Panorama

Criminal gangs are targeting the rental market to take over properties and use them to run their operations. Panorama reporter Hazel Martin speaks to flat owners who paid reputable agencies to do tenancy checks but still ended up handing over their keys to criminals using fake IDs and references. One flat was turned into a drugs factory, another became a brothel, and a third was sublet and ransacked. Even when there appears to be clear evidence of criminal behaviour, gangs are escaping prosecution, and landlords say it can take months to repossess their properties.