The British government is moving to make cuckooing a specific criminal offence, in an effort to protect vulnerable people whose homes are seized and exploited by criminals. Police chiefs suspect that hundreds of such homes are taken over every week, in what has been described as a hidden crime that frequently goes unreported and unseen by the wider public.
The scale of the problem is only now becoming clear. More than 1,500 incidents of cuckooing were reported to the Metropolitan Police over the last year alone, and almost 1,300 of those victims were men. Officers believe the true number is considerably higher, with many cases never reaching the authorities at all.
Cuckooing sees criminals move into and take control of someone else's home, often targeting people who are isolated, ill or otherwise vulnerable. Once inside, they use the address for their own purposes, while the rightful occupant is left trapped and frightened within the walls of their own property.
The human cost can be severe. In one case that came to light, a victim who has Parkinson's disease was confined to a single room of his own home, and the boiler was deliberately switched off, leaving him without heating. Cases like his show how completely a person's life and home can be taken over by those who move in.
Ministers are aiming to make cuckooing a specific criminal offence within months, carrying a sentence of up to five years in prison. At present there is no dedicated law that directly addresses the practice, a gap that those working with victims say has allowed it to spread with little to stand in its way.
Creating a distinct offence is intended to give police and prosecutors a clearer tool to act against those responsible. Until now, cases have had to be pursued under other laws, which campaigners argue has made it harder to recognise cuckooing for what it is and to hold offenders to account.
Fear remains a central obstacle to tackling the crime. Many victims are too afraid to come forward, aware that the people who have taken over their homes may still be close by. That reluctance continues to make cuckooing difficult for police to detect and prosecute, even as the authorities push to bring it out into the open.