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The UK element of the operation was led by officers from Immigration Enforcement Criminal and Financial Investigation and all the individuals were arrested on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration.

The individuals are believed to be part of an organised criminal network that transported individuals, predominantly from Afghanistan, across Europe and into the UK. The smuggling attempts often involved migrants being concealed in specially adapted vehicles.

Today’s arrest operation, which forms part of a wider international law enforcement joint investigation, was supported by officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and international partners from Europol and Eurojust (the EU agency tasked with strengthening judicial co-ordination on serious cross-border organised crime).

A breakdown of the arrests is as follows:

Seven individuals in London, two in Birmingham and two in Gateshead on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration. A further individual was arrested in London for suspected immigration offences.

There were also 7 arrests in Bulgaria and 8 in Belgium on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration.

Steve Dann, Director, Criminal & Financial Investigation said:

This international investigation is targeting an organised network suspected of being involved in a systematic attempt to evade the UK’s immigration controls.

People smuggling is a cruel and dangerous trade in which often vulnerable individuals are treated as commodities. Many are passed into the hands of other crime gangs who would seek to exploit them for modern slavery purposes – including labour exploitation and the illicit sex trade.

We have been working closely with law enforcement colleagues across Europe and that vital co-operation will continue as the investigation proceeds with the evidence we have seized today.

The NCA’s Chris Hogben, deputy head of the Invigor taskforce, said:

Criminal gangs often facilitate the arrival of illegal migrants into the UK by exploiting their desperation without thought for safety and with the sole motive of profit.

We see this through migrants being sent across the channel in unseaworthy small boats or stuffed into the back of cramped lorries, vans and cars.

This operation is a good example of how we can bring together law enforcement from across Europe to work together to take on that threat and disrupt the organised networks involved in people smuggling.

This investigation falls under Project Invigor, the UK’s Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce that targets the criminal networks behind people smuggling. Partners include the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and the Crown Prosecution Service, working in the UK and internationally.

Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visit http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns is to call on Welsh manufacturing businesses to maintain their competitive edge and keep firing on all cylinders, as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.

Mr Cairns will deliver a keynote speech to firms at this evening’s annual EEF dinner (26 October), where he is expected to outline plans to address Wales’ low productivity rate, through the UK-wide Industrial Strategy, which calls on Welsh firms to be at the forefront of innovation and export trade, so that prosperity is shared across the country.

Wales currently benefits from its economy’s manufacturing base, which employs around 150,000 people and is made up of over 5,000 companies, 97% of which are SMEs. But Wales is the least productive region in the UK, with productivity only 80.5% of the UK average.

The Secretary of State for Wales is expected to say:

If we want to stimulate every part of our economy, then we need to create the right conditions for generating ideas and innovation – we need to foster entrepreneurship.

Wales has the advantage of a strong innovation base – be that compound semi-conductors in Cardiff, agri-tech in Aberystwyth, or advanced manufacturing in Deeside.

The UK Government will invest an additional £4.7 billion by 2020-21 in research and development funding and create a new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to help the UK capitalise on its strengths in science and innovation in manufacturing.

Mr Cairns will also say:

We know Wales has huge potential when it comes to trade and investment, as there are currently more than 3,800 businesses in Wales that export.

I’d like to see businesses in Wales taking advantage of the world-class support on offer from the UK Government and Welsh Government so that Wales and the wider UK is the best place in the world to do business.

Additional information:

• The UK Government has announced an additional £4.7 billion by 2020-21 in research and development funding and created a new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to help the UK capitalise on its strengths in science and innovation in manufacturing.
• There are currently more than 3,800 businesses in Wales that export, with a combined value of £13billion in the first quarter of 2017. Wales is also an attractive place for inward investment, with latest figures showing that 85 foreign direct investment projects were secured in Wales, creating 2,581 new jobs and safeguarding almost 9,000 more.
• The Secretary of State for Wales has recently written to over 26,000 Welsh businesses identified as potential exporters including a copy to the Wales Export Guide. The Wales specific guide sets out the full range of support available to Welsh businesses from the UK Government and contains inspiring stories of companies based in Wales that are successfully exporting. You can read the guide online here.

Mrs Rokeya Monir, the sole registered director of Nawab Lounge Ltd, which traded as Nawab, an Indian restaurant and takeaway in Thatcham, Berkshire has been disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years having given disqualification undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which commenced on 28 September 2017 for employing three illegal workers.

Monir’s disqualification follows investigations carried out by the Insolvency Service and Home Office Immigration Enforcement.

Having inspected the premises in January 2015, Home Office Immigration Enforcement officials found three illegal workers and imposed a penalty of £30,000.

On 27 February 2015, Home Office Immigration Enforcement issued Nawab Lounge Ltd with a Notification of Liability for a Civil Penalty for £30,000 in respect of the company’s employment of three illegal workers. Payment was due on or before 31 March 2015, however, on 5 August 2015 Nawab Lounge Ltd went into liquidation and the penalty remained unpaid.

Commenting on the disqualification, David Brooks a Chief Investigator with the Insolvency Service said:

The Insolvency Service rigorously pursues directors who fail to pay penalties imposed by the government for breaking employment and immigration laws. We have worked closely in this case with our colleagues at the Home Office to achieve this disqualification.

The director sought to gain an unfair advantage over her competitors by employing individuals who did not have the right to work in the UK in breach of her duty as a director.

The public has a right to expect that those who break the law will face the consequences. If you fail to comply with your obligations, the Insolvency Service will investigate and you run the risk of being removed from the business environment.

Notes to editors

Rokeya Monir, 49, was the sole registered director of Nawab Lounge Ltd, company number 08732028, which was incorporated in October 2013 and traded as an Indian restaurant and takeaway from The Broadway, Thatcham, Berkshire.

Mrs Monir resides at Battery Hill, Winchester, SO22 4DD and her date of birth is 25 July 1968.

She has been disqualified for a period of 7 years commencing from 28 September 2017.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Mr Ajaz Manan Din Mir, a registered director of Emerald City Ltd, which traded as Anokha Indian Bar and Restaurant from Burgon Street, London, has been disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years commencing on 20 September 2017.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy brought proceedings against Ajaz Manan Din Mir and on 30 August 2017 the case was heard in the High Court. Upon hearing the evidence, and with Mr Mir failing to appear in court, a seven year disqualification order was made and Mr Mir was also ordered to pay costs of £4,230.

Although Mr Mir provided some accounting records to the liquidator these were inadequate and it was not possible in particular to verify what the total takings were including those made by cash and whether over £300,000 paid out from the company’s bank accounts related to bona fide business expenditure. No wages records were provided either so it was not possible to establish the position with regards employees and tax due.

Mr Mir had also failed to ensure that Emerald City Ltd had complied with its statutory obligations to HMRC in particular that it had failed to submit a number of VAT returns to HMRC. HMRC duly raised assessments including an officer’s assessment and at liquidation the amount stated as being owed to HMRC in relation to VAT was just over £129,000.

Additionally, no annual accounts were filed with Companies House.

An analysis of the company’s bank accounts carried out by the Insolvency Service revealed that from September 2013 onwards, a total in excess of £332,000 was paid out from the accounts, of which, nothing was paid to HMRC in respect of the arrears of the VAT debt.

Commenting on the disqualification, Lawrence Zussman, Deputy Head of Investigations with the Insolvency Service said:

The period of this disqualification sends a clear message that this kind of behaviour from company directors will not be tolerated. Company directors have a statutory duty under the Companies Act to keep adequate company records which should satisfactorily explain payments.

If you fail to comply with statutory legislation, or if you treat creditors such as HMRC differently to others, then you have not taken your responsibilities as a director seriously and the Insolvency Service will not hesitate to investigate and you run the risk of being removed from the business environment.

Notes to editors

Ajaz Manan Din Mir, 54, was a registered director of Emerald City Ltd (Company Registration No. 08029250), which was incorporated in April 2012 and traded as an Indian Restaurant from Burgon Street, London.

Mr Mir has been disqualified for 7 years from 20 September 2017. He is of London and his date of birth is 31 January 1963.

The disqualification order was made by Registrar Barber in the High Court of Justice on 30 August 2017. Miss Jessica Powers, appeared for the Claimant, with the Defendant neither attending nor being represented.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

The Queen has been pleased to appoint Lady Susan Haughey, CBE, DL, as Lord-Lieutenant for Lanarkshire to succeed Mr Mushtaq Ahmad, OBE, who retires on 12 November 2017.

Background

Lady Susan Haughey was educated at Holyrood Secondary School. In 1985 she set up City Refrigeration Ltd with her husband, of which she was an owner and director for 32 years. City Refrigeration is now a global business with a very large turnover and employing 14,000 people across the UK, France, Australia, Asia and North America.

In 2002 they set up the City Charitable Trust and over the past fifteen years they have donated £9 million to deserving causes.

For the past six years Lady Susan Haughey has been Director of the Kilbryde Hospice in Lanarkshire. She has committed herself to bringing communities together to co exist socially and culturally. She was awarded the Loving Cup in October 2015 by the Lord Provost of Glasgow and in 2016 was winner of the Woman of Influence Award. In June 2016 Lady Susan Haughey received a CBE.

Hampshire Capital Ventures Limited (Hampshire Capital), and its successor, Solaris Vision Ltd, a Bulgarian registered company, registration number 204122391, were wound up by the High Court on 18 October 2017.
Hampshire Capital, followed by Solaris Vision Ltd, operated using the trading styles Magnum Options and Magnum Options EU, via a trading platform, using the websites www.magnumoptions.eu and latterly www.magnumoptions.com.

There were 41 complaints made to the police against Magnum Options in the period February 2016 to March 2017, with customers reporting losses of over £750,000.

Those websites offered members of the public the opportunity to conduct binary options trading, which is a form of fixed-odds betting on movements in financial markets. The websites made numerous claims as to possible investment returns, with an 81% return rate per trade used as a headline throughout the websites.

Solaris Vision Ltd was placed into provisional liquidation by the High Court in London on 8 August 2017, on the application of the Insolvency Service, due to its concerns that the company were posing an ongoing risk to the public by operation of its fraudulent trading platform. The websites have not been accessible since 25 September 2017.

The investigation into both companies found that they had attracted customers through viral internet marketing, offering guaranteed fixed returns as set out throughout the above websites. Customers were not made aware of terms and conditions at the point of sale. Those terms and conditions were deemed to be onerous and unfair on customers, requiring them to trade 30 or 40 times their account balances in order to make withdrawals. Even when some customers did do so, no pay-outs were made. Customers who sought withdrawals or repayments of their deposits were mainly met with silence from the companies, who were only contactable by email after the time customers signed up for trading.

In other instances the companies had made unauthorised withdrawals from customers credit or debit cards, a point which Registrar Jones stressed was of serious concern during the winding up hearing on 18 October 2017.
Neither company cooperated with the investigation.

The companies targeted customers worldwide, all the while giving the impression that they operated out of the UK, by referring to UK trading addresses on the websites. Those addresses turned out to be accommodation addresses, for which neither company were authorised to use.

Hampshire Capital has previously come to the attention of public authorities in other countries, as follows:
On 13 May 2016, the British Columbia Securities Commission published a notice, referring to ‘Magnum Options, operated by Hampshire Capital Ventures Ltd’ and advising residents to exercise caution when dealing with “firms that are not registered to trade or advise in BC”.

On 14 December 2016, the Director of the Securities Division of the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan made a temporary order restraining Hampshire from carrying out certain activities.

On 16 January 2017, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission published a notice advising that Hampshire “could be involved in a scam” and warning: “Do not deal with this business as it is unlicensed in Australia”.

Notes to Editors

Hampshire Capital Ventures Limited – company registration number 09883248 – was incorporated on 23 November 20115. Its registered office is that of a company formations and accommodation services provider, Company Formations, at Fernhills House, Todd Street, Bury, BL9 5BJ. Solaris Vision Ltd was incorporated in Bulgaria on 15.06.15, registration number 204122391. The company’s registered office address is Zh.K, Mladost 4, Bl. 428, Entr. 1, 1st/3rd Floor, Sofia 1715, Bulgaria. The company’s sole director is a Hristo Stilianov Dobrev.

The petition to wind up the companies were presented in the High Court on 7 August 2017, under the provisions of section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 following confidential enquiries by Company Investigations under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985, as amended.

All enquiries concerning the affairs of the companies should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P 2HT. Telephone: 0207 637 1110, Email: piu.or@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.

Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Further information about live company investigations is available here

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:
* Twitter
* LinkedIn
* YouTube

Moynoor and Angura Rashid, directors of Salma Cuisine Limited which traded as Salma Restaurant, based in the village of Wingham near Canterbury, have been disqualified from acting as company directors following investigations by the Insolvency Service and HMRC.

Both gave disqualification undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Moynoor Rashid banned for seven years and Angura Rashid for three and a half years.

At liquidation, the company owed in excess of £400,000 to HMRC.

An in-depth HMRC investigation revealed significant suppression of cash takings resulting in a VAT assessment of £85,794 and additional penalties of £52,897 being raised. HMRC also reassessed the company’s Corporation Tax liability to be £135,009.

Mr Moynoor Rashid was also issued with a personal liability notice of £80,967 due to the deliberate suppression of sales income.

Commenting on the disqualification, David Brooks a Chief Investigator with the Insolvency Service said:

The periods of these disqualifications sends a clear message to other company directors that tax abuse of any kind will not be tolerated, especially when takings are channelled to directors.

Much of the public service is funded by the correct amount of taxes being paid. By not declaring and paying the correct amount of taxes, the public has been deprived from receiving the services it deserves from the public sector. The Insolvency Service therefore will not hesitate to remove bosses from the business environment in order to protect the public.

Notes to editors

Moynoor Rashid, 66, and Angura Rashid, 63, were directors of Salma Cuisine Limited, which was incorporated in July 2004.

Moynoor Rashid – date of birth, February 1952 – is of Canterbury, Kent. Moynoor Rashid has been disqualified for 7 years from 11 September 2017.

Angura Rashid – date of birth December 1954 – is of Canterbury, Kent. Angura Rashid has been disqualified for 3.5 years from 19 September 2017.

Salma Cuisine Limited (CRO No. 05168198) was incorporated on 1 July 2004 and was placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 16 September 2016.

One of the main purposes of the Company Directors Disqualification Act is to ensure that proper standards of conduct of company directors are maintained and to raise those standards where appropriate.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube