The Hidden Network of Illegal Migrant Labor on UK High Streets
A complex criminal network is enabling migrants to work illegally in mini-marts across the United Kingdom, according to a recent investigation. This system involves fake company directors who are paid to put their names on official paperwork, while having no real involvement in running the businesses.
Two undercover reporters, both Kurdish, posed as asylum seekers and were told how easy it would be for them to take over and run a shop, making significant profits from illegal vapes and cigarettes. The investigation has linked over 100 mini-marts, barbershops, and car washes, operating from Dundee to south Devon, to this crime network. A financial crime investigator believes the network extends much further.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood responded to the investigation, stating that "illegal working and linked organised criminality creates an incentive for people to come here illegally. We will not stand for it."
For the first time, the inner workings of a criminal system that allows asylum seekers to work openly on UK High Streets have been revealed. One man claimed weekly takings from illicit tobacco at his shop could reach up to £3,000. The men facilitating this—so-called "ghost directors"—each have dozens of businesses listed on Companies House but are often not involved in running them.
"The shop doesn't belong to me, it's just under my name," one of them told our undercover reporters. Many of these businesses are dissolved after about a year and then re-opened with minor changes to official paperwork.
These businesses exhibit "all the red flags" associated with organized criminality, according to a financial crime investigator. During the investigation, several concerning findings were uncovered:
- An asylum seeker, whose claim was rejected, attempted to sell a shop to our undercover reporter for £18,000
- A Kurdish Facebook group listing dozens of mini-marts, barbers, car washes, and takeaways for sale
- "Ghost directors" charging illegal workers up to £300 per month to register mini-marts in their names
- Kurdish builders offering to construct elaborate hiding spaces for illegal cigarettes and vapes that could fool sniffer dogs
- Asylum seekers, who said the Home Office had left them in legal limbo, working 14-hour shifts in mini-marts for as little as £4 per hour
The two Kurdish journalists involved in the investigation are aware of the tensions surrounding immigration. They worry that such coverage of illegal activities within the Kurdish community could inflame hostilities. One of them is a former asylum seeker himself, and he stated, "I wanted to play a role in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to say loudly that they don't represent us."
Over four months, the team monitored a Kurdish Facebook group where businesses across the UK were listed for sale. New adverts appeared every week. The reporters contacted three individuals who listed mini-marts for sale in Crewe, Hull, and Liverpool. They expressed interest in running a mini-mart and trading illegal cigarettes.
In Cheshire, the man running a Crewe mini-mart called Top Store offered to sell his shop to one reporter for £18,000 cash. Surchi, the shopkeeper, assured the journalist that "you don't need anything" to own and run a mini-mart as an asylum seeker. He claimed to be a Kurdish asylum seeker who arrived in the UK in 2022, but whose claim had been refused.
Asylum seekers generally do not have the right to work in the UK while their claim is being processed. Permission to work is only granted in limited circumstances and is subject to strict conditions. If asylum seekers are granted permission to work, they can only apply for eligible jobs on the Immigration Salary List, which do not include being a shop manager or shop assistant.
Surchi mentioned paying someone named "Hadi" around £250 a month to be named on official papers. This arrangement allowed him to avoid scrutiny by authorities and sell whatever he liked. He also claimed he had never paid any council tax and that the undercover reporter would not need to officially register the company.
Trading Standards had raided the shop once, Surchi said, and he had been fined £200 for selling illegal cigarettes and vapes. Shop owners caught selling these items can be fined up to £10,000, but the profits from such products far exceed the penalties.
During a tour of the premises, Surchi showed the reporter a so-called "stash car" where he hid the bulk of his stock until 17:00 each night. He also demonstrated how he tampered with the electricity meter to avoid paying utility bills. Surchi sold vapes to a group of teenagers while the reporter was present, claiming he had no issue with customers as young as 12 years old.
Customers paid via a card machine into a bank account, which belonged to his cousin, who owned a mini-mart 15 miles away in Stoke.
'Fine craftsmanship' to fool sniffer dogs
On Facebook, the team discovered Kurdish builders willing to help conceal illegal vapes and cigarettes. One reporter posted that he had bought a mini-mart in Manchester and was looking for "a specialist to build a space to hide cigarettes in the shop." Six builders responded. One sent a video showing a vending machine for illegal cigarettes hidden in a loft, which, when pressed, pinged packets down a chute to a concealed vent below.
This "fine craftsmanship" cost £6,000 and was guaranteed to fool Trading Standards' sniffer dogs, the builder claimed.
A network of ghost directors
As the investigation delved deeper, a network of ghost directors began to emerge. One name that kept appearing was Hadi Ahmad Ali, a Birmingham man to whom Surchi claimed to pay a monthly fee. Mr. Ahmad Ali was listed on Companies House as being from Iraq, in his 40s, and a director of more than 50 other businesses—mini-marts, barbers, and car washes.
When one of the reporters called him pretending to be an asylum seeker looking to buy the Crewe business, Mr. Ahmad Ali confirmed he could keep it in his name for a fee of between £250 and £300 a month. He also claimed he could provide a bank card for the shop.
Mr. Ahmad Ali is still listed as an active director on several businesses on Companies House. However, in October 2024, he was disqualified from being a company officer for five years. The ban followed illegal cigarette sales at a shop in his name in Chorley, Lancashire—including to a 16-year-old. Separately, he pleaded guilty to his involvement in the sale of illegal cigarettes in Lincolnshire and was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months.
When confronted by the team, Mr. Ahmad Ali denied all allegations, stating that the mini-marts were nothing to do with him and that he had contacted Companies House to get his name removed from the businesses.
Ghost directors and their connections
The team also linked Mr. Ahmad Ali to another man, Ismael Ahmedi Farzanda, who was identified as a ghost director responsible for 25 mini-marts. Mr. Farzanda’s name came up because Companies House filings showed he had taken over as company director from Mr. Ahmad Ali at seven mini-mart businesses. The pair also shared a co-directorship on one shop in Blackpool.
One of the reporters managed to call Mr. Farzanda using the same cover story as he had used with Mr. Ahmad Ali. Mr. Farzanda stated, "I just put the shops under my name for people." He explained that an "accountant" would handle the paperwork, bank accounts, and payments to him, and that he would have no problem with the illegal cigarette sales.
Mr. Farzanda was fined £4,500 in August after one shop, registered in his name in Haslingden, Lancashire, was caught selling illegal vapes to a 14-year-old, according to local media reports. Seventeen shops registered under the names of Mr. Ahmad Ali and Mr. Farzanda have been raided since 2021, with illegal tobacco and vapes seized, according to Trading Standards sources.
Despite being registered on official documents as being from Iran, Mr. Farzanda claimed to be from the Sharazoor district in neighboring Iraq. Both reporters noted that some Kurdish people arriving in the UK on small boats pretend to be Iranian, believing their asylum claims would have a better chance of success.
When presented with evidence, Mr. Farzanda denied all allegations.
Evading Scrutiny and Criminal Activity
The team found that companies would be set up for a year, dissolved, and then re-established with slightly different spelling of the business names. The men's names and birthdays would also be changed slightly. Financial crime investigator Graham Barrow noted that this pattern is likely an attempt to evade tax and scrutiny by authorities.
The network of businesses identified by the team could stretch even wider across the country, according to Mr. Barrow. "I certainly think it's hundreds. It could easily be bigger than that," he said.
The team visited more than a dozen mini-marts linked to this network of ghost directors. Every location was on rundown High Streets in some of the UK's most deprived areas, such as Blackpool, Bradford, Huddersfield, and Hull. All but one of the shops sold counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes for about £4 per pack instead of the average UK price of £16 for a pack of 20.
In addition to Surchi's story in Crewe, the investigation revealed details of other Kurdish asylum seekers being employed illegally. A mini-mart worker in a Blackpool shop linked to one of the ghost directors described working 14-hour days at the shop, earning £60 to £65 per day. He had been interviewed by the Home Office four months ago but had not heard anything since.
The shop had been raided by Trading Standards three times, but he described it as "nothing." "Just give them any name and they will walk away," he explained, saying that whenever he was asked who he was, he would give the name of a famous Kurdish singer, Aziz Waisi.
Another Kurdish shopworker in a Salford shop registered under Ismaeel Farzanda's name said he was in legal limbo. "I've been here for six months and I still haven't claimed asylum," he said. The 42-year-old claimed he had first come to the UK as a teenager before returning to Kurdistan. He returned this year and "they found my previous fingerprint records but nothing came of it." He was staying with friends and said, "Honestly, we're all struggling here and don't know what to do."
The government claims it has increased raids by 51% and raised fines for businesses to £60,000 per person found working illegally. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood added that the government has "seized millions of pounds worth of unlicensed goods, banned dodgy directors and removed more than 35,000 people with no right to be in the UK."
Additional reporting by Phill Edwards and Kirstie Brewer
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