9 minutes ago

Ed Thomas, UK editor,

Patrick Clahane and

Rebecca Wearn

Watch: Mandy explains how a gang targeted her and she ended up moving house

A midnight phone call from a High Street crime gang, threatening to kill crime investigator Mandy and burn her house down, was just the start of a campaign of intimidation that would eventually force her and her husband to move home.

She faced escalating threats from a Kurdish crime gang, that had been selling illegal cigarettes and nitrous oxide canisters in mini-marts across the UK.

Groups of men repeatedly turned up at her front door and her car was rammed off the road twice.

Mandy is one of 24 Trading Standards officers who have shared details of the daily intimidation and violence they face from criminal gangs running mini-marts and vape shops, as they try to investigate unfair trading, illegal business activity and enforce consumer protection laws.

In testimony shared exclusively with BBC News, officers describe:

Extreme threats - with one officer…