Eight convenience stores were visited in Somerset’s Millfield area on Thursday (28) in response to intelligence and community concerns around criminal activity including modern slavery, drugs supply, selling illicit tobacco products and money laundering.
As per local reports, a multi-agency operation was carried out by government agencies including Environment Agency, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Immigration Enforcement, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) and police.
More than 25,000 illegal or counterfeit cigarettes and 9kg of tobacco were seized in connection with suspected tax evasion. Other results include two referrals to Trading Standards in connection with breaches relating to vapes.
Inspector Karl Secker, from the Peterborough Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Acting on intelligence and responding to community concerns, we came together to visit a number of businesses operating in the Lincoln Road area of Millfield to check for a number of things around employee rights, pay and conditions, whether people were legally working here in the UK and checking whether anyone was being exploited or had been brought here against their will.
“We were also looking for signs of organised criminality which is often connected to things such as tax evasion and money laundering, which is something our colleagues at HMRC specialise in.
“Days such as this where numerous agencies all come together are not a one-off, this is all part of the ongoing work our neighbourhood policing teams do day in, day out, in response to concerns from the local community,” Secker said.
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