UK Barber shops
Discussion
The ones here in Exeter usually have a black RR or Merc turn up every week. I had to berate one in my sleepy market town the other day for simply sweeping all the clippings out of the door and into the street. I have a good friend who's set up a number of legitimate Turkish cafés, restaurants and bars over the years and he is livid about the blind eye that's turned to the barbers and sweet shops. Hopefully the beginning of the end for them, but I won't hold my breath.
blueST said:
It's getting ridiculous and so brazen. Literally rows of what were dilapidated shops, now full of takeaways, barbers and vape shops here with not a customer in sight. I will, say, some have the barbers have really quite ostentatious fit outs too. All very weird.
Yup, in our small town we have loads of them, one has recently opened on the main street which must be the highest rental/rates area of town. Fit out looks great but no one ever in there.We have a Turkish barber shop open up in my local village in Fermanagh. I have never seen someone get their hair cut yet, but there always seem to be 4/5 guys in their playing pool ( only barber shop I have seen with a pool table). What do I know the owner drives a new mustang car, must be charging a fortune for hair cuts at night.
The town I moved to in the early 2000s had, at that time, 2 High St barbers for a population of about 80,000. You could pretty much always walk in and get a cut with a short wait.
Population is now 90,000. Those two barbers are still going, but we now also have 7 'Turkish' barbers on the High St and surroundings. They rarely have any customers in, but are done out really well in nice premises. Usually have two or three bored-looking staff sat on the chairs on their phones.
It's been a fishy operation for years, surprised it's taken the authorities this long to get around to cottoning on. Could also target nail bars, hand car washes, vape shops and mobile phone case shops.
I have a mate in CID who told me hand car washes are a bit of an oddity because out of every five or six that are set up as fronts for sinister operations, there'll be one where the guy who runs it starts to like the fact he's giving a good service to people and it actually turns into a legitimate business.
Population is now 90,000. Those two barbers are still going, but we now also have 7 'Turkish' barbers on the High St and surroundings. They rarely have any customers in, but are done out really well in nice premises. Usually have two or three bored-looking staff sat on the chairs on their phones.
It's been a fishy operation for years, surprised it's taken the authorities this long to get around to cottoning on. Could also target nail bars, hand car washes, vape shops and mobile phone case shops.
I have a mate in CID who told me hand car washes are a bit of an oddity because out of every five or six that are set up as fronts for sinister operations, there'll be one where the guy who runs it starts to like the fact he's giving a good service to people and it actually turns into a legitimate business.
Hugo Stiglitz said:
I wonder if buy, sell, buy and on every sold house they are completely guttered and renovated would be workable for laundering?
One house on my street (same owner) has renovated his home three times over. All expensive work.
I would say that isn't a very effective way to launder money given the amount you have to put in vs what you would eventually get out. One house on my street (same owner) has renovated his home three times over. All expensive work.
Too much regulation around buying / selling as well. Starting a business is relatively easy in comparison.
Tom8 said:
Finally. Good to see but yet more imported crime we don't need and also related to the boats. People lamenting it is only a tiny percentage coming over in dinghies may now see the bigger picture.
It isn't people in boats coming over to launder money, it's criminals using those people to front illegal businesses. If they didn't use people from boats they would use someone else locally. The issue is people in the UK who are criminals doing criminal stuff and that wont change because you stop 30.000 people arriving in dinghies each year. Clamp down on this and all that will happen is that the laundering will become less visible. There are several barbers shops in my own town and all are full of people / legitimate business. But then you would never know that the lovely Italian restaurant or local chip shop is taking and laundering money because it's done on a much smaller scale and the owners aren't brown.
sugerbear said:
Tom8 said:
Finally. Good to see but yet more imported crime we don't need and also related to the boats. People lamenting it is only a tiny percentage coming over in dinghies may now see the bigger picture.
It isn't people in boats coming over to launder money, it's criminals using those people to front illegal businesses. If they didn't use people from boats they would use someone else locally. The issue is people in the UK who are criminals doing criminal stuff and that wont change because you stop 30.000 people arriving in dinghies each year. Clamp down on this and all that will happen is that the laundering will become less visible. There are several barbers shops in my own town and all are full of people / legitimate business. But then you would never know that the lovely Italian restaurant or local chip shop is taking and laundering money because it's done on a much smaller scale and the owners aren't brown.
bit of a maths fail on there... claiming £150,000 a month income.
how much would a gents cut be? £10? £15?
That's 10,000 cuts a month, 333 cuts a day....nearly 30 cuts an hour if you say they're open 12 hours a day or something. Either they're doing army cuts or something weird is going on there.
how much would a gents cut be? £10? £15?
That's 10,000 cuts a month, 333 cuts a day....nearly 30 cuts an hour if you say they're open 12 hours a day or something. Either they're doing army cuts or something weird is going on there.
sugerbear said:
Tom8 said:
Finally. Good to see but yet more imported crime we don't need and also related to the boats. People lamenting it is only a tiny percentage coming over in dinghies may now see the bigger picture.
It isn't people in boats coming over to launder money, it's criminals using those people to front illegal businesses. If they didn't use people from boats they would use someone else locally. The issue is people in the UK who are criminals doing criminal stuff and that wont change because you stop 30.000 people arriving in dinghies each year. Clamp down on this and all that will happen is that the laundering will become less visible. There are several barbers shops in my own town and all are full of people / legitimate business. But then you would never know that the lovely Italian restaurant or local chip shop is taking and laundering money because it's done on a much smaller scale and the owners aren't brown.
Otispunkmeyer said:
bit of a maths fail on there... claiming £150,000 a month income.
how much would a gents cut be? £10? £15?
That's 10,000 cuts a month, 333 cuts a day....nearly 30 cuts an hour if you say they're open 12 hours a day or something. Either they're doing army cuts or something weird is going on there.
My cut takes about 20-25 mins and costs £20. There are other overheads than rent/rates/energy as well - my barbers has an online booking system which I doubt is free to them. But I doubt the one I go to is a front as they take card payments. On Crowthorne high st there are another 3 barbers, 2 of which I suspect could be dodgy. There's also a massive vape shop down the road in College Town which I often have wondered how it makes any money. As others have said, quite brazen.how much would a gents cut be? £10? £15?
That's 10,000 cuts a month, 333 cuts a day....nearly 30 cuts an hour if you say they're open 12 hours a day or something. Either they're doing army cuts or something weird is going on there.
sugerbear said:
It isn't people in boats coming over to launder money, it's criminals using those people to front illegal businesses. If they didn't use people from boats they would use someone else locally. The issue is people in the UK who are criminals doing criminal stuff and that wont change because you stop 30.000 people arriving in dinghies each year. Clamp down on this and all that will happen is that the laundering will become less visible.
There are several barbers shops in my own town and all are full of people / legitimate business. But then you would never know that the lovely Italian restaurant or local chip shop is taking and laundering money because it's done on a much smaller scale and the owners aren't brown.
There are several barbers shops in my own town and all are full of people / legitimate business. But then you would never know that the lovely Italian restaurant or local chip shop is taking and laundering money because it's done on a much smaller scale and the owners aren't brown.
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