Working Illegally – CLACTON.ORG

The principle

This is not about blaming immigrants

People respond to the opportunities and pressures placed in front of them. A person who is desperate for money may accept insecure or illegal work. That does not excuse breaking the law, but it does mean the greatest responsibility sits with the people selling or renting accounts, the multinational companies processing every job, and the government that sets and enforces the rules.

Lawful migrants, British citizens from migrant families and everyone else with the right to work should be protected from being undercut by an illegal labour market. The answer is not hatred. The answer is a system that verifies who is doing the work, protects vulnerable workers and makes large corporations accountable.

The companies already know this problem exists.

In June and July 2025, the government said illicit account sharing was still enabling illegal work and announced agreements with Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat to increase facial verification, fraud detection and data sharing. Voluntary steps have not removed the problem. Clear legal standards are now required.

Who pays the price?

Black market employment has several victims

Illegal account use is not a harmless shortcut. It shifts risk away from large platforms and onto workers, customers, taxpayers and honest businesses.

1

Young people and local workers

Students, teenagers, parents and people needing a second income should be able to enter flexible work without competing against an unlawful market that can accept lower pay and unsafe conditions.

2

Legitimate riders and drivers

People who are registered, insured, tax compliant and legally entitled to work are undercut when others use rented or shared accounts outside the rules.

3

Vulnerable migrants

Illegal workers can be trapped in arrangements where they pay account rent, cover fuel and equipment, work extreme hours and have little ability to report exploitation or demand their rights.

4

Customers and the public

A customer should know that the person arriving at their home is the verified person shown in the app. Road users also need confidence that the rider or driver is properly licensed and insured for the work.

5

Taxpayers

If one person earns money through another person’s account, it becomes harder to attribute income correctly, verify expenses and establish whether the right Income Tax and National Insurance have been paid.

6

Honest businesses

Businesses that follow employment, tax, insurance and right-to-work rules should not be undercut by competitors or platforms that benefit from weak enforcement.

171 riders were arrested during a seven-day immigration enforcement operation reported by the Home Office in December 2025.

Daily checks were among stronger verification measures announced by major delivery platforms in 2025.

Platform reporting already requires certain digital platforms to report seller income information to HMRC.

The solution

Verify the worker, not just the account

The technology already exists. The law should require platforms to use it consistently, pay for it themselves and prove that it works.

Verified registration

Identity and liveness check
Right-to-work check
Tax identity, bank account and device linked
Driving licence and correct insurance where required

Face check for every job

Live face verification before accepting each delivery
No gallery photo or recorded video
Accessible alternative where facial recognition is unsuitable
Failure or refusal pauses the account

Continuous risk checks

Multiple phones or simultaneous logins
Impossible travel between locations
Overlapping jobs or inhuman working hours
Unusual payment, device or location changes

Customer confirmation

App shows the verified worker’s current photograph
One simple question: “Is this the person who delivered your order?”
Yes completes the job
No triggers an immediate live recheck

Immediate account pause

A failed live check stops new jobs
Relevant records are preserved
The customer report is logged
The genuine account holder is contacted

Secure enforcement alert

Failed face image and account identity
Device, delivery and payment details
Current location where legally authorised
Previous reports and risk flags

Investigation and decision

Police, HMRC or immigration enforcement assess the evidence
Identity, right to work, tax and insurance can be checked
Account sellers and organised abuse are investigated
A customer report alone is not treated as proof

Outcome and prevention

Restore an innocent account quickly
Ban confirmed fraudulent users and account sellers
Recover tax and criminal proceeds where lawful
Share confirmed fraud markers across platforms under clear legal rules

What should happen after a customer presses “No”?

Immediate action

The account should be paused before another job is accepted. The rider should be required to complete a live identity check immediately. The platform should preserve the job, device, payment and location records.

Enforcement threshold

A failed or refused live check should create a secure referral to the authorised enforcement system. Repeated customer mismatches or impossible account activity should receive the same treatment. The platform should not simply close the complaint and carry on.

Tax compliance

Attach every payment to the person who actually earned it

HMRC already requires certain digital platforms to report information about income earned through their systems. The weakness is obvious: if an account is shared, the platform may report the money against the account holder rather than the person who carried out the work.

Identity verification and tax reporting must therefore operate together.

Verified payee for every job

Each payment should be recorded against the verified person who completed the delivery, not merely the name originally used to open the account.

PAYE where the law requires it

Where the real working arrangement amounts to employment for tax purposes, the platform or operator should use PAYE and provide the rights that follow from the correct employment status.

A new CIS-style gig scheme

For genuine self-employed platform work, government should consider a deduction-at-source system modelled on the Construction Industry Scheme. The platform would deduct an HMRC-set amount and pay it directly to HMRC as an advance payment towards the worker’s final tax bill.

This would not automatically make every rider an employee.

Employment status must still be decided under the law and the facts of the working relationship. A new platform deduction scheme would deal with tax collection for genuine self-employment, while PAYE would apply where the worker is legally an employee for tax purposes.

Corporate responsibility

The cost should sit with the companies profiting from the work

Technology platforms hold the account, location, device, payment and job data. They should be required to invest in the systems needed to prevent abuse, rather than passing the cost and risk to workers, customers and the taxpayer.

Mandatory live identity verification built into every job acceptance.
Automated detection of simultaneous logins, impossible travel and extreme working patterns.
A clear one-tap customer identity mismatch report.
A secure, audited connection to authorised enforcement bodies.
Independent testing for accuracy, bias, security and false matches.
A rapid human appeal process for legitimate workers wrongly suspended.
Fines linked to UK turnover where a platform repeatedly fails to prevent proven account abuse.
Personal accountability for directors or organisers who knowingly facilitate large-scale illegal working.

Safety and evidence

Why verified identity matters

Most delivery workers are not criminals and should not be treated as suspects. The issue is that an unverified account breaks the chain of responsibility. The customer, platform, insurer and authorities may not know who actually carried out the job.

Underage riders and rented accounts

A BBC investigation, reported by the Evening Standard and others, found an online trade in delivery accounts and reported that underage riders could obtain work through substitution. It included the death of a 17-year-old who had been working through another person’s account.

Read the Evening Standard report

A substitute rider and a serious assault

In a widely reported case, a Deliveroo substitute using another person’s account pleaded guilty after biting off a customer’s thumb during an argument. The importance of the case is not that it represents every rider. It shows why customers and platforms must know who is actually doing the work.

Read The Times report

Road and insurance risks

Essex Police warns that ordinary insurance does not automatically cover business use or hire and reward work, including takeaway and self-employed delivery driving. If the person using the account is not the registered worker, checking the correct licence and insurance becomes more difficult.

Read the Essex Police insurance guidance

Moped-related insurance fraud

Sky News reported warnings from insurance investigators about deliberate moped collisions used for fraudulent claims, with many suspected offenders believed to be couriers. This is a separate issue from illegal immigration, but it reinforces the need for verified identity, vehicle details and insurance.

Read the Sky News report

Important: Individual crimes do not prove that delivery riders as a group are dangerous. They show why identity checks, traceability and insurance verification matter when a worker is sent to private homes.

Legal safeguards

Strong enforcement must still be accurate and lawful

Facial verification used to identify a worker is biometric data and receives additional protection under UK data law. That is not a reason to abandon the proposal. It is a reason to write the law properly.

Biometric data should be encrypted, retained only for a defined period and accessed only for stated purposes.
Platforms should complete independent data protection and equality impact assessments.
Location data should be shared only through a lawful, secure and audited enforcement process.
Workers should have a rapid route to challenge false matches, malicious customer reports or technical errors.
Checks must apply to everyone using the platform and must never be based on race, accent, nationality or appearance.

Expected benefits

A fairer market for lawful work

Better opportunities

Reducing unlawful labour should make it harder for platforms to rely on people who cannot safely challenge poor pay or conditions. That should strengthen the position of lawful workers, including young people and those seeking flexible second jobs.

Less exploitation

Ending rented and sold accounts removes a route through which vulnerable people can be charged for access to work while receiving none of the normal protection attached to a genuine account.

Safer customers and roads

Verified identity, licence and insurance records make accountability clearer when a delivery goes wrong or a road collision occurs.

Correct tax

Job-level identity and deductions at source would make it harder to hide who earned the income and easier for HMRC to collect the right amount.

Fair competition

Responsible businesses and lawful workers should no longer be placed at a disadvantage by companies or account holders willing to ignore the rules.

Reduced illegal-work incentive

Removing easy access to unverified gig work would reduce one incentive used to persuade people that they can enter or remain in the UK and work outside the legal system.

My position

Target the system, not entire communities

I do not blame immigrants as a group for a black market created by weak rules, people selling access to accounts, corporate systems that can be abused and government enforcement that has not kept pace with technology.

I want the same rules applied to everyone. The person doing the work should be the verified person on the account. They should have the right to work, the correct insurance and a clear tax record. Companies that profit from every delivery should be legally responsible for making that happen.

If a multinational company can track an order, calculate a route, process payment and record the location of a rider in real time, it can verify who is doing the job. The technology is not the obstacle. The missing elements are firm legal requirements, investment and accountability.

Explore Martyn’s policies

This proposal forms part of a wider position based on controlled immigration, fair employment, local opportunity and respect for people who follow the rules and contribute.

Our views on immigration Learn more about Martyn Read local policies Contact Martyn

Sources and further reading

Evidence used for this page

Sources were checked on 24 July 2026. Government figures and company practices can be revised, so this section should be reviewed periodically.