Sleazy landlord filmed offering free rent in return for once-a-week sex during undercover sting

A sleazy landlord has been caught on camera offering a "sex for rent" deal to a young woman.



The unnamed man was willing to forego the £650 a month rent in exchange for sex with his new tenant once a week, according to an undercover ITV sting.



He had advertised the flat in Cardiff, Wales with “reduced deposit/rent arrangement" for "alternative payments" from his would-be tenant.



He agreed to meet for a face-to-face meeting in a restaurant with undercover investigator Siân Thomas where he made his offer in lieu of rent.



Hidden camera footage shows the pair sitting in a fashionable restaurant discussing the shocking sex instead of rent arrangement.



The landlord says: "I don't want to suggest anything that makes you run a mile but I want to help you out.



"I don't know if you have heard of a sort of a friends with benefits sort of arrangement."



When asked how many times he would want sex in return for no rent on the Cardiff accommodation, he answers: "Once a week."



He says: "If say for example we were going to go down the route of once a week, if we were going to do that then I wouldn't be interested in any rent from you at all."



He posted the message on the Craigslist website which can legally host the adverts.



But a crime of incitement to prostitution is committed when the arrangement is made.



The meeting is part of an investigation into discounted accommodation for sexual favours - dubbed "sex for rent".



It has been carried out by ITV Wales programme Ein Byd - meaning "Our World" - for S4C, Channel Four in Wales.



After the meeting the landlord asked the programme not to broadcast the footage and "expose him for a monster".



In an email he wrote: "I should have trusted my gut and not done this. I’m such a fool, but this will ruin everything I have left everywhere.



"I have absolutely no intention of ever even considering doing this again, tonight has really given me a reality check and I’m ashamed of myself.



"Please don’t expose me for a monster."



Adverts from other male landlords on Craigslist included a free room in Cardiff “for a female with whom I can come to an arrangement”.



Another advert offered a two-bed bungalow in Newport with “rent greatly reduced in return for favours”.



According to the Ministry of Justice, this sort of arrangement is illegal under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.



The law states a crime is committed when a person causes or incites someone to become a prostitute.



But there are no known prosecutions over "sex for rent" in the UK because it is such a new phenomenon.



Welsh Labour politician Dawn Bowden AM said: "You’ve got to get to the point where we identify these people and they are prosecuted.



"And once you’ve got a few prosecutions, that will give people the confidence to come forward and report it.



"But it is extremely difficult for people that are in absolutely desperate circumstances - they need somewhere to live, they need a roof over their head - and for some people, this is the only way they can get it."