FOUR years ago, landlord Craig Shepheard welcomed a new tenant claiming to be a courier into a two bedroom flat he owned in Hertfordshire.
The first few months passed by without issue until, suddenly the rent payments stopped.
Hazel Martin looks into the issue of criminals taking over people’s homes in tonight’s episode of Panorama Credit: BBC
Craig Shepheard’s flat in Hertfordshire had been turned into a brothel Credit: BBC
Then came complaints from neighbours about cannabis use, and reports of men visiting the flat at night.
“The vast majority of my tenants are absolutely lovely,” Craig told as part of their investigation into criminals taking over homes, set to air tonight.
“I was using a professional lettings agency, and they got this chap in. He had passed all of his tenancy checks.”
When the tenant told Craig the washing machine was broken, he used the opportunity to investigate what had happened to his flat.
Finding sexual paraphernalia inside, he reported to the police that his flat seemed to be being used as a brothel, but was told they needed more evidence to get a search warrant.
Craig turned detective himself and started filming.
“I opened the door, and there was a double bed there with a blonde naked lady, covered in tattoos, fast asleep on the bed,” he said.
“Through into the second bedroom, there was another double bed, and a man and lady asleep on the bed. And she screamed because there was a strange bloke standing at the doorway, and then the first lady came out with her dressing gown and that’s when we started having a conversation.”
The new tenant seemed find until, all of a sudden, the rent payments stopped Credit: BBC
When he investigated he found multiple mattresses and prostitutes using his flat Credit: BBC
Both women, it turned out, had been paying hundreds each week to rent out the room from someone else.
Hertfordshire Police told Craig that they had been part of an organised prostitution ring, run by a network in Brazil, and that they operated pop-up brothels across England.
The lettings agency that had met the tenant and seen proof of identity had been fooled by a high-quality forgery.
Though Craig was able to track down the tenant and get him to give up the flat, he was down four and a half months’ unpaid rent and faced a £4,500 repair bill to make it suitable to rent again.
In the end, the sex workers vanished, and Hertfordshire Police closed the case due to “lack of evidence”.
Similar stories are playing out across the UK, with criminals able to rack up thousands of pounds worth of profit from these illegal operations while facing little to no threat of retribution.
In South London, Monica was faced with a nightmare after renting out her flat to someone who – on paper – seemed perfect.
The so-called accountant passed reference checks with flying colours and had a British passport.
Six months later, the downstairs neighbours rang her up as water was pouring into their from the flat Monica was letting out above them.
“I found out there was a cannabis farm on my property,” Monica said.
“I was absolutely petrified. I had no idea what had happened to the place.”
Police raided the flat and found more than 60 plants with a street value of an estimated £75,000.
Monica’s flat in south London was turned into a cannabis farm Credit: BBC
The criminals had all but destroyed her flat and let her with thousands of pounds worth of damage to fix Credit: BBC
The flood had been caused by an issue with the farm’s complex irrigation system.
Inside, the flat was “horrendous”, Monica added.
“They had blackened out all the windows. The actual cannabis smell was unbelievable.
“There’s mold everywhere, due to the humidity. The floors were completely gone.”
A Vietnamese man was arrested but later released without charge, with police suspecting he was a victim of modern slavery.
Monica told BBC Panorama that she received little support from the Metropolitan Police, who told the program they were still investigating.
Worst of all for Monica is that, six months on from the farm being found in her flat, she still did not have it back as the tenancy agreement was still valid.
Housing law requires landlords to go through a lengthy process of serving a notice and applying for a court date in order to secure an eviction.
However, backlogs and delays mean in many cases the entire process can last between six months to a year.
Monica herself applied for a court date in April and has only just had one confirmed for August.
Again, as with Craig’s flat, the tenant had used a fake passport to pass reference and identify checks.
“The use of false identities is growing almost exponentially,” said Simon Miller, who works for fraud prevention database Cifas.
Monica had been duped by a sophisticated fake ID Credit: BBC
Hazel was able to find fake IDs for sale online and buy her own for just £75 Credit: BBC
“Fraud in the UK has become endemic. It’s 45 per cent of all crime, and ID fraud is a really significant part of that.”
In order to find out just how easy it is to obtain fake identity documents these days, BBC Panorama journalist Hazel Martin went onto the internet and found it awash with options.
For just £75, she was able to obtain a completely realistic-looking driver’s licence with her photo, but someone else’s details.
Crucially for the fraud to work, the details on it are based on a real person – someone whose name, address, and data have been stolen and are for sale online.
False ID documents based on legitimate details are much more valuable to criminals, as when those details are passed through verification checks, they will show up as real.
Hazel managed to get in touch with the person whose details were being sold online to create false documentation and warn them.
However, when Hazel tried to report the fraud to the City of London Police, who oversee reporting cybercrime, she was told he could not report it as a crime as she was not the victim.
In addition to brothels and cannabis farms, others have their properties illegally rented out on platforms such as AirBnB.
Neha’s flat in east London was taken over by criminals who started to let it out on AirBnB Credit: BBC
Neha told BBC Panorama how she had begun renting her flat to a tenant claiming to be a data scientist.
However, neighbours soon alerted her that the tenants had been illegally renting their flat out on AirBnB.
She secured an eviction notice, but just days before they got the flat back, the criminal tenants emptied the flat of all its furniture into the back of a van.
When they were finally able to go back round, they found their flat ransacked and the balcony window smashed.
Looking at the other properties the gang had on AirBnB, Neha saw her stolen furniture being used in the listings.
Despite filing four complaints to the Metropolitan Police over identity fraud, criminal damage, and theft, no one has been arrested in the two and a half months since the ordeal.
“We have done all the hard work of gathering all the evidence. But there have been zero repercussions just yet,” said Neha.
“This makes me believe that this is the perfect crime.”
The furniture then appeared in other listings the criminals had up on AirBnB Credit: BBC
There was further damage to the inside of the flat Credit: BBC
The Metropolitan Police said that they are still investigating the case.
BBC Panorama tracked down the person whose name had been used on the ID documents to rent Neha’s flat – a woman called Poonan Grover, who lived in north London
She looked nothing like the woman on the ID documents, which, it turned out, was an image of a model available online.
It turned out that her details had been used multiple times, and she had even been threatened by debt collectors over unpaid rent that had nothing to do with her.
In reality, Poonan was one of many around the country who are victims of identity fraud.
To date, none of the fraudsters or criminals in the BBC Panorama documentary had been arrested or tried.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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