A Colliers Wood brothel where women had allegedly been forced to be sex workers has been shut down.

In December 2019, police received reports that women at a home in Byegrove Road had been forced to work as sex workers by someone that had trafficked them into the UK.

Officers attended and spoke to two women at the address who denied the allegation.

Speaking to the Wimbledon Times about the this, PC Lemos Galvao of the Colliers Wood SNT said: "We then made our own enquiries by visiting the address to check on the welfare of these females and speaking to residents of the area.

"In one of the visits to the address, a man opened the door and was very much anti-police.

"The man didn’t want officers to speak to the females, even forcing the door against officers, however, officers made it clear that they would only leave once they had spoken to both females."

PC Galvao added that two things caught the team's attention.

"There were bolts from outside the bedroom doors, which made them think that someone could’ve been locked inside the bedroom and the other thing was there were cameras covering the front of the property, even though the house itself, was not in good living conditions," she said.

"This visit made officer really concerned for these females, even though they did not want to disclose anything to us."

Officers were made aware that the comings and goings at the home were also causing anti-social behaviour to the nearby residents, due to different time of day and night.

The customers would also often mistakenly knock at other neighbours’ address, causing them fear.

A meeting was then requested with Merton Council and safeguarding, immigration and the modern slavery team.

"In the meeting it was decided that the best option would be to close the place down and attend the address with Merton Safeguarding and a translator to make sure that they didn’t speak only to officers, in case they wanted to disclose anything to someone else, not in an uniform," PC Galvao added.

"Officers did as planned and on the day the notice was served, the females had a chance to speak to officers and Merton safeguarding in their own language.

"They still didn’t disclose anything, however, they were told the intention of officers with the closure order.

"Merton Council also offered them emergency accommodation in case they didn’t have anywhere else to go." Both women declined the council's offer of support.

On the following day officers attended Wimbledon Magistrates Court and a full closure order was granted.

Officers attended the address after court, to give the full closure order and there was no one inside the premises, with even the CCTV cameras and monitors being taken away from the home.

PC Galvao said: "No one was arrested because we didn’t have enough evidence to arrest anyone, even though we suspected something else was going on.

"All safeguarding measures were taken regarding the females."