When a criminal gang befriended 34-year-old Jamie, he had no idea they would soon take over his home. Two years ago, after suffering brain damage from being struck over the head with a glass bottle, Jamie struggled to move and speak properly. The gang moved into his flat without his consent and used it as a base to sell drugs. ‘People went from being really nice and sound to me, to just taking whatever they can,’ he told the BBC. ‘They robbed my clothes. They started taking everything worth taking at my house, like stealing it without you knowing. And when I did realise it was them, they would deny it.’ One of the most demeaning moments, he said, came when a teenager much younger than him slapped him in the face.
Jamie’s story is far from isolated. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people’s homes are being taken over by criminals every week in the UK, usually to store and deal drugs, police chiefs have told the BBC. The perpetrators, often targeting vulnerable individuals such as the elderly or disabled, force themselves into homes to carry out illegal acts. In some cases, drug users are exploited by gangs who move in and refuse to leave.
“Hundreds of homes taken over weekly by gangs in UK, police warn, as victims describe abuse and exploitation.”
The practice, known as cuckooing – after the cuckoo bird that takes over other birds’ nests – is not yet a specific criminal offence, meaning there is limited data on its true scale. However, figures shared exclusively with the BBC show 1,539 incidents of cuckooing were reported to police in London between May 2025 and April 2026; of those, 1,275 victims were male.
Kirsten Dent of the National Police Chiefs’ Council described the ‘horrific things’ that have happened to victims, who were often trapped in their own homes. ‘We’ve had cases where they’ve been forced to eat dog excrement or perform sexual acts, and those will be recorded and then used as a form of blackmail for the perpetrator to say “if you don’t do as I say, then ultimately we’ll share this with friends and we’ll put this on social media”,’ she told the BBC. ‘It’s hidden and in people’s homes, it’s not always easy to detect.’
Cuckooing is expected to become a specific criminal offence by the end of the year, carrying a maximum five-year prison sentence. The measure forms part of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, but the government is yet to issue statutory guidance to police forces before the law can be enforced. Ahead of the implementation, the BBC accompanied London’s Metropolitan Police as officers visited suspected cuckooing properties and witnessed shocking signs of squalor. For victims like Jamie, the fear of violent reprisals kept them from reporting the crime. ‘I was a prisoner in my own home,’ he said.