Financial Exploitation

"Financial exploitation often hides in plain sight—loans, benefits, and wages siphoned through deception and control. We unpack these mechanisms for the court with clear, evidence-based analysis."

– Dr. Grace Robinson

What is Financial Exploitation?

  • The illegal or improper use of a person’s money, benefits, wages, credit, assets, or identity for another’s gain.
  • Common forms include benefit fraud facilitated by exploiters, wage theft, forced bank account or credit application (“money-muling”), forced debt, and confiscation of earnings.

Who is Affected by Financial Exploitation?

  • Adults and children, UK and foreign nationals; those facing poverty, cognitive impairments, limited English, insecure immigration status, homelessness, or dependency are at particular risk.

Relationship Between Modern Slavery and Financial Exploitation

  • Financial exploitation is both a control tactic (keeping victims indebted/dependent) and an outcome (profit for exploiters) across forced labour, sexual and criminal exploitation.

Examples of Financial Exploitation in the UK

  • Workers’ wages withheld or skimmed through illegal deductions and “accommodation” charges.
  • Forced opening of bank accounts/credit in the victim’s name; debt bondage through “recruitment fees.”
  • Young people coerced to receive and transfer criminal proceeds (“money-mule” activity).

  • No control over bank cards/online banking; unexplained loans or credit agreements.
  • Pay below minimum wage, persistent “debts” to recruiters/landlords/“managers.”
  • Multiple accounts or devices in someone else’s possession; fear of discussing finances.

  • Abuse of trust or dependence: exploiters target those reliant on them for care, accommodation, or support.
  • Control of finances: victims lose access to wages, benefits, or bank accounts, often under threat or deception.
  • Identity misuse: exploiters open credit, phone contracts, or loans in the victim’s name (“money muling”).
  • Debt creation: false debts or inflated charges maintain dependency and control.
  • Fraud and benefit theft: victims coerced into benefit fraud, tax evasion, or money laundering.
  • Lack of transparency: exploiters act as “handlers” for all financial correspondence, concealing exploitation.
  • Psychological manipulation: shame, confusion, and threats of arrest prevent victims from seeking help.
  • Overlap with labour and criminal exploitation: financial control sustains wider patterns of coercion and dependency.

  • Record financial patterns: payslips, transfers, account ownership, deductions, debt ledgers, remittances.
  • Involve specialist partners (financial investigators, DWP fraud teams, banks, NGOs).
  • Refer to the NRM; ensure immediate safety and financial safeguarding (e.g., emergency support).

  • We analyse whether offending (e.g., fraud, handling criminal property, possession of false ID) arose from coercion, deception, or abuse of vulnerability.
  • For children, we assess indicators of grooming and the statutory test for compulsion.

  • Explain coercive debt cycles, wage theft, document control, and the intersection with labour/sexual/criminal exploitation.
  • Translate complex financial behaviours into clear narratives for judges and juries.

  1. Get in touch to outline issues.

  2. Agree scope/timescales.

  3. Provide financial records, device downloads, interview notes, NRM documents.

  4. We review, assess your client, and produce a court-compliant report.

  5. We give oral evidence if required.

•    Provide full financial disclosure (bank statements, payroll, contracts, tenancy/“fees”).
•    Request digital evidence of coercion (messages, voice notes, contact chains).
•    Consider instructing a forensic accountant where volume/complexity is high.

Founded by Dr Grace Robinson in 2019.

OUR PRIMARY AIM IS TO SUPPORT VICTIMS AND INCREASE AWARENESS OF MODERN SLAVERY.

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