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Welcome to a world where nothing is quite as it seems. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:07 | |
Welcome to Fake Britain. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
Get down! Get down! Get on the floor, now! | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
Your hands behind your back, now! | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
It's just an ordinary house. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:27 | |
It could be anywhere in the country, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
but this is the Fake Britain house, and it's filled with fakes. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
You may not know it, but your home could be, too. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
In this series, we'll be investigating the criminals | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
trying to get their hands on your cash by using fraud, | 0:00:41 | 0:00:46 | |
forgeries, and fakery. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
And I'll be showing you how you can avoid being taken for a ride. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
Today, on Fake Britain, the crooks using fake cards to buy fuel, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:58 | |
and then putting lives at risk. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
Well, if that van was travelling on this road | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
and you had a source of ignition, you would have | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
a major chemical fire, | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
and would probably bring this part of London to a halt. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
The trade in fake cancer drugs, | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
and the fight to bring the criminals to justice. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:15 | |
They think they're above law enforcement attention, | 0:01:15 | 0:01:17 | |
I can tell you that they're not. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
The fake references on sale online. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
It's actually quite shocking that somebody | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
is able to falsify their career. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
And the dog with a nose for fake tobacco. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
That's what we're after. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:33 | |
Yes, good boy! | 0:01:33 | 0:01:34 | |
Here in the UK, thousands of companies use these - fuel cards. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:47 | |
Their employees use them to buy fuel at petrol stations | 0:01:47 | 0:01:51 | |
and then the company that the card is registered to is billed directly. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
It's big business, | 0:01:55 | 0:01:56 | |
with millions of pounds being spent on these cards every year. | 0:01:56 | 0:02:00 | |
And, unsurprisingly, they're a target for the fakers. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
What's more of a surprise, though, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
is that it's you and your car that could lose out. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:09 | |
Previously on Fake Britain, we've seen criminals manufacturing | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
fake credit cards, but evidence is now emerging of a new card scam, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:22 | |
one targeting corporate fuel cards and putting innocent lives at risk. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:26 | |
City of London Police were alerted to this disturbing new trend | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
when a fuel card company contacted them to report unexplained | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
and substantial spending on customer accounts. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
Thousands of litres of fuel were being stolen every week. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
Police quickly established that while the account numbers were genuine, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
the actual cards themselves were fake. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
John Unsworth is Head of Intelligence for | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau of the City of London Police. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
They were getting hold of people's actual numbers | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
by doing shoulder surfing or by having people working | 0:03:06 | 0:03:08 | |
in the garages that were actually double swiping | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
and taking the details. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:12 | |
And then it's simply a case of pressing them numbers | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
onto the plastic cards and moving it from there. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
And a card number could be stolen | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
and faked in minutes. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:23 | |
There's instances of people paying correctly for their fuel | 0:03:24 | 0:03:28 | |
and within minutes, their card being compromised because somebody's | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
captured the numbers, e-mailed it - | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
using their smartphones - to a colleague | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
that's miles and miles away, they've printed it onto a card, | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
and then they've dished it out and gone out and used it. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
Within the information the fuel card company had passed | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
to City of London Police were a multitude of leads. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
We had the information that was saying where cards were being used, | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
we looked at CCTV to see who the people were | 0:03:55 | 0:03:57 | |
that were using them there, we're then able to look at | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
vehicle number plates and actually trace it back from there. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
It was clear that this was organised crime being carried out | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
on a grand scale. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:11 | |
It turned out all of the vehicles were white vans, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
most of which were registered to hire companies. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
They're your run-of-the-mill Ford Transit-type vehicle. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
What they looked for was a vehicle | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
that had a sliding door that was next to | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
the petrol filler, so that when they pulled up | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
into a garage, they could slide open the door | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
and not be seen filling up. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:34 | |
But it was the huge quantities of fuel inside the vans | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
that alarmed the authorities. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
What they had was lots of plastic containers, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
which they literally just used to fill up. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
So to anybody watching, it doesn't look suspicious, | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
it looks like there's somebody stood next to the petrol pump | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
filling up the petrol. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
It's a ticking time bomb. What you've got is a van full of fuel | 0:04:54 | 0:04:58 | |
sloshing around in the back of it. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
Now, there's a reason that fuel is transported in a regulated way. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
It's because it's hazardous, it's flammable, it's dangerous. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
Being in the back of a transit van | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
is not a safe way of transporting it. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:11 | |
We asked Roger Bibbings, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
to assess the dangers inherent in transporting fuel this way. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
Well, if that van was travelling on this road | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
and there was an incident, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:27 | |
and you only had a small loss of containment, | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
and you had a source of ignition, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
you would have a major chemical fire. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
A major explosion. Far bigger than a car fire involving petrol... | 0:05:35 | 0:05:39 | |
perhaps 10, 50 times bigger. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
A major chemical incident that would do massive damage | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
to people roundabout and would probably bring | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
this part of London to a halt. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
With a threat to public safety on this scale, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
the police needed to build their case quickly. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
They spent several weeks following suspects and gathering evidence. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
Soon, they established that the gang was based in London, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
but would target filling stations outside the M25. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
The fuel-laden vans, nicknamed "Molotov motors", | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
were clocking up thousands of miles every week. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
Police suspected that the fuel being stolen | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
was destined for the black market. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
It was time to take these fakers off the roads. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
With innocent customers | 0:06:29 | 0:06:30 | |
unaware of what's happening, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:33 | |
the undercover police officers allow the offender | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
to pay with his fake fuel card. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
But as he leaves, he's grabbed and taken out of sight. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
A second police team then swoops encircles and arrests his accomplice. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:49 | |
Fake Britain spoke to one former gang member who now regrets | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
ever getting involved in criminal activity. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
For his protection, we've disguised his identity. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:01 | |
We started by asking him where the gang would travel to | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
in order to steal the fuel. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:08 | |
We use all the motorways. We go all over the UK. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
One day, we go to Milton Keynes, the next day, Nottingham. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
We go to Swindon, Bristol, Coventry. We go everywhere. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
He told us about the industrial scale of the operation. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
On a normal day, we'd get around 1,500 litres of fuel. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
So imagine that there were five of us on the roads. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
That's nearly 7,500 litres. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
These vast quantities of fuel were transported back to a lockup garage | 0:07:35 | 0:07:40 | |
in a residential estate in West London. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
The garage is now in new ownership, unconnected with the crime. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
We asked Roger Bibbings to look at one of the main locations | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
where the fuel was stored. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
I think this is just incredible. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
I mean, that amount of fuel stored here in a garage, | 0:07:56 | 0:07:59 | |
in a lockup underneath somebody's flat, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
so they don't even know it's there, the level of danger | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
is absolutely incredible, and it's just amazing that the people | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
who are handling this stuff don't recognise that. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
And police photos taken immediately after the raid | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
reveal the conditions in which the fuel was kept. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
If you look here at the shot of this garage - absolute chaos. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:20 | |
Tyres, equipment, everything thrown in on top of one another. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:25 | |
The absolute opposite of safety. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
They even seem to be using some kind of pump for dispensing this stuff, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
which certainly isn't approved for flammable liquids. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
We also asked Roger about the risks | 0:08:37 | 0:08:39 | |
the criminals were exposing themselves to. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
The guys who are driving these vans | 0:08:43 | 0:08:45 | |
are freely playing Russian roulette with their health. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
A little bit of petrol vapour, such as you and I might smell | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
at the petrol station, that's really no consequence at all. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
But to drive for eight hours a day, for example, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
in a van like this with leaking petrol vapour, exposing yourself | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
to high concentrations, you're going to get problems | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
with your nervous system, headaches, liver damage even. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
And remember, petrol contains benzene, | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
which is a cancer-causing agent, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
so you could end up with something like leukaemia. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:12 | |
The former gang member we spoke to claims | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
he started feeling ill as soon as he began working for the gang. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:21 | |
Every day, we smelt of fuel. Our shoes, our jackets. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
And when we had all the fuel in the van, | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
we got really bad headaches almost every single day. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
If I eat something, I need to go to the toilet straightaway. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
I had bad heartburn, things weren't right with me internally. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
The gang behind the fake fuel card scam was selling | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
the fuel on the black market. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
The fuel would be sold to minicab drivers | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
or roadside recovery drivers. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
But incredibly, innocent motorists may also have unwittingly bought it. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:54 | |
They have their own petrol stations | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
and they're using this petrol | 0:09:56 | 0:09:57 | |
to actually go and fill the tanks up at those stations | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
and sell it to general members of the public. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
The fuel would be taken to petrol stations' employees. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
They would buy the fuel at a discount, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
maybe 90p or ?1 a litre. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
So, motorists have been sold fuel | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
stored in conditions like this. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
When fuel - whether it's diesel or petrol - is kept in warm, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
uncontrolled environments, such as this lockup, condensation is created. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:26 | |
The fuel can start to turn cloudy and, in extreme cases, | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
bacteria can start to breed. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
We asked Tony Sweetland, a chemist specialising in fuel analysis, | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
what damage this condensation can do to a car engine. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
Water in a diesel can reduce the power output of the engine | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
or cause stuttering and things like that, simply because | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
the injectors all get clogged with the water, | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
so enough fuel isn't going into the engine. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
It can also cause problems with the injectors being clogged as well, | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
if there's bacteria present within the fuel, as well. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
And longer term, it may lead to corrosion issues on the fuel system | 0:11:04 | 0:11:08 | |
because the water will obviously start to corrode through | 0:11:08 | 0:11:12 | |
the metal pipes within the engine. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
Many of the London-based | 0:11:17 | 0:11:18 | |
gang of fuel fakers have now been convicted, | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
but in the course of their investigation, | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
the police have become aware of other gangs developing | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
better disguised vehicles, capable of storing | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
even larger quantities of fuel. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
The diagram we've got here actually shows how the criminals | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
have moved on, how they've | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
moved away from using | 0:11:38 | 0:11:39 | |
plastic containers | 0:11:39 | 0:11:40 | |
and the side of the transit vans | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
into a much bigger operation. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
You can see, when you look at it, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
the size of the van that they're now using, you can see that | 0:11:46 | 0:11:48 | |
they're not going straight into the container. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
They're using the correct procedures to fill it up. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
But what's really happening is, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
the fuel is being diverted into containers | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
that are in the back of the van. | 0:11:57 | 0:11:58 | |
But while the criminals might be getting more sophisticated, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:02 | |
the police are aware of their plans, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
and they have a warning... | 0:12:04 | 0:12:06 | |
You will get caught. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:07 | |
No matter how victimless you, as an offender, think it is, | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
we will come after you. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
It's a competitive job market out there right now. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
In some cases, there are hundreds of applicants | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
applying for a single position. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
Often, the difference between success and failure can be one of these. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
A good reference. But this one is a fake. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
Cooked up online for a fee by fraudsters. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
Fake Britain has discovered that the business of supplying fake references | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
is now huge, and that British businesses are being | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
routinely targeted. That means thousands of jobs are going to | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
the wrong people, and the right candidates are losing out. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
Fake Britain wanted to establish just how widespread | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
the use of fake references by job applicants is. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
So we teamed up with the Federation of Small Businesses to carry out | 0:13:04 | 0:13:08 | |
the most extensive independent survey ever undertaken in the UK | 0:13:08 | 0:13:13 | |
into the use of fake references. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:14 | |
Over 1,800 employers responded. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
And for Mike Cherry, Policy Chairman of the FSB, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
the results made for interesting reading. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
17% had actually found that some of their employees, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:31 | |
particularly those at mid-level, had provided fake references. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
And of that 17% of companies, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
6% had received fake references | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
on more than one occasion. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
But as our survey proves, many employers don't check references, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:48 | |
so the true figure is likely to be even higher than 17%. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:53 | |
Surprisingly, the survey also revealed | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
men are twice as likely as women to fake a reference. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:59 | |
Well, that was an interesting point that really came out | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
very, very strongly, I think nearly three-quarters, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
so that is certainly an interesting one | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
that we'd never picked up on before. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
And the fakers are applying for jobs | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
across the employment spectrum. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
40% of the fakers applied for entry-level positions, | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
and the same number applied for mid-management roles. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
But there's trouble at the top, too. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
12% of the fake applications were for management roles. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:31 | |
And 2% were for roles as a company director. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
I think that's a very worrying trend, going forward. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
You've seen it in the media in the past, where some fairly high flyers, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:41 | |
so to speak, have actually falsified their CV | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
or their job experience in some way. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
The survey also asked members about a disturbing new trend. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:54 | |
A number of websites now offer to provide fake references. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:59 | |
They promised to provide unwitting employees with glowing references | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
for fake candidates. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
The employer can even call a number, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
where he or she will speak to a genuine-sounding | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
human resources officer. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
Now, of the small business owners | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
the Federation of Small Business surveyed, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
over 70% weren't aware that | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
online fakers like this lot | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
are out there. It's of concern to Mike Cherry. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
Potentially, it can be very damaging indeed, because if you actually | 0:15:26 | 0:15:31 | |
take someone on who you believe has got that skill set, | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
and then it's proven that they haven't, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
you've still got the raft of employment legislation | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
that you have to comply with. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
And if you don't find it out till sometime down the line, | 0:15:41 | 0:15:44 | |
you could have some real problems on your hands. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:46 | |
One of these sites, The Reference Store, | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
boasts how its fake reference service has hoodwinked | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
numerous companies into offering jobs to its clients. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
Fake Britain informed one of these companies - The London Taxi Company, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
which sells and leases black cabs - about the testimonials page. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
Graham Jones, the company's HR Director, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
was incensed to see his company name on the testimonials page. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:16 | |
I felt annoyed. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:17 | |
I mean, we're proud of the company that we work for, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
we're proud of what we make, we're recognised the world over, | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
and then somebody belittling the company by claiming that somebody | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
could be fraudulently recruited, that they've got the skills | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
to match the people that we've got now, | 0:16:30 | 0:16:31 | |
I think that was just ridiculous, really. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
As soon as Fake Britain | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
made The London Taxi Company aware of the claim that | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
The Reference Store had supplied a fake reference | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
for one of their employees, Graham took action. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
He ran checks on all the company's current staff. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
They're satisfied none of their staff have been employed | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
on a fake reference, and they've stepped up their controls. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
We will verify the company, we will check a website, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
we will pick up a registered address, | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
we will contact Companies House to make sure that company is valid. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
We do a postal check as well, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
to make sure the company is located where it should be. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
Now, while it appears that some of the testimonials | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
on The Reference Store's website are fake, | 0:17:11 | 0:17:13 | |
how convincing are the fake references | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
that these companies are offering? | 0:17:16 | 0:17:18 | |
Fake Britain decided to find out. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
We used another website - The Fake Reference Service - | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
to order a fake reference for a janitor | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
looking for employment in a school. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
Surely the fakers wouldn't provide references for an employee | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
working with children or teenagers? | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
24 hours later, the fakers e-mailed to say they'd be happy | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
to supply us with a fake reference. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
For just $190, or ?115, the company promised to provide us | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
with a fake reference. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
They also told us they would build us a bespoke website | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
for a fictional school, in order to make our fake reference | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
all the more convincing. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:57 | |
Bill Andrews runs an accredited teacher recruitment agency in London. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
We asked him to look at the website the fakers had built for us. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
The organisation has gone to great lengths to put this website together | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
to give it more credibility. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
Not only does it have a home page, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
it also has detailed 50 years' worth of history | 0:18:17 | 0:18:22 | |
about this particular school. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
It details the families that it serves, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
it details what its history is, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
its links to other organisations and universities. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:34 | |
There is information from everything from nursery | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
through primary and secondary education that is provided | 0:18:37 | 0:18:41 | |
as provision at this school. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:42 | |
There are details of its admission policy. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
On our behalf, Bill then contacted the fakers | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
and sought a reference for our fictional janitor. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
It arrived within 24 hours. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
They provided details about their key duties, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:57 | |
they provided additional information with regards to their performance, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
their sickness record and, indeed, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
when providing information about their performance and conduct | 0:19:05 | 0:19:09 | |
within schools, they had made sure that not everything was perfect. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
But for a sharp-eyed employer, | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
there are clues that this reference is a fake. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:19 | |
Going to the website, there is no phone number for the organisation, | 0:19:19 | 0:19:24 | |
there's no fax number, | 0:19:24 | 0:19:25 | |
there's no information about any of the staff that work there | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
or any contact details, other than an "info@" e-mail address. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:33 | |
And for Bill, the fact that a reference from a previous employer | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
could be faked so easily is deeply alarming. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
A reference is a key part of any application | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
for a job within a school. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
It's actually quite shocking that somebody, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
for a very small amount of money, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
is - within a very short space of time - | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
able to falsify their career and go and get one, two, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
perhaps more references, and seek employment then in a school, | 0:19:57 | 0:20:02 | |
working with vulnerable children. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
Following the findings of our investigation, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
the Federation of Small Businesses has written to all of its members - | 0:20:07 | 0:20:11 | |
that's 200,000 employers - warning them about the websites | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
that are offering to provide fake references. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
There are fake references out there, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:20 | |
there are companies providing these on the web or elsewhere, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
and unfortunately, just another symptom of | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
where we are today in having to check all the references | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
and all the bits and pieces | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
behind getting decent recruits for our businesses. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:35 | |
Later, we'll discover how one organisation | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
fell victim to a faker with a glowing reference. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
She was a very determined, very persistent fraudster. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
And we'll examine the damage this fakery has done | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
to the British legal establishment. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
The criminals who manufacture and sell fake medicines | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
are always looking for new ways to make money from health care products. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:05 | |
And it seems there's nothing they wouldn't consider copying | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
for a fast buck because, as we've discovered, | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
the fakers are now preying on the most vulnerable | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
and desperate people in society, by targeting the complex | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
and expensive drugs that treat advanced-stage cancers. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
Here at Fake Britain, we've previously highlighted the problem | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
of the trade in fake medicines. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:30 | |
It's an international, multibillion-pound industry, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
selling counterfeit products online to people that can't get them | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
through normal licensed routes. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
Now, traditionally, the majority of fakes smuggled into the UK | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
have been lifestyle drugs, | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
such as weight loss, hair growth, and erectile dysfunction medicines. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
But recently, an even more disturbing trend is on the rise. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
It seems that smugglers are now trading in fake life-saving drugs. | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
Rob Wainwright is the Director of Europol, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
the European Union's law enforcement agency. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
The problem, really, is the growing scale of counterfeit medicines | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
that are flooding the market, not just in volume terms, | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
but also, in the seriousness. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:16 | |
So in the past, we've had problems with lifestyle drugs | 0:22:16 | 0:22:20 | |
being counterfeited, like slimming pills, for example. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
But now the real problem is with counterfeit life-saving drugs, | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
especially cancer treatments, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:29 | |
especially sold over the internet, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
and this is a growing problem for us in Europe. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
And one of the biggest concerns for the UK and European authorities | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
battling the trade in fake medicines is cancer drugs. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
In particular, the so-called wonder drug Avastin. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
Avastin is a licensed treatment for a number of cancers | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
including lung, ovary, and colorectal cancer. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
The drug attacks specific targets on the cancer cells by blocking | 0:22:56 | 0:23:01 | |
the formation of new blood vessels, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:02 | |
while also disrupting the growth of the tumour. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
Typically, Avastin is used to treat patients with advanced cancers. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
Someone who knows what the drug can do is Lisa Hensley. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
She's a mother of three and was diagnosed | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
with bowel cancer two years ago. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:24 | |
She underwent surgery and chemotherapy, | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
but the cancer continued to spread. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
Just before she was due to go | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
under the knife again, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:34 | |
her oncologist informed her | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
the cancer had grown. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
The three tumours initially identified had become 11. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:42 | |
Further surgery was considered to be pointless. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
Things were quite dark and the main things that I really thought | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
I would miss out on were all the birthdays with the children. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
Would I see James turn 13? Would I see Bea turn 18? How quickly...? | 0:23:55 | 0:24:00 | |
Because I do know that you can go downhill ever so quickly, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
and I know people who were at the same stage as me | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
who, six months later, have passed away. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
But Lisa was prescribed Avastin. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
Within three months, her 11 tumours had been reduced to just two, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:18 | |
and those had shrunk by 50%. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
When the first scan came back in April last year, | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
showing that my tumours had reduced so significantly, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
I was really quite shocked because I hadn't expected such a result. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:34 | |
I hadn't expected such a reaction. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
I had hoped that it would keep things at bay | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
and, at the very least, that things hadn't grown, | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
and to have such a reduction was just absolutely amazing. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
I think we went out to dinner to celebrate. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:47 | |
And further into the year, after I'd had the radiotherapy | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
that was made available because of this reduction, | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
when I had that scan after that, | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
which was made possible because of the Avastin, | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
we actually cracked open Champagne. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
It's a fantastic feeling when things actually go your way for once. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
But it doesn't come cheap. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
Made by pharmaceutical giant Roche, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
a standard ten-month treatment will cost up to ?25,000. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
The cost of Lisa's treatment was covered by the Government's | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
Cancer Drugs Fund, but the fund can only help a limited number of people. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:26 | |
The drug's not freely available on the NHS because of its cost, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
and the fact that in most cases, it will only prolong | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
someone's life, rather than save it. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
Because of this, it's become a prime target for the fakers. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:41 | |
Recently, news that fake Avastin | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
had got into the US health care system shocked America. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
Lung cancer patients prescribed Avastin were instead being given | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
a worthless counterfeit that didn't contain the active ingredient. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:57 | |
It's feared as many as 134 doctors in 28 states | 0:25:57 | 0:26:02 | |
might have bought the fake product. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
Typically, these counterfeit drug shipments are passed through | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
a number of middlemen, and British companies have been involved | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
in the distribution of the fakes. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
This is a growing problem around the world. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:17 | |
You know, some estimates by the World Health Organisation | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
put this at a 70 billion euro illegal trade. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
Massive amounts of money being made here. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
Criminals operating in Europe, also in the UK, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
many of the cases that we worked with have had British connections. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
Only last week, working with the American authorities, | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
we took out some Turkish gang masters that were trading in | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
counterfeit cancer treatments, sending them mainly to the US, | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
but there were connections to the UK and other European countries. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
The danger of fake Avastin | 0:26:51 | 0:26:52 | |
getting into the pharmaceutical wholesale chain again | 0:26:52 | 0:26:55 | |
is of massive concern for the authorities... | 0:26:55 | 0:26:58 | |
..and where they can, law-enforcement agencies are taking action. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
The most recent seizure of fake Avastin happened here in Turkey, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
where much of the counterfeit Avastin distributed globally originates. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
Local law enforcement raided warehouses used by | 0:27:16 | 0:27:19 | |
one organised criminal gang specialising in the manufacture | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
and distribution of fake cancer drugs. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
There, they found vast quantities of fake Avastin, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
packaged under its Turkish brand name, Altuzan. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
For Rob Wainwright, the haul found on raids like this | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
underlines just what law enforcement is up against. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
It's quite a sophisticated operation. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
Counterfeit drugs medicine. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
The criminals have improved their technique in recent years | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
from the shipping and the transportation, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
and from the packaging. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:51 | |
You can't really tell that they are counterfeit. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
You have to look very, very closely at it. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:56 | |
And for the fakers, there's huge money to be made. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
You know, we're talking about, in some cases, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
millions of counterfeit dosages that are being made | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
by these criminals... | 0:28:05 | 0:28:06 | |
There's a lot of money involved, as well. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
One estimate puts the return of investment of 300... | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
You know, every pound that you invest in this criminal business, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
you get ?300 back. It's a huge return. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
And much greater than traditional forms of crime | 0:28:18 | 0:28:20 | |
like drug trafficking and others. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:22 | |
So that's what's attracting the criminals now to this market. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:26 | |
The gangs involved in this trade are unscrupulous, | 0:28:26 | 0:28:28 | |
making a lot of money by trading in illegal cancer treatments. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:33 | |
Preying on the weak and the vulnerable. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:35 | |
They think they are above law enforcement attention, | 0:28:35 | 0:28:37 | |
I can tell you that they're not. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
In total, Turkish authorities made 56 arrests. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:43 | |
Police authorities around Europe - in this case, Turkey - | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
are taking positive action, rounding up the gang, | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
and hopefully leading to a successful prosecution. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:53 | |
According to reports in Turkish newspapers, | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
counterfeit drugs manufactured by this gang had been sent to the UK. | 0:28:56 | 0:29:01 | |
However, the NHRA, the government agency responsible | 0:29:01 | 0:29:05 | |
for ensuring fake drugs don't reach British consumers, | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
hasn't had any reports of fake Avastin entering the country yet. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:13 | |
But for those who have experienced the life-changing impact | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
Avastin can have, the fact that the drug is being counterfeited at all | 0:29:19 | 0:29:23 | |
is deeply shocking. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:25 | |
I think that there are unfortunately bad people in every situation | 0:29:26 | 0:29:30 | |
you can come across, and I think it's absolutely horrendous | 0:29:30 | 0:29:34 | |
that people have started to take advantage of what is essentially | 0:29:34 | 0:29:38 | |
desperate cancer patients at their very vulnerable time of need, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:42 | |
and people are out there taking advantage. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
I think it's absolutely horrendous. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:46 | |
Earlier, we saw just how easy it is to fake a reference. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:59 | |
We even acquired one to work in a school as a janitor. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:03 | |
It's actually quite shocking that somebody is able | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
to falsify their career | 0:30:06 | 0:30:08 | |
and seek employment in a school, working with vulnerable children. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:13 | |
But how much damage can a fake reference do | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
in the hands of a determined faker? | 0:30:16 | 0:30:18 | |
Every year, over 3,000 candidates apply for pupillage. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
It's the key step to becoming a successful barrister. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
These are much sought after positions. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:33 | |
Following six months' training, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:35 | |
successful candidates will be in court, | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
handling criminal and civil cases. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:40 | |
Successful applicants will typically have outstanding academic records | 0:30:40 | 0:30:45 | |
and, in many cases, a reference from a former employer | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
endorsing the candidate to join the Bar of England and Wales. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:52 | |
One applicant, Soma Sengupta, looked to be an outstanding candidate. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:56 | |
Her reference was from | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
the Attorney General of New York, Eliot Spitzer - | 0:30:59 | 0:31:02 | |
at the time, one of the most influential legal figures in America. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:06 | |
Unsurprisingly, she was offered and accepted a pupillage | 0:31:07 | 0:31:12 | |
at this leading barristers' chambers. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:14 | |
Marion Smullen is the Head of Chambers. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:18 | |
She was meant to be a qualified district attorney from New York. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:23 | |
But soon, concerns began to emerge. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
Her performance was off, initially with her written work. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:32 | |
I put that down initially to the fact that | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
she had had a serious accident, supposedly, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
that she had come over from New York, was settling in London. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
Apparently, her husband hadn't yet moved from New York to London | 0:31:41 | 0:31:45 | |
and we were charitable and gave her the benefit of the doubt. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
This proved to be a mistake. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:52 | |
Sengupta, having completed | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
the first six months of her pupillage, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:56 | |
was now representing clients in real criminal cases. | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
But Simon Duggan, one of the chamber's clerks, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:04 | |
spotted something strange when looking at her paperwork. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:08 | |
She'd had her date of birth down as 1978. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
My first recollection was that | 0:32:11 | 0:32:13 | |
I'd seen a form that had her birthday down as 1968, | 0:32:13 | 0:32:17 | |
and my second thought was that | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
there's no way she looks 29 years old. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
I questioned it with her and we'd asked her | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
to provide us with a passport, | 0:32:25 | 0:32:27 | |
so we could check her date of birth. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
She was unable to supply that passport, | 0:32:29 | 0:32:31 | |
gave various, you know, reasons. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:33 | |
None of them good reasons at all. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
And from that position there, | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
we had to take the process of suspending her. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
Further inquiries were made. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:42 | |
Eventually, her references were checked | 0:32:42 | 0:32:46 | |
and it transpired that her references were totally fake. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
She had not been a working DA, or a qualified DA, in New York. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
She had not been a graduate of Georgetown University. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
And essentially, she was a complete fraudster. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
But ever the inventive faker, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:03 | |
Sengupta stuck to her story. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
One of the referees from Georgetown, | 0:33:05 | 0:33:07 | |
it transpired, had been dead for several years | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
and couldn't have written her reference. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
But rather than throw up her hands and say, | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
"Yes, I've been fraudulent," | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
she said, "Well, actually, no. It's the wrong man. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:19 | |
"It was one of his nephews who had actually written the reference. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
"This is all a big mistake." | 0:33:22 | 0:33:24 | |
So people went back to Georgetown, checked again, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:26 | |
and he did not have any male relatives. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:29 | |
So she was a very determined, very persistent fraudster. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:33 | |
Clearly, Sengupta's reference from Eliot Spitzer was fake. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:38 | |
Soon, the astonishing scale of her fakery was becoming apparent. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:43 | |
In fact, while Ms Sengupta was qualified to practise law | 0:33:43 | 0:33:46 | |
in the state of New York, | 0:33:46 | 0:33:48 | |
she'd never been an assistant district attorney. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:51 | |
It's true she worked at the DA offices in Manhattan, | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
but her role was as a lowly paralegal and she certainly wasn't, | 0:33:54 | 0:33:59 | |
as she claimed in her application, | 0:33:59 | 0:34:01 | |
in court on an almost daily basis. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:03 | |
Her application contained numerous fake documents, | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
including a fabricated birth certificate | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
and a home-made educational diploma. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
Eventually, Sengupta's lies were uncovered | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
and the chambers revoked her membership. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
We asked the Bar Standards Board | 0:34:18 | 0:34:20 | |
whether the cases Sengupta handled would need to be re-tried. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:24 | |
They told us this would be a matter for the clients to pursue. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
Her former chambers now demands to see | 0:34:30 | 0:34:32 | |
applicants' original ID documents, | 0:34:32 | 0:34:35 | |
but the damage has been done. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:36 | |
Sengupta's fakery could have serious repercussions. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:41 | |
The verdict in around 80 cases may now be challenged. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:45 | |
It's very sad because... | 0:34:45 | 0:34:46 | |
I think previously, everybody relied on the fact that | 0:34:46 | 0:34:50 | |
people coming into a profession such as ours | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
would be honourable and reliable | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
and, erm, that you didn't need to | 0:34:54 | 0:34:56 | |
go to the sort of lengths that we now do. | 0:34:56 | 0:34:59 | |
But unfortunately, Soma has made us change those processes. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:03 | |
And her fakery robbed a genuine candidate of a great opportunity. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:10 | |
She deprived somebody else of a very valuable apprenticeship | 0:35:10 | 0:35:15 | |
and she defrauded us out of a large amount of money. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
Shortly after her deception was uncovered, Sengupta fled to America. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:23 | |
However, the British authorities passed evidence to US prosecutors | 0:35:23 | 0:35:28 | |
and she was found guilty on fraud charges in a US court. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:32 | |
She's now appealing her sentence. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:34 | |
We've shown before on Fake Britain just how sophisticated | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
the international criminal trade in counterfeit tobacco products can be. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:49 | |
Look at these, seized by the police. Completely convincing. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
Completely fake. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
But it's not just the smugglers who are getting inventive. | 0:35:54 | 0:35:57 | |
The people who actually sell the illegal products here | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
also have to try and keep one step ahead of the law. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:04 | |
Fake Britain's been out with Trading Standards Officers | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
who reveal some of the tricks of this illicit trade. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
In 2013, the authorities seized over a billion illicit cigarettes | 0:36:14 | 0:36:18 | |
and around 500 tonnes of illicit rolling tobacco. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:20 | |
Amongst the haul are numerous different | 0:36:24 | 0:36:25 | |
counterfeit tobacco brands and products. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
The smuggling and sale of illicit tobacco costs | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
HM Revenue and Customs billions of pounds every year. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:35 | |
In a bid to stub out the trade in illicit tobacco sales, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
Staffordshire Trading Standards launched Operation ASH, | 0:36:40 | 0:36:42 | |
which targets the unscrupulous retailers who sell the tobacco. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
Today, the teams are acting on intelligence | 0:36:49 | 0:36:51 | |
gathered over the last month | 0:36:51 | 0:36:53 | |
and have warrants to raid five shops. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:55 | |
We're with senior investigator Nigel Cotton, | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
as he heads to his team's target. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:02 | |
Once we arrive at the premises, | 0:37:02 | 0:37:03 | |
we will quickly alight the vehicles | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
and get in there as quickly as possible. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:07 | |
We don't want to alert them more than necessary. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:10 | |
I shall go in there, introduce myself | 0:37:10 | 0:37:12 | |
and issue the warrant, basically, telling them that | 0:37:12 | 0:37:15 | |
we're going to search the property for illicit tobacco. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
We will then introduce the sniffer dog | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
and see if it can detect any illicit tobacco on the property. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
The team head in and question the first person | 0:37:26 | 0:37:29 | |
they believe to be a member of staff. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:31 | |
Can you come inside the shop a minute? Ta. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
So are you working here? | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
OK, I've seen you in another shop around the corner. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
Are you calling the boss? OK. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:43 | |
The gentleman here has contacted the shop owner | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
who, apparently, is on his way. He's only three minutes away. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
But Nigel has a secret weapon - | 0:37:52 | 0:37:54 | |
Ozzie. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:56 | |
He's undergone a specialist training programme | 0:37:56 | 0:37:59 | |
which has conditioned him to seek out only concealed tobacco. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:03 | |
The tobacco on display won't interest Ozzie | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
as he'll only get a reward | 0:38:10 | 0:38:11 | |
if he can sniff out the tobacco that's been hidden. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
As you can see, the sniffer dog's come in and I think it's indicated | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
that there might be some tobacco behind the counter. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:22 | |
The dog's just indicated an interest in this... | 0:38:26 | 0:38:30 | |
which, if we open it up, | 0:38:30 | 0:38:31 | |
as you can see, | 0:38:31 | 0:38:33 | |
are some examples of illicit tobacco in it. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:35 | |
Inside this box is an unholy mix of illicit tobacco. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:39 | |
We've got unregulated cigarettes, | 0:38:39 | 0:38:41 | |
known as cheap whites, | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
packs smuggled in from Europe to avoid paying the duty, | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
and counterfeits. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
It looks like some sort of first-aid kit. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
But Ozzie has found something else at the back of the store. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
That's a good boy! Yes, a good boy! | 0:38:59 | 0:39:01 | |
The dog has indicated an interest in that demonstration canister, | 0:39:01 | 0:39:06 | |
I suppose you'd call. As you look inside, | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
it looks like it's full of cans. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
If we lift out that and look inside, | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
you'll that there's a load of cigarettes... | 0:39:15 | 0:39:17 | |
which are what we're after, basically. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
Yes! Good boy. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:21 | |
Ozzie's earned a reward - his beloved squeaky ball. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:25 | |
He's a good boy, did you know that? | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
Erm, this is a counterfeit brand, | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
so we don't know who manufactures that. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
It's a copy of the original, and the problem with copied brands | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
is that you don't know what they're putting in the tobacco, basically. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
It could be sweepings off the floor, animal droppings... | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
have been found in the past. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:44 | |
So, you know, it could be anything. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:46 | |
And some of the tobacco found here has been cunningly packaged. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:52 | |
Well, I believe that these are made up to look very similar to | 0:39:52 | 0:39:54 | |
Golden Virginia. They're not called Golden Virginia. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:57 | |
They're called Original Virginia. | 0:39:57 | 0:39:59 | |
Clearly, whoever's manufacturing them is trying to circumvent | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
some sort of law by not doing an exact copy, | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
but they're making it look very similar. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
Good boy! Well done, dog. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
The dogs are proving... I think we've shown them | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
that they're an asset to working as a team | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
with Trading Standards and Customs to finding | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
where the tobacco has gone. TOY SQUEAKS | 0:40:23 | 0:40:26 | |
As the fakers have become ever more inventive, | 0:40:29 | 0:40:31 | |
the dogs have become crucial. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
The concealments that we're coming across now are very, very clever. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:38 | |
They are being made, purposely built, to hide illicit tobacco. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:42 | |
One of Ozzie's most eye-catching successes | 0:40:42 | 0:40:47 | |
was sniffing out the illicit tobacco hidden within this hydraulic lift. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
Inside the lift, Lincolnshire Trading Standards found | 0:40:51 | 0:40:55 | |
a stash of fake cigarettes. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:57 | |
This devious device | 0:40:57 | 0:40:58 | |
is just one of a number of | 0:40:58 | 0:41:00 | |
the fakers' hi tech hiding places. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:02 | |
We've had electromagnets that are hidden in walls. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:06 | |
Ones that are on beepers and sensors. Plugs. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
There's all kinds, and it's becoming... | 0:41:09 | 0:41:11 | |
It's obviously becoming a moneymaking scheme to make these | 0:41:11 | 0:41:14 | |
and to hide the tobacco for these reasons. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
When it comes to finding hidden cigarettes, Ozzie's a machine! | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
You can't hide it from the dog. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
This find is enough for Nigel to ask the police to arrest the man, | 0:41:26 | 0:41:29 | |
who's suspected of working in the shop. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
You're under arrest under the Consumer Protection | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
of Narco Trade and Regulations. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:36 | |
You do not have to say anything, | 0:41:36 | 0:41:37 | |
but it may harm your defence if you do not mention | 0:41:37 | 0:41:39 | |
when questioned something which you later rely on in court. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
Anything you do say may be given in evidence. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
The police have just cautioned him and arrested him. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
He will be street bailed later, in a few moments. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:52 | |
Finally, the shop owner arrives. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
He's got a lot of explaining to do. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:58 | |
We've visited your shop this morning. Yes. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:01 | |
We've found some illicit tobacco, basically, under the counter | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
and hidden in the back of the shop. Yep. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:06 | |
We've made a receipt out for all the property which is here, OK? Mm-hm. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:10 | |
But Ozzie's not finished yet. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:14 | |
He's picked up something in one of the cars parked outside the shop. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:19 | |
The vehicle's registered to the shopkeeper, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
and there's two big boxes of illicit tobacco | 0:42:21 | 0:42:24 | |
on the back-seat. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:26 | |
All the brands that we found in the shop, Original Virginia, | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
a bit more stock this time, though. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
There's probably about 1,000 cigarettes in this box. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
Both the man the police arrested in the shop | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
and the shop owner will be prosecuted at the magistrates' court. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
If found guilty, they'll face fines and community service orders. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:46 | |
For Nigel, though, it's been a successful day. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:49 | |
Seven arrests have been made | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
and about 10,000 illegal cigarettes seized. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
It's just one of dozens of retailers | 0:42:56 | 0:42:58 | |
Trading Standards are investigating all over the country, | 0:42:58 | 0:43:02 | |
suspected of selling fake tobacco. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:13 | |
Welcome to the Celebrity MasterChef semifinals. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 |