Ciera Hulatt has been banned from two Essex towns after she was found in ‘cuckooed’ homes with drugs gang members
A woman linked to a county lines-style drugs gang has been banned from two Essex towns for ‘cuckooing’ the homes of vulnerable local people.
Ciera Hulatt, from east London, was repeatedly seen in Southend, where she is thought to have been working with the ‘Knuckles’ gang.
Police say the gang target vulnerable people in the area, taking over their homes in a process called ‘cuckooing’, to help them traffic Class A drugs from London into the county.
Hulatt, 20, has now been made the subject of an unusual court order barring her from Southend and nearby Basildon for five years.
She was previously handed a similar ‘community protection notice’, designed to keep her out of the seaside resort, but she repeatedly ignored it.
In January, February, May and July, she was found in properties associated with drug dealing.
Describing a raid in July, police said: ‘Officers visited a property on Southend High Street which was believed to have been cuckooed. Officers entered the property and fond Hulatt with other suspected members of the gang inside.’
She has been banned from Southend (pictured) and Basildon by a court in the county
This week, Hulatt was made the subject of a five-year Criminal Behaviour Order, which bans her from entering Basildon and Southend, and was also ordered to pay £85 costs, a £40 fine and a £30 victim surcharge.
Following the hearing Chief Supt Paul Wells said: ‘We have routinely found Hulatt in the company of members of the Knuckles gang.
‘This gang not only attempt to supply Class A drugs on the streets of Southend but they also ruthlessly target vulnerable adults, using violence and intimidation, to take over their homes.
‘Whilst we will hunt down those selling drugs on our street we will also target those people on the fringes of gangs, such as Hulatt, who support this illicit business.
‘We will do whatever it takes to put these gangs out of business and behind bars and people who work for them can also expect a knock on the door.’