By CHRISTIANE BARRO

Illegal sex work is thriving in Melbourne's southeast as sex workers conduct their business outside homes and local stores.

Heroin users, ice addicts and homeless women in Dandenong are turning to sex for money and even a place to stay, a former spotter – a safety lookout for a street worker – has revealed.

Daniel* said it was dangerous work for the women.

“I’ve seen guys pull into an alley where you can't open the car doors and sexually assault girls," he said.

Some women are desperate enough for somewhere to stay they will accept offers to "sleep over" from clients. “Once they know she’s a 'working girl', they’ll offer her to stay at their place,” he said.

But that left the women vulnerable to even greater violence, he said. 

Dandenong CBD was declared a no-go zone for street sex workers and their clients last August – the only council apart from St Kilda to introduce such a ban.

Despite this, Mojo News saw women being picked up by men near telephone booths, a local service station and bus stops.

Many locals said they continued to feel threatened by the presence of the sex workers and their clients.

Resident Jim Delgas said sex workers  were always arguing and swearing in front of his home and it created an uneasy environment for his family. He said he regularly saw at least three sex workers outside his home, including one pregnant woman.

"We’ve heard them discussing breaking into the house or breaking into our cars," he said.

“Sometimes I’ll pull up to the gate after work up and they’ll mistake me for a customer and they’ll start walking up to me. They won't realise until I get out and open the gate that I live here.”

He said a family friend who had only been living with them for a short time had two sex workers jump in his van as he rolled up to their gate.

“They said to him, if you weren’t going to pay us, can you give us all a ride," he said.

“If I’m not here, I’ve got the rest of the family here to worry about.”

Local resident Memory Mafi said she only went out when necessary because men often  approached her.

“They say ‘oh hey baby’ or ‘hey girl’. It’s very creepy. Every single time, you’re worried whether a car will approach you. They’re just trying to suss out whether I am a sex worker,” Ms Mafi said.

Sex workers are often seen along Scott St, Robinson St and Hemmings St.

“It looks like people are walking down the street. But if you wait 10 minutes, they’ll be walking back up the street,” Daniel said.

Local resident Ocean Latek said a woman stalked him for several blocks before asking if he wanted to exchange sex for money.

“I used to think these are people waiting for buses. When they approached me, I couldn’t even believe it,“ Mr Latek said.

“Walking for sex on the street is embarrassing for me as a man and for the local community.”

Daniel said there could be as many as 10 sex workers roaming the streets at any given time. They hang out around bus stops, sometimes for hours on end, and arrange pickups near a telephone booth or a local park.

Dandenong's Scott St is a "hotbed" for sex workers and potential clients, Daniel said.

“I call them gutter-crawlers because they drive their car in the gutters looking at what they’re interested in,” he said.

Under the Sex Work Act 1994,  the penalty is up to six months in jail for a person who solicits sex or waiting in or near a public place frequently visited by children. Clients could face up to nine months imprisonment.

Daniel said that, in his role as a spotter, if a sex worker did not return by a scheduled time, he would report the incident to police.

“I ring up the police and say a guy was soliciting sex with a girl. He’s picked her up, taken her in his car and he hasn’t brought her back. This is the number plate, this is the car, and this is what he looks like,” he said.

Steven Li, an employee at a local milk bar, said while sex workers who came to the store to buy condoms were often caught stealing, he was more concerned about the message their presence sent to teenagers.

“It’s more about the younger students who come and shop in the store after school. It’s a bad influence.”

He said the women constantly hassled students and other young people for money. “They’ve just been really rude, not only to us but to our customers.”

Sgt Patrick Green from Dandenong Police said illegal sex work was seen as a victimless crime, but the issue was not considered insignificant.

“It’s seasonal, when the weather is warmer we see more street work activity,” Sgt Green said.

While police were aware of residents’ concerns, he said resources were predominantly dedicated to crimes against the person and crimes against property.

He encouraged members of the public to take down details and pass them on to police if they saw anything suspicious.

“Be alert, record things, take down descriptions of sex workers and their clients – but do not take the matter into your own hands,” he said.

Greater Dandenong Mayor Cr Jim Memeti said the council had been working closely with police to eradicate the issue and strongly recommended locals “to keep on ringing the police”.

“They [Dandenong police] actually said to us that they tried to take them home and explain to their families what they’ve been doing so it’s more of an embarrassment and it's more of a deterrent so it won’t happen again,” Cr Memeti said.

He said the prevalence of street workers was not as problematic as it was over a year ago,  but he would raise these new concerns with police.

The council normally meets with the police every six months.

“I’ll definitely be speaking to the police again, saying that the problem is actually getting worse. I’ll definitely raise that again and ask for their feedback,” he said.

Daniel* did not want to disclose his real name.