The above quote from a resident resonates with the powerful message that our resident conveyed when the Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) Team helped and supported him from the clutches of criminals who were cuckooing him.
If you’re not sure what cuckooing is, it’s when criminals target the home of a vulnerable person and take it over to use the property for illegal purposes such as drug dealing and human trafficking.
Usually, people who target and cuckoo vulnerable residents keep an incredibly low profile to win over the trust of that person. This initial period is where the victim feels that the people are helping them with bills, food, shopping, paying their utility bills, collecting medicine and then slowly they use this as a base to carry out their illegal operations.
The victim feels they have real, genuine friends who care and listen to them, giving them attention. By this time, they soon realise they have been engulfed in criminality where their home is being used for illegal purposes. They feel they cannot say anything against these people and are afraid to speak up, so they continue to be exploited.
This is exactly what happened to our resident in Wellingborough. He was a reserved person who went about his day-to-day business. It was in the town centre that he initially helped a stranger by offering a cup of hot tea. Seeing this person every day and thinking he was being a good Samaritan, he continued to be kind to this woman, who he quickly thought was a friend. This ‘friendship’ then turned into a nightmare for our resident.
Soon the woman ended up at his flat, needing help and support as she made up a story that her phone and belongings were stolen. He helped her by allowing her to use his phone, which then became a common occurrence. The female ‘friend’ then slowly began to call over her other friends and completely took over his flat!
Unknown to him, his day-to-day life was severely restricted, and he was told that he had to obey them and was threatened to keep quiet.
Thanks to a concerned neighbour who – by chance – noticed something odd where, instead of the resident, she saw other people coming and going from his flat with a strong smell of cannabis. She reported this to us in the ASB Team as well as to the police.
We tried to contact our resident, but his phone was either always switched off or another person claiming to be a family member told us that he was unavailable.
The ASB Team quickly got in touch with our local police contacts, and a joint visit was arranged. We visited our resident and managed to see him by waiting until somebody opened the door to come out. We soon discovered the state in which our resident was living. He had lost so much weight, and the flat was in a terrible state with drug materials everywhere and multiple burner phones. There were two people who the police were aware of as being criminals, and they were asked to leave and not to return. We safeguarded him by arranging for the locks to be changed and for a new key fob to be issued.
After working with him for several months with an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) in place, he finally gathered the courage to turn things around. He thought he would lose his flat because he felt responsible for the situation. We reassured him, helped him regain confidence, and assisted him in sustaining his tenancy. He grew more assertive and confident in saying ‘NO’ to people who he thinks would target him again.
At the time of writing, our resident is doing very well. After being signposted to S2S (a substance misuse service), he is engaging very well with them and is also doing some courses. We’re incredibly happy to have helped him escape this situation!
