How I Took Control When a Neighbour's Illegal Operations Threatened My Salon
Dealing with the challenges of an illegal business operating above your salon can feel like your worst nightmare, and in this episode I'll share my journey through what was a difficult situation. When a brothel moved in right above my treatment rooms, I was thrown into a period of stress and uncertainty that impacted my business and my clients. It forced me to confront not just the immediate noise and disruption, but also the long-term implications for my reputation and client relationships. This episode looks at the lessons I learned during that tough time, from navigating conversations with clients to dealing with landlords, letting agents and local authorities. Ultimately, I emerged with a newfound resilience and a clearer understanding of how to tackle adversity head-on. If you’re facing similar challenges, I hope my experiences can offer some guidance and support.
Sue Davies, the host of the podcast, shares a challenging experience that most salon owners never have to face but will understand the impact of: having a brothel operating directly above her business. The episode unpacks the many layers of this situation, beginning with the moment Sue and her team first noticed the unusual activity above her salon, quickly escalating into a damage limitation crisis. As she describes the initial disbelief and confusion, the chaotic world of a small business owner grappling with unexpected adversity like this will become apparent.
The story takes a more serious tone as Sue reflects on the emotional and professional ramifications of having a brothel overhead. She confronts the fear and anxiety that came with the realisation that her clients might associate her salon with the illicit activities taking place above and sharing an entrance space with her business. This episode is filled with the her determination to protect her business's reputation, illustrating the lengths to which she went to manage the situation and turn Nancy Drew. From communicating with clients to exploring legal options, Sue's journey through this challenge showcases the resilience required to navigate such a tumultuous experience.
Additionally, the episode serves as a cautionary tale for other salon professionals, highlighting the importance of vigilance in their neighbourhoods and the potential for illegal activities to impact their livelihoods as Sue shares how once the brothel was gone the tenant then introduced a cannabis farm.
Sue's story is not only about survival but also about how her salon community and the connections formed over years in the local area meant she was able to make an impact on the situation. She emphasises the necessity of reaching out for support and gaining knowledge around the law when something unexpected happens.
This episode is a powerful reminder of the unexpected challenges that can arise in the beauty industry and the strength it takes to overcome them.
Takeaways:
- Navigating the complexities of running a salon with an illegal business above it can be daunting and stressful, requiring careful consideration and immediate action.
- Transparency with clients about the challenges faced due to illicit activities can help maintain trust and understanding during tough times.
- Engaging local authorities and legal support is important when dealing with illegal business operations, as they can provide guidance and protection.
- Building a strong community network can aid in addressing and resolving issues that arise from neighbouring illegal businesses, enabling support and sharing of information.
- Documenting everything and being persistent in reporting illegal activities can create a paper trail that may help law enforcement take action.
- Ultimately, overcoming adversity in business requires resilience, creativity, and a proactive approach to problem-solving in the face of unexpected challenges.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
Welcome to Inspiring Salon Professionals, the podcast that allows every therapist, nail tech and stylist to level up, build their career and reach for their dreams.
Speaker A:Each episode we'll be looking at a different area of the industry and along the way I'll be chatting with salon owners, industry leaders and experts who'll be sharing their stories on how they achieved their goals, made their successes, all to inspire you in your business and career.
Speaker A:I'm Sue Davies, your host, award winning salon owner and industry professional.
Speaker A:Welcome to Inspiring Salon Professionals.
Speaker A:Hi there and welcome to this week's episode of Inspiring Salon Professionals.
Speaker A:A little bit later than usual, but that's because I've been a little bit under the weather and so everything's running slightly late.
Speaker A:So apologies for that if you were expecting an episode on Monday.
Speaker A:But I have been considering what to do this episode on because I had a couple of gaps where I couldn't get the guests on for the next episodes I was going to do.
Speaker A:And so I knew this was going to be a solo episode and it was just a case of what I was going to talk about.
Speaker A:But thanks to my lovely friend Sarah Cogan Smith on Sun Industry Networking Group this week she put a post out about Share with us one thing no one in this group knows about you or something you've done that no one knows that you've done.
Speaker A:And I commented a couple of different things actually, and that's what we're going to cover.
Speaker A:Today is one of those things and it's about what to do when you face true adversity in your business and something happens that's beyond your control and you kind of have to deal with the hand you've been dealt.
Speaker A:So that's what we're going to talk about and we'll be doing that on the other side of the message from my lovely sponsors.
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Speaker A:So let's take a bit of a dive into this week's conversation.
Speaker A:And the thing that I commented on in the sing group was it's a, it's a really difficult subject actually.
Speaker A:And I've had to really think about whether or not I put this on the podcast and I've had to really think about what the title of this podcast is going to be because I, I know it's something that happens to other.
Speaker A:I know two other salons that this has happened to where I used to be located.
Speaker A:So I know I'm not alone and I know it's happened to other salon owners.
Speaker A:But also when what I'm going to talk about is, is a difficult subject.
Speaker A:I mean, in some ways it has quite a lot of levity to it, but at the time it was so serious.
Speaker A:And the subject we're going to be discussing today, so I keep not, I keep not saying it, don't I.
Speaker A:The subject we're going to be talking about today is what happens when you have a neighbor that moves in above your salon on a tenancy and they are operating an illicit business or an illegal business.
Speaker A:And this is what happened to me.
Speaker A:And today also, I'm just going to apologize.
Speaker A:We've got a bit of a sound issue in here today because I'm actually operating in my home clinic area because we've got a lot of work being done in the house still.
Speaker A:This is an ever ending project if you listen to the podcast.
Speaker A:So I'm out here, I don't have my proper microphones and stuff with me, so the sound quality may be a little bit echoey.
Speaker A:So what am I talking about?
Speaker A:Illicit, illegal businesses.
Speaker A:That sounds really challenging, doesn't it?
Speaker A:And it was.
Speaker A: ppened actually back in about: Speaker A:I've been in my business for a couple of years.
Speaker A:We were going for scratch stars again.
Speaker A:This was.
Speaker A:And actually this turned into the year that I won and I think maybe I put something about this in my application, maybe they felt sorry for me.
Speaker A: pened was at the Christmas of: Speaker A:And he walked into the flat area and walked across the front of my salon and had a Southeast Asian lady attached to his arm.
Speaker A:So we just thought, oh, you know, couple, you know, whatever.
Speaker A:Didn't think a lot of it until she moved in and he didn't.
Speaker A:And so then we just thought maybe she's a mistress and but our kind of radar was on.
Speaker A:Something felt amiss and this was the weekend before Christmas and on that Saturday afternoon the young lady, I mean I did like we felt very sorry for her.
Speaker A:She was in a situation that I don't know whether she, I don't know what her circumstances were.
Speaker A:She may have been there for own free will, she may have been trafficked, who knows, we don't know.
Speaker A:We never got to the bottom of it.
Speaker A:But basically on that Saturday afternoon before Christmas, a stream of men began arriving and standing opposite my business and, and then all of a sudden they sort of be looking up at the flat above and we had a massive 3 meter by 3 meter window at the front of my salon.
Speaker A:So we were sat facing out of it as nail techs working.
Speaker A:That Saturday afternoon we kept seeing these men and they kept walking onto our porch.
Speaker A:We had a shared porch with four front doors on it and disappearing and then never coming out.
Speaker A:And because we were busy doing nails, it was before Christmas, we didn't really notice.
Speaker A:And I think one of us went in to do a brow wax into the treatment room and we noticed some noise and let's just say we can all imagine what that noise was if there was a working girl above and men are going in and men are going out literally of our back entrance is what we found out later that day was happening.
Speaker A:And anyway the lovely young lady, she was really, really nice but at the end of the day she was a prostitute and they were running a brothel was what we came to the conclusion within about three hours of this activity happening.
Speaker A:You know, first of all you sort of think, oh it's just friends popping by.
Speaker A:Then you realize that they're not coming out.
Speaker A:And my, one of my team at the time was out having a cigarette break and we had a fire exit and she saw the guy coming down the fire exit apart from where she was standing, having a cigarette and walking out of our rear gate.
Speaker A:And we became very aware very quickly that we had a brothel working above the salon.
Speaker A:Now I'm sure you can imagine two years into business, you've been, you know, really successful.
Speaker A:You, you're a sort of a finalist a couple of times, you're entering awards and you're doing all you can for your business and marketing it everywhere.
Speaker A:And you have, you had the best Christmas yet.
Speaker A:And because I think that was our third Christmas, I've had employees by that point.
Speaker A:I think I had two employees on hand at that point and, and another self employed, a couple of self employed People as well.
Speaker A:And it was going great guns.
Speaker A:And then this happened.
Speaker A:And I honestly talk about ruin your Christmas.
Speaker A:So we weren't sure what to do.
Speaker A:So initially, first reaction was, okay, what do we do with this?
Speaker A:Because clearly.
Speaker A:And as I, as I noted, if you're in the same group, you will know that I commented on there about the fact we did.
Speaker A:We actually did have chandeliers and they were rattling literally with the activity in the room above my treatment room.
Speaker A:And I think if it had been any other room, if it had been over our kitchen, we could have tolerated it.
Speaker A:But it wasn't.
Speaker A:It was over our treatment room, over my quiet space, over where I perform massage on men and women.
Speaker A:But the connotations of this for my male clients, they've got to walk onto a shared porch where other men are going in to have very different services upstairs to the services they're received from me.
Speaker A:The connotations for my business were massive.
Speaker A:And I was even now talking about it all these years later.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:I can still feel that little stress ball.
Speaker A:It's awful.
Speaker A:But we knew that there was a problem, so I wrote a note and I just thought, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker A:They've just moved in.
Speaker A:Maybe, just maybe.
Speaker A:I mean, we knew this wasn't the case, but let's just.
Speaker A:Let's just call it out and just go, are you moving boxes around up there?
Speaker A:What's all this noise?
Speaker A:And anyway, so we put a note through the door when we came back in.
Speaker A:I think we were back in on the Monday.
Speaker A:I said there was only a couple of days between.
Speaker A:It must.
Speaker A:I don't know when Christmas was, who knows?
Speaker A:But I put a note through the door just saying, look, I appreciate you just moved in and you're going to be banging and crashing a lot, but please bear in mind when you're in whatever room that's above my treatment room.
Speaker A:I think it was like one of the bedrooms or the lounge.
Speaker A:Might have been the lounge.
Speaker A:I can't remember.
Speaker A:Anyway, when you're in that room, please can you be mindful because we have a treatment room underneath it and people are trying to have quiet treatments.
Speaker A:We then received an.
Speaker A:Another note through the door when we got back from the young lady.
Speaker A:Obviously I won't name it because, I mean, I don't think she's probably even still in this country, but.
Speaker A:But we had a message back from this young sex worker that said, hi, my name's whatever, and I'm sorry, I think it must just be me.
Speaker A:Doing my Thai cooking.
Speaker A:I've been chopping a lot.
Speaker A:Now her kitchen was one room behind where that room was.
Speaker A:So that was a lot of chopping that's going to move what, 15 foot across the, across the ceiling into the treatment room.
Speaker A:And we, so we knew immediately that she was lying.
Speaker A:And I'm sorry, you know, any, to any Thai chefs out there, please, please write in and tell me if Thai chopping with a, you know, I mean, I, I understand a cleaver can make a lot of noise but it doesn't make sham, it doesn't make chandeliers rattle and it does not, doesn't come with the noises that were coming through that ceiling.
Speaker A:And anyway, so we, I was, I couldn't, I said I'm sure you can imagine if you own a business and you own a business that needs quiet space that this was disaster.
Speaker A:Literally.
Speaker A:It felt like my whole world had collapsed and I had to go home and sit on that.
Speaker A:Over Christmas I phoned the agents because it was managed by an agent.
Speaker A:My landlord didn't manage it.
Speaker A:He let it out via an agent.
Speaker A:And I phoned those immediately on the Saturday afternoon when we felt, when we realized what was happening and we asked them if they could please explain who they'd lent the property to.
Speaker A:Obviously they wouldn't because of data protection.
Speaker A:And, and I just said to them like you need to do something like this is not acceptable, like I'm trying to run a business here, blah, you know what you would do.
Speaker A:And, and the lady I spoke to was like, don't worry, I get the manager, I'll get the owner to call you back on Monday, on the next working day.
Speaker A:So anyway, he then didn't phone me.
Speaker A:And it, it later transpired and I may be wrong about this, but it, it I believe from the investigations because I did turn into a bit of a PI.
Speaker A:The investigations I carried out, they were very, very likely to have been friends and like a silver haired man and the owner of the estate agents, and my understanding is, is that they had a collaboration that allowed him to use my landlord's premises.
Speaker A:And they then told my landlord he had no right of entry, he had no right to perform an inspection.
Speaker A:And my landlord was an older gentleman.
Speaker A:He was, and he was a true gentleman.
Speaker A:He still wrote every, everything he ever sent to me came with a compliment slip, which is so, so old school nowadays.
Speaker A:I don't think anybody uses compliment slips anymore.
Speaker A:Nobody even posts things, do they?
Speaker A:But everything always came like beautiful, you know, handwritten envelopes and stuff.
Speaker A:And he was a real old gentleman who'd heard the premises for like 50 odd years.
Speaker A:So you can imagine his age.
Speaker A:He was very, very vulnerable in that term and totally compos mentis.
Speaker A:But he, he didn't question what the, what the letting agent was saying to him.
Speaker A:So anyway, then comes the.
Speaker A:Yeah, the starts of research and looking into laws and regulations.
Speaker A: of the Sexual Offenses Act: Speaker A:But the thing that concerned me for my landlord was that I was concerned for him because he.
Speaker A:I don't know, I'd still.
Speaker A:He's still going.
Speaker A:He's still the landlord of that premises and I've been gone for a few years.
Speaker A:My cousin who owns it now, love her, she is, she's still her landlord and I don't know how old he is now, love Roger but, but there was a whole scenario around the fact and I tried to let him know that as the owner of the premises he could be held accountable and culpable for allowing it to happen on his premises.
Speaker A:But he had been advised by the letting agents that there was nothing he could do and that that wasn't going on.
Speaker A:And I was imagining it and I was.
Speaker A:And the owner of the letting agents actually at some point did say to me, I think you're just basically being a hysterical woman.
Speaker A:It was like, oh my goodness me.
Speaker A:So anyway, this, this carried on the, the next couple of stages that I went through and I think this is probably one of the reasons that I wanted to talk about this because it's, this is a, it is a.
Speaker A:I mean I'm not finding it particularly difficult to talk about but it's kind of a bit of a taboo subject, isn't it?
Speaker A:And, and we get tarnished with this kind of.
Speaker A:You know, we actually did have somebody that was offering everything we try and say we're not.
Speaker A:We had someone that was offering and advertising her services as a masseur above somewhere that was a proper premises offering professional massage services.
Speaker A:So you know, we, we had the, the, you know, the polarization of everything.
Speaker A:We try not to be above us.
Speaker A:And we came back in after Christmas and one of the first days we were back in, I think it probably was the first day we were back in, we had a large bridal party.
Speaker A:And this is what I think that day cemented for me.
Speaker A:What A massive problem.
Speaker A:We had.
Speaker A:We had the bride, the bridesmaids, the mother of the mother of the groom and they all came in to have.
Speaker A:They had like, came.
Speaker A:They booked us out for like six hours to have like rotational treatments, you know, very much like a little spa day in a salon.
Speaker A:But what happened was they got to us at about half 10, 11 o'clock.
Speaker A:First treatments in the treatment room and all you could hear was activity from upstairs and we didn't know what to do.
Speaker A:And myself and the team members that were in, it was just embarrassing because what you, what do you do?
Speaker A:What do you say?
Speaker A:We knew what was happening.
Speaker A:It was really, really obvious what was happening upstairs.
Speaker A:There was no way you could get away from it.
Speaker A:And after the first, the first client came out and went back to like our sort of waiting area and was sort of sniggering to her friends and going, oh my God.
Speaker A:Like, you know, there's some activity going on upstairs.
Speaker A:And we just ignored it initially.
Speaker A:Then the next person went in and they came out and they were doing the same and it just went on because they had a.
Speaker A:I mean, how they advertise and get so many guys in that quickly, I do not know.
Speaker A:I mean, it was like.
Speaker A:It was like word spread like wildfire that this place was there.
Speaker A:And I don't know whether they have regular clientele and they'd be moved on from somewhere else.
Speaker A:I have no idea how this works.
Speaker A:It wasn't something that I managed to get to the bottom of.
Speaker A:But they had a busy clientele.
Speaker A:So it became apparent to this party of.
Speaker A:Of bridal people that there was something more that was more than a couple being a little bit over amorous that would live there.
Speaker A:There was something more going on.
Speaker A:And by a couple of hours in they were like, are you sure you haven't got.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, they're.
Speaker A:Let's use the term as it is.
Speaker A:Have you sure you've not got a knocking shop upstairs?
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And in the end it was like, you know what?
Speaker A:I'm just gonna have to be honest, I'm gonna have to be transparent because I can't, I can't lie.
Speaker A:So we said, you know, we've got some new tenants and we're not sure what's going on, but we're really sorry if it's disturbing your day.
Speaker A:And they were like, no, don't worry because if this is what you've got going on, like poor you kind of thing.
Speaker A:Anyway, so more, more phone calls proceeded.
Speaker A:I found the police.
Speaker A:There wasn't Very weirdly, even though there is regulation and law around brothels, it's very difficult to prove.
Speaker A:And unless they actually catch them in the act of doing more than the massage, there's nothing they can do because they can't prove it any, it's like any solicitation because they're, you know, unless they actually see cash changing hands.
Speaker A:And, and there's certain things that have to take place before a prostitute can be arrested or before a brothel keeper can be arrested for keeping a brothel.
Speaker A:And it's really hard to prove.
Speaker A:So we had a lot of conversations about it and a lot of two in a frame with the police.
Speaker A:And then on the, the following Saturday night, the silver hat, silver haired guy reappeared just as we were clearing up for the day.
Speaker A:So it must have been about half five.
Speaker A:We see him walk along and he's got like a couple of takeaway bags and he goes in, he's in there for a short period of time and then he leaves.
Speaker A:So I decided to follow him.
Speaker A:My, this kid, the girls are in on that day.
Speaker A:I can't, I can't remember who was there now, but whatever team we're in on that Saturday were like, sue, just stop doing this.
Speaker A:Like, where do you think you're going?
Speaker A:I'm like, I'm going to follow him.
Speaker A:I need to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker A:I'm not going to go and talk to him, but I'm just going to see what I don't, I want to find because we'd seen his van and I wanted to go and see where he was parking and stuff.
Speaker A:So anyway, I followed him and really, I don't know, I mean like this, the brazenness of it.
Speaker A:His van was fully sign written with his normal limited company regalia all over it, which obviously I, for legal purposes I will not say on here.
Speaker A:But anyway, I, I found the limited company on Companies House.
Speaker A:I found out his name.
Speaker A:I then did my due diligence and research on Facebook and social media and, and I tracked him.
Speaker A:I didn't track him down personally, he's face to face, but I tracked down where he lived.
Speaker A:I went, went and sat outside his house and did a bit of Nancy Drew and was just, just interested to find out who this man was.
Speaker A:Anyway, on his social media there's photos of him in taxis with the mayor at different fundraising events.
Speaker A:I mean this guy was a legitimate business owner anyway, so when I started going through Facebook I realized that very stupidly he was kind of crapping in his own backyard and that we Actually had quite a few mutual friends and he'd gone to school with quite a few people I knew locally and because I wasn't local to the area, I'd moved there when I was in my 20s.
Speaker A:But a lot of the girls I knew had lived there all their lives and they knew him.
Speaker A:So I made a few phone calls and was like, no, I haven't seen him for years.
Speaker A:But we saw him at reunion a few years ago, he's doing really well.
Speaker A:And I'm like, well this is a scenario I've got.
Speaker A:And they're like, I mean, you can imagine the shock.
Speaker A:I mean this goes.
Speaker A:This is a, a fairly successful local businessman who is effectively managing a brothel, owns a brothel that's operating above my salon.
Speaker A:So it just was mind blowing, just mind blowing that this was, this was happening.
Speaker A:I still, when I talk about it it's like, did I actually live through this?
Speaker A:Like.
Speaker A:But yeah, I did.
Speaker A:And anyway, it then transpired that we, we had to, I had a decision to make and we'd sort of.
Speaker A: nce my career started back in: Speaker A: e been with me probably since: Speaker A:And they, you know, if they were in having a treatment and that they was activity, as we always used to call it then, you know, we, we said to them, look, you know, we've got to be a situation here, but very rapidly.
Speaker A:And after the bridal party, as I say, we, I, it was a, that was a wake up call as to what we actually had happening.
Speaker A:And so I had to make a decision how I was going to handle this.
Speaker A:And whenever you get anything like this that can impact your business, you have to make a decision as to what the PR of it's going to be and how you, and basically how you spin it, how you style it out.
Speaker A:What do you do when a brothel moves in above your business?
Speaker A:What do you say?
Speaker A:It becomes very clear to people very, very rapidly that there are, I mean it wasn't a queue by any means, but there was a regular amount of men stand.
Speaker A:I mean we had a big brick wall opposite our building.
Speaker A:We were on a main road and there was nothing on that side of the road.
Speaker A:So to have random men standing and I would imagine there must have been some signal given at the, the lounge window where she, which is the room that she was operating from.
Speaker A:There must have been some signal there that she would give because they were standing opposite looking up at the window and she'd give a signal, they'd walk over and then the guy that had been there would be going out via the fire exit and through our back gate which they forever left open.
Speaker A:So we it that for us was a security risk because a lot of the time late at night I'd be lone working there and stuff.
Speaker A:So having our back entrance open was, was not good.
Speaker A:And the guys, you know, you put a sign on a gate saying please make sure you shut it, but you know they're leaving having just been made happy, so you know, the last thing they're doing is reading the signs.
Speaker A:And anyway, so I decided the only way to deal with it was to deal with it head on and to deal with it in a really transparent way.
Speaker A:I spoke to the police, I told them what I was going to do.
Speaker A:We spoke to all of our regular clients and as they came through and we told them what was happening.
Speaker A:And I decided to be super transparent and to tell everybody what the problem was because it was by then.
Speaker A:But within a week people were starting to ask us, is, is it you that's got the knocking shop above?
Speaker A:Is it you that's got the brothel?
Speaker A:How many prostitutes are up there?
Speaker A:How many men go?
Speaker A:Honestly, it was, it was awful.
Speaker A:But one of the biggest considerations I had was we, I didn't, we were a very female based salon, but I did have quite a few guys that used to come to us for massage, for some elements of waxing, some for facials and stuff.
Speaker A:They're walking onto a shared porch where it is now very much known that there's a brothel in one of those doors and it's a shared porch.
Speaker A:If like, if they're, you know, Auntie drives past and sees them walking onto their porch, they don't know that they're turning left into my door and not straight ahead into the flat above.
Speaker A:So I had conversations with my male clients to say to them, look, this is a situation and if you choose to not come to us while this is going on, I really understand.
Speaker A:But I want you to be aware that we're considering how this may look to you and your family and your friends.
Speaker A:So please, it's up to you what you choose to do.
Speaker A:Because I didn't know what else to do.
Speaker A:What do you do?
Speaker A:But anyway, that, that was my decision and I, to this day, I don't know if it was the right thing to do or not.
Speaker A:It was what Felt right, the right thing to do.
Speaker A:So I went with it anyway.
Speaker A:I spent the next weeks and months trying to make do as much as I could and bang the drum as loudly as I could and.
Speaker A:And through the network of people that went back to him, like, you know, that whole six degrees of separation thing, well, we only had one degree of separation between us.
Speaker A:And once I'd worked out who he was and who his company secretary, finance director was, which was his sister, when we were talking, I spoke to anyone and everyone because they were local, they came from like the next.
Speaker A:I mean we were part of that area but we were sort of slightly outside of the, of this town.
Speaker A:But they came from that town.
Speaker A:They're born and bred in that town.
Speaker A:And my clients were also born and bred in that town.
Speaker A:So we just started talking to people and I was.
Speaker A:Because we just.
Speaker A:We know what the grapevine is like and we knew eventually it get back to him one way or another.
Speaker A:So we just decided to start talking.
Speaker A:Do we do best?
Speaker A:We're now technicians, we're therapists, we're going to talk to them, we're going to talk, we're going to send smoke signals through the grapevine and that's what happens.
Speaker A:And one of my clients lover, a very, very good friend of hers, had a pub where his sister used to drink and she was appalled by her brother's behavior.
Speaker A:It would, it transpired.
Speaker A:But anyway, so we kind of put a lot of messaging through that route and I think it was probably in about the late March, early April, I can't remember now.
Speaker A:It was, it was, it went on for about three months, three or four months of this, like day in, day out activity and, and we did.
Speaker A:I mean I lost, I lost a lot of business over it because you know, people didn't want to have facials in our treatment room.
Speaker A:Lost a lot of, a lot of business over that time, as you can imagine.
Speaker A:We tried to move things into.
Speaker A:We did have one other sort of treatment area that we could move things to.
Speaker A:We tried to move stuff into there where we could, but it was a very limited space salon and there wasn't very much I could do about it.
Speaker A:So all of our good clients were fine and they were just like.
Speaker A:We just used to laugh about it and it's my say, like we had to have some levity about it because I mean, as much as I wanted to, I mean quite often I think I probably went home and just cried.
Speaker A:It was just, it was just such a stressful period of time and I had A PCSO who had worked a couple of towns across, and she phoned me one day to say, like, you know, I.
Speaker A:I've been going through some local notes and I've come across this situation that you're going through, and I think we should have a conversation.
Speaker A:But she'd lost a brothel.
Speaker A:They'd moved out of a premises near where she was, and she.
Speaker A:I think it's the same people.
Speaker A:Can you explain this?
Speaker A:Then that the other.
Speaker A:Anyway, we worked out it was the same people and they'd moved on from somewhere else.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So basically, all through that messaging and this constant, like, just talking about it and making everyone aware that we knew who he was, we were talking and we were giving it.
Speaker A:I mean, rightly or wrongly, we were talking to people about who he was and saying, he's got a van.
Speaker A:It's written like this, and, you know, whatever, and just.
Speaker A:Just flooding the.
Speaker A:The information out there.
Speaker A:And, yeah, as I say, all of a sudden we had.
Speaker A:At one point, we had three sex workers above that were.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:By then they were doing shifts.
Speaker A:I'm not quite sure how it worked.
Speaker A:And his wife, we discovered later, would come and supervise, and every Saturday night he'd arrive with a takeaway and I would imagine, you know, and this is my speculation, but they were coming to.
Speaker A:What we speculated was that that was the night he came to collect all the money and give them a treat for all their hard work.
Speaker A:I mean, it just was madness.
Speaker A:So they left, and myself and one of my employees saw them off.
Speaker A:They were.
Speaker A:They'd sort of, like, been banging and crashing upstairs, moving all the stuff out.
Speaker A:We realized they were moving out.
Speaker A:They had a van, a small van that reversed into our back garden to clear out everything.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And as they drove, I mean, they were swearing and shouting at us as they drove off, and we just gestured some very gentle royal waves at them in response because they really were quite vile.
Speaker A:And I say, you know, we'd put an end to their.
Speaker A:To their income stream.
Speaker A:So at that point we were like, phew, thank goodness for that.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But sadly, that isn't the end of the story.
Speaker A:And what then happened, in some ways was better, in some ways was a whole lot worse.
Speaker A:But what then happened was we had a bit of a gap for a couple of weeks, and then all of a sudden, this proper wide boy walks past the front of the salon one day waving at us, and we're like, oh, who?
Speaker A:You don't know you.
Speaker A:We thought he was gonna come in.
Speaker A:He didn't he went straight upstairs, bounding up the stairs.
Speaker A:He was up there for a little while and he came back down and knocked on our door.
Speaker A:Because we were a clo.
Speaker A:I was always a closed door salon for security purposes.
Speaker A:Knocked on our door.
Speaker A:So I went and let him in and he's like, oh, my name is X.
Speaker A:Because I'm not going to give anyone's names away on here because it's public area.
Speaker A:My name's X and I'm moving in upstairs.
Speaker A:I just thought I'd come and say hello.
Speaker A:I said, oh, hi.
Speaker A:So I, I don't know, naively initially thought that we had a proper tenement.
Speaker A:What then happened was the next day the cheeky chappie comes back with a big pickup truck, parks on my phone call, which was never a good thing to do because I was very quite protective.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:My forecourt parks on my forecourt and starts unloading all the 4x2.
Speaker A:So be think, okay, first of all, like, yep, shelves, maybe four by two though, really.
Speaker A:Anyway, then they offload that load, then they come back with the insulation and the shelving.
Speaker A:And if you're not aware, those really are the key materials you need to create a cannabis grow or a cannabis farm or a drugs grow or whatever you want to call it.
Speaker A:Myself and my cousin just sat, she went, you know what they're doing, don't you?
Speaker A:I'm like, I think maybe she went, they're gonna start growing cannabis.
Speaker A:So that looks quite like it.
Speaker A:Anyway, they spent the next few days banging and crashing.
Speaker A:Fine, okay.
Speaker A:And then he left and then we didn't see him for a week and then he came back with his little French bulldog.
Speaker A:Then they started having loads of people come round of an evening and like, I mean, as much as, like, most of the evening stuff didn't really bother us too much because obviously we were only there a couple of late nights.
Speaker A:But there was people coming and going quite a lot and it was a lot of men.
Speaker A:And then it went quiet.
Speaker A:And the reason it went quiet was because the plants were growing.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And a couple of months later, then there was another lot of activity because their wonderful hydroponics had done their job and they had a harvest to do.
Speaker A:And this became a pattern that continued for probably two years.
Speaker A:Two, two.
Speaker A:Just over two years.
Speaker A: k it was probably in the July: Speaker A:But it was a, it was a perpetual cycle.
Speaker A:And I mean, and if you, if you are aware of what modern day cannabis smells like, I mean, cannabis never smelled Great.
Speaker A:Anyway.
Speaker A:But nowadays with the levels of THC and stuff that's in it and I do have a little.
Speaker A:It sounds dreadful.
Speaker A:I know so much about it but, but I know, I know enough and I've.
Speaker A:I, yeah, I'm not even going to go.
Speaker A:I'm not even going to go into why I know this stuff but, but I have some awareness of it.
Speaker A:Anyway, it kind of grows and it gets harvested periodically is what we need to know.
Speaker A:And, and it.
Speaker A:Now with how this stuff is.
Speaker A:Is made and with the plants that they use, the smell is unbelievable.
Speaker A:And bearing in mind they had this grow this.
Speaker A:My premises was salon.
Speaker A:They're there for the first floor of the flat and then there was a second floor kind of loft, couple of rooms up there as well that they had as bad.
Speaker A:There was bedrooms up there and they had.
Speaker A:Well, I'm not, I'm not quite sure, I never went in there.
Speaker A:But they had a lot, they had a lot of growth in there and so harvesting it was just this perpetual.
Speaker A:I mean really and truly.
Speaker A:You think they would have kind of staggered it a little bit, wouldn't you?
Speaker A:I mean maybe they were.
Speaker A:But there only ever seemed to be this one period of harvest and so yeah, it got quite challenging.
Speaker A:And again we had lots of people arriving.
Speaker A:They had a dog in there and there was no dog allowed on the tenancy.
Speaker A:So we reported him for that.
Speaker A:And again I was in conversations with the landlord.
Speaker A:He wouldn't do an inspection because the agents told him he wasn't allowed to, which is rubbish because he is, his premises is allowed to ask for an inspection.
Speaker A:And the letting agents continued to suggest that I was a hysterical woman.
Speaker A:Proper misogyny.
Speaker A:And the police were wonderful.
Speaker A:I had a really, really lovely local PC who was doing everything he could but you know, the hands are tied.
Speaker A:This is like they.
Speaker A:We can't prove it again.
Speaker A:You know, we'd have like bags of like that had residue of cannabis in them.
Speaker A:Outside the premise, outside the salon.
Speaker A:But that could have blown it off the street.
Speaker A:There was all this stuff and all this evidence and you know, he'd come around, he could smell it.
Speaker A:But because we couldn't get into the flat and prove it and all that kind of thing.
Speaker A:All the windows were sealed.
Speaker A:They had curtains across all the windows so you couldn't see in and there was nothing we could do.
Speaker A:Anyway, this pattern went on and on and on and to one degree it was okay because it was quiet.
Speaker A:You know, we'd had like obviously the very noisy activity upstairs prior to that and before that we had a couple of really nice young couple, but they were very.
Speaker A:He walked like an elephant.
Speaker A:So it.
Speaker A:And he was quite shouty and sweary and stuff at different points.
Speaker A:So it was actually to a degree, the most peaceful period of time that we had.
Speaker A:And so for working it was great because there was no one up there.
Speaker A:But then things happened like, you know, their hydroponics broke and so we ended up with like a massive flood coming through the ceiling.
Speaker A:They wouldn't let the landlord's maintenance guy in.
Speaker A:They insisted on doing their own maintenance.
Speaker A:You know, I mean, this like, red flag.
Speaker A:Excuse me.
Speaker A:Anyway, it went on, as I say, for just over two years that they were there.
Speaker A:And then one of the people that lived in the flats next to me phoned me one Saturday night, I think it was, or a Sunday night.
Speaker A:She messaged me, no, sorry, I tell lies.
Speaker A:It was in the middle of the week.
Speaker A:I'm just thinking, because I remember going in, we were actually supposed to have been open the next day.
Speaker A:We had to cancel all the clients.
Speaker A:But she phoned me and she went, oh, so you're not going to believe this.
Speaker A:They're raiding next door.
Speaker A:Do you want to come up?
Speaker A:And I don't know what to do because I don't think they're going into the salon, but they're definitely raiding next door.
Speaker A:There was these two huge black guys that have been hovering around out the front for a couple of days and we're not sure what happened or for a couple of nights and they've been, they've just been standing watching it and.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden there was a break in and then like someone's phoned the police and the police have arrived and what.
Speaker A:And we think what actually happened was there was a bit of a kind of like, like a drugs turf war kind of thing with these guys and they broke in to potentially destroy the grow or to take the girl, do whatever.
Speaker A:We think there was like a sort of an inter.
Speaker A:Drugs gangy kind of thing that went on and then someone called the police and the police then found the grow and they had, I think they.
Speaker A:They took 67 plants at that point.
Speaker A:And my poor landlord, my poor, wonderful, vulnerable, older gentleman landlord had his premises trashed.
Speaker A:It took him something like four, four to six months to get it put right.
Speaker A:Anyway, and it was horrendous, truly horrendous.
Speaker A:We had the police in the premises, although it was so.
Speaker A:It was a really, really hot day.
Speaker A:It was in July and it was so hot.
Speaker A:I have got all the photos somewhere because I think I might because I did have a blog about this on an old blog I had and I, I've got the photos somewhere.
Speaker A:Maybe I might redo the blog and put the photos out.
Speaker A:But what they pulled out of that building was unreal and, and it.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:Honestly you just can't believe how truly awful it was.
Speaker A:It was so, so bad and, and that, and that was the end of the story really.
Speaker A:But it was the fight we had.
Speaker A:I mean at one point the police, my lovely PC finally managed, after about 18 months he finally managed to get a police helicopter that was flooded that was in the area because they could only do it if they were flying over kind of thing to put a heat seeker radar over the premises.
Speaker A:And the police, I mean the idiocy of this.
Speaker A:The police said there was nothing going on because the, the heat seek, the heat signal from our premises was cold.
Speaker A:All the other houses, I mean it was the only house in all the other houses that had no heat signal.
Speaker A:And that'll be because it was so well insulated.
Speaker A:Because that's what they do.
Speaker A:Like you don't have, you don't have to be a drugs know it all.
Speaker A:You just need to have watched a few like police programs where they go in and raid and they find all the insulation.
Speaker A:If you've got that much insulation of course you're going to have no heat signal because no heat's escaping through the roof.
Speaker A:It's completely sealed so that the hydroponic systems help the plants grow.
Speaker A:That's what they do anyway.
Speaker A:So they, I mean the police did try but again like with the prostitutes, unless you catch people with it red handed, there's nothing you can do.
Speaker A:So I don't know what the lesson of this is.
Speaker A:I just wanted to kind of share the story fully and properly because it is something, you know and whether it's a drugs grow, whether it's a brothel, whether you believe you've got trafficked people, whether you believe that you have got illegal immigrants, whatever it may be, do the right thing and alert the authorities, you know, because at some point someone's going to get hurt and you know, who knows what those guys, you know, I mean it might be they were under kaiver policemen that had been watching the premises for a couple of nights.
Speaker A:But I mean they were making themselves quite like inconspicuous and it was.
Speaker A:Or I'm not inconspicuous conspicuous and I don't know, I don't know what the.
Speaker A:Whether I did the right thing all the way through.
Speaker A:And I'm sure you may agree with what I did, or you may not agree with what I did, but that time's gone now.
Speaker A:I can't go back and change it.
Speaker A:It's what I did.
Speaker A:And, and I think I made the best of it, of what I could at the time.
Speaker A:And through those years, you know, I won Salon of the Year, like one son of the year.
Speaker A:I, I did, I did okay over that couple of years, you know, it was, it, we, we kind of, we styled it out as, as you'd say.
Speaker A:And I, I, I don't know.
Speaker A:I mean, obviously I would, if I could go back and, and change things, I really would, because who knows where my business could have gone if that hadn't happened.
Speaker A:It may, it may be something that held us back.
Speaker A:It may be something that helped us fly more.
Speaker A:Who knows?
Speaker A:It's very, very difficult to know the negative impact that something has on you because you don't know what would have been.
Speaker A:But I just, the point of today and this podcast is really just to share you can come back from adversity.
Speaker A:Yes, it was stressful.
Speaker A:Yes, I did go home and cry.
Speaker A:Yes, I did have moments of sheer panic over what was happening in my business.
Speaker A:But overall, I did manage to get through it.
Speaker A:I came out the other side.
Speaker A:I'm still here, I'm still breathing.
Speaker A:I can talk about it.
Speaker A:And, and hopefully if anyone else is going through this situation, reach out.
Speaker A:I, you know, I can hold your hand if nothing else, do your due diligence, do the checks you need to do, find the laws that are going to help you speak to the right people.
Speaker A:If you have legals.
Speaker A:I think I actually did speak to them because I've been banging on about this quite a bit actually this week is if you have business insurance, particularly if you have a venue.
Speaker A:So you will have a different type of insurance from an off the shelf package.
Speaker A:But even if you have got an off the shelf insurance package, check if they offer you legal cover, if they don't look up legal cover separately.
Speaker A:Because for things like this it can be really helpful.
Speaker A:And you know what, and to be honest, I can't remember if I use my legal cover.
Speaker A:I think I probably would have done because I know I have used my business insurance legal cover many times over the years for lots of different things.
Speaker A:And, and it's invaluable because you get a half hour call with a legal person and if it's something that they can help, that they really do need to intervene on, if it's going to affect your business, you, they will actually support you.
Speaker A:So if you haven't got legal cover, look about getting legal cover on your insurance, do check the small print because not all print or not all policies are the same and they don't all give you the same cover.
Speaker A:But do go and check it.
Speaker A:But if you end up in a situation where you have something illegal going on around you and even if you have a competitor salon in your high street that you believe may have trafficked workers in.
Speaker A:And our industry, we know that there has been a huge, I mean there's just been 657 people arrested.
Speaker A:And I refer you back to my earlier episode, episode about trafficked workers and about immigration because it is a problem in our industry.
Speaker A:And slave, I mean that's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker A:The slave trade that we have in this industry.
Speaker A:We know that there is a large Vietnamese community within our industry of trafficked workers that are acting as modern slaves through no choice of their own.
Speaker A:Because otherwise they wouldn't be slaves, would they?
Speaker A:Let's face it.
Speaker A:But I did do a whole episode on this.
Speaker A:But if you, you know, this is the kind of thing you may be, you may be in a salon that is two doors along from a non standard salon or what we've always called a non standard salon that may have signs of modern slavery.
Speaker A:And, and it's no different to the what was going on with the lovely sex worker that we had upstairs to us and her friends that arrived later.
Speaker A:They were not there potentially out of choice.
Speaker A:And you know, just on a modern slavery point of view, you know, like sex workers are in many cases, you know, I mean obviously there is a, it's a choice career for some people and that is completely fine if that's how you want to pay your bills and that's how you want to feed your family and you enjoy or do whatever, you know, whatever reason you're doing it as a choice, that is your choice.
Speaker A:But when it's not your choice and you're being forced into it, that's called modern slavery.
Speaker A:And anything you can do to help other women, we need to do, you know, another in another like three weeks time it's going to be International Women's Day.
Speaker A:And, and I really feel that we need to start stepping up for not only our own businesses to protect our businesses when we have this on our doorstep or above our business or wherever it is.
Speaker A:If we are spotting these signs of things that are illegal and that other.
Speaker A:And that women may be being used inappropriately sorry, this has turned into a whole different podcast.
Speaker A:We need to be doing something about it.
Speaker A:So all I really wanted to do today was just to highlight that this happens.
Speaker A:Illegal businesses and illegal situations can pop up around your business and I'm here to support you if you need it.
Speaker A:Been there, I've done it.
Speaker A:As I say, I've had like yeah, brothel drugs grow and been and I have been surrounded by lots of challenging situations over the years.
Speaker A:Anyway, I do think that's probably enough for me for today and I will see you next time.
Speaker A:The next episode is going to be a long episode because I've just recorded it this morning and it is with the lovely Robin Banks who is a GDPR specialist.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:Doesn't that sound dry after today going from the wonders of brothels and the delights of all of that scenario into the deep dryness of compliance.
Speaker A:So although I have to say I had a couple of like aha moments in it and I really hope that you enjoyed that episode too.
Speaker A:Thank you very much for listening today and I will see you next time.
Speaker A:Bye for now.
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