This is the moment police questioned a group of moped delivery drivers next to a busy road during an immigration crackdown as 19 vehicles were seized.
The riders were pulled over by a team of Metropolitan Police officers who cordoned off the area with traffic cones in Wandsworth, South London, yesterday afternoon.
Video filmed from a bus showed officers speaking to several motorcyclists who had dismounted, many of whom had container boxes on the back of their vehicles.
Detectives could be seen examining the containers, and one insulated bag for a popular delivery company was placed on the grass by the side of the road.
The clip capturing the pre-planned operation also showed a large flatbed truck carrying more than ten mopeds – as police could be seen speaking with a van driver.
The Met was working with Home Office immigration enforcement officers, and arrested two people under Section 24(1)(b)(i) of the Immigration Act 1971.
During the joint operation, one Pakistani national was arrested as an overstayer and one Indian national was arrested for breach of immigration bail.
Some of the mopeds and electric scooters were seized for allegedly being stolen, while others were said to have been used in the theft of other vehicles.
Moped drivers are questioned by police in Wandsworth, South London, yesterday afternoon
Metropolitan Police officers speak to a rider by the side of the road in Wandsworth yesterday
Footage shows officers speaking to several motorcyclists dismounted from their vehicles
The clip filmed in Wandsworth also shows a large flat-bed truck carrying at least ten mopeds
A Home Office spokesperson told the Daily Mail today: ‘Illegal working undermines honest employers, undercuts local wages and fuels organised immigration crime.
‘This Government will not stand for it. Since coming into power, the Government has increased immigration enforcement action to the highest level in British history, with an 83 per cent in illegal working arrests and 77 per cent rise in raids.’
Comment has also been requested from the Met, whose officers remained at the scene into the evening last night.
It comes after a three-week investigation into food delivery riders by the Mail, which revealed many working in London are sleeping rough and using soup kitchens.
This newspaper also disclosed that many of the roughly 20,000 drivers in the capital are often not unskilled – but are rather young graduates and trained professionals.
Our new investigative video series called ‘Underground: UK’ revealed the hand to mouth existence of those who transport takeaway orders across the capital.
In recent months the Government has been cracking down on asylum seekers taking jobs for delivery firms as Home Office officials target illegal working hotspots.
Asylum seekers in the UK are normally barred from work while their claim is being processed, though permission can be applied for after a year of waiting.
Minister also announced last year that they would share information about asylum hotel locations with food delivery firms in a bid to disrupt such hotspots.
Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat previously said they would ramp up facial verification and fraud checks to prevent people working as riders without permission.
