There's also this photo of a pit within one of the stores being filled with cement just before being shutting down: https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/tebfqa/almost_all_o...
I've been trying to find out more about what was going on other than money laundering but haven't been able to find much
From memory, the owner set up multiple other business used to secure COVID loans from UK Gov and also had the candy store business buy those business from him. The business was/is a front for these other activities.
If you are interested then I can maybe scan the article.