The Vice

- Season 5

(2003)

In the wake of Inspector Chappel's last investigation, Chief Inspector Frank Vickers has been drafted into the Vice unit to turn its fortunes round with a much vaunted zero tolerance campaign. Then Cheryl goes missing during an undercover operation into a pornographer and the disgraced and sidelined Chappel risks everything to save her.

When Inspector Joe Robinson returns to the Vice Unit, Chief Inspector Frank Vickers' hopes of putting his feet up are immediately dashed. Joe is attempting to nail a violent pimp when the mother of one of the young prostitutes recognises Vickers. She threatens to reveal details of their lurid past together, unless he personally puts the pimp away.

An investigation into the manager of a Soho amusement arcade suspected of renting out young runaway boys sees Adam drawn into an alarming and unfamiliar world when he is mistaken for a shy punter. The stakes increase when the rentboy Joe chooses to seal the pimp's fate leads them on a merry dance.

The ambitious manageress of a pole-dancing club suspects her uncle of using it to run a prostitution racket. Inspector Joe Robinson sends Chief Inspector Vickers undercover to investigate but begins to imagine his boss is colluding with the suspect.

When a prostitute is murdered Joe offers the Serious Crime Group assistance on their investigation. Joe is ready to kick his belligerent constable Kirsty out of Vice, but Vickers suggests he give her one last chance as liaison to the SCG detective in charge. A suggestion he quickly regrets as his sultry cohort gets up close and personal in an attempt to find a new niche for herself.

With Vickers and Kirsty away on an Home Office jaunt, Joe sends his team in against a reviled club owner suspected of profiting from drug dealing on his premises. The last thing they expect to find is human trafficking - but whilst Adam's irrepressible sexual urges promise to unlock the case, in the event it's family-value man Cole who delivers the essential witness and seals the club owner's fate

The threat of a scandal looms over the vice team when Lorraine's dangerous obsession with a known pimp is discovered. But although both CI Vickers and Inspector Joe Robinson stand to lose if the affair is made public, Vickers' Machiavellian attempts to sacrifice Lorraine for his personal ends finally exposes what Joe has long suspected, the dark heart of his corruption.