Episode 2 Doorstep Crime 999

There's one issue you've told us drives you up the wall.

You read about it in the paper, it never seems to come round your area, but it landed on our doorstep.

Unfortunately, it's an issue which is becoming more widespread.

These conmen have no regard whatsoever for their victims.

Usually it's the most defenceless people who are targeted.

He'd taken the most precious things that I still had from my husband.

We're talking about crime that takes place on your own doorstep.

These crimes are serious and upsetting because they happen in your own home.

It affects the elderly, the vulnerable and people who can't really look after themselves.

I think crime that happens on the doorstep is despicable and should certainly be stopped.

We're here to stamp out doorstep crime and name and shame the culprits.

Our cameras have been out with award-winning police

and trading standards teams all over the country

and with your help, we're campaigning to show these cold-calling con artists the door.

Today, the touching story of a police officer

rushing to a consumer's aid after her traumatic experience

with a doorstep tradesman...

She was really quite distressed about what had happened.

Plus, the uplifting way to find out how not to be ripped off...

# I know all the rules

# And the regulations

# Trading Standards is here for you. #

And we're on the case with Essex officers determined to bring rogue builders to justice.

He'll be arrested, held in custody and then brought into the court.

Your emails and letters about cold callers

have certainly been keeping us busy.

Bunny Farnell-Watson and Jennifer Simons have both written in to say

there's nothing worse than opening your front door

and finding a stranger there who just wants to rip you off.

Thousands of you seem to agree.

I think it's reassuring that police and other law enforcement agencies

are working hard, up and down the country, to put a stop to these crimes.

Our team is in Essex as one doorstep criminal is brought to justice.

It's 9:15am in Chelmsford, Autumn 2011.

Environment Services Officer Stuart Thompson is waiting

for a cold-calling con merchant named Mark Finch

to arrive at court. But there's one small problem.

As this is the third time he's been due to appear before magistrates,

will he actually turn up?

Mr Finch is here today to answer offences of being

an unregistered waste carrier

where he took asbestos away from a 92-year-old woman's house.

He's what we would class as a rogue trader. He's currently on bail,

to appear at 9.30. That time has now gone and he's still not appeared.

Unsurprisingly, this is one doorstep that Mark Finch is not so keen to cross.

If he doesn't appear today, there'll be another warrant for his arrest issued

and this time it will be without bail, which means he'll be arrested,

held in custody and then brought into the court by the police.

We're all keen for Mark Finch to get his comeuppance, but first,

let's rewind over the events that have led him to being summonsed here.

This is an extraordinary story featuring not one, but two doorstep conmen.

We'll come back to Mr Finch in a few minutes.

But first, we need to meet the brave heroines of our story,

92-year-old Ruby Brown and her neighbour and close friend, Sheila Wood,

and find out what they did to stand up to these conniving crooks.

I can't explain what it does to you.

I really can't.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

You dread the doorbell going, wondering who's there.

The terrible experience that Ruby is describing

began when there was a knock at her door.

Now, this wasn't Mark Finch, but another rogue trader

believed to be an associate of his.

She answered the door and it was a man trying to sell block paving.

Originally, she said she didn't want any block paving,

he was quite persistent and eventually talked her into having a small area done.

I knew I couldn't afford the price he was asking me

and it wasn't something that desperately needed doing.

'Persuasive, dreadfully persuasive. Wouldn't take no for an answer.

'I was getting so worked up, I suppose,'

and by then, I was in a tizz so I said yes.

The man quoted Ruby £560 to carry out the work

and although she felt pressurised into having it done,

she did believe that it would be money well spent.

If you'd have seen his brochure with jobs he'd done,

it all looked so nice, didn't it?

We'll be finding out what happened when the builder returned to Ruby's house a little later on.

Now, here's another example of doorstep crime.

Hello, I'm Shirley. Like many viewers,

our family's experienced problems with cold callers on the doorstep.

Recently, I've been to something that's raised the awareness of it

and I'd like to tell you a little bit about it.

Hmm, I'm intrigued. We'll find out what's on Shirley's mind later on in the programme.

I'd also like to thank Derek Steel of Cumbria for his email which really caught my eye.

He wrote to tell us what happened to his mother, Lily, after a visit from cold-callers.

It was such a poignant story that we just had to meet him

to find out how the police brought them to justice.

This case takes us to Brampton near Carlisle.

It clearly shows the dreadful impact

the actions of callous doorstep criminals can have on the vulnerable.

They weren't proper traders. They were just, in my opinion, conmen.

Derek's mum Lily had lived in this modest terraced house

in Brampton, near Carlisle for over 40 years

and was a very valued member of the community.

Everybody who knew her loved her. Even the local road sweeper says,

every time he passed she would come to the door and give him some sweets.

So everybody knew her and everybody loved her. She was such a lovely person.

On a bright April morning in 2007, there was a knock at the door

-and 79-year-old Lily went to answer.

-There was these two young men there.

They told her that they were passing, they'd seen a loose tile on her roof

and they would fix it for her.

The pair seemed trustworthy and the offer of a bit of remedial work on the roof was certainly tempting.

Then they said, "We've also noticed a lot of moss on the roof which needs

"cleaning off. We'll do that."

After they'd done that, they said, "You need a new cowl on the chimney.

"One of us will go buy one and we'll repair that for you as well."

It all sounded marvellous and Lily was thrilled.

But it was about to turn into a typical doorstep scam.

These so-called roofers were inventing job after job for themselves

and when Derek popped round later that afternoon,

he was in for a big surprise.

When I arrived at my mothers and before I walked through the door,

she says, "You won't believe what I've done today.

"I've had a lot of work done on the house. I've had the roof fixed,

"a new cowl on the chimney, all the moss cleaned off the roof."

It came as a shock to me because she hadn't told me she'd planned to do this.

Even more of a shock was how much Lily had paid the pair.

'She'd offered them a cheque but they said, "if you give me a cheque,'

"we'd have to add on VAT so it's much better if you pay cash."

She said she didn't have that amount of money in the house.

They asked her how much money she did have in the house,

and at the time she had £1,200.

Unbelievable! That £1,200 was the money Lily had been saving

for a holiday with her sister. So Derek immediately got in touch

with a respected local builder for some expert advice.

He said if the work had all been done correctly, it should not have cost more than £300.

I'm afraid there was more bad news. Not only had these rogue roofers

vastly overcharged poor Lily, their cavalier approach could have cost her her life.

'The cowl they replaced'

on the chimney was the was wrong type of cowl. The chimney was now blocked

and if she used the gas fire, the fumes would not be allowed to escape

and would come back into the room.

It seemed these doorstep rip-off merchants would stop at nothing

to make their money, including putting someone's life at risk.

The builder in the case had used

a cowl that was deemed illegal for use with a gas fire.

I've got photos here of the actual cowling.

The cowl needs to be of a certain diameter with certain holes in different areas.

This is the one that was used on Lily's chimney top.

On the top of the cowl, you can see it does say,

"Do not use as a gas terminal."

They haven't even thought about what the consequences could have been

and the result of that could have been very dire in Lillian's case.

Well, the pair had conned Lily out of her £1,200 holiday savings,

but it wasn't just the loss of the cash that troubled her.

When she realised she'd been ripped off, straight away she was worried

about these men coming back the following day.

One of the police officers agreed

she would come back in the morning and stay all day

with my mother just in case these people did turn up.

Lily spoke to me that morning

and she was really quite distressed about what had happened.

Although shaken by the incident, Lily went on the holiday

she'd planned with her sister, thinking it might do her some good.

But sadly within a day she fell ill.

Her son Derek rushed to her hospital bedside.

What she told me was that she didn't want to come back home,

she didn't want to go back in that house, she wanted it sold.

Within a week, she died.

Tragically, the events of the past few days

had proven just too much for poor Lily.

It was now up to the police to catch the rogue traders who'd caused her such terrible distress.

We went through the house looking for fingerprints, any little piece of evidence

to help us find out who these people were.

From speaking to the neighbours, we realised one of the offenders had been smoking

and the cigarette butts were still outside Lillian's back door.

They were recovered for forensic examination, fingerprints were taken.

And there was another piece of evidence which would prove crucial

in the search for the doorstep conmen.

We knew that the van had been in and around Brampton,

so I sat and raked through hours and hours of CCTV to find the van,

get descriptions of the people, which proved very fruitful

and we got some details of the van.

With the evidence mounting up, it wasn't long before the police

caught one of the rogue roofers.

William Edward O'Neill was arrested and charged with fraud

and in November 2007 was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

The other rogue was never identified.

I think to have somebody convicted

of that type of fraud against an 80-year-old lady

who was seen as vulnerable, who he'd picked off,

who he was picking on,

to have somebody imprisoned for it was a good way to end the case.

It's shocking that somebody can be as terribly affected

by doorstep crime as Lily.

A few years on from her death,

her son Derek believes there are things we can all do

to support those who want to fight back against the criminals

and protect the vulnerable.

The main thing everyone must do is support the person the best you can,

be there for them at all times and keep an eye out for them

because you don't know how they're going to be affected by it.

The biggest message to get across is to not allow people

that just call on your door to do any work for you

and hopefully we can try and prevent

these sort of nasty, horrible offences happening in future.

Derek, thank you so very much for sharing your story with us.

Now a little later in the programme,

we'll hear from another community fighting back against doorstep crime,

all thanks to a musical that brings the issues to life.

You want to be trusting,

but you have to make sure that you're trusting the right people.

We're determined that doorstep criminals should be made

to pay for their crimes.

And that's exactly what's happening in Essex in Ruby Brown's story.

Remember, she was targeted by cold-calling rogue traders.

Environment services officer Stuart Thompson is waiting...

and waiting for doorstop criminal Mark Finch

to arrive at Chelmsford court.

The events that led to Finch being summonsed here

began when his accomplice bullied 92-year-old Ruby Brown

into letting him block pave part of her driveway for £560.

But as Ruby was about to discover, this so called tradesman

was not a man to be trusted.

The following day they turned up

and they were going to block pave the whole driveway.

Although she didn't want this done, she was talked into it

and she had the work done.

'He just wouldn't take no for an answer.'

I wouldn't wish it on anybody else. It's an awful thing to go through.

To block pave the entire driveway,

this cold-calling conman wanted £4,000.

It's another sickening story of rogues preying on the vulnerable,

but sadly Ruby's ordeal had only just begun. Enter Mr Finch.

Once this work was completed, another man we now know to be Finch

turned up and said the block paver had hired him to clean up.

He then mentioned that her garage, which was asbestos,

was in quite bad condition.

Mr Finch quoted her £1,500 to take away the asbestos

and put wooden cladding on the structure. The price was agreed.

The following day he turned up and wanted £500 in cash

which he said was for materials and the disposal of the asbestos.

We've all heard terrifying stories about how dangerous asbestos can be.

But the way in which you dispose of it, can be equally dangerous.

There are strict rules that must be followed.

For Mr Finch to operate in accordance with the law,

he would have to be registered with the Environment Agency to carry waste,

so we can ensure that waste, especially asbestos, is disposed of appropriately.

As it turned out Ruby's knowledge of asbestos disposal,

was far greater than Mr Finch's.

I was aware that I had to be careful,

that had to be disposed of in a proper manner.

'He'd have to have a suit, goggles'

and proper bags.

He took it away in council bin bags.

If he'd turned up to sweep the garden path,

he wouldn't have be dressed any different.

Luckily for Ruby, her neighbour and good friend Sheila was on the ball

and keeping a watchful eye on everything.

I was in the living room,

and we knew he was coming to pick it up

so I looked out the window

'and I saw him just throwing it into the back of the car.'

As he was doing that there was a police car on call somewhere

with the siren going. And 'course, he jumped in and he went.

These men obviously had something to hide.

But that didn't stop them coming back to finish the job.

Ruby had already paid £4,000 for the driveway

and now Mark Finch was promising her a fabulous new garage for £1,500.

But as you can imagine, Ruby's problems with these tradesmen were far from over.

I'm glad to say, there is a happy ending in store for Ruby,

but I won't spoil it for you just yet.

Earlier, we saw that video of Shirley in Kent.

Her family was affected by doorstep crime some years ago,

but a recent event has brought the memories flooding back.

I wanted to find out why.

The council and police force responsible for The Medway Towns

take doorstep crime very seriously.

They've decided to try something a little different to get the message across.

Believe it or not, what they're doing is happening in this very building.

# When those cowboys

# See us watching

# What they're doing

# Oooh... #

Bear with me, because there is an important message about doorstep crime to this musical.

'Although the plays are about a very serious subject,'

we do use humour, we use songs people know and can sing along with.

So they see re-enactments of serious incidents going on.

But we also show ways of avoiding it as well

# All the rules and the regulations

# Trading standards is here... #

For the past 6 years, The Solomon Theatre Company

have been touring the country performing two musicals called Trickster and Scambuster

which are aimed at raising awareness of cold-calling crimes.

-You said £50.

-No, no, no, no, no. I said £50 a square metre.

-Square metre?

-Come on, grandad. We went through all this last week.

Have you gone a bit mental or what?

'The inspiration for these plays is to find a way

'through live theatre of getting over the ways

'of avoiding being scammed and cheated by doorstep crime.'

We lost £500.

It's believed that so far these shows have been performed 5,000 times

to an audience of up to 25,000 people at venues across the whole of the UK.

One person who knows more than most about the themes in this production is Shirley Vick.

She lives close to where the production's taking place.

One of her family members was severely targeted by doorstep crime.

Shirley has lived in the Medway area for many years and I'm keen to find out more about the events

that inspired her to go along and see today's performance.

Shirley, you've had a rather distressing incident

within the family. Describe to me exactly what happened that day.

My in-laws were in sheltered accommodation.

Unfortunately, my mother-in-law at that time was in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's.

So my father-in-law was doing the cooking, he was in the kitchen,

dishing up the lunch and someone came to the door.

My mother-in-law answered the door and someone said they were

from the water board and wanted to check the water pressure.

Sheltered accommodation can be a prime target for doorstep criminals

because they know the inhabitants are likely to be vulnerable.

Sadly, that's exactly what happened with Shirley's in-laws, Sid and Dorothy.

So ordinarily, Sid, your father-in-law, would have gone to the door.

Yes, or even if Mum had answered the door,

he would have followed her out to made sure it was OK.

With Dorothy answering the door,

the rogue easily managed to talk his way into the house.

He just came in and said, "I've come to check the water pressure.

"Won't take a moment." And dad said, "You can't do it now, we're cooking."

My father-in-law picked his stick up and said, "If you don't go out now, you'll feel this."

The chap did go but it was at that moment he opened the door, they saw his accomplice.

And that of course is the crucial point here. The guy barged in,

closed the kitchen door behind him in a very small space.

In the meantime, the other guy was doing his business.

Sid and Dorothy had been caught out by distraction burglars.

They lost around £300. But as a proud and very independent man,

the real cost of this terrible doorstep crime

was that it fundamentally affected Sid's confidence.

He was always in command of a situation.

All of a sudden, somebody had stopped that happening.

They'd come in and taken away where he thought he was protecting mum.

He felt he couldn't protect her any longer, if a stranger could just come in and do something like that.

Tragic stories of the kind that happened to Sid and Dorothy

were the inspiration behind the Scambuster musical.

CHATTER

The actors have already noticed they're making

a positive difference to preventing doorstep crime.

# Too too good to be true

# Too too good to be true... #

'Almost the first show we did, we had an old lady sat in front row,'

she was very quiet through the show.

On the way home, she said to the people that had brought her,

"Have you had any double glazing done recently?"

They said, "No, what do you mean?" It turned out that 2 days before,

this chap had turned up, got in her house. He wouldn't leave

until she'd signed a contract for £14,000 worth of double glazing.

Fortunately, they were able to get on to the police

and they got her money back.

But, if hadn't come to see our show that day, she'd have lost that money.

Any steps whatsoever that can be taken to make a stand against cold-calling crooks is a good thing.

It sounds as though Scambusters is doing a great job of raising awareness.

It's a rather unusual way, a fun way, to get the message across.

What did you pick up from it?

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

That was another important part,

don't feel, "I've been so stupid doing that. I can't possibly tell anybody."

If you tell somebody, somebody else can stop them doing the same thing.

That's the lesson I'm learning through this programme.

We have all been scammed, or almost scammed, at one point or another.

-It is universal.

-That's right. You think, "That'll never happen to me."

But it's the worst thing to think, really. You want to be trusting,

but you have to make sure you're trusting the right people.

So if you had to think of one lesson that you've learnt from the musical, what would it be?

Stop, think and be sceptical.

-Oh, go on. Sing it!

-No, don't ask me to do that!

You can't pay me enough to do that!

# Too too good to be true

# Come on!

# Too too good to be true

# Yeah

# Too too

# Too good to be true. #

Yeah!

APPLAUSE

Many thanks, Shirley. I think you'll agree, a very unusual

but enjoyable way of fighting back against doorstep crime.

And obviously, our very best wishes to the Scambusters team.

Someone else fighting back is Essex Environmental Services Officer Stuart Thompson,

who's determined to bring one rogue builder to justice, but will he get his man?

We've seen how poor Ruby Brown was cold-called by a tradesman

who coerced her into having her drive block-paved.

His accomplice Mark Finch then told her she needed a new garage

to replace her old one made of asbestos.

The standard of their work was absolutely diabolical.

In all, it cost Ruby £4,000 for the block paving,

£3,500 for the garage

and then another £4,000 to have everything completely redone

by a proper tradesman.

Ruby lost £8,500

all because she opened her door to these vicious cold callers.

But here's the bit we love, the comeuppance,

which was thanks to that asbestos.

He took it and apparently dumped it somewhere.

The police have got photographs of it

and she had to identify that it was her asbestos.

So what happened to these rogues? Well, let's come back up to date...

..and rejoin Environment Services Officer Stuart Thompson,

who's still waiting for asbestos crook Mark Finch at Chelmsford Magistrates Court.

And guess what... he still hasn't turned up.

Is he actually coming today, do you know?

You don't know. OK then. Thank you. Bye.

OK, Mr Finch's phone was answered by a female who said he's not there.

I said that I was at the court waiting for him

and was he going to arrive, to which she said she didn't know.

Stuart continues his determined effort to bring Mark Finch before magistrates

and just a few days after failing to show up at court in Autumn 2011,

police finally catch up with him.

He pleaded guilty to both offences

and he received final costs totalling £2,450.

He asked to pay that in instalments and that was declined.

A 14-day collection order was made on the money.

It's fantastic to know that justice is being done here in Essex.

And even though she's remained strong and resolute throughout,

no-one is more pleased than Ruby.

Well, that's learnt me one thing.

I'd never give anybody a job off the doorstep again...

without finding out exactly who they were, where they were from

and if they had references.

Well said, Ruby. Really good advice there.

There's just enough time to tell you about Elaine Hopkins

whose local Neighbourhood Watch team in Kent is really fighting back against doorstep crime.

They have street signs to indicate Cold Calling Controlled Zones

which have really cut down on unwanted visitors.

She says that cowboy builders and rogue tradesmen

seem to have got the message on their patch at least. Thanks Elaine,

it sounds like you and your friends are doing a sterling job.

We're here to fight back against doorstep criminals

and we'd love to hear more about your stories as to how you've stopped them ripping you off.

You can find the details about how to get in touch at...

As always, thanks for watching and I hope you'll join us again next time.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd