Raid on illegal business

4:16pm Tuesday 24th April 2007

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TWO people were arrested and 19 vehicles impounded after a raid on an illegal business.

The raid in Besson Street, New Cross Gate, was organised after residents complained about nuisance and heavy congestion.

It involved officers from Lewisham Council, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Border and Immigration Agency, the Fraud Investigation Service, the Met Police and the DVLA.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition equipment was used and a checkpoint was set up to discover what was going in the area.

Illegal street trading, vehicle abandonment, driving an untaxed vehicle, driving without insurance, failing to produce a waste carrier's licence, benefit fraud and immigration offences were detected within a few hours.

The operation resulted in two people being arrested on suspicion of committing immigration offences.

A £300 fine was also issued for failure to supply a waste carrier's licence.

Nineteen vehicles were impounded, with some being removed and others destroyed on site as they were unroadworthy.

The raid, which took place on April 5, was organised by Lewisham Council's environmental enforcement department.

Cabinet member for customer services Councillor Susan Wise said: "Residents have been complaining about nuisance and heavy congestion in the area for some time.

"However, to ensure any action taken would be effective we waited for an appropriate time to move in.

"The operation was incredibly successful and it really shows what can be done when officers from different agencies work together to clamp down on this kind of illegal activity.

"Based on this success, we intend to repeat the operation elsewhere in the borough. We want to make it clear Lewisham is hard on criminals and will continue to make it hard for criminals to operate."

• Following the operation, one man has been charged with having no car insurance and another man has been ordered to verify his eligibility to reside and work in the UK.