Latest news with #cuckooing
BBC News
09-07-2025
- BBC News
'Cuckooking' at Nuneaton flat an 'absolute nightmare'
Residents of an independent living complex have told how they endured years of anti-social behaviour surrounding a resident who they believe had been "cuckooed".Pensioners at the complex in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said there was open drug use by people visiting another elderly resident in the council-controlled centre, but their complaints and concerns were not her real name, said she was initially "so happy" to secure the flat but her living situation became an "absolute nightmare" due to the and Bedworth Borough Council said it was aware of the incident and admitted mistakes were made. The residents believe the man had been a victim of so-called cuckooing, the term used when the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by criminals, who use it as a base for drug dealing or other illegal told the BBC said she had initially loved her flat, but within eight weeks knew it "wasn't right for me".She described how she went to her daughter's home to get some sleep, as a man where she lived had his television "blasting" 24 hours a despite the council coming out after she reported the noise, she said the man would turn the volume back up as soon as they had left."It was day in, day and night all the time," Sue added. "I used to sit on my bed just crying.""There was a drug dealer that used to come in and collect his drugs four or five times a day with a really savage dog." In February, the government announced cuckooing was set to become a specific criminal resident, who the BBC is calling Tony, said someone needed to be held accountable as complaints were made and "nothing was done" about the vulnerable man's situation."I believe he was cuckooed," he said."It was the fact that people were coming in and out of the building, getting in the building without a key, and it was being reported and nobody was doing anything."Tony said it was an "ongoing" issue for nearly four years."Somebody's failed in the duty of care, haven't they, because the complaints were there and nothing was done," he added."We're the victims in this, and the council really didn't step up to the mark, although they tried to." Chris Watkins, leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, said the authority had looked into the incident and there had been "some mistakes"."We're all over any sort of cuckooing," he said. "We're working in conjunction with the police."Watkins said there were rules that had to be followed, and the authority had to monitor noise "for many weeks" following a complaint to build up a case to take to court."There are rules that the council have to follow so we can build up cases; sometimes it does take longer than the residents want," he added."I'm just saying that we have learned lessons, we are looking at what happened, and we do realise that it did take longer than the residents expected it to take." Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
04-07-2025
- BBC News
Arrests and drugs seized in North Yorkshire county lines crackdown
Police have seized drugs and made five arrests as part of an operation targeting county lines from North Yorkshire Police executed warrants at 36 properties in Scarborough, Selby, Richmond and Harrogate across a seven-day Supt Fionna McEwan said while the county "remains one of the safest places in the country" gangs were still operating in the members of the public to report any suspicious activity, she said: "The information maybe the missing piece of the jigsaw that helps us to further protect our communities." County lines refers to the movement of drugs from usually bigger cities to small communities and often involves the exploitation of vulnerable the week of action, officers also made checks at homes where people may have been subjected to "cuckooing" - when a perpetrator takes over a person's home and uses the property for criminal Supt McEwan added: "I want to thank the fantastic partners we work with every day who help build intelligence, educate young people, protect those people who are being exploited, and target the offenders running these lines. "It is the strength of the partnership that makes the difference." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
04-07-2025
- BBC News
Eighteen arrested in Lincolnshire county lines drugs crackdown
Twenty-seven people, including four children, have been protected from county lines drugs gangs during a crackdown in Lincolnshire which led to 18 arrests, police seized drugs worth £25,000, a haul of weapons, counterfeit notes and 4,000 cigarettes during the week-long targeted raids by Lincolnshire Police, in which potential cuckooing victims were found at 31 addresses.A 22-year-old man was charged with drug crimes and a modern slavery offence, while 17 other people were arrested for various drugs and robbery force said it had dismantled two suspected county lines groups during the operation between 23 and 29 June. Cuckooing involves individuals or gangs manipulating vulnerable people to gain access to their properties for drug operations. Det Supt Kerry Webb said: "These gangs use runners, often vulnerable people, to deliver the drugs."It is exploitative and often violent. The networks are likely to exploit children and vulnerable adults to move and store the drugs and money and they will often use coercion, intimidation, violence - including sexual violence - and weapons."She said four children and 23 adults who were being exploited had been Moran, 22, of Brooksby Lane, Nottingham, was charged with being involved in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin in the Grantham area, and exploitation under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. He was remanded into force said £2,215 in cash and £5,000 in counterfeit notes had been confiscated, along with two vehicles, air rifles, a pistol and 13,700 grams of lines is the term used to describe drug-dealing networks connecting urban and rural areas, using phone lines across the Webb added: "Our communities play a huge part in the success of cracking down on this by providing much-needed intelligence around drug-dealing, suspicious activity, or vulnerability, and we would encourage people to continue to do this." Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
BBC News
17-06-2025
- BBC News
Swindon drug dealer jailed after cuckooing victim
A drug dealer who was caught with Class A drugs worth more than £100,000 has been jailed for four years. Simon Huckvale, 36, of White Castle, Toothill, who was arrested in December at a house in Toothill, West Swindon, was also accused of 'cuckooing' - where the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by a criminal. During the arrest Swindon Crown Court heard he initially tried to run at police officers, before attempting to flee instead. He eventually pleaded guilty with intent to supply crack cocaine, cocaine and cannabis, being concerned in the supply of heroin, and for possessing criminal property. Searches of the property he was arrested at uncovered more than 200g of cocaine, 500g of crack cocaine, nearly 400g of heroin and more than a kilo of cannabis - an amount that could have yielded more than £120,000. Huckvale was jailed for four years at a sentencing hearing at Swindon Crown Court on 9 June. Speaking on behalf of Wiltshire Police PC Thomas confirmed his crimes had involved cuckooing for the purpose of supplying drugs, adding: "This practice often involves the most vulnerable in our society, who are then controlled by the criminal through the use of threats, leaving them feeling trapped in their own homes." "We also know from speaking to members of the public that Huckvale's arrest has had a significant impact on the supply of drugs within the community," he added.
Telegraph
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
IDS: Labour say they're reforming welfare but they're simply cutting it. It won't work
Iain Duncan Smith is fixing me with a gimlet gaze while he explains his role as backbench MP. It is not at all what I expected. The former Tory party leader (before it ditched him) and former secretary of state for work and pensions (before he ditched it) was re-elected to Chingford and Woodford Green last year (after Labour ditched itself). More of which shortly. 'I am a flea!' he declares improbably. Come again? From Tory big beast to microscopic pest. That's a bit of a leap, isn't it? 'I am proud to be a flea. A good backbencher must do battle in the war of the flea,' he repeats, with, it must be said, all the energy of an unwelcome interloper that can jump 150 times its own length. Although now 71 years of age, Duncan Smith began the morning with a vigorous game of five-a-side football, so it's not quite the stretch it might seem. 'I'm an agitator. I harry and annoy, making ministers itchy and uncomfortable until things get done. I approach them in the lobby, I go and see them and eventually – I hope – they give in. As an MP, you have the opportunity to take on cases and causes for people; you are the person between power and the people.' So much for marking time on the green benches. The way Duncan Smith tells it, it's where a surprising amount of work gets done: 'You can change legislation, you can amend Bills. Take 'cuckooing', where drug gangs take over the homes of vulnerable people. I campaigned to make it a criminal offence last year and then reminded this Government they voted for it when they were in opposition and now it's happening.' I have come to see him in his office, fully expecting a glorified cupboard, which is traditionally the lot of the Opposition for whom the days of wine, roses and nice views of the Thames are over. But no. This grand, wood-panelled, deep-carpeted space, large enough to host a cocktail party, is surely the preserve of grandees? 'This office is traditionally for former PMs and ex-party leaders,' he explains. 'I've been here since 2003 and have repeatedly refused to leave because it suits my purposes very well. After this last election the chief whip asked me to move. I told him: 'If it's between the room and the job, I'll take the room.'' He is speaking of the general election, not the more recent local elections when Reform swept the boards. But Duncan Smith refuses to even entertain downcast thoughts: 'We knew what would happen; when we left government we were deeply unpopular. By voting for Reform, voters were rejecting us and Labour. It was a case of 'a plague on both your houses' because the electorate felt neither of the traditional parties was listening to them. We need to remind voters of what we stand for.' As for Labour's woeful performance less than a year into government, he points to the axing of the winter fuel allowance as a huge blunder. 'Labour made a big mistake on cutting something so totemic; if you attack the old then their children and grandchildren will be alienated. Then again all their benefits cuts are coming across as arbitrary and not thought through.' Policies come and go, but Duncan Smith seems immovable. I can't help wondering aloud how Betsy, his wife and mother of their four children, feels about him sitting for yet another term. They are, after all, grandparents of two – soon to be three. Does she not dream of the day he walks away from Westminster, gets into gardening and finally takes that retirement cruise down the Danube? 'Absolutely not,' he says. It was just a random example plucked from the air but Duncan Smith is a very literal man. 'The Danube? We would both hate it. I think I'd end up throwing all the other passengers overboard.' That is an oddly pleasing vignette, even if I can't quite put my finger on why, but we move swiftly on as we are here to discuss his unexpected renaissance. As the likes of Liz Truss, Grant Shapps, Penny Mordaunt and Jacob Rees-Mogg lost their seats last year, Duncan Smith strolled back into Chingford and Woodford Green, thanks to Labour in-fighting. The seat's original candidate was deselected for her pro-Palestinian views but went on to stand as an independent, splitting the Left vote and giving him a 4,757-strong majority. He first entered Parliament in 1992, when he took over Norman Tebbit's constituency. Having become leader in 2001, he was ousted in 2003 in favour of Michael Howard, partly because of a smear campaign against his wife, who was his diary secretary, which suggested Betsy had not worked the necessary hours to merit her pay. 'It was utterly despicable,' Duncan Smith almost spits out. 'Of course Betsy was cleared of everything but by then it was too late. It was a blow. Did I want to be prime minister? I don't think anyone becomes party leader and not have that ambition but it doesn't matter.' To assess whether he had the chops to be PM, I subject him to the traditional Mumsnet test by asking him to name his favourite biscuit. 'I don't really like biscuits,' he says stiffly. I'm not entirely certain he understands the significance of the question. 'At a push I'd go for shortbread.' Could this be why his fellow Tories felt he failed to project the necessary charisma as party leader? Referring to himself as the 'quiet man of politics' didn't help much either. But a year later Duncan Smith had dusted himself down and founded the Centre for Social Justice think tank, with the aim of providing research into poverty, worklessness and social breakdown. It has proved to be highly influential. Back on the green benches, it's worth noting how rare it is for a former leader or a former minister to visibly enjoy being out of office. But Duncan Smith is a man who remains true to his word, that word being 'vocation'. 'There is no such thing as a political career,' he says. 'Politics is a vocation. It's about people and if you don't like people, then you should find another job.' After many years in the spotlight, then out of it, this recent humble (but self-evidently not humbled) retention of his seat is turning into quite the golden hour for Duncan Smith. If he's not making waves here by speaking out on the menace of China – something that has resulted in him being sanctioned by its government – he's making headlines in the Kyiv Independent, which quotes him as a 'UK lawmaker' urging Donald Trump not to 'force Ukraine into a bad deal'. Ukraine is very much on his mind; he organises unofficial cross-party visits as guests of the British charity HopeFull, which delivers food to families on or near the front line. 'It's really important to see conditions for yourself, you need to go as far forward as you can,' he says, every inch the former lieutenant in the Scots Guards who did tours of Northern Ireland and what was Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. As an arch Eurosceptic long before it was fashionable, he is, quite understandably, incandescent at the way Labour is once again aligning Britain with the EU. ' This so-called 'reset' by Starmer is a clear betrayal of Brexit. 17.4 million people voted for Brexit. Now with only 9.7 million votes at the last election he has committed us, having left the EU, to become rule takers again, without any say in the setting of the rules we will have to obey.' Back home in Britain Duncan Smith is something of an éminence grise; as the architect of Universal Credit while at the Department for Work and Pensions, his specialist subject of welfare reform has risen to the very top of the domestic agenda. Through his research at the Centre for Social Justice, he has been keenly aware of the multi-generational worklessness blighting communities across Britain for two decades. It is the spiralling benefits bill that has compelled the current Labour Government to play catch-up. I saw it for myself not so long ago when I visited Grimsby, dubbed 'Britain's worklessness capital' last year, where the ward of East Marsh and Port now houses the country's highest proportion of young people not in employment, education or training. Duncan Smith nods as I recount the desolation and hopelessness I encountered. 'There are lots of places like Grimsby on the coast that were once reliant on the fishing industry,' he says. 'The problem is that people get used to being out of work. When you get your money anyway there's no incentive to get a job; boys and young men end up milling around in groups on the verge of criminality and since Covid people are unable to cope with the ordinary vagaries of life. 'Research we did at the Centre for Social Justice found that 84 per cent of GPs believe we unduly medicate normal emotions.' This is very much Duncan Smith's personal crusade. Back in 2010, the practising Catholic controversially described people's failure to take up work as a 'sin' and later likened the 'historic mission' of welfare reform to Wilberforce's campaign against the slave trade. Had social media been quite so active back then, I suspect he would have been well and truly cancelled by the liberal wokerati – and he would have cared not a jot. Few could doubt his genuine engagement with raising people up from poverty and into employment; he felt so strongly about the living wage that he pumped the air with his fists on the floor of the House of Commons – and could be seen shouting 'fantastic' – when George Osborne announced its introduction in 2015. His own project, Universal Credit, which combined six existing benefits, was devised as a more flexible system that would encourage people into work by merging out-of-work benefits and in-work support into a single monthly payment, so benefits tapered off gradually rather than stopping abruptly. But Duncan Smith's departure from government was the very definition of abrupt; he resigned after one contretemps with Osborne too many as the 'austerity chancellor' sought to make £4 billion cuts to disability benefits. They were, he said at the time, 'a compromise too far'. 'I said that would be a hammer blow to working people and that a government can't keep taking money off the working poor. Do I regret anything? No, I stopped the cuts so I did the right thing.' There is clearly no love lost between the pair. Interestingly, Osborne recently intimated on his podcast, Political Currency, which he co-hosts with Ed Balls, that the introduction of Universal Credit, a digital system which has been hailed as the most advanced of its kind, was down to him. Duncan Smith swiftly, tersely, puts the record straight. 'That is re-writing history,' he says sharply. 'He opposed much of what I was doing.' Right now, the focus is on this Labour Government, which, ironically, is instituting the reforms for which Duncan Smith lobbied. He has already criticised Chancellor Rachel Reeves for cutting £5 billion from the welfare budget. 'They're trying to plug a hole in the budget so they don't break a fiscal rule which they created in the first place and it's just madness,' he says, animatedly. 'I believe in reform not cuts for their own sake. Labour has an opportunity to use Universal Credit to reform welfare but only if they choose to do it properly, in the way I proposed. Welfare reform means you double down your efforts to get people into employment. Just gerrymandering budgets to get a few billion here by taking it from there won't work. 'Human engagement is needed; you need to understand why people aren't working and help them find a way through that. The by-product of reforming benefits is saving money. 'What I left behind will enable them to do this if they want to. I am here if anyone wants to talk to me.' For some on the far-Left however, Sir Iain Duncan Smith – he was ennobled in the 2020 New Year Honours – or IDS, as he is known in the House, will always remain a Right-wing bogeyman; his is a name that still provokes more brickbats than bouquets. In October 2021 he had a traffic cone put on his head and was verbally harangued outside the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. The incidents went to court, where the judge famously ruled that calling him 'Tory scum' didn't constitute abuse. 'I think it's a rather limited phrase and shows a lack of imagination,' he reflects, dismissively. 'It's so unoriginal and hackneyed – people shout it all the time, and I just think, 'Really? Is that really the best you can come up with?' I just laugh.' I'm not sure he does laugh, at least not in the conventional sense. Perhaps a sort of peremptory bark? The son of RAF Second World War ace Wilfrid George Gerald Duncan Smith, he was born in Edinburgh and grew up in the Midlands. From the age of 14 he was educated at HMS Conway on Anglesey, a boarding school for Navy hopefuls. He later attended Sandhurst, and was then commissioned into the Scots Guards, where he spent six years and saw active duty. In the 1980s he worked for GEC Marconi before Westminster beckoned and judging from his current enthusiasm, he has no intention of bowing out any time soon. Why would he, when he finds himself living through interesting times and, being a rank and file MP, has carte blanche to voice his opinions. Does he believe Starmer is doing a good job in managing disrupter-in-chief Donald Trump? Here, Duncan Smith is clear-eyed and unpartisan. 'Any government knows it is crucial we don't allow a breakdown between the US and Europe. Britain has played the role of mediator again and again over the years and Starmer needs to keep Trump's ear and convey that there might be better ways to do things. 'There aren't going to be any major problems from the Conservatives if the Government does the right thing by reaching out to the US and making sure Britain succeeds in making the trade arrangements that need to be done.' As far as Duncan Smith is concerned there is not an hour of the day to be wasted. When he's not in Westminster, he and Betsy live in Buckinghamshire on his father-in-law's estate; she is the daughter of the 5th Baron Cottesloe. At home, he paints – he shows me pictures of really rather fine oil paintings on his phone – he occasionally gardens 'under close supervision' and he enjoys nothing more than the restorative solitude of fly-fishing. 'There's a Babylonian proverb that goes something like 'God does not take from man's allotted span the time spent fishing'.' And he smiles, before striding off down the corridor to agitate and annoy.
