If this interests you, do read this archive piece about the failure of decades of council enforcement activity, policing work, and near-death traffic incidents to stop one easily-identifiable family from parking their ice cream van on Westminster Bridge. www.londoncentric.media/p/westminste...

It’s also quite hard to track where the money is flowing with the family registering multiple companies that have since melted away. When we visited their depot one family member asked us to leave while insisting they pay more tax than our publication does.

But what happens when the ice cream van is told to stop illegally blocking one of the most famous bridges in the world? Well they drive around the corner and wait for the policeman to go. Then return to the same spot. Today we found them under Waterloo railway station. This is their presumed route.

Ta-da, the TWELVE BRITISH POUNDS cost of our two Mr Whippy with flakes was paid to Canev Sanli (the band often cycle through family members). A decade ago Canev was attacked with axes by a rival in a violent ice cream turf war.

How do we know it’s the Sanlis? Well, we’ve done a lot of work on them and have a database of their licence plates. Sadly we are now banned, like a drunk at a pub, from being served by their ice cream vans. But we asked a friend to buy an ice cream and check the contactless payment name.

Ice cream vans have special trading rights that are abused by the Westminster Bridge operators. The Sanli family, who have a depot in a Walworth railway arch, are the main ones. For 15 years they have intermittently been prosecuted and made to pay fines of circa £1,000. It’s a cost they happily pay.

The background: For several decades an entire lane of Westminster Bridge, in the shadow of parliament and within sight of London’s police headquarters, has been regularly blocked by illegally parked ice cream vans. Police sometimes tell them to move on. They move, wait, then return.

We've obtained multiple sets of video from four different attacks in London, showing how the gang methodically deface suburban streets with red paint and motor oil.

If you want to view it, sign-up to London Centric — free trial available here:
www.londoncentric.media/p/red-paint-...

London Centric has had a reporter on this for the last week. We obtained CCTV footage which, when analysed by native Mandarin speakers, suggests the gang operating in London has accents from northern China.

We've located at least a dozen incidents across the capital over the last eighteen months in which similar attacks have taken place. One criminologist told us the attacks had the hallmarks of Chinese organised crime groups. The impact on those targeted and nearby residents is enormous.

Shafeeq says our article is defamatory. She says does not need English thanks to translation software and the help of her husband. She also said her shop employees do not recognise her name because she has appointed middle managers.

Read more (free trial):
www.londoncentric.media/p/harry-pott...

Of the four Harry Potter shops owned by Shafeeq in prominent London locations — Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Whitehall, Strand — three are not charging customers VAT on purchases. One unit has up to £400k in outstanding business rates. Shafeeq says she abides by all tax laws.

Four of London's biggest Harry Potter shops have, in recent months, been taken over by Safoora Shafeeq. We tracked down the 31-year-old to Oxford where she lives with her family in a rented suburban house. By her own admission she has limited English but now controls a prominent retail chain.

Thank you!

Khan urged London Centric readers to "contact TfL directly" and keep a record of their travel, while accepting not everyone will still have a note of their overcharged journeys stretching back three months.