Gangs’ slaves involved in home scams

A RISING number of modern slavery victims are being used by crime gangs across Yorkshire to carry out home improvement scams, Trading Standards has revealed.

Teams across the county are reporting more cases where enslaved workers are used to do unnecessary or poorly executed jobs, often ultimately at massively inflated prices.

Criminal gangs deliberately target homeowners who might be vulnerable, for example the elderly, seriously ill or disabled, often living along, National Trading Standards (NTS) said.

Although official figures were not available, teams in Yorkshire and the Humber, as well as the North East, Central England and East of England, say victims of modern slavery are increasingly being used to carry out the work.

These are people, often immigrants, who are held captive and forced to work with little food and scant or no pay.

Lord Toby Harris, chairman of NTS said: “The doorstep scammer is not a lovable rogue.

“Often behind the person who turns up at your door offering cut-price services is a serious criminal.

“Not only are they happy to rip off older people, those living on their own, and indeed anyone who is taken in by their patter, but they may also be exploiting and even enslaving vulnerable people to help them carry out their crimes.

“Consumers need to be vigilant to old scams wrapped in 21st century packaging and to ruthless criminals who will stop at nothing in pursuit of ill-gotten riches.”

According to the UK’s annual report on modern slavery, the police recorded 50 per cent more of the offences (5,059) in the year to March 2019 than the previous 12 months.