Episode 3 Doorstep Crime 999

Up and down the country right now people are fighting back against

a particular kind of crime. It's unpleasant work

but I am pleased to say there are plenty of success stories.

I am talking about rip-off rogue traders and cold-calling conmen.

We're here to name and shame the culprits, and, along with police

and trading standards teams,

to celebrate your success stories in bringing them to justice.

Today we hear from a brave lady in Surrey who fought back

against an unlikely pair of distraction burglars.

I could tell that she was agitated and was trying to keep me in there.

She said, "sit on the stool."

I said, "No, I will not", and I pushed my way out.

Plus, the shocking story of a brazen doorstepper.

Unbelievably, he started work on people's driveways

without waiting for their consent.

I decided over the weekend that it was not in the budget

and I don't have the money but he kept on and on and on.

I was getting fed up and said I did not want to go ahead,

I thought, "What the hell have I got myself into?"

And take a look at this extraordinary footage

of a distraction burglar in action.

I am happy to see he was brought to justice. We find out how.

The victim in this case was second to none. She was really fantastic.

She recalled what happened, despite being partially sighted.

Without her assistance and detailed recall

we would have struggled to put together

a lucid account of what happened.

Hello, and once again I would like to say a personal thank you

for all your letters and e-mails.

They do make for a fascinating read. It's a pleasure to share them.

Your experiences with doorstepping crooks have shocked and amazed us.

Your tips on how to deal with them have been very much appreciated.

Thanks to your heroic actions

we now have many more of your stories to tell

as we continue our fight against doorstep crime.

First, let's meet a very brave lady from Surrey.

By the look of things she has the right idea on how to treat

these doorstep wrong'uns.

88-year-old Renee Burrell lives alone.

She enjoys nothing more than spending time

with her son and daughter

and even tuning in for the occasional football match.

But when a pair of distraction burglars struck in September 2010

Renee had to think fast in dealing with them.

It's a good thing she did because this despicable duo

would stop at nothing to get their hands on her cash.

I was relaxing at home when the doorbell went.

I went to the door and there was a man and a young woman.

It seemed as though she was so tall against him. He was only short.

Not suited to each other at all.

I said to them, "Where do you come from?"

He said, "We're from Age Concern." OK.

This girl was going to take some exams

and they had said that she could go around and talk to elderly people.

I thought that was good. So I will let you in.

The wrong thing I did, I did not ask for identification.

The oddly matched couple were James Nolan and Samantha Gray,

a shameful pair of pilferers.

Typically they would befriend their victims by posing as charity workers

and sometimes even as police officers.

Nolan said he had to return to the office to collect an important form

but in fact he loitered outside whilst Gray distracted her inside.

We came in here and she was asking me about photographs and children.

How many children I had, and so on.

For a little while I did not even suspect.

Then she said, "Can I have a drink of water?"

I said, "Yes, certainly, go in the kitchen, it is just there,

"go and get it."

"Oh, no, I can't do that", she said,

"you have to come with me and do it."

All the while Gray kept Renee in the kitchen

Nolan was searching the house looking for cash

but Renee soon realised that something was up.

I could tell she was agitated and she was trying to keep me in there.

She said, "Sit on the stool."

I said, "No", and I pushed my way out.

Good girl, Renee.

But when she caught Nolan in her hallway

he made the bizarre pretence of carrying out a security check.

I came out here and he was saying, "What has happened with this door?"

Like this, you know, each side of the wood.

I said, "What are the earth are you doing?"

He said, "You ought to have some locks to go on this door."

Despite Norman's desperate pretence, Renee had a feeling

he had already found her purse containing £200.

But she thought better of confronting him.

I was frightened, of course,

but I did not want to show them I was frightened.

If you do, they have taken the better of you.

No. All I wanted was them out.

I said, "I think you better go."

I did not say, give me my purse, which I knew he had,

because I was afraid he would hit me.

So I'd rather he took my £200. Which he did. And they went.

We think Renee was right not to tackle the deceitful duo

and she did brilliantly well by keeping calm and calling the police.

I said, "I have just had somebody in my house

"and they have stolen my purse."

That's all I could think about. That's literally what they did.

They're just stealing your money. I did what I had to do.

I would not want to do it again.

Renee's encounter with this pair was truly horrific.

Unfortunately she was not the only one to be scammed.

I'm afraid there were many more.

In fact, Nolan and Gray were linked to 35 other cases

of distraction burglary across the south-east which netted them

over £3,000 in cash plus jewellery and other valuables.

But time was running out for the devious duo.

Thanks to some determined detective work by Surrey police

and the bravery of victims like Renee.

We'll catch up with her a little later on.

I'm really looking forward to it.

Here's another example of doorstep crime.

I'm Martin Woodley from Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards.

I want to tell you about a man using aggressive techniques to gain work.

I want your viewers to know

how we caught him and brought him to justice.

Thanks for that, and I must say it sounds most intriguing.

We're always keen to hear about success stories

and we have been to meet Martin to find out exactly what happened.

The victim wishes to remain anonymous

but is more than happy to tell her story as a warning to others.

So we are calling her Jean.

For legal reasons we're unable to identify

the rogue who ripped Jean off

so we will call him John Smith.

The victim didn't really want the work done but I think she felt

so pressured, and in the end agreed

just to basically get rid of him.

Our story goes way back to 2001 when Jean hired Smith

to lay a new driveway at her Oxfordshire home.

But the job was botched and left over shoddy paving, a blocked drain,

and a bill for a whopping £2,500.

Jean thought she had seen the last of Smith and his cronies

until 10 years later when in January 2011 she was given a nasty shock.

The door went, and I was absolutely aghast

that the same guy was back

and also, admitted that he had worked on my drive

all those years before.

To which I told him, in no uncertain terms,

I was disgusted with his behaviour.

And in fact, he still owed me money from 2001.

You'd have thought that after his previous swindle

Jean would have told the shameless rogue to sling his hook.

Unbelievably though, Smith used all his charm to persuade her

that her driveway we was in need of urgent work.

After quite a lengthy conversation, of yes,

it needs doing, which I admit it did,

but nothing was in my budget to spend on tidying up my drive.

He said, "We will talk about it again next week."

I thought, "Thank God for that. He's gone."

But like a bad smell,

Smith re-appeared on Monday morning complete with his gang.

Jean was bemused, understandably.

I said, "I decided over the weekend it is not in the budget.

"I do not have the money." But he kept on and on and on.

I was getting fed up with him

and told him I did not want to go ahead.

I said, "If you do start you're not getting a penny more than £200."

Uh-oh. That throwaway comment was all that Smith needed

to start ramping up the pressure and the price

to begin work on her driveway.

Jean was feeling confused and very vulnerable.

Then he wanted to make a proposal of widening both sides,

and it went up to £950.

And then up to £1,300. Then he said, "I can relay it for £3,000."

That's when I got really panic-stricken. He would not stop.

He just kept on and on and on.

I thought, "what the hell have I got myself into?"

At no time did she have any paperwork,

she did not know who they were, who she was dealing with,

they gave her false names.

Also, they did not tell her about her seven days to cancel.

She had no idea that she did not have to get the work done anyway.

She could have cancelled that contract any time.

Martin is absolutely right.

We're all entitled to a seven-day cooling-off period

for products and services sold in our homes.

But things were spiralling out of control for poor Jean.

It seemed she was being held to ransom

by Smith and his heartless gang.

But they do say once bitten, twice shy,

and this plucky lady was about to start fighting back.

That point is when I came in and phoned my nephew.

He said, "Put the phone down, I will phone trading standards."

The relief was immediate that I was no longer dealing with this alone.

Once we got the call we contacted the local units,

they went out the location,

and luckily all the offenders were still there.

The victim was very scared, very concerned about what was going on,

but most of all she was very frightened

by the fact that there was five of them and she was on her own.

In fact, the response of police and trading standards was so swift

that Smith and his band of rogues simply did not stand a chance.

The road was blocked at both ends by the police.

They were caught red-handed.

Smith and his associates were arrested

and taken away for questioning.

Thanks to Jean's quick thinking in contacting her nephew

her nightmare was over in a matter of minutes.

She was absolutely right to trust in her family

and tell her family and then get them to help her out.

The first thing to do is absolutely tell somebody else.

Trust in them,

and get that information to the relevant enforcement agencies.

Trading standards were on the case.

Evidence emerged that Smith had targeted vulnerable residents

in other regions.

A day after the incident I give some investigation

and I found out that Croydon Trading Standards were aware of them.

So I contacted them and established

that they had been doing the same things, being threatening,

and also pretending to be from a charity as well.

But I am afraid that the person that they targeted over there

was too afraid to give a statement.

But it did not matter

because once they were caught trying to rip off Jean,

Smith and his cronies were taken off the streets at last.

All that remained was for Martin Woodley and his team

to decide what to charge them with.

Because she had said no and on numerous occasions

they had kept on and on and on and forcing her eventually

to have the work done,

we decided to go down the route of an aggressive practise.

And it was for this aggressive practise

and failing to give cancellation rights

that John Smith was fined £9,200 at Oxford Crown Court

after the hearings in December 2011 and January 2012.

For Trading Standards, across the UK, we are always delighted

if we can get a result through the court process.

And across the UK we're all working together to try to make sure

we can bring these people to justice.

For me, I just want to try and help those elderly and vulnerable

that have been targeted by these people.

Jean has certainly learnt a valuable lesson

when it comes to dealing

with undesirable doorsteppers in the future.

Out of it has come strength to deal with these sort of people.

Which has amazed me.

I no way now will take anybody knocking on my door

offering me any service whatsoever.

I tell them that they are totally unwelcome

and I do not want to see them

and I do not want their product and I do not want them anywhere near me.

Still to come...

Another brave lady who played a vital role in capturing a doorstep offender.

The victim in this case was second to none. She was really fantastic.

Without her detailed recall, we really would have struggled

to put together a lucid account of what had happened.

Once again, thank you very much

for sending in all your letters and e-mails.

I've had a letter from a Mrs Check, who lives in Staffordshire.

She says, "we must all be very careful

"because there are many bogus callers about."

If she suspects a cold caller,

or someone posing a risk to her property,

she phones the police with her suspicions,

but she would never, ever do business at the door.

So, Mrs Check, thank you very much indeed for that advice and your letter.

Earlier, we saw how Rene Burrell

bravely stood up to cold-hearted burglars.

The police investigation was very sophisticated,

and I was keen to meet the officer to find out

how they brought these crooks to justice.

And what a pair they are too!

James Nolan and Samantha Gray were desperate distraction burglars

who struck at homes right across the South East.

They posed as charity workers or police officers

to steal thousands of pounds from vulnerable people.

88-year-old Rene Burrell was conned into letting them into her Surrey home,

where they stole her purse, containing £200.

It's very frightening.

Especially when you're old and you're on your own.

It was an extremely challenging case for the police to co-ordinate

and I'm really looking forward to meeting the detective

whose very hard work managed to bring James Nolan and Samantha Gray to justice.

Detective Sergeant Prabh Bajwa has been with the Surrey Police

for more than 12 years and led the search for the conniving couple.

It strikes me it must have taken a great team effort

on behalf of the police to actually track them

and eventually crack the case.

Definitely. When we first got this case in our office,

we were all very passionate about getting these people.

One of our main concerns was they were beginning to use

a bit of violence, pushing victims out of the way.

It was only a matter of time before one of them got seriously injured.

How unusual is it to have a woman at the forefront of a scam like this?

They weren't just a team, obviously, but is it unusual in your job

to find women who are up to this kind of scam?

Yes, definitely. She contributed a lot to this crime.

She was the first person that would knock on the door.

She gained the trust of these elderly people

and would gain entry initially, and then he would follow afterwards.

What was it in the end that actually allowed the police to crack this case?

It was definitely the fact that they were so distinctive,

the female being 5'10" - 5'11",

and the male being 5'3" - 5'5".

They were such a distinctive couple,

it was only a matter of time before they came to notice.

They were offending from their vehicle, living in their car,

committing the crime there,

and then moving onto the next kind of target area.

The breakthrough came when a police patrol vehicle

spotted Nelson and Gray in their car and moved in to arrest them.

But the pair weren't giving up that easily.

As they pulled up next to the vehicle,

the offenders' vehicle reversed and drove off.

There was a short pursuit, following which,

both people from the vehicle got out and ran off.

In the confusion, police managed to grab Samantha Gray.

But Nolan escaped, minus one rather important item.

He left one of his shoes in the vehicle and ran off,

so we didn't get hold of him. Samantha Gray was arrested.

It was quite apparent that they were living day to day in that vehicle

and using the proceeds of crime to fund their drug habit.

With Gray now in custody, it wasn't long before police caught up

with her hapless and shoeless accomplice.

James Nolan was arrested.

It was a stop check by a Metropolitan Police officer

who identified who he was.

He was under the influence of drugs and alcohol

and was slumped over in his car.

Nolan and Gray were finally brought before the courts in May 2011

ending a callous three-month crime spree during which

they stole £3,000 in cash and valuables from 35 people.

James Nolan received eight years in prison

and Samantha Gray got six years.

How do you feel about that,

when you see them actually in court and they get their sentence,

how does that take you feel?

It definitely is a great feeling, knowing that all the hard work

that my team and I put in definitely paid off.

Without my team, this would not have been achieved.

I had a lot of officers working very long hours,

collecting all the information,

trying to almost predict where they would be going next.

-I'm very proud of the team I had at the time.

-I bet you are.

Of course, one person who's really happy to see them behind bars is Renee.

I thought they deserved it.

If that's the way they live, I mean,

I don't think you will ever stop those sort of people anyway

but at least if they're locked up inside, they can't do it.

And I'm glad to say that this courageous lady

has also learned a really valuable lesson.

Well I'm more careful.

They would certainly have to show me their card before I let anybody in.

Well obviously, our thanks go to Renee for sharing her story

and to DS Bajwa and her colleagues.

The people of Surrey must feel really reassured to know

that their police force take such a hard line on doorstep crime.

You can rest assured that the authorities will respond promptly

if the call for help comes quickly enough,

as indeed our next story shows.

This CCTV footage reveals distraction burglar Daniel Malyon

casually walking out of the sheltered accommodation block

just moments after stealing money from 91-year-old Hilda Ellis.

The last thing he expected was that the brave lady would fight back.

Hilda is unable to appear on camera,

but her daughter Lorraine is keen to share her story.

My mum's character is very stubborn, very strong willed.

We all try to go up and help her

because she's partially sighted as well, but she doesn't like that,

so we do try to let her have as much independence as we can do.

Malyon committed his cowardly crime in September 2011,

just hours before Lorraine was due to visit her mum.

Detective Constable Matt Rogers headed up the investigation.

We think these individuals target the sheltered housing

because the premises itself is fairly recognisable

as a local authority controlled sheltered block of flats -

that would have been obvious to him.

He would have walked up a pathway away from the road

to gain access from the building where the occupants,

by virtue of their age, are perhaps particularly vulnerable.

He may have chosen an apparently easy target in a secluded location,

but Malyon had no idea

that his every move was being captured by CCTV cameras.

Before the burglary takes place,

the offender enters the communal area of the flats and he's clearly

having a look around, looking for something to perhaps take,

moving objects before leaving

and going into the residential area of the flats.

You can see him on the camera knocking on the door

of another resident on the ground floor.

Thankfully, the resident of that flat is not in,

so he doesn't actually manage to gain access to that particular room.

It's incredible to see how nonchalant he is as Malyon

wanders around the building looking for a suitable victim.

Shortly after walking up these stairs,

he knocked on the door of Hilda's flat.

The victim has answered her door

and she's confronted with the offender standing there.

He's got some relatively fresh injuries to his face.

He tells her a story, how he'd just been assaulted

and his money had been taken and so she agrees to help him.

She's trusting of him.

She has no reason to disbelieve him at this stage.

Our victim has gone inside and the offender followed her into her flat

whereby they sit in the lounge,

he asks her for some money for a bus ride back to Southend I believe,

and the victim had obliged with some money,

but he's demanded some more cash from her.

Hilda gave Malyon the money he asked for.

Then he asked for a glass of water, and while her back was turned,

he just helped himself to the rest of the cash in her purse.

His pockets full, Malyon made his excuses and left

and that's when Hilda sensed that something wasn't quite right.

Mum decided to look in her purse, realised that the money had gone,

tried to contact me and I was in town,

managed to get a telephone call to say what had happened, flew up there.

By the time I got up there, the CID and forensics were round there.

Mum was in a very bad state,

really upset, felt stupid, vulnerable,

believed every word the guy said.

Upset as Hilda was at being taken in by Malyon,

she was determined that the gutless thief should be brought to justice.

The victim in this case was second to none, really fantastic.

She could recall very clearly what happened to her.

Despite being partially sighted, she was able to give us

a very detailed description of the offender, about his clothing,

about his physical appearance, where he'd been and what he'd done,

so without her assistance, without her detailed recall,

we really would have struggled

to put together a lucid account of what had happened.

Combined with the CCTV footage, Hilda's detailed statement

gave the police all they needed

to identify this really unpleasant thief.

Within 24 hours of tricking his way into Hilda's flat,

police officers tracked down Daniel Malyon.

He was arrested and charged with burglary.

After being charged with this offence,

the offender thankfully pleaded guilty at Crown Court.

This was of some relief to me, I have to say,

but mainly to the victim and her family

because it avoided her having to attend court

or give evidence in some fashion at court,

which no doubt would have been of great stress to her

if she'd been asked to do that.

At Ipswich Crown Court on 24th November 2011,

Daniel Malyon was sentenced to three years' imprisonment

and justice had been done.

Brave as she'd been, the impact of Malyon's despicable actions

has stayed with Hilda and her family.

He's scum.

I don't think the criminals realise what affect it has on people

when they do these crimes.

They're out for what they can get

and as long as they get what they want,

that doesn't matter to them who they hurt,

how much it effects the victim.

I daresay that DC Rogers also feels a certain amount of satisfaction

in bringing this man to justice

because his own family has been affected by this type of crime.

This has happened to my grandmother in London.

I have first-hand experience of the type of upset and distress

that it can cause the victims and their families

when they are subject to these despicable offences.

In that respect, it means a lot to me

when these offenders are brought to justice, yes.

The whole experience has been tough for Hilda and her family

but as Matt Rogers explains,

there are lessons we can all learn from their ordeal.

My advice to householders

who are confronted with this type of sob story at their front door

from strangers who have knocked on their door

asking for money or some sort of assistance

is to treat it with caution

and treat it with some suspicion as well.

Keep them out of your flat, don't open the door

and if in doubt, ring the police.

Since I found out this guy's been sentenced

I feel a lot more relieved to know that he can't pick on another victim.

People are safer.

My mum is safer and that makes me happy.

Our thanks to Lorraine and her mum

for letting us hear the details of that story.

There's just enough time to read your poem

which has been sent in by Maureen Davies of South Wales.

Seven stanzas, by the way, on the subject of rogue gardeners.

I'm not going to read them all,

but I think when they came to the door looking for their money,

I think she was a bit surprised,

and this is one of the verses which she wrote. She said...

The lady in the poem ends up, I'm afraid, being ripped off,

and I hope it wasn't based on real life, Maureen.

There we go. The moral is, don't deal with doorstep gardeners.

We're here to fight back against doorstep criminals

and we'd really love to hear more

about how you've stopped them ripping you off.

You can always find the details about how to reach us at...

May I just say, thanks for watching

and I hope you'll join me again next time.

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