A BBC investigation has uncovered a network of so-called “ghost directors” enabling asylum seekers and other migrants to work illegally in mini-marts, barbers and car washes across the UK. Undercover reporters, who are Kurdish, posed as asylum seekers and found it relatively easy to take over shops and sell illegal cigarettes and vapes.
The reporters traced more than 100 businesses from Dundee to south Devon to a small number of individuals listed as company directors at Companies House but who say they are not involved in running the shops. Investigators and financial-crime specialists told the BBC the pattern of registrations, short-lived companies and repeated small changes to names and dates are red flags for organised criminality and likely indicate a wider problem.
How the system works
People described as ghost directors offer to put their names on official paperwork for a fee—typically about £250–£300 a month—so the businesses appear legitimate on paper even when asylum seekers run them and sell illicit goods. One shopkeeper said weekly takings from illicit tobacco could be as much as £3,000. Many businesses are dissolved after about a year and then re-opened with slight changes to company details.
The reporters found a Kurdish Facebook group regularly posting mini-marts, barbers and takeaways for sale. New adverts appeared weekly. In one case a Crewe shopkeeper offered to sell his mini-mart for £18,000 cash and described how to avoid detection: using a “stash car” to store stock, installing hiding spots in basements and bypassing electricity meters. Builders in the group even advertised bespoke concealment systems—one claimed to have made a loft-mounted dispenser for cigarettes, costing £6,000 and allegedly designed to fool sniffer dogs.
Examples and first-hand accounts
In Crewe, a shop known as Top Store was offered for sale and the seller, who said he was a Kurdish asylum seeker, said he paid a man called “Hadi” to be the named director. The seller told reporters that enforcement visits were rare and that the arrangement allowed him to operate largely unhindered. While the seller later claimed to hold paperwork proving a right to work, he did not provide it when asked.
Elsewhere reporters encountered workers who said they had been left in official limbo by the Home Office and were working long shifts for low pay—one man said he worked 14-hour days and earned around £50–£65 per day. Another worker described giving a false name if questioned by authorities to avoid detection. Several shops linked to the network have been raided repeatedly by Trading Standards, with illicit tobacco and vapes seized.
The ghost directors
Two names that repeatedly appeared in Companies House filings were Hadi Ahmad Ali and Ismaeel (Ismael) Farzanda, both linked to dozens of businesses. Reporters contacted them posing as prospective buyers and were told they could keep leases and company paperwork in the directors’ names for a monthly fee and that bank cards might be obtainable through their network. Companies connected to these men have been subject to raids and enforcement action: one shop registered to Mr Ahmad Ali led to his later disqualification as a company officer and to criminal proceedings and fines in relation to illegal tobacco sales.
Analysis of company records showed companies being set up for about a year, dissolved and then re-registered with slightly altered spellings, dates of birth and other small changes. Financial-crime investigators said this pattern is consistent with attempts to evade tax and dodge scrutiny by authorities. The BBC also identified at least two other ghost directors, bringing the total number of company directorships linked to four individuals to more than 100. An investigator told the BBC the network could well be much larger—possibly into the hundreds.
Enforcement and government response
Trading Standards and HM Revenue & Customs have carried out raids on dozens of these shops; HMRC estimates that illicit tobacco and related crimes cost the Exchequer at least £2.2bn in lost revenue. Shops caught selling illegal vapes and tobacco can face fines of up to £10,000 or higher, and the government says it has increased enforcement activity—reporting a 51% increase in raids and raising the maximum fine for businesses to £60,000 per person found working illegally.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the Home Office would investigate the BBC’s findings. She said illegal working and linked organised crime create incentives for people to come to the UK illegally and that the government would not tolerate it. Companies House said it now has greater powers to share information and support law-enforcement investigations when criminality is suspected.
Community concerns and context
The two Kurdish reporters involved in the investigation expressed concern that exposing criminal activity within their community could inflame tensions. One, a former asylum seeker, said he wanted to show that these illegal activities do not represent the wider Kurdish community.
Asylum seekers in the UK are generally not permitted to work while their claims are processed, except in limited circumstances and only in roles on the Immigration Salary List. Running or managing a shop is not among those permitted jobs. The BBC’s reporting highlights how ghost-director arrangements can enable unauthorised work to take place in plain sight on High Streets, often in economically deprived areas where illicit goods are sold at prices far below the legal market rate.
The investigation documents a complex, UK-wide system that uses official company registrations to mask illegal trading and exploit vulnerable people. Authorities say they are acting, but enforcement sources and investigators warn that the scale of the networks and the repeated recycling of company records make tackling the problem difficult and suggest the issue could be more extensive than current figures show.