02/03/2017 London News

You are defrauding Londoners despite being on the BBC?

The fraudster exposed by this programme conning

We reveal he's still operating here in the capital.

You just feel like everything comes crashing down around you. I was

crying because it is hard when you think you have finally found a job

and it turns out to be fraud. Our exclusive report shows the scam

is continuing to trap The 80-year-old whose body

was found in a lock-up A suspected World War Two bomb

is discovered on a building site Roads have been closed and holdings

evacuated after the device was found this morning. I will have a very

latest. Did I tell you you look amazing today? Because you do.

And the blockbuster which started life as a children's story.

We meet the author as the capital celebrates World Book Day.

Welcome to the programme this Thursday evening

It's been described as "the largest job scam"

in the capital to date, exposed by BBC London

Now, we've discovered the man behind it -

is still operating and defrauding often vulnerable Londoners.

John Phillips promises job-seekers well paid jobs

In return, he takes their cash, charging them hundreds

No answer. I don't what you're talking about.

This was a criminal we tracked down last October,

Now we have discovered he is still up to

Welcome. I am John Phillips.

John Phillips, fraudster and thief, who we exposed conning

job-seekers like these with fake jobs for a fee.

I got scammed really, really badly,

Four months ago, we went undercover posing as a job-seeker

to see how Phillips preyed on those who posted CVs on job websites.

He told us he was the manager of a large HR

To start work, applicants had to pay him

upfront fees of hundreds of pounds for bogus jobs.

Part of them doing the work for him involved bringing

in others who were also looking for jobs.

They ended up falling victim to the scam as well.

We secretly recorded him masterminding

the scam outside and collecting any cash that was handed over.

I don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know what we're talking about?

We have been recording you over the last few months.

Phillips was exposed on the BBC in October but we

can tonight reveal he then carried on as if nothing had

happened, ripping off many more Londoners.

In October, he told applicants is name was

Or Nathan Phillips. Sometimes, Bill Barnett.

Now we can reveal he has metamorphosized

And if you want to know what it feels

like to be ripped off by him, ask these two, who do not want to be

Both have been conned in the last few weeks.

It was just horrible to deal with it and you

just feel like everything comes crashing down around you.

I was crying because it is kind of hard

when you think you have finally found a job

when you think you have finally found a job and then it

Scores of people have now reported this scam to the

Metropolitan Police and Action Fraud.

This former Met Detective Chief Inspector is appalled

I would say that Mr Phillips is probably

one of the more serious and

persistent offenders I have seen operating in this field.

To be going for so long, to have so many

victims, there is no reason why he should not be

We have had a tip-off that Mr Phillips is

doing some job interviews here in Covent Garden, potentially

to scam more people of hundreds of pounds.

What we're going to do is give him a bit of a surprise.

You have now changed your name, I believe,

You changed your name to another name, have you?

You're continuing to defraud Londoners,

Mr Phillips' scam has been described as

Why is it you seem to think it is OK to

keep defrauding Londoners in this way?

I do not know what you're talking about.

Unfortunately, the BBC cannot physically stop him.

Goodbye to you. Goodbye.

We are warning the authorities and London's job-seekers

that this fraudster, thief and conman...

Get away from me. I have nothing to say to you.

So John Philips, as he's often known, operates

If you've come across him, or his other alias is "Roy Parker",

A murder investigation is underway after the body of a woman has been

found in a lock-up at the allotments where she worked.

The 80-year-old was discovered in Colindale

Yvonne Hall has been following developments and joins us now.

The Colindale allotments are behind the houses here. People living here

have told me tonight how shocked and frightened they are by her murder.

Police have been here all day looking for clues are making

door-to-door enquiries but they say so far they still have no idea who

killed the much loved each year old. -- 80-year-old. She was known as

everyone's grandmother and the Lord of the committee. Today, friends

were in shock at the news of the matter.

When you needed something, you've to her. She was a lovely lady. I am

shaking. You don't expect anything like that. Just after 2am on

Tuesday, Leah's body was found at Colindale allotments in a shed. Just

yards from her home. She was secretary of the ban allotments

Federation and police say she was a very active 80-year-old who loved

gardening and helping others. She is really active for 80 years old, in

and around allotments, much loved mother and grandmother. There are 90

allotment plots at Colindale. Today, police have been searching for clues

and carrying a door-to-door enquiries.

Police say they do not have any clues yet about who murdered Leah.

They are investigating reports rough sleepers got onto allotments through

this hole in defence and are trying to find out was responsible for a

spate of thefts from the lock-up sea. The appeal to anyone who saw

Leah here, particularly on Monday. She wore jackboots with white spots,

great bottoms, it a quilted jacket. -- grey bottoms. The dues see her on

Monday around the allotments and where you are in the allotment on

Monday? -- did you see her. Police say they are not saying exactly

Leah was murdered for operational Leah was murdered for operational

reasons but they say that the AT all lost her life in the most tragic way

possible and heart killer must be caught. -- that the 80-year-old lost

her life. Roads have been closed

and people have been evacuated from schools and homes nearby

after a suspected World War II bomb The device was found on a building

site in near Brondesbury Park. We can cross to Louisa Preston,

who has the latest on this. Yes, that is right. The building

site is literally just behind these buildings behind me. The army are on

the scene now and the bomb disposal the scene now and the bomb disposal

unit has literally in the last human is arrived. -- has literally in the

an extremely residential area and an extremely residential area and

all the homes here have been evacuated. I have been here all

afternoon and spoken to people evacuated. Many were brought out of

holes by police and summer been able to go back in to get belongings and

come back out again. The council has set up a refuge centre and said this

operation will go on for a couple of days. They said people out of homes

will be put up in hotels and B and Bs. This is what local residents

said. We live in London, it got bombed heavily.

This is an inconvenience but it happens. I understand it is for

security purposes but it is annoying because I live here, I work

tomorrow. I have just come back from New Zealand. I was quite keen to

sleep on my own bed, to be honest. What is being said about the device?

This is an extremely big bomb. It is about 500 pounds worth of bomb.

Photos of being released affecting we can see now. It illustrates how

big it is. In one of those photos, big it is. In one of those photos,

there is a spade in the short and you can see the bomb next to it. You

can see how big this bombers. If we spent the -- spin the camera around,

you'll see, because of the in place, the traffic disruption in this area

this evening, with many roads closed because they cannot get into the

area and to homes. People are being told to avoid the area tonight if at

all possible. Many thanks for that update.

We've been hearing today how policing in some areas

of the country are letting victims down - according to

So what's the picture here in the capital?

Nick Beake, our Home Affairs Correspondent, has the details.

Riz, today's report considers how effective

How good are they at preventing crime in the first place?

If we are robbed or our car's stolen or house burgled,

And how do the police treat us if we become victims?

Let's have a look at how they got on.

But in Bedfordshire - it's another story.

The police force there - is said to be inadequate -

Although the Met has been pretty good crime and, it is bad that

feeling voluble people, including children risk of sexual abuse. There

is a lack of detectives. They are short of 700 detectives just now.

This is the story of why one detective walked away from the job

she loved. That is what the problem is.

There just isn't enough of us. There is work coming

in all the time and it just isn't enough hours in

the day to do everything. I think, you know, officers

are carrying 20 crimes or You know, sometimes there is more

than one victim in an And you don't just get allocated

an investigation and that It is work coming in

and it is constant. And a little bit of

stress is good, you can But when it is so high

all the time, it is just not I would often wake up

with headaches because I wasn't having enough sleep

and I just found out that, I'm thinking, actually,

I don't think I can do It made me feel a bit

of a failure, to be honest. This is all I ever wanted

to do and, you know, I thought it was a career

I was going to do for 30 odd years. It is actually with a really

heavy heart that I Well, today the Met told us today

they've got more detectives But there is this shortfall

because there are more and more cases to investigate -

including more people coming forward So although detectives

are being recruited, it's not happening quickly enough

to meet the demand. Now on that overall assessment -

that the Met requires improvement- senior officers think

that is unfair. But I think today's report, looking

at the breadth of policing, misses some of the challenges

we are facing today. It doesn't go pick up on the fact

that we are putting many more resources into counterterrorism,

particularly firearms officers. We have spoken about

that regularly, the 600 extra officers to

help protect Londoners. And it doesn't really talk

about those difficult choices We're squeezing resources

about making sure we put our officers in the best place

possible to protect Londoners from The reality is that all

police forces are having to deal with more and

different types of crime. As well as traditional offences,

there's rising online So more for the police to do

at a time when money is tight. Stay with us, still

to come before 7... Wendy talks to women in the arts

about why more of them aren't And a masterclass from a bestselling

author on the 20th anniversary of World Book Day.

People in Surrey opposed to drilling for oil in a beauty

spot near Dorking say they're now "terrified"

It's after the High Court decided that Europa Oil can ban any activity

that helps sustain the protest camp at Leith Hill.

Some locals think that's equivalent to being "gagged".

In the Surrey commuter belt, trouble is brewing.

Obviously, we're not going to stop everybody using fuel by tomorrow,

But if nobody is willing to do stuff like this and try and motivate

Activists are trying to delay lorries carrying

This isn't fracking, it's conventional drilling,

Huge oil reserves are now thought to lie beneath these hills.

Behind that there, that is my bedroom.

I live on the first floor in that room.

They are trying to stop a new well here.

In an area of outstanding natural beauty.

The activists don't want to reveal their tactics.

A hot food rota has been organised by locals.

The camp has been relying on support like this.

The fight against oil drilling has dragged in more unlikely supporters.

I thought I'd have a chat with them and tell them why I think it's

important for us to be looking at this site and so forth.

And it all got out of hand really, really quickly.

These are proper, middle-class, middle-England people who feel very

strongly that you shouldn't be drilling for oil in an area

A few weeks ago, an order was granted that allows Europa Oil

to evict the camp and also stops anyone from going there that might

Lawyers say this includes journalists.

They also say sweeping orders like this are becoming

Any further that way and I could end up in prison.

One local lady said she is now terrified of supporting

the camp and in her words, she said the oil company

has now silenced them with its money and its power.

We asked but Europa won't talk to us about any of this.

No-one knows when the drilling on Leith Hill might start.

Turning to art, and it goes without saying that London's

galleries have some of the greatest masterpieces in the world

and most of them are by male artists.

Women, it seems, have mostly been in the background -

In the first of her two-part report on Women in Art, Wendy Hurrell has

A life-drawing class at Hampstead School of Art.

This would have been unthinkable but 100 years ago.

Women wielding a paintbrush is quite shocking enough, never mind

So we are rather underrepresented as artists in

At the National Gallery, for example, of

the some 2300 works, just 20 are by women.

That in itself a portrait of society.

Just because there isn't a female signature on it

doesn't mean there weren't women around.

Don't forget, the women would have helped prepare the canvas, helped

prepare prime it, ground the pigment to make oil paints.

So there would always have been a female presence.

And of course, to prepare the food for the artists.

Jane McAdam-Freud has personal experience of this.

She built her internationally successful career as

But she says it was her mother, Catherine,

another Central Saint Martins alumni, who showed natural talent in

And if I look at my father's paintings of the same 15,

He put the hours in and became a master at

She was a mother in the end and had no time, no time, no hours

Whereas my father, he put all his hours into his work.

Female artists were quite literally in the background in 1768, when the

Royal Academy was established by 34 men and two women.

Here they all are in the studio for a life drawing.

But Mary and Angelica are represented only

It became a stronger institution, and in that way,

excluded women because it was not appropriate for a woman to draw

Certainly to draw a nude life model was completely out

And in my second piece tomorrow, we will see how women

are being drawn in from the margins of the artworld.

And on that note of drawing in women, a sense things are changing?

That seemed to come up a lot. Everyone I spoke to said that we are

turning point. It's a lot to do with women taking

up top roles in the art world. So the Serpentine, Saatchi

and Whitechapel galleries are all run by women -

a lady called Maria Balshaw starts as director of the Tate

in the summer. And in my piece tomorrow,

I talk to the director She is passionate about getting

diversity of art on the walls at the Tate modern. She has succeeded on

one part of it at least. She is a very interesting person. She

struggled herself to become the top person at the Tate modern. It is

really exciting because she says a lot of work has been overlooked by

female artists. There's what we have not seen we haven't had a chance.

I look forward to that piece tomorrow. Thank you.

Take a look around any classroom today and it was probably

filled with Harry Potters, superheroes and other

It's all for World Book Day, which this year is celebrating

Jim Wheble has been to Stratford Library to find out more.

Even the adults were getting into the spirit.

They were 20 times as big as the big blue whale...

Cressida Cowell, the bestselling author of

How To Train Your Dragon, also a movie blockbuster.

It is all about the pleasure, the joy of books.

This is what World Book Day really focuses on.

The fun of dressing up as your favourite character or something.

Today, though, was all about the written

Literacy rates here are some of the lowest in

Europe, but World Book Day is not just about the kids.

Now, it is clear that children should be

encouraged to read as much as humanly possible.

I am almost ashamed to say it, but I'm

36% of adults in the UK do not read for pleasure.

No, not really. Don't have the time, really.

Do I chalk you down as a non-reader of pleasure or

I am a non-reader for pleasure. I read it for work.

But start reading young and it often lasts a lifetime.

At the Discover Children's Story Centre in

Stratford, performance in storytelling instilled that love.

There's a lot of competition from computer games, TV and lots of

But actually, what we find here is that children have an

inherent love of reading and story telling and writing.

What about those of us who have fallen out of

Also at today's event was comedian and bestselling children's

I need you to absolve me of my sins. Jim, what have you done? I must

confess that I do not read for pleasure. I am ashamed to say it,

almost. What am I missing? I thought that you are vacant looking chap. I

can't imagine your life is very interesting, Jim. Pick up a nice

novel for one hour each evening and then go back to your box set. You

see if I'm not right and you will thank me for it, Jim. Home work from

Julian! Don't worry, I will be having words

with Jim. It's that time of the evening

for a check on the weather - It was a nice day today. There was a

bit of a chill in the air but compensated by the sunshine. There

was some ). This picture from a weather watcher taken in Stanmore.

Some of the cloud is fairweather cloud. For the most part, it was

cloud free. The cloud. For the most part, it was

cloud free. The cloud earlier melted away for a clearer skies. Changes

are coming, though. Not this cloud, don't worry about that. This one on

the change overnight into tomorrow the change overnight into tomorrow

as well. This evening, it is still dry. Clear skies as well. We will

find after midnight that the cloud increases from the South as the

cloud heads away. By the early hours, we start to season rain. By

the end of the night, that could be as far north as Stevenage. These are

some of the temperatures. 56 Celsius overnight. Nothing too cold out

there at all. Certainly will warm up through the day. It will be a wet

rush hour, I suspect. It could be quite heavy with heavy bundles as

well. It tends to move northwards and eventually, probably by

mid-afternoon, we should see the rain clearing away. We could get

something a bit brighter that will boost temperatures to quite a mild

11 or 12 Celsius. Into tomorrow evening, it looks like it should

stay dry. However, some rain luxe to the west on. That rain could be a

bit reluctant to clear over this weekend. In fact, don't blame the

messenger, but this weekend we have rain never too far away. It is

brighter from time to time and drier brighter from time to time and drier

perhaps but messy chart the weekend dominated by low. That means rain

and lots of weather front, meaning rain as well. Into Saturday, a

little wave in the weather front brings rain from the south.

Particularly across eastern parts of the region. That should clear away

and we should get light sunshine alone. Again, temperatures getting

to ten of 11 Celsius. Give it time later in the day and we should see

some improvements. Here is the look. It looks like we will get more rain

on Sunday. The winds will be stronger as well. Monday looks drier

but can't roll out one or two showers.

We would never blame the messenger, would we? Darren, thank you.

A police standards watchdog has warned that the public are being put

at risk as some forces are dealing with cutbacks by

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary has

warned a third of police forces require improvement.

One of Donald Trump's closest advisors has been accused of lying

under oath to the Senate after he failed to disclose that

he'd met with the Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign.

Jeff Sessions is now facing calls to resign.

A modern investigation is under way after the body of an eight-year-old

woman was found at a Colindale allotment. The victim was described

as a pillar of the committee. Thank you for joining us.

Apparently, there is some interesting artwork on our Facebook

page. Feel free to take a look

and have your say. Asad will be back

with our late news. WHISTLING: Blue Danube

by Johann Strauss II the gap between the richest

and everyone else And while the funding for our

schools and hospitals is being cut, many of the largest companies

and wealthiest individuals And the tax dodgers

are getting away with it