Squatters living in a notorious crime-ridden house were removed by police in an operation using brand new legislation on Thursday.
Beds Police attended the large house at 2 Cromwell Road to ask the squatters to leave under Sec 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, something they had never before enforced.
Five people were removed from the property and one person was arrested for failing to attend court in a case relating to theft of a charity box.
Sgt Jason Cahill said: “For the last six months or so that house was renowned for anti-social behaviour and drug misuse. We knew about it as part of Operation Turtle in High Town, and we knew it was frequented by prostitutes and people buying drugs. All the anti-social behaviour in High Town seemed to link back to this property.”
Sergeant Terry Davis said officers, backed up by PCSOs, arrived at the house at 9.45am, knocked on the door and were let in by one of the occupants.
He said: “We didn’t know exactly what we were going to find, whether there would be weapons there for example. The squatters were resistant at first but eventually they did leave and we didn’t have to arrest them.”
The squatters had taken over three flats in the top floor of the house, had stopped paying rent and changed the locks on the doors.
Rivergate Investments who owned the property visited the scene once the squatters had left to reclaim the flats.
Police ensured the squatters were not vulnerable or ill and all had somewhere else to go.
Sgt Cahill said: “These people are now known to us and we will be keeping an eye on them. Having spoken to residents since, there has been a lot of relief from people who knew crime was happening in that house but had been too scared to come forward and tell us what had been going on. People were too scared to say what they knew, so our information all came from police intelligence.
“It was a successful operation, we achieved the objective we set out to do and this will go a long way to reassuring the public that the police are taking action and other squatters can expect a knock on the door.”
“We are dedicated to making residents living in High Town feel safe and proud about the place they live in.”