London Centric

What's up with the Harry Potter shops in central London?

London Centric's investigation into their finances was raised in the House of Commons by Kensington and Bayswater Labour MP Joe Powell. He asked ministers what it will take to get HMRC officials to check the shops are paying their taxes.

Ice cream wars and illegal gambling: How Westminster Bridge became lawless Plus: Have you visited the capital's least used railway station?

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.

London Centric has spent the afternoon doing what we do every afternoon: Auditing the illegal ice cream vans run by south London’s Sanli family on Westminster Bridge in central London.

"Lime leg" makes the transition from our newsletter to parliament in the space of three months. Lib Dem Caroline Pidgeon asks rail minister Peter Hendy what the government is doing about unregulated Lime bikes causing injuries. He says the government is very aware of London Centric's reporting.

First video: The mysterious gang attacking Londoners' homes with red paint Exclusive: Is a Chinese organised crime group carrying out an intimidation campaign across the capital?

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.

Is an organised crime gang carrying out an intimidation campaign with red paint across suburban London?

London Centric has the first video of the mysterious gang targeting properties across the capital with "brothel" graffiti.

Click through for🧵.

TfL tube and rail fares to increase by 4.6% from March 2025, Sadiq Khan announces.
*Government made clear tube fares should rise in line with national rail fares.
*Zone 1-3 fare cap will rise from £10 to £10.50.
*TfL bus fares remain frozen at £1.75, which is far cheaper than outside London.

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.

Harry Potter and the unpaid tax bill A London Centric investigation reveals one of the capital's most garish gift shops owes hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid taxes — and uncovers its mysterious owners.

This week's big London Centric investigation is into the Harry Potter shops that have sprung up all over the centre of the capital over the last few years.

What is going on with them? And are they paying their taxes? (Read now with a free trial.) www.londoncentric.media/p/harry-pott...

FAO Londoners: TfL has *just* started allowing contactless refunds for the first time since September.

Check all your journeys for the last three months to see if you've been overcharged and apply for your money back. TfL won't do this automatically, you have to check.

tfl.gov.uk/fares/contac...

Thanks for the credit @inews.co.uk - another London Centric story in a national newspaper.

Read more here: www.londoncentric.media/p/exclusive-...

Thank you!

Another London Centric exclusive picked up by a national news outlet. Our business model means we don’t chase clicks, we just want people to know they should subscribe if they want to get the news first.

So if you’re a journalist we *encourage* you to steal our stories. Just please credit and link.

Exclusive: London's top private schools have been told to stop a long-running advertising campaign claiming you can attend their institutions for "no fees", after complaints that this was, er, rarely true. www.londoncentric.media/p/exclusive-...

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.

Exclusive: Sadiq admits some TfL passengers may never be refunded after cyberattack Plus: London's private schools told to stop suggesting it's easy to attend for free; the editor of the Standard quits to spend more time in £4,000-a-night hotels.

Exclusive: Sadiq Khan confirms to London Centric that some Londoners may never receive refunds they are owed by TfL, after being overcharged for months due to the cyberattack. www.londoncentric.media/p/exclusive-...

Spot The Urban Otter video, courtesy of Paul Powlesland.

Also in London Centric: Urban otters are on the march, now just ten miles from central London next to a Big Tesco on the North Circular. www.londoncentric.media/p/i-was-cove...

"I was covered in human poo": One family's shocking story of London's housing crisis Plus: Otters are getting closer to the centre of London.

Today’s London Centric is out now, featuring a truly horrific story about the state of social housing in the capital - and whether some housing estates are salvageable after years of neglect. www.londoncentric.media/p/i-was-cove...

Great story which made me subscribe (and I don’t even live in London):