, and wants to do more. That’s a start. And more than any conservative counsellor is doing.
The only chocolatier with less regard for worker safety, ethical business practices, or human life than the actual Willy Wonka. Or the entire Nestle corporation.
This is what it looks , when Brits take back control of their own borders , there was no these type of problems , when it was Dutch that checked goods coming to UK , now when Brits need to rely to them self doing that job , oh look , there are containers full of fake products coming from Asia and sold to kids with astronomical prices ... clearly a Brexit benefit .
Been boycotting Nestlè for decades. A really outrageously vile corporation which has no regard for human life - especially;y the lives of babies in the third world, and the rights of villagers to their own local water. Corrupt all the way.
Pretty much all the big candy companies, unfortunately. Oxfam has detailed how many of them continue to knowingly support enslaved and child labour in their cocoa supply-chains.
absolutely. Here in Spain we have something similar going on but with phone cases stores. There are everywhere like if people change their phone case like every hour
I dunno. Typical money-laundering operations are low-profile cash service businesses, like dry cleaners or similar. They operate by lying that they do far more business than they actually do, so that the profits of illegal criminal ventures can be misrepresented as the proceeds of all those phantom "legitimate" sales and thereby spent without raising the eyebrows of the tax services (eg if you've no reported income and you're living a $10 million/year lifestyle, Internal Revenue is going to want to know where their cut is). This clearly isn't that, as the last things you'd want to do with your low-profile operation are: a) open and operate it suspiciously on a major (and extremely expensive) shopping route, and; b) risk discovery of your laundering by drawing even further attention to yourself by selling obviously-counterfeit goods (not to mention obviously dodging taxes with the old "fake firm closure" scam). Plus, the fact that they're retail outlets doesn't really fit, as it's harder to make-up fake sales around goods than it is around services, because goods have inventory records and need to be disposed of if you're going to claim they were "sold" (labour doesn't have those issues). It's not impossible, but it's a terrible way to pursue the "money-laundering" goal, compared to long-established alternatives. There's obviously a lot of money being staked for these operations, too; way more than necessary for typical money-laundering schemes. It's just weird all-round. There's clearly a clandestine operation going on behind the so-obvious-it's-suspicious counterfeit-goods scam, but I can't think of what it might be. Perhaps a cover for smuggling-in more dangerous goods in the shipments of counterfeit trinkets?
15 years ago it was telephone shops where you could make calls abroad real cheap. They were EVERYWHERE literally 4 shops all next to each other then 5 next to each other across the street it didnt make sense. They all seemed to be surviving. Government put an end to it and found out it was money laundering because its hard to prove customers actually purchased their services. They just simply made profits on paper and any real money to got from actual customers was just easy legit pocket money
Perhaps the near laying off of all Trading Standards Officers and TS Departments might, just might, have something to do with these scams popping up like mushrooms. Wonder why that is? 🤔. Surely not LA budgets being slashed
@@stevewhite3085 Trading Standards Officers are not police officers. They have extensive powers but are local authority: so nothing to do with any police force who have no remit in these scams
Being an old geezer living in a small English village, I thought this was a sophisticated spoof report in the style of 'Brass Eye', or the 'Day Today'! Having tried some American candy, and having had my tastebuds recoil at it's synthetic over-sweetness, i wouldn't consume it if it was free!
Well done Westminster council? You have allowed the total collapse of honest retail and London’s main shopping street is a urine soaked money laundering operation. I remember when oxfords street and the surrounding area was packed with interesting independent shops, and all the big department stores etc.
The landlord has to pay business rates if the premises is vacant. They’re happy to pass that responsibility on to the tenants. If they reduced their sky high rents, they’ll have a chance of getting an honest business. Also they tend to be buildings earmarked for redevelopment so only short term leases
I went back to London last year after a couple of years away and was wondering why there where so many of these stores. I was thinking it might be some kind of money laundering business or something going on. There were dozens of them everywhere. Very strange.
So they're counterfit goods and they're closing up before their taxes are due, but there must be more to this! Very few people buy these products, maybe a few tourists unaware of the exchange rate, certainly nor enough to justify so many shops. It HAS to be money laundering and yet the report makes no mention of it?
Londons cops got their gingers in Jaki Ghans boaty peeps wallets, then, again. So what's new, remember their predilictions towards SOHOs porn dealers a short while hence ¿?
The biggest weakness to money laundering is Companies House. You could set up a company with directors called M Mouse and Saddam Hussain and pay for a mail redirect and you have a company. There should be robust identity and proof of residence checks for all company officers
@@grahamwade5932 I guess what would help the situation would be warning tourists. They could provide this information at hotels. These are clearly aimed at tourists.
@@paulthomas8262 They aren't aimed at anyone, they are just laundering fronts and don't really want to sell anything as they then would need to replace stock. The stock is priced so it shouldn't sell.
You basically look at Companies House and its very easy to determine that the majority of them are registerred under the name of one director. They should be investigating HIS tax affairs if there is something very dubious going on with these stores
Bet you the 'Director' is a guy who cant speak English unpacking boxes in one of the shops) ... and would seem likely that the company is owned by another offshore one, which is owned by another offshore one, and so on and so forth. The end of it may be a organised crime network, terrorist group, or rogue state. As usual Britain welcomes business from anyone, nefarious or otherwise)
If only it were that easily. The companies running them pop up and then disappear. They are usually registered to some 18 year old teenager who just denies knowledge.
I used to work in a chain shoe store in Camden and I remember hearing how many of the competition along there was connected at the backs of the shops and was secretly something shady going on there. It was very possible as we never saw anyone actually buy anything in those shops yet they could afford rent. We knew the cost of operating in that location and the math just didn't add up. Also along Oxford Street I've personally seen alot of funny stuff. Down at the Soho square/Tottenham Court road end, I've seen that classic perfume scam, where they use plants to buy in early and give the trade credibility. I've seen alot of shops that in no way we're making rent. London is an easy place to scam and it's got even worse over the last decades with the cuts to the courts and policing. It's really not good enough and London deserves better.
@@pdsnpsnldlqnop3330 Yeah it's weird, I just watched a 20 year old tv show like 2 days ago and they mentioned it and I was like Oh really. You are totally right. I must have over looked it before. I suppose I usually would cut through Soho going to the Oxford circus end of Oxford street. Good comment, just amazing they haven't been nicked in all that time 😅
I remember going to those perfume scams when I was a kid. Out of nowhere a guy whispered from behind me “we don’t sell to under 18”. I left quick time but knew there and then it was a scam!
@@pdsnpsnldlqnop3330 What perfume scam? Although I have been thinking about something strange. In my local high street is a perfume shop but more than half the time it is closed, as a business this makes no sense because the rent is massive. It is the only shop on the street not open 5 days a week.
Thanks for the video. Following your last video on the subject, I noticed an American Candy Shop in prime location in Plymouth's City Centre. Few labels, overinflated pricing, and possibly most damning of all, the front display had a whole shelf of tourist trinkets (phone boxes, model black cabs etc.,) all with 'London' on them..in Plymouth!
I just found an old Forbes article which reports that in addition to candy and vapes, these stores are offering FOREIGN CURRENCY EXCHANGE. That is where money laundering is profitable. Untraceable, high value cash transactions.
A follow up. I was up Oxford St yesterday. Yes, several of the American Candy Stores have currency exchanges at the back. Nobody was using them although a bored looking guy sat behind the glass. Odd, though. There were absolutely no signboards giving exchange rates for the currencies - something that's pretty common in normal bona-fide money changers. I mean who would actually use such a place?
The council would have to approve them to move in from the start, so who's to blame. The systems in place to prevent them setting up in the first place clearly don't work. Buying a house in the UK is almost impossible with the amount of justification and processes to prevent illegal activities, but when it comes to businesses, clearly anyone can open and close. The council have allowed it to happen, and now they are wasting further tax payers money to fix what they could have prevented. I wonder how many people will eventually be charged for crimes (Including endangering public health!). Yet another failure in a government that seem to get away with anything.
The previous Tory administration in Westminster allowed these stores to pop up. As shown in this video, the recently-elected Labour administration is doing something about them!
Private Eye magazine has long pointed out the oddity of these stores, that they avoid business rates. I expect that they avoid paying HMRC too, but HMRC seems to ignore businesses like these because they don't have the staff to investigate and follow up. It's good that Westminster Council have done something about it.
These places are so sketchalicious, good American imports are hard to find in the UK. What sucks is that this will probably kill any hopes of a good US import store surviving for years to come. UK import shops in the US tend to be harder to come across, but also tend to be very honest and exist for a select customer base of homesick Brits and curious locals. I wish I could have found that here in the UK.
There was 50 000 new customs workers needed ...have you seen any ads for training for those jobs ? I have tried to look and cant find a single posting anywhere . Still sitting PM planned to fire 1/5 of the civil servants , that also includes staff from customs services , so its not getting any better .
The entire reason for sodding Freeports. The monumental ignorance and bigotry of Brexit voters has opened the floodgates to even more financial corruption, tax evasion by the filthy rich, piracy and dangerous deregulation .
Portsmouth council and port authority’s around the country are preparing to sue the government for the cost of being required to pay for putting the infrastructure in place paid for by the shipping companies but the government hasn’t put legislation in place to make that happen. They’re losing millions on facilities are standing idol
Is that it? You talk as if BT broke the story. Private Eye has covered it (along with Afghan tat tourist merchandise stores in the same area). The Eye revealed that many of the American sweet shops are owned by young Indian/Anglo Indian businessmen. They don't pay tax on the goods/business income either. In the case of the Afghan tourist merchandise stores, nothing much has been done. 'Too much paperwork'.
Seriously, There isn't any legitimate way or possibility for these Candy stores to be able to,pay the Rates for those Locations if it wasn't some sort of Scam or Money laundering scheme.
At about 2:20 he’s going on about how one closes and another opens. How is that getting past the city, I’m sure to open a store you need a permit / license. They are acting like they didn’t know what was opening there.
Living in America, I have to say American chocolate is quite disgusting. That's really strange since chocolate comes from the Americas. British chocolate isn't so far behind in being repulsive. The best is not actually Belgian nor Swiss but actually the best I tasted before Brexit blew my chances of going back was Latvian.
Where I live in the North of England we have numerous fancy looking Vape shops. Nobody ever goes in them and the guy working there just plays on his phone, but most of them are sizeable units. Five years ago we had milk bars. The same thing. Nobody ever went in apart from friends of the owner. or guy working in there. Who in their right mind wants a cup of hot milk. I am convinced that all of it is money laundering.
Money laundering, covid loans, drugs hubs for dealers are some obvious things that stick out. I’m sure they’re being staked out by the appropriate authorities and I’m sure HMRC are already looking into them.
Just a thought...these shops could have a negative impact on property prices, so people behind these scheme could buy up properties well below their value.
@@LoveStarRecords nobody is buying up properties on this street as they are extremely high value. The small dent in the value this may cause is totally negligible to the real value
@@clownworld5474 not specific to this location..... hence "silly world". it isn't all that crazy to think tactics exist to butt fuck you out of existence. lets make sure we're using our brains. don't stall thought with limited perspective. or perhaps your brain isn't working in a functional capacity.
Satirical magazine 'Private Eye' has been reporting on these candy-shops, and other sellers of tourist-souvenirs, for more than a year now. Finally the local-government reacts ! But what about the Inland-Revenue, to collect VAT & other taxes, which might also be due ?
It's really quite simple. Rates are being applied to empty stores so the landlords have got to find someone to take on a lease. Councils want the rates, the government want to encourage landlords to rent out to save on a rates bill, so they either take on a charity shop or an American candy store. And the market for charity shops is saturated. It all comes down to councils charging property owners for empty units, and the pressure they're put under to rent out to anybody who'll save them from having to pay those rents. In Scotland too they charge for empty factories. Demolition has become a growth industry as many empty factories are getting pulled down to save owners from having to pay rates. Problem there is that there's a lack of factory and office space for someone wanting to start up a business.
@@Quixotematic A lot of businesses lease the units because they simply can't afford to buy. They're young companies without a lot of financial backing and leasing means not only can they get a foothold but also allows them to expand and grow if they need. Landlords provide an essential service to those businesses.
Well that was pretty inconclusive. Why put such a non-story online and ask viewers to become members and support Byline TV? One thing's for sure, this story is far from over.
This is weird all round. For a start, ignoring the criminal aspect, how can so many of these tacky shops be allowed to open in the first place. The piece does mention Oxford Streets place in the retail world and while not now in its prime, surely it must be thought of with the same sense of preservation as a listed building (in a rough way!). There is obviously pressure to fill a vacant shop for financial reasons, but does no one check that a proposed business will keep to the standards expected for a location with such a prestigious address? Apparently not, as there all the sweet shops were. Not classy, and as we saw, potentially harmful to health. Someone in the department responsible needs a meeting and a training course.
Let’s not let the real problem get away from us. This isn’t about counterfeit candy and prime real estate being taken. Audit the books and follow the money. Conspiracy to launder money. Tax avoidance etc etc
theres one in Bradford like this. massively inflated prices and none of the goods are legit. if you look long enough you even find spelling mistakes on the packaging
As the world entire has been printing lots of money in the past three years, the UK appears to be the best money laundering centre for foreign currencies and the associated illegal immigration.
They are obviously fronts. Who for is the real question. Would be kind of ironic if the American sweet shops were being used to launder cash for the Russians (I'm not villifying Russian people but the city has been known as 'Londongrad' for a reason).
So I was in Miami last year and saw a lot of shops selling sweatshirts/ beach gears . All these shops and their products looked exactly the same. Are they similar to these candy shops?? Like there were way too many of them . It just made me think they were for laundering.
I live near Manchester, UK. We have an American sweet shop. I have always wondered how they make money as they are empty. There is no way they could make a profit from selling sweets. I have bought sweets from the shop (£4.99 for a bag ) and felt they are not the same as I ate in the US. There is no demand for American sweets, we have a massive range anyway. I have always wondered how this sweet shop has made any money.
We have those American candy stores in czech republic. They have brands and types of chocolates that I have never before seen, so I instantly became suspicious of them, even the prices were too high for something as simple as Reese Peanut butter cups. So they are probably pulling the same scam here in czech republic
So the criminals took a page out of politician's and banker's book and thought that if they commit a crime on broad daylight they can get away with it.
The Council changed from Tory to Labour soon after the Byline Times video. It seems the new Labour Council leader wanted to do something about the stores.
Is this related in any way to the lack of import checks post brexit? the Tory Government have yet to implement the full range of checks for goods coming into the UK missing out on billions in taxes revenue but also potentially allowing in these kinds of counterfeit items.
If they are money laundering why are they using physical shops ? You only need an online presence to money launder. I've heard it's got something to do with VAT fraud.
Drugs.... Obviously... Why is this even under question do you guys not live in the real world. Same with fried chicken shops, car washes, kebab houses and alot of middle Eastern hairdressers....
@Monkey News Not really the same thing as back then it was mostly cheap knockoffs you could buy at tourist destinations but everyone knew it was cheap fakes they bought. I can't recall it being so blatant on main streets.
What happened to the import inspection system Brexit enabled? Is this another example of controlling borders Brexit was going to deliver? When will Brexit Britain take control of it’s borders?
Try walking down the main Street in Canterbury, Kent, UK. Vape /candy shops. American candy shop with a bright pink facia opposite the historic medieval entrance to Canterbury cathedral. Out of keeping. Outrageous. What is Canterbury City Council doing about this?
They only operate in this manner and avoid business rates with the assistance of commercial property owners and their agents. They are just as involved with these frauds as those running these stores.
There's a few of these popping up around Manchester and Greater Manchester, pretty much anywhere there's an empty unit - a couple in the Trafford center as well.
The fish starts to smell from the head...so candies n candies seller?last of the problem...landlords???lettings those shops???....the city of London??? The biggest OPM washing machine...police officers just busy giving londoners parking tickets
It would be really interesting to know exactly what kind of scheme these candy shops are running. The fake/counterfeit candy can't be the main scam. The items are priced so high I don't think these stores actually want people to purchase anything. If they don't sell anything then what's the benefit of avoiding paying business rates (by disappearing quickly)? The fact that these candy stores pop in premium high street locations around the country makes me think that the schemes they are running has something to do with the value of the location and higher rent. Maybe the scheme is done in collusion with the landlord and/or subletter? Does it have something to do with milking some government scheme/benefit intended to help businesses during the pandemic? If money laundering why not be more discrete about it and why not set up different types of stores? Is there something special about setting up a candy store or are the criminals just so unoriginal? Also if they are money laundering can't the authorities monitor the stores foot traffic and compare it to what they are reporting for earnings etc? Also as many of the stores seem to be run by Afghan immigrants are they laundering dirty money from Afghanistan? If so how deep does it go? Are they laundering for individuals or a corrupt Afghan government/ the Taliban? It's such a mystery. My guess is that these store are running a combination of scams/illegal activities. But it would be really interesting to know exactly what they are.
Mate it's just drug money... 100s of thousands laundered through the tills every week between them all... and then the money is probably being siphoned out the country to dubai or something..
I mean all you have to ask is how are these dodgy obviously very unprofessional and crappy looking shops affording to open on one of Britain's most expensive high streets? Its simple money laundering and everyone from the owner to the landlord is in on it.
The 'haul' yielded less than the cost of the sting, BUT the shops have been halted. *so the sting failed?* All it proves is that the inventory maintained was low. This was meant to be a money laundering thing anyway wasn't it?
The business model is to declare sales, pay taxes for what they declared, and therefore converting criminal money to legal money. They are not interested to sell anything. That is why the shops are full of massively overpriced items, and rarely a customer is seen buying. Many goods are fake or expired items, which they can get cheap and display them.
Every petrol station and off license also has suddenly over the last few years gained a "American candy and drinks" section, i assumed it is to do with better trade with the US since Brexit but I am beginning to think a lot of this stuff isn't even from America and is just copied packaging
It’s amazing to me how much the British government care not about getting its money. I suppose they feel it’s easier/more convenient to get it from the public. It also amazes me how the companies that are licensed distributors for these candies don’t care about the cut they aren’t getting either. 🤷🏻♂️
