Police explain the challenge as figures reveal low rate of charges for modern slavery crimes
Perpetrators are going unpunished in Sussex, our investigation reveals, with just three suspects charged since 2015
Sussex Police has charged just three suspects with modern slavery offences since the 2015 Modern Slavery Act was passed – giving it the third lowest charge rate in England and Wales.
The landmark legislation was designed to crack down on the ‘appalling crime’, which ranges from forced prostitution to domestic servitude, with simplified offences and tougher punishments.
But a JPIMedia investigation has exposed the extent to which perpetratorsareescapingjustice.
Just 4.4 per cent of modern slavery offences recorded by English and Welsh police forces between 2015 and September, 2020, resulted in a charge.
Dame Sara Thornton is the independent anti-slavery commissioner – a role created by the2015Act.Shesaidthecurrent lack of risk to criminals ‘fails to counter the economic reward of trafficking in people, or prevent organised crime groups acting with impunity’.
SussexPolicehaschargedjust three people since 2015, despite recording 601 modern slavery offences. This results in a charge rate of 0.5 per cent.
DetectiveChiefInspectorKris Otterysaidmodernslaverywas‘a complex and challenging world of investigation’ but ‘certainly something that is right up there on our priorities’.
“Wereallydoaspiretogetthat chargerateup,”hesaid.“Wewant to hold people to account if they are exploiting people.”
A breakdown of crimeoutcome figures showed that in almost half of the 255 modern slavery offences recorded by the forcein2019/20,nosuspectcould be identified.
DCI Ottery said: “If you take the example of a county line drug dealer, it may be that we encounter the young person but actuallywe’vegotnotracebackto thepersonwho’sexploitingthem.
“So we may feel that they’re being exploited, they may tell us they’re being exploited, but unless we find something to link them to that third party, that can be challenging to identify a suspect.”
Giving another example, he said: “It may be we go to a report of a pop-up brothel.
“When you go to the address you may encounter a sex-worker in the premises, but again, potentially nothing there that leads to any trace of the other person involved.”
Anothercommonreasonwhy investigations fail is that victims do not support further action. This was the case for a third of the crimes recorded in 2019/20.
DCI Ottery said there were many reasons why victims might be reluctant to support investigations. “Some of them are really concerned and in fear to what may happen if they do,” he said. “They might be under some debt bond or some threat if they’re not to comply with the people who control them.”
In view of this, many officers have undertaken specialist victim support training, and DCI Ottery said charity workers and translators often accompanied police on raids to help engage with victims: “So that from the outset we’re able to make that person feel more comfortable, less frightened.”
Modern slavery cases often involve organised crime groups who were ‘quite sophisticated’.
“We may get victims who are scripted to tell whoever may be enquiring into their circumstances a certain story to detract attention from them,” he said. “[The perpetrators] don’t want to be caught, so they don’t necessarily leave evidence on a plate for us. If we get a victim who is not willing to engage, and then in the particular location that we are operating there is no evidence, then we are really struggling.”
But he said police would always try to achieve evidencebased prosecutions ‘even where there might not be that victim support’, because ‘we need to put a stop to this behaviour’.
At the same time, criminal charges were ‘not the whole picture’, he said. Police work closely with organisations with differentpowersthatcanbeused to disrupt perpetrators. “There’s so many other partners that can help us make Sussex hostile to the exploiters, so it’s really hard to actually pay someone below the minimum wage, or you can’t put lots of people in a house of multiple occupation in poor living conditions,” he said.
In a recent example of this, the Health And Safety Executive (HSE) took action after two Romanianmenwerefoundliving in‘filthy’conditionsintheformer TJHughessiteinEastbournelast month – with no hot water and no shower facilities or protective equipment. The HSE issued an immediate‘prohibitionnotice’on the building to prevent workers from sleeping there again, due to lack of fire precautions, and issued a Notification of Contravention(NoC)becausethe site had no hot running water, no meansofheatingfoodorflushing toilets.
Police have also launched an investigation into possible modern slavery charges in relation to the incident.
Safeguarding Minister Victoria Atkins said the Home Office had allocated £2million to support police with modern slavery work this year and had invested £11.3million over the past three years into the Modern Slavery Transformation Programme to boost prosecutions.