Gangs who seize homes for crime should be punished as modern slavers, urges report

Criminals who requisition the homes of vulnerable people, known as ‘cuckooing’, should be prosecuted for modern slavery, according to a major new report. 

Slavery at Home, by think-tank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and anti-slavery charity Justice and Care, urges a major overhaul of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, with nearly four times as many modern slavery victims formally identified and referred for support in 2021 compared to 2015. 

In 2020 the CSJ and Justice and Care estimated that there could be at least 100,000 modern slavery victims in the UK, ten times the 2014 Home Office 10,000-13,000 estimate when the original Act was being passed. 

A key finding of the report is that cuckooing criminals who exploit people by taking over their home, often using it as storage for drugs and weapons, are currently not being prosecuted for exploiting victims – as it is not a specific criminal offence – just for their general criminal activity.  Few police forces keep track of cuckooing data – only 7 out of 43 police forces approached by the CSJ were able to provide any data on the number of cuckooing victims.

Cuckooing particularly affects those most vulnerable from addiction, age or disability. For example, a FOI request by the CSJ and Justice and Care to North Wales Police revealed that of the 54 cuckooing victims they had identified between March 2021 and April 2022, 44 had drug warning markers (so thought to have issues with substance misuse), 10 were disabled or learning disabled and 39 were unemployed. 

Staggeringly, a poll by Opinium revealed that one in eight people have seen signs of cuckooing in their community. 

It featured in the hit BBC TV drama Happy Valley when a blind woman imprisoned by drug dealers in her own flat fell to her death in a desperate doomed attempt to escape.

A rescued victim of cuckooing, James (not his real name) said, “It was the bereavement of my Mum; I was taken advantage of.  They was feeding me free drugs.  ‘Cos I was so wasted on what they were giving me I didn’t even see the change until it was too late when people started moving in and then when the prostitution started that is when…when the prostitution started is exactly when I got locked in my room 24/7. It was just, it was horrible basically, I wasn’t allowed out, I had to do my business in my room, I was frightened to death to even move, I was scared of what would even happen to me.”  

James told the police officer that rescued him that he had saved his life. 

The CSJ and Justice and Care call for the new modern slavery Bill promised by the Government – using it to make cuckooing a specific modern slavery offence – a proposition supported by 78 per cent of the public in the Opinium poll.  Currently, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says that cuckooing is out of reach of the Modern Slavery Act where there is no travel or other labour is involved.  Evidence from frontline officers suggests that the CPS is regularly refusing to charge cuckooing offenders under the Modern Slavery Act.  

In the report, the CSJ and Justice and Care also make a series of other recommendations to improve the Act.

It points out how there were only 93 prosecutions and 33 convictions for modern slavery as the principal offence in 2021. This is compared to 12,727 formally referred under the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and the CSJ and Justice and Care’s 100,000 total victim estimate. 

Even for those convicted, the report highlights how the average sentence is only between three and seven years despite the maximum sentence allowed under the Act being life. 

Jess Phillips MP, who wrote the foreword to the report, said: “Modern slavery is a crime that impacts thousands of people each year who fall victim to criminals who abuse others for their own profit. The very real need to tackle modern slavery happening here in our communities is getting lost in the recent suspicions that people are falsely claiming to be modern slavery victims to bypass immigration rules.

“Cuckooing seems to be a growing form of modern slavery. We must outlaw this exploitation of vulnerable people, threatened and manipulated by drugs gangs who take over their home. We cannot leave them any longer to suffer behind closed doors at risk of being prosecuted themselves.   

“This paper from Justice and Care and the Centre for Social Justice is a timely and welcome redirection, calling us back to the core of the fight against this horrendous abuse on our doorstep: bringing offenders to justice and supporting victims to recover.” 

Iain Duncan Smith MP, CSJ Chairman, said: “As a matter of priority we need to make cuckooing a criminal offence. It cannot be right that the invasion of someone’s home by gangs for criminal purposes is out of the reach of the Modern Slavery Act.  This isn’t a drugs crime or a property crime, it is a crime that devastates vulnerable people in the very place that should be their sanctuary.” 

Andy Cook and Christian Guy, the Chief Executives of the Centre for Social Justice and Justice and Care, said: “Some causes should be elevated well above party political point-scoring and Westminster jostling – fighting the evil of modern slavery and human trafficking is one of them. 

“For centuries our country has led the way in the fight against slavery, from taking on the transatlantic trade to the pioneering legislation in 2015. The promise of a new Bill was welcome and must be seen through, but its test must be whether life improves for victims and gets tougher for criminals. This paper sets a course to achieve that.” 

In addition to an increased focus on increasing prosecution and conviction rates, the report recommends the introduction of a national register for modern slavery offenders – similar to the sex offenders register. This would allow police nationally to monitor offenders and allow them to prohibit them from engaging in relevant activities, such as working with children, being a gangmaster or recruiting staff. 

Other recommendations by the CSJ and Justice and Care to crack down on modern slavery and help victims include: 

• Strengthen Section 54 rules on large companies which require them to report on their actions to ensure they are not facilitating slavery. Currently non-compliance is 40 per cent. This would include legislating to make voluntary reporting themes mandatory, introducing financial penalties for non-compliant companies and creating a single-enforcement body. 
• Introducing import controls which prohibit the importation of good produced or manufactured abroad via modern slavery. 
• Making it mandatory for public bodies procuring goods and services above a certain threshold to publish a modern slavery statement. 
• Giving all victims a minimum of 12 months tailored support after leaving the NRM and embedding Victim Navigators with police forces to help victims engaging with the criminal justice process.