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UK-registered firms have been linked to payments for small boat crossings in the English Channel following an undercover investigation. The bombshell BBC documentary found people smugglers are directing migrants to pay for illegal crossings using a network of UK-registered businesses.

Criminals offered to receive payments using UK companies' bank accounts to a BBC journalist posing as a migrant attempting to illegally reach Britain via the Channel. These businesses included a mobile phone shop in south-east London, and firms in Newcastle upon Tyne and Cambridgeshire, according to the BBC. The researcher was undercover in a migrant camp in Dunkirk, northern France, where they secretly filmed smugglers.

Within minutes of arriving in the camp, they were - separately - approached by two men appearing to be touting for rival gangs.

One of them took the researcher to meet a smuggler, calling himself Zia, who said he could book a place on a small boat crossing.

The second tout shared the phone number of a smuggler called Ahmad - it was claimed Ahmad had been operating out of northern France for more than five years.

Speaking over the phone, Ahmad told the BBC researcher that the crossing would cost £2,700 for two people and they could pay via one of three UK businesses, including in Woolwich at a shop called Afg Mobile Repair.

The mobile phone shop and the other two UK firms are all listed at Companies House, according to the BBC which added its investigations team verified that Ahmad had provided the correct bank details for both the Newcastle and Cambridgeshire firms.

Ahmad also shared details of several businesses in Europe where payments could be made in cash, including a car wash in Antwerp, Belgium, and a restaurant in Paris, the BBC reported.

Ahmad denied any involvement in people smuggling when confronted on the phone by the BBC.

Zia, meanwhile, did not respond to several requests to comment.

The owner of the Newcastle wholesale business told the BBC they "strongly reject any suggestion that we have knowingly or negligently enabled criminal activity" and promised to co-operate fully with authorities.

The Cambridgeshire car wash did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

The broadcaster then visited the south-east London phone shop on three occasions.

An undercover researcher pretended to be a UK-based family member of a migrant attempting to cross the Channel and conversations with two shop workers were secretly recorded.

One man explained from behind the counter that the money would be transferred to the smugglers only after a successful crossing.

"If your people do not cross, if he tells me to return your money back to you, I'll do it," the man said, according to the BBC which added it did not hand over any cash.

Reporters later returned to confront the man who denied moving money for people smugglers.

The Smuggling Business: Undercover is now available on BBC iPlayer and will also air on BBC One in the London and South regions at 8:30pm on Monday (May 18).