UK Trading Standards Officers Report Organized Crime in High Street Shops

Organized crime on High Streets has steadily increased over the past decade, according to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. A survey sent to more than 2,000 members of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute found that 96% of front-line teams now have to deal with organized crime. More than 70% of officers have faced threats of intimidation or violence.

Officers work for local authorities in England, Wales, and Scotland, and more centrally in Northern Ireland. In some areas, half of all mini-marts and vape shops have links to organized crime, and up to a third of American candy stores do as well. Criminality was logged in big cities, smaller towns including Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and Barry in South Wales, and villages.

'The organised crime is the number one threat facing the profession,' said John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Cocaine and cannabis are being sold over the counter in shops in West Midlands towns, according to a BBC investigation. An apprentice received sexual comments from a shop worker who said he was going to find her on social media.

Andrew Meaney, a Trading Standards officer in Wales with more than 36 years of experience, often wears a stab vest for front-line work. Meaney was physically assaulted by a shop worker who grabbed him by the throat and spat in his face after stopping the man from driving away in a car filled with illegal tobacco. The shop worker was fined £415 for battery.

Premises can be shut for up to three months under anti-social behaviour legislation. The UK government is establishing a new task force to strengthen the response to illegality on High Streets and money laundering, including 120 new Trading Standards apprentices supported by £10m a year for the next three years.

Since March 2025, over 3,000 High Street premises suspected of criminal activity have been visited and nearly 1,000 individuals arrested.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute wants £100m invested into Trading Standards. Officers described extreme threats, repeated sexual abuse, attacks on their cars and property, and attempts to run them over, with trackers placed on vehicles and reports of being followed at work.

Mandy described the midnight call occurring while she was alone at home, with the caller shouting amid background voices, warning her to stop her investigations or face death and arson. She had emigrated from South Africa to escape such fears, only to encounter them again in the UK.

The apprentice spoke of feeling eternally unclean after encounters, with nerve-wracking nights before raids leading to nightmares.

Meaney noted the job has become more dangerous when dealing with organized crime groups, expressing disappointment at the low fine for his assailant, an amount the shop could recoup in a day from illegal sales. The CTSI survey highlights the widespread nature of the problem, with criminal links extending beyond urban areas to rural villages.

Government efforts include collaboration with police and the National Crime Agency to target these operations.