Around 100 illegal car washes are operating around the Black Country as the number of rogue businesses continues to grow, the Express & Star can reveal today.

Investigations into car washes on derelict pub car parks and former petrol station forecourts are being carried out by councils across the region in a bid to shut them down.

The businesses, which can make hundreds of pounds a day, often continue despite the threat of fines and jail.

At least one operation in Walsall has been fined £10,000 and been served with an injunction to stay off a former MEB station in Church Street, Darlaston.

While many motorists think nothing of using the unofficial car washes, council bosses say residents living nearby have the misery of queues of traffic outside their homes.

There are also health and safety fears over dirty water allowed to flood into streets and the noise the operations bring with them.

Councils across the region have today admitted it is an increasing problem with between 50 and 60 thought to exist in Sandwell alone.

In neighbouring Walsall the council is investigating 25 illegal car washes, while South Staffordshire Council is probing four cases.

No figures were today available for Wolverhampton although in February the council said a car wash on the car park of the Prestwood Arms in Prestwood Road, Heath Town, did not have planning permission.

Sandwell’s neighbourhoods chief Councillor Mahboob Hussain said today it was difficult to prosecute those behind the operations as most simply moved elsewhere.

Spokesman for Dudley Council Phil Parker said officers were looking into three alleged illegal washes.

In Lichfield two have been closed down this year and another one is being investigated. Twelve washes operating in Cannock without permission across the district have been stopped.