People smugglers are directing migrants to pay for illegal Channel crossings using a network of UK-registered businesses, a BBC investigation has found.

The  staff at a shop in south-east London were secretly filmed telling an undercover researcher that nearly £3,000 in cash could be deposited with them and sent to a smuggler in France.

"You put your money here. If your friends reach [the UK], you shouldn't come back," we were told at the mobile phone store in Woolwich.

The three-month investigation gives insight into how smugglers appear to be using UK companies' bank accounts to facilitate small-boat crossings - something a leading expert in criminal finance told us he had not seen before.

The findings suggest a "brazen attitude" by smugglers, says Tom Keatinge, from the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) security think tank.

"It is a concern that... people feel sufficiently confident they can be out in the open."

As well as the phone shop, the smuggler in France provided the bank account details of two UK-registered companies, which he said could both take electronic transfers for migrant crossings.

One is a wholesale business in Newcastle upon Tyne, the other is a car wash in Cambridgeshire.

The smuggler, who called himself Ahmad, also provided details of several businesses in Europe where payments could be made in cash, including a car wash in Antwerp, Belgium, and a restaurant in Paris, France.

He also shared bank details of several individuals in the UK and mainland Europe who, he said, could receive payments.

The findings suggest smugglers are untroubled by the efforts the government has made to try to "smash the gangs", says Keatinge, founding director of Rusi's Centre for Finance and Security.

The government has made it a priority to "break" the business model of the people-smuggling gangs.

In January 2025, announcing sanctions on suspected people smugglers, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "If you're going to smash a gang that is driven by money, follow the money."

But recent cases suggest authorities have struggled to recover the millions of pounds generated by the smuggling trade each year before it leaves the UK.

Resist comment: whatever the muslim-loving British government is doing to prevent this abuse, it's not enough.  They let these people walk all over the British people and do nothing about it.  The government, particularly traitor Starmer, are a disgrace.