Grooming gangs using rogue vape shops to exploit vulnerable children o | UK | News

Grooming gangs are targeting vulnerable children to sexually exploit by selling them vapes from some of the mass of rogue shops that are littering UK high streets. Trading Standards officers have uncovered the shocking sexual exploitation of children aged as young as 11, with vapes being used as a hook to lure them into their organised crime web. There are now urgent calls for Government action to tackle the escalating threat – which crisis officers have branded “an epidemic”.

An investigation uncovered the concerns from Trading Standards about a new hidden criminal frontline on Britain’s high streets which show rogue vape shops now linked to the child sex gangs. The investigation reveals how some shops illegally selling vapes to children may pose broader safeguarding risks, with officers warning of a potential new form of child grooming taking place in plain sight.

The probe, revealed to Channel 4 News, found that Trading Standards teams nationally believe illegal vapes are just one part of a wider network of criminality involving illegal tobacco, nitrous oxide and other drugs.

But they fear children are being exposed to even more significant dangers, both from illegal substances and from whose who may be seeking to exploit them.

The development comes after the Daily Express exclusively revealed how grooming gangs have adapted their operations to continue claiming victims – even attempting to get jobs in the social care system and exploiting legal loopholes to even potentially provide their own care homes for vulnerable children to be taken to. One top lawyer told the Express that “no child in Britain is now safe” from the threat with gangs also operating online to find vulnerable victims.

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Kuldeep Maan, principal Trading Standards Officer said: “The biggest threat is to our children. These shops are stickered up, nobody knows what goes on. We have complaints that vapes and illegal goods are perhaps given free to children on occasion in return for sexual favours. We have had those complaints before.”

Kuldeep and enforcement officer Richard Timmins currently spend the majority of their days shutting down mini marts, not least for illegally selling vapes to kids.

“I had one the other day – a child as young as 11 purchasing vapes from a shop. It’s just disgusting”, Richard said. “They could be offered drugs, vapes, cigarettes, that is a danger”, Kuldeep adds.

Their work has led them to believe that even with all that is known about child grooming, they’ve uncovered a new hidden frontline.

“We get the people behind the counter to empty their pockets. We’ve been in situations where they empty their pockets and they’ve got reams of condoms. I once came across a book and it was basically written in Kurdish and it was translated and basically they were learning English words for ‘you’re pretty, I love your hair, you know, you’re young and beautiful.’”

Last summer, the team received reports that men linked to one shop were taking 12‑year‑old customers to unknown locations. Officers say they prioritise these safeguarding risks when determining which businesses to shut first, acting as an unofficial child protection service.

Kuldeep added: “Our priority is, number one, we stop that shop first. So we’ll focus all our efforts on a particular shop, get that closed down.

“We do need help from the Government. We could do with extra funding. The Government does need to get a grip and realise the threat each high street has in this country by these organised crime groups.”