A DANGEROUS loophole is allowing migrants to work illegally for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats using the details of legitimate staff, a Sun on Sunday investigation can reveal.
Our undercover reporter posed as a recent Afghan migrant on Facebook forums dedicated to hiring food delivery drivers, to highlight how riders are subcontracting their accounts to people who do not have the right to work legally in the UK.
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Within minutes he was offered the log-ins for company apps so he could receive orders in return for a fee — without any checks on who the driver really was.
We discovered some subcontract workers are migrants who are able to skip background checks and earn money illegally without the company they are riding for even being aware.
This subcontracting practice, known as substituting, is accepted by the delivery firms and allowed under their terms and conditions.
But no checks are made on who they are substituting to, and the loophole could be exploited by dangerous criminals to land jobs.
In 2022 Hampshire delivery rider Jennifer Rocha bit off a customer’s thumb in a row over a pizza but continued working for Deliveroo, even after the account she was using at the time was suspended.
The same year, convicted drug dealer Jordan Da Silva managed to work for Deliveroo.
His past was only exposed when he posted a video of him unwrapping a female customer’s anti-fungal cream in front of her, and he was recognised on social media.
No questions
In April, food delivery firms agreed to strengthen security checks to prevent illegal working.
Deliveroo said it has launched a substitute registration feature including right-to-work checks, Uber Eats said it would be launching identity verification checks while Just Eat said it was trying to “develop a solution which will ensure couriers substituting their work do so in accordance with the law”.
But after our reporter posted in the Facebook group asking to hire an account to do deliveries, he was offered Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat account details and log-ins for £70 to £100 a week, with no questions.
The registered drivers assured our reporter he would easily make that fee back and could expect an average of 42 hours a week earning £600 — around £14 an hour — by downloading an app, using their details to log into the system and get work.
One, Brian, agreed to hire out a Just Eat account for £140. He told our reporter it consisted of a £70 deposit and £70 for the first week’s use of the system, and said to take the cash to a run-down housing estate in Beckenham Hill, South London.
When our reporter said he didn’t have a UK bank account, he said: “We will get paid every Wednesday and I can give you it in cash. You can easily make £100 daily, working seven to eight hours. If you make £600 I’ll take £70 rent and I’ll give you £530. Nobody is going to check or ask you for anything. This is anonymous work.
Another user, Ricky, gave us an account to transfer £180 made up of an £80 deposit and £100 for the first week’s rental of his user details.
We made no payment for any account.
One Brazilian driver told us: “A person who has the right to work here opens as many accounts as possible, sometimes over 100.
“From there, they offer these accounts to people who don’t have the right to work, then they work in another field that pays better, like construction. Illegal workers will happily accept a £3 order to an address three or four miles away.”
Migrants are even boasting about using the substituting loophole to get work.
One, from Chad in North Africa, detailed his journey to Europe in 2022 on TikTok.
In one post he shared a Union Flag and a rowing boat, indicating he had reached the UK on an illegal small boat.
And he showed the budget hotel near Heathrow Airport where he was living, and himself riding a bike carrying a Deliveroo bag, as well as buying designer gear.
In another hotel in South East London, where small-boat migrants are living, a resident, 32, from Pakistan said: “There are people here working as delivery drivers, but I’m not one of them. I don’t know how they get jobs as we don’t have work permits.”
And a Jordanian man, 53, said: “I want a job but I don’t have a work permit. If someone can find me a job as a delivery driver, I will take it.”
We showed our findings to industry expert Alfie Pearce-Higgins, a Deliveroo rider since 2021, who campaigns for better pay transparency for workers.
He said: “I’m not surprised by the scale of this — the practice is widespread. Anyone who wants an account can rent one easily without any checks. This undercuts the pay of legal, tax-paying drivers and can expose vulnerable people to exploitation.
“There is a very simple solution — remove the right of substitution, as Deliveroo recently did in Hong Kong. In my experience most drivers, customers and restaurants and supermarkets would support this.”
In 2023, a Home Office spot check found 42 per cent of riders were working illegally.
Deliveroo and Uber Eats have more than 120,000 official UK riders between them and Just Eat has tens of thousands — suggesting if it reached that scale, at least 50,000 food delivery workers could be working illegally.
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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The leading delivery firms have made repeated commitments to stamp out the abuse of driver substitution, but it is clear from these revelations they have not gone far enough.
“They need to get a grip on this fast as we cannot stand for this kind of abuse.”
And Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Our laws — including employment laws — should be respected.
“The Government must urgently step up immigration enforcement and checks to stop illegal employment, including in the gig economy.”
Our research shows counter-measures are having little effect.
We even found gangs offering “all-inclusive” illegal work packages that can be booked before a person has even reached Britain.
An Instagram post in Portuguese offers London accommodation, a motorcycle with insurance and fuel, an active Uber Eats account, plus food, for £500 a week, claiming it offers an £840 weekly profit.
A West London delivery driver added: “Three or four I know of are visa overstayers renting accounts and making good money. I think the food delivery accounts are accelerating the boat arrivals and providing a stepping stone to integrate into communities faster.”
WHAT ARE THE CHECKS?
WHEN a driver creates an account with a delivery firm, it checks their right to work, photo ID, Disclosure and Barring Service status for convictions, and insurance, if they are using a motorised vehicle.
Drivers pay nothing to the firms when they create an account with them and there are no minimum working hours, which is why there is no real justification for substitutes.
But all major firms allow substitutions, including Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat and Stuart.
An Uber Eats spokesman said: “All couriers who use the Uber Eats app must undergo checks to ensure they have a legal right to work in the UK.
“Uber Eats has worked with the Home Office to launch additional identity verification and Right to Work checks to help ensure only those who legitimately use someone else’s account to deliver on the platform are able to.
“We are constantly reviewing these processes to ensure they are as robust as possible and if we receive reports that this is not the case we will investigate and take appropriate action.”
A Deliveroo spokesman said: “We take a zero-tolerance approach towards any rider who fails to meet their legal obligations.
“All riders have to have the Right to Work. If found to be in breach of their obligations, we will stop working with them with immediate effect.
“We have taken action to secure our platform and were the first to roll out direct Right to Work checks, a registration process and identity verification for substitutes.
“We are rolling out daily identity checks using facial recognition technology for all riders, including substitutes.
“We take our responsibilities extremely seriously and are committed to strengthening our controls and preventing misuse of our platform, with additional checks planned for next year.”
THEY CAN EARN £1,400 A WEEK
FOOD delivery workers claim they can make as much as £1,400 a week.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat do not publicly advertise pay rates.
But riders say they can earn large sums by picking the best-paying orders, working in areas with lots of restaurants, take-aways and grocery shops, and working at peak times.
If they take multiple orders from the same place or from outlets in the same area, they can do multiple deliveries per hour.
The delivery firm apps use an algorithm to determine earnings, depending on the number of orders collected, distance travelled and time taken to complete orders.
The algorithm also sets pay rates, based on how many drivers are online.
Jobs website Indeed states the average daily income of a Just Eat worker is £202, while Deliveroo riders average £14.99 per hour and Uber Eats drivers are estimated to earn up to £120 a day.
One Just Eat worker boasted on Indeed the work was “so simple… I usually get around £15-£20 an hour”.
An Uber Eats rider said they “easily earn over £500 per week working 40 hours”, while a Deliveroo rider claimed to have earned £1,400 in a week on a pedal bike, working 7am to 10.30pm.
Drivers can also earn money by substituting.
