Westminster Council leader, Adam Hug, is calling on the National Crime Agency (NCA) to crack down on American candy shops, which have appeared across the UK and are allegedly blighting

high streets. There are 29 such stores on Oxford Street alone, with the council claiming that they owe up to £9m ($12m) in unpaid business rates. During the past 15 months, more than £1m worth of illegal and counterfeit goods, including vapes with unlawfully high levels of nicotine, have been seized from these stores and souvenir shops.

Hug is expected to ask for more support for tax authorities and the NCA to investigate the overseas ownership structures of companies running the shops during a meeting of Westminster's scrutiny commission. Photo by Jim Larrison from Glen Ellyn, IL, USA, Wikimedia commons.