Thousands of seemingly legitimate UK high street shops are being used by organized-crime groups to launder illicit cash, sell illegal goods, and feed wider criminal networks, with at least £47 billion a year drained from the British economy by the schemes, according to a new report by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG).

The study, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Tackling Crime on the UK’s High Streets,” warns that organized-crime groups, or OCGs, have moved into vacant retail units, particularly cash-intensive businesses such as barbershops, nail bars, vape stores, mini-marts, and American candy stores. The operations function as shadow supply chains that span ports, warehouses, and rural premises before goods reach the shop floor. 

CTSI members have identified the presence of organized crime on UK high streets as the number-one threat facing the trading standards profession, the report says.

The report cites the National Crime Agency’s assessment that thousands of shops across the UK are involved in low-level money laundering, at times washing only a few thousand pounds a month, while a few hundred premises launder up to a couple of million pounds each over the same period. Nearly all trading standards professionals surveyed for the report said they had seen an increase in cash-intensive businesses opening on their local high streets since 2020.

The NCA, quoted in the report, said serious and organized-crime (SOC) offenders use high street businesses to support criminality, distribute illicit goods, engage in illegal working, or launder funds. “These practices undermine legitimate businesses, damage consumer confidence, and harm local investment,” the agency said.  

The report places particular emphasis on the role of so-called “professional enablers,” such as lawyers and accountants, who are hired by criminal groups to obscure ownership of premises, set up “fake” company directors, and frustrate investigations. It also flags the use of cryptocurrencies as an emerging channel for criminal proceeds, alongside cash.

In the report, CTSI and ACG call for a significant increase in the number of Accredited Financial Investigators, or AFIs, embedded in local authority trading standards services across the UK. AFIs use powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to identify and trace illicit funds, seize criminal assets, and provide redress for victims. The bodies also recommend a government-funded training program partly drawn from the Home Office’s Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme. 

The report singles out Scotland as particularly in need of reform, noting that due to the drafting of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Scottish trading standards services are not permitted to employ AFIs at all, and that the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme does not extend to Scotland. The gaps mean that, unlike their peers through the rest of the UK, Scottish enforcement officers are not permitted to order shop closures. 

Kenny MacAskill, the former justice secretary who established the country’s serious organized crime taskforce 17 years ago, told The Herald that Scottish law had to keep pace with evolving criminal activity. 

“Organized crime morphs and moves and laws and law enforcement need to adapt and adjust to deal with them,” he told the newspaper. “If there are gaps, and there certainly appear to be, they require to be filled.” 

David MacKenzie, chairman of the CTSI, told The Herald that “Scottish trading standards services must be empowered by introducing enforcement options that are not available in Scotland, such as closure orders, which have been used to great effect in other areas of the UK.”