As first years spill out of clubs in the early hours, relishing their newfound freedom, sleek cars sit idling just beyond the bouncers and barriers.
Behind the wheel are men who aren’t there to party; they’re there to pick up. Known as the clean-up crew, they’ve become a troubling fixture of the UK’s student nightlife scene.
The term, circulating widely on social media, refers to groups of men who linger outside nightclubs, bars, and even concerts, targeting young women as they leave, often preying on those who are drunk or trying to find their way back to campus.
‘They don’t actually go to the club event, they just come when it finishes, wait around outside to talk to girls and give them drugs and all sorts,’ Natalie, a Portsmouth University student, tells Metro.
Their presence, she explains, is predictable. ‘At every event there’s always a group outside… the bigger the event, the bigger the crowd waiting.’
‘The worst I’ve experienced was actually in London. Clean-up crew is a whole different ball game there. They come with Mercedes, Bentleys, and Range Rovers, and none of them are uni students. They are older men, some even in their 40s.’
Natalie has been approached several times and reveals the extent certain men will go. ‘They’re very, very persistent. They’ll offer you everything. I’ve been promised holidays, free flights, all sorts. They take it to the max just to get you home.’
‘Each one targets a specific girl’
The student also described how these groups deliberately isolate women to increase their control. ‘If you’re in a group of four girls and four men approach you, each one targets a specific girl. If one girl then decides to go off to his house, a divide is created,’ Natalie explains.
She recalled one night that has stuck with her since. ‘One girl was really, really drunk; she couldn’t even stand. This guy managed to get her to his car, she was sitting in the back seat, and her friends were saying, “Please, can you let her go? She’s not capable of making her own decisions.” The guy who owned the car was giving her balloon after balloon [of Nitrous Oxide]. She was already visibly intoxicated. I’ve seen some very bad situations.’
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When asked what protocols were in place to protect students from this type of behaviour, a spokesperson from Portsmouth University told Metro: ‘We have a number of safety initiatives to help students enjoy a safe night out that we promote throughout the year. In addition, our Report & Support tool enables students to raise concerns, so that we can take appropriate action and develop proactive initiatives.’
However, Natalie says her peers are reluctant to report these incidents as clean-up crew culture, for the most part, has become normalised online.
‘For men, it’s seen as just a fun thing to do. But for girls, it’s not safe at all. If you’re not with a good bunch of friends that are looking after you, it can go left really quickly.’
Viral vultures
While there are some posts warning students about dangers of clean-up crews, TikTok and Snapchat are also flooded with clips showing the men at work, circling nightlife hotspots in their cars.
In several videos, young women can be seen chatting through tinted windows before hopping into the passenger seat. One clip captioned ‘clean up crew getting ready to take all the 1st years home after a motive’ has been liked by thousands.
Comment sections are filled with men defending the practice. ‘There’s no supply without demand,’ one wrote. Another added: ‘They are waiting to get swept.’ Others suggest it’s a fair exchange: ‘Clean-up crews are glorified Uber drivers. Girls don’t want to pay for a cab; they want a dashboard snap.’
Hired for the hunt
Cardiff University student Kae shared a video on TikTok during freshers in September, claiming local clean-up crews had upped their game after spotting a Ferrari loitering around campus.
The cars themselves, often financed or even rented just for the night, are a major part of the culture. ‘There’s a group of people known to finance cars,’ Kae explains. ‘Mercedes are the most popular. When they go to uni events, they finance those cars specifically and then go out to do their thing.’
Competitiveness also plays a role. ‘It happens in pretty much every uni city that has a good nightlife. Some of them are students themselves, others are locals. If it’s a big event that everyone knows about, in a city like Leicester or Birmingham, then it’s very competitive.
‘There’s always a Mercedes or BMW outside in Cardiff,’ adds Kae. ‘They usually appear around 11pm and stick around until 2am, when most students are spilling out of clubs and looking for a way home.’
For some students, the whole thing is a running joke. ‘A lot of people laugh about it. It’s a funny thing to them,’ he admits. ‘It’s mostly just sweet talk, to be honest. Some [men] are very straight up, they’re like, “Yo, do you want a lift home?” When [girls] see a flashy black BMW or Audi, they’re more likely to get in it… sometimes it’s that easy.’
What is your opinion about the rise of ‘clean-up crews’ around universities?
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They pose a serious threat to student safety and should be addressed immediately.
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While concerning, it may not be as widespread or dangerous as claimed.
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It’s an exaggerated phenomenon and students should be more responsible.
But Kae also acknowledges the darker undertone: ‘It’s mostly targeted towards drunk girls, who don’t have a way home. So there’s a very mixed opinion on it.’
‘One of the most dangerous times to be a young woman’
Experts are increasingly concerned as the rise in this behaviour appears to be strategically targeting first-years, warning that new students are already vulnerable when hitting the town after dark.
‘Young women are more likely to be sexually assaulted in their first year of university,’ says Erin-Jane (EJ) Roodt, founder of personal safety tech company Epowar, who refers to this critical period as The Red Zone. ‘It’s one of the most dangerous times to be a young woman.’
It was after feeling unsafe at unversity herself, that former Bath graduate EJ decided to create an app to help students feel less vulnerable and more empowered after a night out.
Founded with fellow student Maks Rahman, and initially trialled at the university, the app can detect any concerning spikes in heart rate and movement via a user’s smartwatch and then alert pre-selected emergency contacts to a possible attack.
At Cardiff Uni, despite the reported presence of clean-up crews operating near campus, the university insists student street safety remains a top priority. Its Safe Taxi Scheme, run in partnership with local company Veezu, offers rides to students who feel unsafe or can’t afford to get home and is heavily promoted during the first few months of term.
Meanwhile, across the UK, universities and local authorities are constantly adapting to new safety challenges, with predatory behaviour like this now part of the nightlife landscape.
However, some fear that until viral clips stop glorifying opportunism and start holding these men accountable, students will continue to be forced into navigating streets that turn into a hunting ground the moment the club lights go up.