Episode 4 Doorstep Crime 999

All over the UK, we're hearing your stories

of how you've been fighting back against doorstep crime -

from rip-off rogue traders

to cold-calling conmen, we're all united against them.

With your help, we're spreading the word about how we can put a stop to their crimes.

We're also celebrating the important and award winning work

of Trading Standards and police teams across the country.

Today, two of the nastiest and most audacious distraction burglars

in Cheshire get their just desserts, as police bring their campaign

of terror to an end.

This is one of the lowest of the low

and not only do members of the public tell us or give us information about these people

but so did members within the criminal fraternity

because it's not a crime anyone looks upon favourably.

And I'm in Kent finding out why the funding of an essential emergency service is under threat

from doorstep crime, and meeting the brave home-owner

who decided she had to do something about it.

I was just on patrol when a Neighbourhood Watch member

had rung in and gave us a really good description of the man.

So, to actually catch them - it's amazing, I'm really pleased.

Plus, a mother and daughter from Derbyshire win a fight

for consumer rights, against the rogue roofer who ripped them off

to the tune of hundreds of pounds.

I suddenly thought "I must be stupid to have given them the cheque

"and to agree with this and as soon as I get home I'm going to ring them

"and tell them I don't want it anymore."

Hello and welcome along to the programme. Guess what?

You have done it again!

A thick wodge of letters and emails which I must say I find

really fascinating to read.

For instance, Ann Wills, John Alban and Gavin Gillespie all think

it's about time the Government made it illegal to go cold-calling,

and I have to say, they're not the only ones.

But let's get on with our first story.

Now, here's a type of doorstep crime that

seems to be on the increase - charity collection bags.

Of course, not every charity bag is a scam, but that hasn't stopped

some criminals profiting from your generosity

and stopping your items going to the charities that need them.

I've been to Kent to meet a community who've decided that

enough is enough.

In March 2011, local Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator

Julie Walker received a charity bag through her letter box.

Of course, there's nothing unusual about that,

but Julie's eagle eye and quick thinking eventually lead

to the capture of two doorstep criminals.

Today, I've come to meet Julie to find out just what happened.

Now, Julie, I know that you're very active

on your Neighbourhood Watch team,

but what exactly does that involve?

Really, you get information from the police on the computer

and you can look at that and see if it affects your area.

Then I send e-mails out

or I drop a little note in to people who haven't got a computer.

Then, one day, you noticed something rather suspicious,

something that just wasn't quite right. So, what was that?

Well, I had a charity envelope come through the door.

I picked it up and it was the RNLI.

"Good! That's a really nice charity I'll give them something."

So I opened it up and I just got my suspicions

because inside was just a little plain white bin bag

and usually charities have their names written across it

and I kept thinking about this and I thought,

"I don't know, it doesn't seem right really", so I rang the head office

and she checked it out and she said,

"No, we're not collecting in your area."

So, Julie's suspicions were confirmed.

The bag had been delivered by bogus collectors, who wanted to profit

from good natured citizens donating to a good cause.

It's a serious form of doorstep crime and has huge impact

on all kinds of charities across the country.

Last year, charity bag collections raised around £150,000

which is a phenomenal amount of money

and is the equivalent of running a lifeboat station for a whole year.

So when people abuse that trust in that way,

it really does have an impact on our lifesaving ability.

Unfortunately, scams like this are nothing new,

but thankfully, Julie did exactly the right thing.

Now you're suspicious, so did you decide, then

to take it a bit further?

I did. I rang the police and I told them I was suspicious

and they said, "Can you look out for the van and get a description

"of the driver and, most importantly, the registration."

So I warned all my neighbours, had them on alert,

and one chap rang me to say, "I've got some old shirts."

So he put them in a bag, tied it up and put it outside by the gate.

The van came round, stopped picked it up and so...

He'd set his trap!

He'd set the trap. He rang me quickly, quite excited,

and said "I've got the number and everything", so yes...

A real Inspector Clouseau here!

Once Julie had relayed the description of the van

and its registration number to the police,

a call was put out to local units.

Inspector Simon Wilshaw was first to respond.

So, Simon, explain to me where you were and what you were doing

when the call came from the Neighbourhood Watch team?

Well, I was just on patrol, going up the A26 in Tunbridge Wells.

The call came through from our control

to say a Neighbourhood Watch member had rung in and given a really good description of the van.

I had a hunch where it might be going, so I sat up

and sure enough it drove past me.

So you got them, literally, on the spot?

Oh, absolutely, they drove past me, I was able to get in traffic

behind them, call in on the radio to get some backup

and then pull them over into a lay-by.

What did you find when you finally caught up with them?

Well, in the vehicle with the two gentleman were charity bags,

a Google map showing the area where they'd been sent out

to do their collection.

In the back of the van there were bags full of clothing that

people had thought they were donating to charity,

plus bags of books and a load of scrap metal as well.

A great result in catching them, but what happened to them in the end, what did they get?

Well, one of the males got an adult caution and the other one had

to appear before a local magistrate's court and he was fined.

It was absolutely fantastic that the Kent Police were able

to take such swift action with such great results, but official figures

show that the charity bag scam loses charities £50m a year

and in this case, it was the RNLI that was about to lose out.

The lifeboat station at Eastbourne is among the busiest in the country.

The crew are well aware of the impact that doorstep criminals have on their work,

and on hundreds of other good causes across the UK.

The charity relies on collections like this so when criminals

abuse our name in this way with these bogus collections,

it really does have a detrimental effect.

We think it's appalling because at the end of the day that money,

which would be used for saving lives at sea, is no longer coming our way.

Our advice to anyone who suspects a charity scam might be happening

in their area is to be vigilant.

Please don't just turn a blind eye and not report to the authorities.

Either telephone the charity that's relevant,

or call the local authorities such as the police.

So West Kent Neighbourhood Watch is to be really congratulated

on their heroic attempts to stamp out this particular kind

of doorstep crime, and they've certainly been watching the results with tremendous interest.

It's all this preparing everybody, you know,

"Please look, keep looking",

cos everybody's trying to do their everyday jobs

and they keep going to the window to see if the van's coming!

So, to actually catch them, it's amazing, I'm really pleased

and the RNLI get their money, don't they, which is well deserved.

We won't tell people off for ringing us because they have a concern.

It really does help us if we get information from the community.

We'll be able to determine whether or not we need to respond

and if we do we might get success and get some villains locked up.

-So play safe and call?

-Absolutely.

I'm sure you'll agree that is just terrific stuff.

A big pat on the back for Julie and her neighbours in Kent,

and our thanks to the lifeboat team in Eastbourne

who do a marvellous job all year round.

Still to come, a daughter from Derbyshire comes to her mother's aid

in the fight against a rotten roofer.

As soon as mum had explained what happened,

the first thing that I thought was, you know,

"this doesn't sound right,"

there were definite alarm bells forming.

Let's now consider a more shocking type of doorstep crime,

which has taken place in Cheshire.

In 2011, the police here brought two distraction burglars to justice.

Both were given lengthy prison sentences

for their heinous criminal activities.

Although the cases were not linked, and were investigated by

different teams in the same constabulary,

it's astonishing how audacious the two criminals proved to be.

By telling them he was a police officer, just to distract them,

that cheek allowed him to obtain entry to the address.

Impersonating a police officer is appalling,

but there's much worse to come.

How about a prison ID card?

He'd been given a card that identified him in prison

and was using that on his release to carry on committing offences.

The front of these people is unbelievable.

It may be hard for you or I to understand how these rogues

have the nerve to commit these crimes,

but as Detective Inspector Groom explains,

doorstep criminals don't adhere to a moral code.

What your viewers need to understand is the people that commit

this type of offence don't care.

They don't care that the victim is elderly or frail or infirm.

They go to work, as they term it, in the morning

and they may turn left, they may turn right,

we don't know where they're going to strike next.

And for that reason, targeting this type of offence

is extremely difficult.

It may be difficult, but that's exactly what DI Groom

and his team did when the first of our brazen doorstep criminals

carried out a spate of distraction burglaries in the summer of 2011.

Distraction burglaries in themselves aren't particularly unusual

but it's rare to have a big number of them all at the same time,

I'd expect maybe two a month.

In July of last year we suffered between 10 and 12

in the Crewe area alone which is extremely unusual.

If the sheer volume of burglaries was out of the ordinary,

the tactics used to carry them out were nothing new.

He would identify elderly people's houses, knock on the door,

claim to be from the water board, or a private water company,

or say there was something wrong with pipes

and use that to get inside the house.

Then he would ask the occupant to empty the cupboard

underneath the sink and, of course, while the occupant was doing that,

he was searching the house and stealing items from the house.

A greater cause of concern to DI Groom and his team

was that, in some cases, the distraction burglar

was showing violence towards his victims.

One of the offences involved him grabbing hold of the elderly victim

and pulling her around the kitchen by her arm

and eventually pulling her to the floor

and she sustained some fairly significant bruising as a result.

It was absolutely vital for the police to haul this crook

off the streets as quickly as possible.

Their investigation into the burglaries led them a 34-year-old suspect, one Oliver Boswell,

who had already served one prison sentence for burglary.

I was then left with a decision - we could either arrest him,

but if we arrested him and didn't get any stolen property with him

I was likely to have to release him on bail.

That would then alert him to the fact we knew he was doing it

and he'd either stop which was unlikely or move somewhere else

and keep offending so that wasn't really an option for me.

Boswell, in my opinion, is the scum of the earth and we worked

really hard to identify him as a suspect, and once we'd done that,

nothing was going to stop us from getting him.

While Oliver Boswell was using his prison ID card to gain access

to his victim's homes, another distraction burglar

who targeted houses in the county went one step further,

as Detective Inspector Matt Durcan explains.

It was the 6th January 2011, early hours of the morning,

twenty past six, elderly people, and they get a knock at door,

stating that they are from the police.

The individual suggests or states there's been a burglary next door

and they need to make some enquiries

and before they're given time to think about it

they open the door and the man's into the address.

As the couple were about to discover, this man was not a police officer at all.

He was a known criminal by the name of Anthony Sinnott,

who had previous convictions for burglary.

But by the time they realised, it was too late.

The amount of property he got away with on this occasion

was only about £40 or £50, but it's not the money, it's not the value

on this occasion, it's the distress that its caused the two victims

to know that they've have someone intrusively come in the house,

dupe them, go through drawers and take what they want from them.

It's yet another instance of the cavalier attitude shown by opportunist crooks.

However, both Boswell and Sinnott were about to get their comeuppance.

And we'll check in with those investigations

just a little later in the programme.

Now, here's yet another example of doorstep crime.

Hello, Gloria, my name is Betty and I wanted to tell you about the time

I was approached on my driveway by a young man

who wanted to come and clean my guttering,

but as it turned out it was going to be a much bigger job than that,

and the cost was going to be in the region of £5,000.

Now, Betty lives in Derbyshire

which currently runs a Trusted Trader scheme

which is designed to protect residents from rogues.

Sadly for her, she wasn't aware of it, and when she was door-stepped

by a dodgy roofer, she had a tough job getting her money back.

The good news is, it was well worth the fight.

The vast majority of tradespeople do a terrific job,

but it can be tricky finding someone who'll work to a good standard

and at a fair price.

In 2008, Derbyshire County Council set up a Trusted Traders scheme,

which puts consumers in touch with honest and reliable tradespeople.

Several councils around the UK are setting up similar schemes,

so it's always worth checking if yours has one.

Electrician Jeff Clarke realises

the importance of such schemes for consumers.

I do come across people that have been conned before

and it's very difficult

because obviously no-one likes being ripped off

and hopefully, through the Derbyshire Trusted Traders scheme,

they can eradicate a lot of these problems.

Trusted Trader is a direct response to reducing doorstep crime.

A lot of the vulnerable and elderly population here in Derbyshire

said that they needed a source of reputable traders

that they could rely upon.

With over 1,200 members and over 208 different products and services,

there's no reason, specially for the most vulnerable and the most elderly

within our communities here, to take unsolicited calls on the doorstep.

As I just said, Betty Park wishes she'd known about the scheme sooner.

In June 2010, the 81-year-old retired nurse was door-stepped

by Aquacoat Ltd,

not to be confused with reputable firms of a similar name.

It's a roof maintenance business owned by David Argyle.

Betty wanted her guttering cleaned,

but she was coerced into meeting one of Argyle's devious salesmen,

one afternoon at home.

His name was Chris and he came into the house and sat down

and then he showed me some photographs of roofs in Scotland

that this firm Aquacoat had been cleaning

and that mine would be all like that when it was finished.

Now, hang on a minute, she only wanted her guttering cleaned.

But the smarmy salesman was intent on flogging Aquacoat's special roof coating process...

You're right, I haven't heard of it either.

One of the claims that Aquacoat made about this coating process

was that it would insulate your roof to the factor of 40%

which is simply not true.

To insulate the roof you put down loft insulation,

you don't just paint something on the tiles.

I'd realised then that it wasn't just to be the guttering,

it was going to be the whole roof.

Then he told me what the price was - it was going to be £5,000,

and I said I wasn't going to pay that much.

Five grand to clear some moss? Absolutely preposterous!

Now, it shouldn't have been a pricey job,

but Aquacoat's salesman was determined to secure a big sale

at any cost.

He gave her the usual high pressure selling techniques.

He told her if she was to contract today she would get an additional discount.

He made phone calls to the office and the price eventually came down,

he told her that someone nearby had died and as a result

he could fit her in then, she would get an additional discount.

All those usual tricks to try and persuade you

to contract there and then, and to pay up front there and then.

Although poor Betty must have been exhausted by his sales patter,

she eventually signed a contract and agreed to pay £2,400.

She wrote a cheque for £800 as a deposit.

But Aquacoat's dodgy contract was illegal because she wasn't told

about the cooling off period for products sold in our homes.

It gives us the right to cancel an agreement within seven days and demand our money back.

The way that Aquacoat operated was that the salesman

would take the money, the deposit, from the consumer

and bank the money straight away.

They would try and start work almost straight away and certainly,

within seven days so the consumer was put in a position

where they felt they couldn't back out of the contract

even if they changed their mind.

Sure enough, Betty DID change her mind.

and she wanted her £800 returned.

I was in the car actually and I was thinking about it,

and I suddenly thought, "I must be stupid to have given them the cheque

"and to agree with this, and as soon as I get home, I'll ring them

"and tell them I don't want it anymore."

Well, wouldn't you know it, Aquacoat were less than helpful,

so Betty got on the phone to her daughter Clare.

As soon as my mum had explained what had happened,

the first thing I thought was that this doesn't sound right,

it sounds like the classic con person coming in,

especially when she explained that he'd gone to the telephone

to speak to his boss and he'd immediately brought the price down,

and a few other stories he'd told her to bring the price down again,

and yes, there were definite alarm bells for me.

Even with gutsy Clare on the case, things didn't look good.

After two weeks of speaking to Aquacoat

and sending letters and emailing, and telephone calls,

I realised that we weren't getting anywhere.

The lady on the phone was giving me lip service,

so we called Consumer Direct to ask for their advice

and see if there was another route we could take

to pursue the matter.

Consumer Direct is a Government-funded telephone

and online service providing consumer advice in the UK.

They recommended Clare to contact Ian Howarth

at Derbyshire Trading Standards

Aquacoat were about to feel the heat of their enquiry.

Having interviewed David Argyle, we continued to get more complaints

about Aquacoat and something like 60 complaints over the next year

about the business, and we took statements from 14 victims.

With a stack of evidence against him from disgruntled consumers

throughout Derbyshire and the Midlands,

David Argyle pleaded guilty in October 2010

to charges of unfair trading and he was fined over £16,000.

Well, we'd hope that a trader getting prosecuted

for this type of thing will send out a message to other traders

who may be tempted to do the same sort of thing

that they're going to get caught in the end.

Absolutely right, and thanks to the team at Trading Standards,

Betty did eventually get her £800 back.

I've learned my lesson I hope and my daughter gave me a good talking to,

and so I know that I wouldn't ever do anything like that again.

No, I wouldn't - not at the door or anything like that.

I've been reading more of your fascinating letters

and e-mails and by the way, thank you very much for those.

Linda Barker from Greater Manchester says she only speaks

to strangers through locked gates,

or failing that, through an open window.

That way, she can walk away without them invading her space.

On no account does she ever open her door to strangers.

So it's a good timely reminder Linda, thank you for that.

Now it's time to revisit the team who brought two of Cheshire's

most audacious and appalling distraction burglars to justice.

Cheshire Police spent 2011 dealing with a spate of distraction burglaries that beat all records.

Amongst the crooks were two men who used shocking and audacious methods

to enter their victim's homes.

One posed as a police officer, while the other used an ID card

from his previous sentence in prison.

Both were caught and convicted

and in the case of the bogus police officer,

it was down to the bravery of one of his victims.

Detective Inspector Matt Durcan led of the investigation.

Basically, what we do when we have a crime of this nature

that we believe has been committed by a local offender,

we get photos of local criminals who fit the description.

On this occasion, the victim was fantastic - she was very elderly,

but she managed to have a picture in her mind of this individual,

and her evidence in identifying in identifying this offender was huge.

In fact, this brave 85-year-old identified the fake police officer

as Anthony Sinnott, known to the police

for previous burglary convictions.

When questioned, Sinnott confessed to committing the crime,

and at Warrington Crown Court on 24th August 2011 he was sentenced

to 39 months imprisonment.

It was a tremendous result, not only for the elderly couple,

but also for DI Durcan and his team.

If there's one offence that stands out in all the burglaries,

it's your distraction offender against your OAPs

because the detectives understand how vulnerable these people are

and they need our assistance more than any other people

and when we catch and prosecute a distraction burglar

there's an absolute fantastic feeling in the department

of achievement and success.

The other distraction burglar used his prison ID card

along with a tried and tested criminal technique of posing

as an official from the water board.

Preliminary investigations had identified him

as 34-year-old Oliver Boswell,

a criminal known to the police for another burglary offence.

To ensure that Boswell got the maximum punishment for his crimes,

DI Nigel Groom wanted to catch him red-handed.

We needed to get him in such a situation that we got

sufficient evidence to charge him and send him to prison

because that's where this man belonged.

We monitored his movements to a particular address in Crewe.

He went into the address and emerged a short time later

and as soon as we knew the offence had been committed

officers approached him in the street in plain clothes,

grabbed him, he did struggle a bit, but he was restrained

and taken to the cells.

Boswell, the violent thief who preyed on the elderly

was sent to prison for six years on 6th January 2012.

So, justice had been done, but the memory of the ordeal

is certain to linger on in the minds of these poor women.

The effect on the victims in Crewe has been quite profound.

They've all been approached to see if they wanted to take part in this programme and none of them would

and that's because they don't want to re-live the offence again.

It' s affected the health of most of them.

Some of them now won't leave the house and all of them

are extremely suspicious of anyone who calls to their houses from now on.

It really has had a devastating effect on some of them.

It's just as well that the police operations were successful

in banishing these callous men from the streets,

to long-term prison sentences.

Both DI Durcan and DI Groom

have words of warning for any doorstep criminals,

who are thinking of preying on the vulnerable.

Those individuals that consider committing this type of crime,

they need to be aware if they're not already that it's the lowest

of the low, and not only do the members of the public tell us

or give information about these people,

but so do members of the criminal fraternity because it's not a crime

that anyone looks on favourably.

My team are fully focussed on this type of offence and we will

do everything we possibly can do to stop you arrest you

and put you in prison.

You will not know when we're there,

you will have to look over your shoulders all the time.

You may be lucky on occasions, we only need to be lucky once,

and you are going to prison.

Well, I think you'll agree, never were guilty verdicts better deserved than in those two cases.

Congratulations to Cheshire Police for bringing those two rogues

to justice.

Before we go, Brian from Yorkshire has e-mailed us,

and he says when someone comes to his door cold calling,

he simply says point blank, "no, thank you" and closes the door.

He also says that he does not trust any tradespeople who arrive

in plain vans, so thanks, Brian for all those tips.

We're here to fight back against doorstep criminals

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

You can find all the details about how to reach us at bbc.co.uk.

Thanks for watching and I hope you'll join me again, next time.

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