Pop-up brothels targeted in Luton in bid to end illegal sex exploitation

“People using those underground services have exposed those females essentially to threats of violence and sometimes violence,” the borough council’s scrutiny health and social care review group was told.

“The profile of what we’ve seen in terms of exploitation has changed, rather than increased or decreased,” said Supt David Cestaro, of Bedfordshire Police.

“So mainly, via exploitation through sex work, we’ve seen those working in that field exposed to a different kind of danger, because nobody was supposed to be meeting at all during lock down.

“We’ve noticed an increase in off-street sex trade, so a number of what are called pop-up brothels.

“The intelligence picture would suggest they’re being increasingly run by organised crime groups.

“While the assessed population of those exploited through sex work is remaining pretty stable, some of the ways they’re exploited have changed.”

On Tuesday, police issued a three month closure order on a massage parlour in Park Town suspected of being a brothel.

In June, police raided three addresses in Luton (see here) suspected of housing brothels and of being linked to a wider organised crime network.

Six Romanian women were rescued and six people arrested, after a multi-agency operation to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The women were offered safeguarding support through the national referral mechanism for victims of modern slavery.

The local authority’s ending adult exploitation strategy was adopted in 2018.

Vicky Hawkes, from the council’s community safety team, said: “Our report sets out some of the actions, which have taken place since the adoption of the strategy about two years ago.

“The whole ethos is that once people are in the system, we connect them with the right resources."

Labour Dallow councillor Abbas Hussain asked: “Would you target a specific dealer or gang, because someone will carry on their game?”

Supt Cestaro, who leads on partnership work by the police tackling organised crime, replied: “There are different tactics you employ. Addressing hotspots or geographical locations is extremely effective.

“Targeting individuals and gangs as well, and problem-orientated policing which could be something like the issue of school exclusions.

“We would look to work with the education sector around reducing the number of exclusions.

“One of the tools we use is the violence exploitation reduction unit (VERU) which is really pointed about being community informed.

“You’re probably aware we’ve been very active in Dallow ward with surprising gang issues. We’ve been putting a lot of work into those.”

Councillor Hussain responded: “I appreciate what you’ve done during Covid-19 in Dallow ward, mainly drug and gang issues.”

The review group agreed three recommendations which included encouraging all agencies to commit resources to tackle exploitation.