Mobile phone companies are being asked to block numbers for prostitutes found on advertising cards left in telephone boxes. The aim is to reduce the number of women trafficked into the country before the 2012 Olympics.

Criminal gangs make millions of pounds by tricking young women into coming to Britain with the promise of well-paid jobs then forcing them to work as prostitutes. Often a woman will have to work for years to pay off the “debt” of the cost of bringing her in.

Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Policing, said that blocking the numbers would not only deprive gangs of income but force them to spend more on printing cards with new numbers.

He wants the major mobile telephone operators to work with the Mayor’s office, the police and voluntary groups to help crack down on prostitution and trafficking ahead of the Games.

He said: “The Mayor wants to see an agreement reached between mobile phone operators and the police that would see these numbers taken out of use as soon as they are identified, cutting off a key source of income for these gangs.”

Research has shown that the number of people trafficked in Athens before the 2004 games doubled but did not go down afterwards.

Mr Malthouse added: “Nothing is more important to a pimp or trafficker than money. They don’t give a damn about the women and girls they abuse, they only care about the cash in their pocket.

“So alongside the Metropolitan Police busting brothels and taking out the criminal networks that feed them, we want to cut their access to cash and punters starting by ridding London of prostitute cards in telephone boxes.

“In 2012 we want to be proud of our city as a glittering example to the world. But we need the mobile phone operators to show their commitment to fighting the abuse of women and help us. We want companies like Vodafone, Orange, O2, 3, Virgin and T-Mobile to make it difficult for the pimps and traffickers who advertise their mobile numbers on these cards to do business by barring them.”

The chief executives of the major mobile operators have been invited to a meeting at City Hall in October alongside key members from the Metropolitan Police Service, Crown Prosecution Service, BT and women’s organisations.

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