Police issue warning to prostitutes in Wolverhampton

Six prostitutes have been warned they face prosecution if they are found operating as sex workers in Wolverhampton at any point over the next three months, police have revealed.

The women are known to work in the All Saints and Parkfields areas and have been targeted by officers following complaints from residents.

Police will be carrying out increased patrols in the Steelhouse Lane, Major Street and Ettingshall Road areas to keep an eye out for the women in the coming months.

Officers will build up evidence and monitor their actions and make arrests if they are found to be loitering.

Sergeant John Yeomans, from the Ettingshall neighbourhood policing team, said: "We are acutely aware of the effects of the anti-social behaviour street sex workers cause residents and we are trying to address a balance between enforcement and providing interventions to deter those women from operating and continuing to offend.

"They will be offered assistance and hopefully they are going to be ready to accept that help.

"We take the complaints of anti-social behaviour in respect of prostitution very seriously and want to deter the problem in Wolverhampton and take affirmative action also on those who visit the city for the purpose of using sex workers."

Residents continuously raise the issue with officers as part of their regular Police And Communities Together meetings.

Sgt Yeomans said prostitution had traditionally been a problem for many years and that the majority of the women officers encounter are involved in selling sex to fund a drug addiction.

The street warnings act as supporting evidence in the event that the six women are found loitering anywhere in England & Wales over the next three months.

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