Episode 7 Fake Britain

Welcome to a world where nothing is quite as it seems.

Welcome to Fake Britain.

Police!

-Get down!

-Put your hands behind your back, now!

Here, at the Fake Britain house, we'll reveal the fakes

that are flooding the market, conning people like you and me

and making money for the criminals.

We'll investigate the fraudsters

who are selling us something that isn't real and could be dangerous,

and we'll help you avoid falling for a fake.

Today on Fake Britain...

We reveal the scandal of fake part worn tyres

that are an accident waiting to happen.

I could have killed anybody that got in my car.

We expose the fake face mask filters putting workers' lives at risk.

This is one of the worst masks I've ever seen.

And we reveal the hidden dangers of fake kitchenware.

The materials they've chosen can cause cancer

and child defects at birth.

Running a car can be very expensive.

You've got road tax, insurance, servicing and, of course, the fuel,

so it's tempting to try and save money wherever we can.

A new tyre could cost well over £100,

so you might opt for this - a part worn tyre.

Much cheaper, they're subject to strict regulations and inspections,

and they are legal to sell, except this one isn't,

because it's a fake.

We've discovered that dangerous fakes like this

are on sale all over the country and they are putting lives risk.

Like many of us,

mum of four Gina Gee relies on her car to get around.

I use my car on a day-to-day basis.

I take my kids to school, I take my mum to and from work.

I'm a home carer, so I have the lady I look after in my car as well,

so I use my car every day.

But also, like many of us,

she finds keeping it on the road an expensive business.

So, when her tyres needed replacing,

she opted for the most economical way of doing it.

I've only been driving for just over a year,

so it's the first time I've ever had to buy tyres.

Because I needed more than one tyre replacing,

I chose to go for part worn tyres. My partner told me where to go.

I went down there and they put part worn tyres on my car,

which were cheaper.

Whilst new tyres for Gina's car can cost well over £100 each,

part worns can start from as little as a tenner.

It's a similar story for most makes and models.

The sale of tyres is governed

by the Motor Vehicle Tyres Regulations Act -

this sets standards such as minimum tread depth and repairs.

Part worn tyre dealers

are responsible for making these safety checks

and that's exactly what genuine ones like this do,

showing they've done so by marking the tyre wall

with an indelible white stamp.

If the tyre doesn't meet those part worn safety standards,

it's a fake.

After all that, when a part worn tyre dealer

puts their tyres on sale,

they are declaring that they're safe,

and that's exactly what Gina thought she was getting.

I went in, they were very chatty,

very bubbly, quite friendly down there.

When she later took the car to another garage

with a mechanical fault,

he also looked at her tyres and was shocked by what he saw.

He wasn't happy with me to drive away in the car.

None of the tyres that they had put on were legal,

none of them were safe.

They were just really dangerous.

Gina alerted the authorities

and her tyres were passed to Trading Standards officer Dan Brown.

Clearly, here, you can see a repair that has been done to a hole

through the tyre, which is in an illegal position in the tyre,

as it is in a dangerous position.

Secondly, we have another tyre here.

Again, from the same complainant. The tyre wall here has been damaged.

Now, under road conditions,

this could have potentially put somebody's life at risk.

Gina's isn't an isolated case.

Dan Brown has been investigating

several local part worn tyre dealers.

One of them, Luke McKenzie,

was caught selling unsafe part worn tyres to unsuspecting motorists.

He received a nine-month suspended sentence.

These traders should not be, and cannot be, allowed to supply

unsafe or fake part worn tyres

that are putting members of the public...public's lives at risk.

Every year, more than 1,200 motorists are injured in an accident

where illegal, defective or under-inflated tyres play a part.

Gina was one of the lucky ones -

she and her family escaped unscathed.

I felt like I had put my kids at risk.

I could have killed anybody that had been in the car.

I thought it was safe, and it wasn't.

To find out just how dangerous fake part worn tyres can be,

Fake Britain decided to put them to the test.

Tyre expert and test driver Steve Dolby will get behind

the wheel of a car that will be fitted with fake part worn tyres.

But the damage on some of them is so bad

the team are having a hard time even fitting one to the wheel.

There's really very dangerous damage on the side walls.

And in order for us to keep an eye on this while we're fitting it,

I'm just going to mark it with a yellow crayon.

I'm going to stick it in a safety cage

because I'm not confident that when we inflate the tyre,

it's going to inflate safely,

as a new tyre or a normal tyre would.

I'll put it in that cage so that, if it does explode, we're safe.

AIR HISSES

I'm going to gently pull it out and have a look at it...

And you can see how horrific this bulge is on that tyre.

Even for Steve, this is too dangerous to drive.

But with four tyres eventually fitted, he's ready to hit

the road and find out just how fake their claims of roadworthiness are.

As Steve heads to the track,

the effects on handling become immediately obvious.

Front end slides and the back end slides.

The main danger with illegal part worns is that their damage

makes them leak air as they run and the tyre constantly loses pressure.

So, to simulate the situation of a slow puncture, we are

deflating one of the rear tyres to see how it would feel,

as a typical driver, driving a part worn tyre

that is gradually deflating.

Taking all of my concentration to stop the car from spinning,

and already, I can feel the back end is really sliding a lot.

Nearly lost control completely there.

TYRES SCREECH

Steve is an experienced driver, but he's finding it hard to keep

these fake part worn tyres on the track.

-BLEEP

-hell!

Who knows what sort of trouble

the average driver would find themselves in.

Oh, there it goes.

A complete spinout.

I wouldn't like at all to have this sort of tyre on my car.

A recent national study found a staggering 98% of part worn

tyres have been sold illegally

and over a third of those had potentially dangerous damage.

As far as Gina is concerned,

the fakers are putting innocent motorists' lives at risk.

It's like they don't care whose lives they're putting in danger.

I don't know how they can sleep at night-time. It is disgusting.

But the problem isn't simply confined to a handful of dealers.

It's an epidemic that reaches right across the country.

Later, we join those on the front line,

as Trading Standards officers fight back,

tackling the suspected fakers head-on.

We have looked at it and it doesn't appear to be safe.

We have to seize it.

As a nation, we are obsessed by design, from kettles to cars,

from phones to furniture and, not forgetting, kitchen gadgets.

We want to spend our money on things that don't just work well,

but also look great.

Companies can spend years creating,

perfecting and protecting their designs,

but the fakers are always hot on their heels.

Look at these.

One of them is an innovative invention that has cracked

a key task in the kitchen.

The other is a fake that's a complete failure.

Could you tell the difference?

Design is the lifeblood of many businesses

and countless millions are spent by companies every year trying to

produce something that's new, fresh and which stands out from the crowd.

And to come up with the next big thing,

they turn to people like inventor and designer Mark Sanders.

It seems as though the fakers are the biggest followers of his innovations

because, as fast as this serial inventor can make it,

it seems someone's out there faking it.

Well, basically, everything on this side of the table

are the authentic, genuine product

and all these fellas are all copies.

These products have taken Mark years to perfect,

but the fakers are knocking out cheap copies in weeks that,

on the surface, are virtually identical,

like this automatic can opener.

This one is the real one.

This one is the fake.

We've got a very strong patent on that mechanism,

but it hasn't prevented people just copying it completely.

The fakers may think they've lifted the lid on Mark's design secrets,

but without having put in his years of development,

it's time to find out

if it can rival the performance of the real thing.

Let's try the genuine one.

-Basically, you put it on the lid...

-CAN OPENER BUZZES

..and then it automatically walks around the can,

opening the lid.

OK. And then you have the lid stuck to the opener,

which you then flick in the bin.

The real thing makes short work of the job.

But can the fake cut it?

-WHIRRING

-The first thing we notice is it's a lot louder.

As you can see,

although it looks the same, it doesn't work as well.

Erm...

It's gone about a quarter of the way around,

the lid is still stuck on there,

and somebody has just wasted

a lot of money on this.

That's faked.

The fakers may have copied the form,

but by cutting corners, the function simply doesn't deliver,

and it's the same story with some of his other inventions.

This is the real chopping board.

You can grasp the handle and it forms a chute,

so you don't miss the pan.

Now, this looks the same, but if you compare the thickness of plastic,

it's actually about half the thickness.

Mark sold his original chopping board design to British

kitchenware company Joseph Joseph,

who now market the genuine article under their brand name.

They also have an in-house design team

and innovative twists on kitchen classics,

combined with a distinctive look, are how they've made their name.

Like Mark, they've had their own designs counterfeited,

but owner Richard Joseph has seen the scale of fakery here escalate.

We've probably had 100 products faked that we know about.

This is one of our "Elevate" tools.

That's the original.

That's the fake.

The key design feature in this is it's got a foot that we've put into the handle

It keeps the head of ladle off the countertop

and basically makes it hygienic.

With the fake product, when you place this on the table,

the head actually comes into contact with the table

and that means it's a product that doesn't work.

In fact, it seems as though the fakers are flooding the market

with their knock-offs.

If you put in "Index Chopping Boards",

a trademark name, you have 8...9...

10, 11, 12...

I'll carry on...

13 companies, just there, that are producing copies.

They're all infringing our trademark

and claiming it as their own, and selling either direct copies,

direct fakes or versions of.

Perhaps their most faked product is this set of eight stacking bowls

and measuring cups, known as the Nest Eight.

So, here we have the original Joseph Joseph Nest Eight

and here is the fake.

And, as you can see, they're virtually identical.

One thing that isn't identical is the price.

Whilst the real thing retails for around £35,

the fake generally costs £20 or less.

And as at first glance they look the same, for many people,

it appears as though that can be the deciding factor.

£20 because it's the same.

-I'd take the £20.

-I'll go for the £20 ones.

They look exactly the same, so probably the cheapest one.

They may look the same,

but the counterfeit contains a very unwelcome addition.

Fake bowls like these are being sold in California, where the law states

that products must carry a warning if they contain dangerous materials.

The materials they've chosen

can cause cancer and

child defects at birth,

so it's quite incredible.

They, first of all, should never be on sale,

and secondly, very damaging for the consumer

and for us as a brand, as well.

These cheap and potentially dangerous plastics are the reason

this product can undercut the genuine article.

Knowing this, will our street sample still think the fake is a bargain?

Well, then I'd definitely not buy it!

Because, obviously, long-term, if it's going to affect me

and my health, then I'm not going to be interested in it.

Just shows you how you can be deceived, really, doesn't it?

We are a nation of DIY lovers and, for lots of those

"can't put it off any longer" jobs around the house,

we should wear one of these -

a protective mask with a special filter.

They're also essential safety wear in many jobs

to protect against potentially dangerous dust, particles and fumes.

But these filters are fake

and anyone using them might never know they'd put themselves at risk

until it was too late.

Hope Robertson understands why face masks are so important.

Up until 2000, her husband David

worked on the shipyards of the Clyde.

He was an electrician, always in the yards.

Back then, they didn't even get a mask.

David was exposed to asbestos day in, day out,

with seemingly no ill effects.

Then, in late 2000, Hope began to notice changes in him

which caused her concern.

He was losing weight and he wasn't eating.

And he had what you call a slight tickly cough.

Nothing much to write home about, but it was...

the change in his temperament.

Hope made an appointment with the doctor,

who was immediately worried,

and sent David straight to the hospital for tests.

That was on the Monday.

On Tuesday, it was our wedding anniversary,

our 36th wedding anniversary.

And on the Thursday, February 24th,

they came and they told us that he had mesothelioma.

Pleural mesothelioma is a cancer of the lungs

and doctors linked David's to his years working

without being issued a mask and being left exposed to asbestos.

It can lie dormant for over 20 years before symptoms appear,

by which time, as in David's case, it can be highly advanced.

Four weeks exactly after he got out of hospital, he died at home.

We didn't get a chance to say a proper goodbye.

That really hurt.

And that was it, all over -

all because of neglect.

And David's wasn't an isolated incident.

Whole communities whose workers weren't at the time issued

with face masks were to suffer the same fate.

This is my late husband's name on here.

All these other people, all the way down,

they were all exactly the same.

They've all died from either asbestosis or mesothelioma.

Just purely because

they were not given the proper equipment.

It's precisely cases like this that led to a change in the law.

Now, employees are protected and given face masks,

like this carpenter, whose exposure to sawdust

greatly increases the risk of nasal cancer.

Various companies manufacture masks.

One of the most trusted is 3M,

but we've discovered one of the filters for their masks

is being faked.

We bought some of the fake filters online and took them

to 3M's headquarters to show technical manager Alan McArthur.

These are one of the particle filters we sell in the UK.

They attach onto our masks,

The contaminated air, as they breathe,

passes through the filter and the particles are captured,

and the wearer then is breathing cleaned air.

We're making many thousands of respirators every day

Globally, runs into millions and millions of devices.

It is something we take seriously because it's...

The health of the wearer of the product is at risk.

Genuine filters that are P3 grade

should offer the wearer the highest level of protection

against everything from brick dust to asbestos.

A filter like this might have saved David Robertson's life

in his asbestos-filled workplace.

The fake filters claim to offer P3 grade protection,

but if they don't perform,

the wearer could unwittingly be inhaling toxic particles

with devastating long-term effects.

Many of 3M's genuine products are tested here at the BSI,

British Standards Institution.

Expert Mike Thompson has agreed to put the fakes

through one of the tests all masks of this grade

must meet to be sold anywhere in Europe.

The aim of this test is to represent fine particles

to see whether they penetrate through the particulate filter media.

Sodium particles are blasted into the box

to mimic a hazardous environment.

The air is then sucked through the filter into a device

acting as the wearer's lungs.

Hardly any sodium should pass through to this stage.

When assessed to European standard, it should protect the wearer

from 99.95% of particles that they are subjected to.

Five minutes in, the first full set of readings come back

and the results are damning.

The penetration value is over 14% -

nearly 300 times the actual limit for this European standard.

This is one of the worst masks I've ever seen.

For 3M, the brand the fakers are ripping off,

it's a warning for customers to be on their guard.

Buy through reputable channels within the UK.

I think searching for a bargain on a website

is where you may find trouble.

And for Hope Robertson, who lost her husband to asbestos exposure,

the message to the fakers putting others at risk is loud and clear.

These are people's lives that are at stake.

It's a horrible way to go. It's a dreadful way to go.

Earlier, we met Gina,

who had a lucky escape after being conned by a part worn tyre dealer,

selling dangerous tyres making fake claims to be safe.

I felt like I'd put my kids at risk

and myself and anyone that had been in my car.

But that wasn't a one-off.

Fake Britain can reveal that thousands of unsafe part worn tyres

are on sale across the country.

Industry insiders, like Stuart Jackson of Tyresafe,

fear the rise of these dodgy dealers

is not only tarnishing the whole trade,

but putting lives at risk.

It is a concern for us that we have people, unscrupulous dealers,

across the country.

The unknown, hidden dangers of a part worn or used product

is the biggest issue.

Has it been damaged? Has it been in an accident? We just don't know.

What we do know is that every year, in the UK,

more than 1,200 motorists are injured in an accident

where illegal, defective or underinflated tyres play a part.

Very few people are in the position of being able to cope

in the event that they have a sudden tyre failure.

Alerted to a rising tide of fakers blighting the tyre trade,

the authorities are clamping down on this criminal activity.

In London, trading standards officer Samuel Abdullahi

is heading out with partner Andy Faulkner on an operation

aimed at stopping suspect tyre dealers in their tracks.

Many of the tyres we do find are unsafe,

they should never have been supplied to consumers

and businesses should not have them on their premises for supply.

Hence the reasons why we do the inspections,

to make sure that the public are safe.

And because it's up to the part worn tyre dealers themselves

to check their tyres are roadworthy,

the only way to make sure they aren't faking it

is for Trading Standards to go door-to-door.

-Hello, boss.

-As Samuel and Andy begin their search,

it's clear this owner doesn't want us along for the ride.

-Turn off the camera, please.

-OK.

-Turn off the camera, please.

The owner claims some of this stock has just arrived

and is yet to be checked,

but nothing should be on display until it's been tested

and declared up to standard.

As none of it is marked up, it may all be on offer to the public

and one tyre has immediately caught their eye as potentially dangerous.

This one has no ticket.

It seems the owner is reluctant to give it up and wants them

to take at a better-looking tyre instead.

-No, no, no, I'll give you paperwork.

-Yes.

If it doesn't have part worn tyre, it is wrong.

-This one is rubbish.

-I don't want that one.

If we identify an item which we believe is unsafe,

which is in here, we have to seize it.

It looks as though it's unsafe,

we have suspicion that it is, so we'll be taking it today.

With this suspected unsafe tyre off the streets,

it's on to the next dealer on the list.

I'm Samuel Abdullahi, I'm from Trading Standards.

The tyres are marked part worn,

meaning they have claimed to have passed all the safety checks

demanded by law, but Andy has his doubts.

This is just a tearaway sticker.

The point of the marking is to be able to see that it's been shown

to everyone that it is a part worn and people are aware,

and it is supposed to be compliant with the legislation.

Um... That is probably not, to be honest.

As he delves deeper, his suspicions appear to be well-founded.

The concern we've got with this one is we've got a chunk straightaway

that's come away from it.

Andy and Samuel seize two more suspect tyres

they think could be putting the public at risk.

They both have the part worn stamp on them,

which is not the right way.

It needs to be permanent, on the actual tyre itself.

The question is how unroadworthy is it?

To find out, back at base, Samuel has called in Steve Dolby.

Steve's an expert with over 30 years' experience in tyre testing.

He can tell whether what's been seized is safe,

as its markings claim, or whether it's being sold by fakers

making a profit by putting the public at risk.

What we've found is that quite a few tyres have the part worn marking,

but they're still effectively in an unroadworthy condition.

Samuel's got a stack of recently seized tyres.

He wants Steve's verdict.

First up is one of the tyres he's just brought in

and Steve begins by checking the tyre's age.

The four numbers here,

meaning that the tyre was made in week nine of 2003.

So this tyre's already 12 years old, so it's quite an old tyre.

I would suggest it shouldn't be put back onto the road at that age.

Although there is no age limit in law for part worn tyres,

tyres are changed on average every three years -

this one is over four times that age.

Alarm bells are already ringing and, seconds later,

Steve finds hard evidence

that the tyre's claims to be road safe are fake.

So, straightaway, there's a repair in the side wall of the tyre.

Only specific repairers can do that.

It's a major job. This has just been a bit of a bodge job.

Disturbingly, it's not the only defect.

We can see another patch on the inside.

With a repair on the inside,

there should be a corresponding one on the outside

where the road damage actually took place.

But with no such repair made to the tyre tread,

it means the cause of the damage has never been dealt with.

The person who's repaired the tyre has just put a patch

only on the inside, but it hasn't sealed the hole on the outside.

The tyre can start to separate,

which could eventually cause a rapid deflation on the motorway.

And the problems don't stop there.

-It looks like a razor blade or a Stanley knife.

-Looks like a knife.

That will have sliced through some of the cords of the tyre,

Should never go back into the marketplace.

It seems like the problem is endemic.

The tyre's probably had some sort of nail or screw through it.

The entire stack of tyres, from many different dealers,

all failed to make the grade

and some of them were even marked to confirm

that they'd passed safety standards.

It's still shocking to see the number of tyres

that have not met the safety standards.

It's still disturbing, the whole part worn tyre industry, really.

Samuel's case against the part worn tyre dealers is still ongoing...

..and his work to protect motorists still isn't done.

It has definitely been a worthwhile operation

and there are plenty of other traders out there

which we haven't visited, so we will be targeting them in the future.

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.