WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUCH, THE TOUGH GETS GOING

You all have them. Every now and then. That impossible case. You know there are serious problems. Drug dealing, prostitution, thuggery, victimisation. Everybody knows who is responsible. But nobody will give evidence. Nobody at all.  So gangs of violent perpetrators or "hardmen" get reputations for "running" estates. Local knowledge tells you that they are the ones that did that shooting last week, or were responsible for that knifing. But with no evidence what can you do?

A West Midlands based housing association was faced with that dilemma. The Burger Bar Boys gang has a national reputation following the killing of Charleen Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare in 2003. Taking them on was really was a case of when the going gets tough, the tough had to get going.

Housing officers were too intimidated to give evidence even though they believed the gang were using a property for their gang activities, including drugs.  

10 - 15 gang members were regularly seen congregating around a property, shouting, swearing and riding their motor bikes.  They slashed residents' tyres, intimidated residents' children, stole residents' possessions. They were so confident of their position of power they openly smoked drugs in the street. Their leisure pursuits included breaking into properties to set fire to them.  

Worse - fights often took place with rival gangs in front of the property where knives and baseball bats were the weapons of choice.  The police always attended the property in full body armour, so it was easy to see why residents didn't even want to talk to housing officers and definitely didn't want to be seen talking to them. 

This landlord was determined not to be bullied and from the start were absolutely determined to deal with the problems.  Simply saying "get me more evidence" was not going to get us anywhere - so what did we do?

• Firstly we supported the housing officers who were developing relationships with the tenants. We also accepted they would have to report things in secrecy.
• The housing officers never talked to complainants on the estate and nobody ever saw them talking.  Arrangements were made for taxis to pick them up and take them to an office to be interviewed in secret. 
• We advised housing officers to contact the local shops.  Their CCTV footage showed members of the gang intimidating a security guard in front of shoppers. When the case came to trial the CCTV footage gave the court a vivid view of the aggression and intimidation people had to live with
• We then worked directly with the police who gave us evidence on all the members of the gang, their past criminal acts in the area and any convictions.
• Did you know that in civil proceedings you can rely on incidents that have happened even if they happened more than 6 years ago?

So that the court had some live evidence of what it was like living on the estate we recommended Expert Investigations to carry out covert surveillance in an empty property that the association owned. Expert Investigations videoed what was happening to give the court absolute proof of the anti - social behaviour. They were able to show in glorious technicolor a running battle with gang rivals!

Together with the evidence obtained from the police and with hearsay evidence from residents we were able to secure 3 Interim ASBOs to stop the immediate problems.  They eventually became full ASBOs. 

We then threatened the gang members' mother with possession.  She initially agreed the sons would move out. What happened next?

Ah that's for next month's issue………………

Written and supplied by Geraldine Haden, Partner, Gorrara Haden Solicitors, Birmingham
www.housinglaw.uk.com | 0121 452 8787