Episode 5 Fake Britain


Episode 5

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

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Welcome to Fake Britain.

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In this series, I'm going to be investigating

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the world of the criminals who make their money at your expense.

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And I'm going to show you how not to get ripped off.

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Today on Fake Britain,

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the fake tours of the battlefields cheating British veterans...

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How he could be so evil, to me, is just disgusting.

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..on the trail of the banknote forgers...

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Police!

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Taken together, this is all the kit, the paraphernalia

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you would actually use to produce and make counterfeit currency.

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..the terrifying new credit card fakery

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that's almost completely undetectable...

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The shops couldn't tell the difference,

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some banks couldn't tell the difference.

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You and me? We've got no chance.

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SIREN WAILS

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It's early morning and the City Of London Police are out in force.

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Today, they're raiding a number of addresses

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to try and find a master forger.

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He's believed to be the head of a gang producing

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huge amounts of fake money.

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DC Steve Briars hopes to finally track him down.

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The amount of currency that is being produced by these people

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may well run into the millions and millions of pounds.

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The man we're looking for today is, we think,

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the mastermind behind this operation.

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We're expecting to find all manner of items, really,

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related to forgery and counterfeiting,

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that he is a master forger, so to speak.

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As the officers arrive at the location,

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they're met by some serious backup.

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The tactical support group are specialist door-breakers

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and after two officers silently crack the lock

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with a pneumatic door-breaking kit,

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a third, carrying a heavy enforcer, quickly gets the job done.

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Police! Get down!

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The 6am start has literally caught the suspect with his pants down

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and upstairs, the officers drag him from his bed.

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Put some trousers on, mate. Which trousers? These ones?

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-Yes?

-Yeah.

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Put that on first.

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Hold your hands out for me.

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I'm arresting you on suspicion

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of conspiracy to produce counterfeit currency.

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The man they've arrested is Anthony Higgs,

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who's already been in prison before

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for conspiring to make counterfeit currency.

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As Higgs is taken downstairs,

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a quick glance around the bedroom hints at forgery.

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What's interesting with this note,

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is that sitting on top of it is actually one of the jeweller's optics

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that they use to study fine detail.

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So I'm guessing that somebody's been studying this note very carefully.

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The room is also full of

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a variety of professional-quality printers, inks and papers.

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The latest prints,

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like the many bits of paper scattered on the floor,

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are covered in small red colour samples.

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These look very similar to the shades of red used on £50 notes.

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It would appear that they've been trying to colour-match the note here

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in order to potentially run off copies of these notes

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for fraudulent purposes.

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They've got quite a good print shop going on

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in this person's bedroom here.

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Downstairs, master forger Higgs is cooperating with the police.

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So, what's this all about?

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What we'll do for now is keep you in here...

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-Yeah.

-Just going to put a dog through your premises...

-Yeah.

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..and then we'll have a bit more of a chat, all right?

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A police dog is brought in

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to sniff out whether there is cash hidden in the property.

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It's possible that there may be large quantities of money in the house.

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The dogs can smell in places that we can't see,

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so they'll hopefully find any items in here

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and at least give the officers an idea of where to go and have a look.

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As the dog searches the house,

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he quickly sniffs out something significant.

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It looks like a safe, here in the corner. Yeah, it is a safe.

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In this case, it would be genuine cash

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so there may be a very large sum of money inside this item here.

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Higgs is brought upstairs to open his safe.

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Inside, there's a large quantity of cash, the spoils of a life of crime.

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And downstairs, police continue the search for more.

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Cash be hidden in small places in large quantities.

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£50 notes are not very big things

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and that's why they've checked everywhere that they can

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to make sure that there's nowhere, like a loose brick,

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with a little stash hidden behind them.

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Meanwhile, in another bedroom,

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officers find yet more evidence of forgery on an industrial scale.

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Normally, you'd only have, say, a maximum of two printers,

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but he's got three in there, another probably...

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five or six in here.

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So the only possible reason for having all these printers

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is he's either trying to set up a large amount of production

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or he has been having a large amount of production.

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If fake notes are being printed here,

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the officers believe the machinery to compress, cut,

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foil and finish them must be somewhere else.

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Later, they go searching for a crucial piece of evidence -

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a specialist industrial presser needed to make fake banknotes.

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The battlefields of the First and Second World Wars

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are destinations that are not only historical tourist attractions,

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but also sites that are, for many, a place of pilgrimage and remembrance.

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Veterans travel there to say farewell to fallen comrades

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and family members go to visit the site of the historical battles

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where their loved ones fought.

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But battlefield tours are big business

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and even such an emotional subject is not immune to the fakers.

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The Fife branch of the Parachute Regiment

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received a lottery grant of £10,000

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to travel to the battlefield of Arnhem in the Netherlands.

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It was the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem.

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The reason being that the people who fought at Arnhem,

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it was pivotal to the forming of a regiment,

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and making the regiment as famous as it is now.

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It was very important that we got our veterans there

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to revisit the war graves where their comrades had fallen

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and to revisit the place where they actually fought in battle

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and, as I say, it was probably the last opportunity for them to do that.

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Petty officer John Jack was one of the lucky ones

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who made it home from the Second World War,

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and his son, Daniel,

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wanted to visit the site where his father had fought.

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My father had been in the original D-Day landings in 1944.

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He was a Petty officer on the big LST landing ships

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and this was the 65th anniversary

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and obviously, it was going to be a real final big hoo-ha,

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and that was the main reason.

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And for Sandra and Malcolm Buchan, the trip was a dream

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that they'd had for a while.

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My husband's always wanted to go,

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just to see it, so that was why we decided,

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right, it was a short trip - six days. We'll just do that.

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They each came across a Scottish company

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offering European battlefield tours and wanted to find out more.

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I received this brochure -

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European Tours Ltd -

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and it was advertising various different holidays,

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Flanders, The Somme, Normandy, Arnhem.

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The social secretary made the initial contact

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and they reported back to the branch

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that he had found this company who was willing to take us to Arnhem

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and basically fitted the bill for everything that we required.

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The brochure seemed to be good, well presented.

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Exactly what we wanted.

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It seemed perfect.

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On finding the tour to their satisfaction,

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they all decided to take the plunge and book it.

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We paid a deposit of £3,400.

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And that was to cover the deposit for 28 people to travel to Arnhem,

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obviously on a return trip.

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The whole cost of my holiday was £504.

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For everything that was covered, it seemed fair enough.

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That was the travel from Glasgow down to Hull,

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overnight on the ferry.

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It was four nights in the Normandy area

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and then travel back again.

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It was, um, £789.

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It seemed a good price for the two of us for six days.

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It seemed quite reasonable.

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With the money paid, and a slight worry in his mind,

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Bill Donaldson invited John Lennox to his house

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to answer a few questions.

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When he came in, he had T-shirts, teddy bears, little mugs.

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A book which showed previous trips to the battlefield.

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The battlefields... Not just Holland - Germany, France, Belgium.

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We thought, everything's looking good - maybe we're wrong.

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Daniel only realised a week before he was due to leave

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that he had no tickets for his trip.

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I think it was about the week before, an itinerary came in.

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And I thought, "OK, right. Here we go."

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But it had all been so lackadaisical

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that I kind of thought, "Is this really going to happen?"

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And, for Sandra and Malcolm,

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a last-minute change made them feel anxious

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about the future of their holiday.

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On the day we were leaving, it was about 7 o'clock. Just after seven.

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And he said, "Hello, this is John Lennox from European Tours.

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"I'm just phoning to let you know that the bus has broke down

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"and it's running late but it will arrive."

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But when Bill Donaldson made a phone call to P&O Ferries,

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they realised that their whole trip was a fake.

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We contacted P&O Ferries

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just to find out if any deposits had been paid.

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Um, they had heard of Lennox previously

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for other things that he was supposed to have booked.

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It seems he always made a cursory inquiry

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into how much it would cost to book cabins -

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how much it would cost to get from A to B,

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but never, ever paid a deposit.

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Brian Rees at P&O Ferries received word

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that the Parachute Regiment had been left in the lurch.

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We heard right at the last minute. It was only about 24 hours

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before the Paras were due to travel that the alarm call came.

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No coach, no ferry, no hotel booking.

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Up until 10 o'clock that night, we still thought the trip was doomed.

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I stepped in and said, "Look, you've got to go.

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"We've got space on the ferry.

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"You will go with the compliments of P&O Ferries."

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When we got the news, I was elated.

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The branch wasn't aware at that time that we weren't going to Arnhem.

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We kept it from them until the very last minute.

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We said, "Well, we might have to tell them on the morning

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"that's it a non-starter."

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But luckily enough, that night we got the good news,

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we were going to Arnhem.

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Over the moon - I had a few whiskies that night!

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It was brilliant.

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While the Parachute Regiment were lucky enough to take their trip,

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Sandra and Malcolm were left waiting at the bus stop

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for a bus that was never going to arrive.

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You believe people, don't you?

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We sat there and sat there and sat there.

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All these people getting on trains and buses...

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-And we're still sitting there.

-Still sitting there.

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We just felt fooled.

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I think we realised the time from where we are

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to Carlisle, to meet a feeder coach to Hull,

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we were never going to make that ferry.

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But in Daniel's case, he actually met Ian Lennox at the bus station

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and waited with him there.

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We were to meet opposite the bus station at Glasgow Concert Hall.

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And I just got there,

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and here, as I came out at Buchanan Bus Station,

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here's this chap, introduces himself as Ian Lennox.

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Embroidered on his chest, "European Battlefield Tours".

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And I thought, "Great!" I suddenly was, "It is happening. We're off."

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Half an hour went past, 45 minutes went past,

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he was making phone calls.

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"Oh, the bus has broken down.

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And then, "Oh, we'll try and get another bus.

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"I'll phone up Hull and see if we can get another ferry."

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This went on and on and on -

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I think it was about an hour and a half, two hours,

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and then he says, "No, I'm sorry, the bus isn't going to make it."

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Even after taking their money

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and leaving them stranded by the side of the road,

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he still continued to lie

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to put off his capture off for as long as possible.

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Six days later, when we should have arrived back in Britain,

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he phoned me that morning to say that he had taken a different coach -

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a different coach - to a different place

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and he had just heard.

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And his phone didn't work when he was abroad

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and that's how he couldn't get messages

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and he was phoning to apologise.

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He was mad and livid at the bus company

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and we would definitely get our money back.

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John Lennox's lies finally caught up with him

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and, after two years of ripping off innocent people,

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with his fake battlefield tours, for tens of thousands of pounds,

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he was arrested and charged with theft.

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He pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to 25 months in prison.

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But, for Sandra and Malcolm, this fake trip

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has ruined their chances of ever visiting the battlefields.

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Two or three years ago, my husband would be able to walk round

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um, the trenches and things,

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but because of his ill health now,

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no, he wouldn't be able to.

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So, I don't think we will be able to. That was our opportunity to go

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and I don't think that will happen again.

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John Lennox is now behind bars,

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but the legacy of what he did lives on.

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At Victoria Coach Station in London,

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Richard Maynard and his team

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from the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit

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recently discovered an audacious plan

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to smuggle devices into the country

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that would create fake chip-and-PIN terminals

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and threaten the security of Britain's whole payment system.

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And there was one particular criminal they had their eye on.

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Thomas Beeckman moves around most of the world.

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As far as we're aware, he has connections in the Far East,

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the Low Countries of Europe and in the United Kingdom.

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We were aware of the fact that he was moving in and out of UK,

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through our work with the Borders Agency,

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and that he was meeting with members of organised crime in the UK.

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Richard's team had been monitoring Beeckman's movements for a while

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and it wasn't long before they'd received word

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that he was on his way to Britain.

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We became aware that he was about to enter the country on a coach,

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through the Channel Tunnel,

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and this was our opportunity to try and detain him and arrest him

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for the offence of compromising and possession of articles used in fraud.

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In the early evening, around 6.30pm-6.45pm he arrived here,

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at the coach station, in the arrivals section,

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on a coach directly from the Channel Tunnel,

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where he was met by myself and a colleague, DC Richard New.

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He was detained for the purposes of a search

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and taken to a nearby police station.

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Beeckman was searched

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and found to be in possession of several strange electronic devices.

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The first thing that we came across

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that really alerted our suspicion as to his activities was this,

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a photograph of a printed circuit board

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encased in a flash memory case that you would buy normally.

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It is powered up by a watch battery

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that's connected to it by the wires you can see.

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These wires are left dangling because they're ready to go

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to be connected up to the back of a circuit board,

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inside a PIN-entry device.

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Richard believes that criminal gangs across Europe

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had been stealing chip-and-PIN terminals from shops and restaurants

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and bringing them here to the UK,

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where they would be secretly loaded with this devious technology.

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Steven Murdoch from Cambridge University can explain how it works.

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The easiest way to put additional electronics in

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is in this large hole in the back of the device.

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It is designed for manufacturer-added equipment,

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but it can be equally used for malicious equipment.

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And by drilling a hole in the case,

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like we've done here,

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the bad electronics here can connect to the smartcard

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and therefore get full copies of the card details and the PIN.

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The corrupted chip-and-PIN device is then put back into a shop

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and will be used as normal by members of the public.

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Terrifyingly, these devices

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were also fitted with Bluetooth technology,

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meaning the crooks need never go back to the scene of the crime.

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We believe the blue item on the printed circuit board

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is a Bluetooth-transmitting hardware.

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The machine, therefore, works properly

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but also records the card details from the magnetic stripe

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and the PIN number, as entered.

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Then that information is transmitted

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to the organised crime gang member's telephone or laptop,

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as long as he's nearby, within Bluetooth range.

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And once the crooks have collected your bank details and PIN number,

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they then make fake cards loaded with all your details.

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A cloned card with a magnetic stripe on the back,

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can then be used to purchase goods, or if the PIN number is accessed,

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they can then be used in ATMs to access cash straight away

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from that account, until it's closed down by the bank.

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With the thousands of bank cards they are able to clone in this way,

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police estimate the fakers could steal tens of millions of pounds.

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The implications for the individual are very serious.

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The compromise of someone's account

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may or may not be noticed immediately,

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and that account can get emptied out.

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But for Thomas Beeckman, the game was up,

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as Richard and his team had stopped this fraud in its tracks.

0:18:460:18:50

And even though Beeckman refused to reveal

0:18:500:18:52

the encryption key to his laptop,

0:18:520:18:54

officers were able to use this as an admission of guilt

0:18:540:18:57

in his court case.

0:18:570:18:59

Beeckman received 18 months

0:18:590:19:00

for the possession of articles for use in fraud,

0:19:000:19:03

and a further six months

0:19:030:19:04

for failing to reveal the encryption key to the police.

0:19:040:19:07

In this case,

0:19:070:19:09

the police believed the devices were destined for Europe,

0:19:090:19:12

but computer security expert Ross Anderson

0:19:120:19:14

believes that tampered chip-and-PIN devices are already in the UK,

0:19:140:19:19

but that the banks would never admit it.

0:19:190:19:22

The view internally in the banks

0:19:220:19:24

is that, OK, there's a bit of fraud, but you can't possibly admit it.

0:19:240:19:28

What bankers say internally

0:19:280:19:31

is that if they ever admitted that their systems weren't secure,

0:19:310:19:35

then there would be an avalanche of fraudulent claims of fraud.

0:19:350:19:38

They're terrified that lots of people

0:19:380:19:40

would start disavowing transactions that they had actually made.

0:19:400:19:44

This would cause the system to collapse in chaos.

0:19:440:19:47

And unfortunately for us,

0:19:470:19:49

it's almost impossible to tell which devices are fake and which are real.

0:19:490:19:54

There's no practical way,

0:19:540:19:57

for a man in the street,

0:19:570:19:59

to tell the difference between a genuine chip-and-PIN machine,

0:19:590:20:04

and a genuine chip-and-PIN machine that's been tampered with,

0:20:040:20:06

if it's been done properly.

0:20:060:20:08

Let's face it, the shops couldn't tell the difference,

0:20:080:20:11

some banks couldn't tell the difference. You and me?

0:20:110:20:14

We've got no chance.

0:20:140:20:16

Back on the trail of the suspected money-forgers,

0:20:210:20:26

officers are searching for the materials and machinery needed

0:20:260:20:29

to produce fake banknotes.

0:20:290:20:31

They have already arrested the gang leader, Anthony Higgs,

0:20:310:20:34

and found a number of expensive printers and test prints

0:20:340:20:37

at his house.

0:20:370:20:38

But today's operation

0:20:380:20:39

is also targeting a number of other locations

0:20:390:20:42

believed to be related to the gang's crimes.

0:20:420:20:45

DC Bell is searching the flat of one of Higgs' accomplices

0:20:450:20:49

and evidence found inside a cupboard in the living room suggests

0:20:490:20:52

that part of the fake money-making process happens right here.

0:20:520:20:56

There's a brown case here

0:20:560:20:57

that has rolls and rolls and rolls of various papers,

0:20:570:21:00

you can see the silver foil there.

0:21:000:21:02

Classically, this would be the type of foil used

0:21:020:21:05

to make counterfeit currency.

0:21:050:21:07

To put the strip into the actual note itself.

0:21:070:21:09

This is very expensive.

0:21:090:21:11

It's very hard to get hold of, only made by a small amount of companies

0:21:110:21:15

and it's classically part of a money-making kit.

0:21:150:21:17

The bag the specialist foil was found in

0:21:180:21:21

also contains a number of half-used and empty rolls.

0:21:210:21:24

DC Bell believes this is good evidence,

0:21:240:21:27

and that these may already have been used to produce

0:21:270:21:30

a large quantity of fakes.

0:21:300:21:32

Suddenly something else in the cupboard catches his eye.

0:21:320:21:35

This is not your typical printer photocopier paper.

0:21:350:21:40

This is a high-grade paper which is used to actually produce the money.

0:21:400:21:44

The find in the cupboard is equally important.

0:21:450:21:48

It's an industrial compressor,

0:21:480:21:50

used with the paper and rolls of foil

0:21:500:21:52

to try and imitate the foil strips found in real banknotes.

0:21:520:21:56

This cupboard contains all the vital parts

0:21:560:21:59

about making the money believable

0:21:590:22:00

and passable on the public.

0:22:000:22:03

All right, no worries.

0:22:030:22:04

Back at Higgs' house an officer searching the hallway

0:22:040:22:09

has found some suspicious bankers' draughts.

0:22:090:22:12

DC Briars takes them outside to check if they're forgeries.

0:22:120:22:16

They're exactly the same numbers.

0:22:160:22:18

Yeah, you wouldn't get the same one.

0:22:180:22:20

You can see the quality of the printing isn't sharp, that's dodgy.

0:22:200:22:25

Passable fake bankers' drafts could be very valuable documents indeed.

0:22:260:22:30

Also known as cashier's cheques, they are issued by banks

0:22:300:22:34

and are instantly cashable in any other bank around the world.

0:22:340:22:38

If perfected, these fakes would be like having access

0:22:380:22:42

to almost unlimited money.

0:22:420:22:44

In the search for the equipment used in the forging process,

0:22:440:22:47

DC Bell has travelled to a rented lock-up,

0:22:470:22:49

known to be used by Higgs and his gang.

0:22:490:22:53

He's hoping to find the final pieces of evidence he needs

0:22:530:22:56

behind this door.

0:22:560:22:58

OK. We've got a wooden unit here which has been screwed shut,

0:23:000:23:04

so what we're going to do is just open this one up,

0:23:040:23:07

and see what we can find inside.

0:23:070:23:09

Just trying to gauge what we've got here.

0:23:110:23:14

What it looks like, having seen these items before,

0:23:160:23:20

it looks like an industrial-style guillotine.

0:23:200:23:23

Now, what these are used for is to actually slice the money,

0:23:230:23:26

cut the money, after it's been made.

0:23:260:23:28

The next heavy box DC Bell pulls from the lockup

0:23:280:23:31

contains the final piece of this money-forging puzzle.

0:23:310:23:35

The last phase of the process

0:23:350:23:37

is to print the metallic details and holograms on the notes

0:23:370:23:41

and this industrial toner-foiler is the ideal machine for the job.

0:23:410:23:45

The officers have now found all the evidence they need.

0:23:450:23:50

Taken together, this is all the kit, the paraphernalia you would use

0:23:500:23:54

to produce and make counterfeit currency.

0:23:540:23:57

And once it's been through here and once it's been cut by the guillotine

0:23:570:24:00

it's then fresh and ready to be circulated in the public domain.

0:24:000:24:04

The contents of the lock-up are seized as evidence

0:24:040:24:07

and taken back to the police station.

0:24:070:24:10

Even though the officers have not found a stash of counterfeit notes,

0:24:100:24:14

the operation has still been a huge success.

0:24:140:24:16

Later, officers manage to forensically link

0:24:180:24:21

the printers they found

0:24:210:24:22

to £160,000 worth of fake banknotes

0:24:220:24:24

removed from circulation by the Bank of England.

0:24:240:24:29

A memory stick found at Higgs' home was also found to contain

0:24:290:24:33

the security features needed to replicate £20 and £50 notes.

0:24:330:24:36

We've disrupted a highly organised and highly lucrative

0:24:360:24:40

counterfeit-currency operation,

0:24:400:24:42

and that will stop further distribution of currency

0:24:420:24:46

by this particular group of individuals.

0:24:460:24:48

This was one of the largest counterfeit-money operations

0:24:480:24:51

ever discovered in the UK.

0:24:510:24:54

Anthony Higgs was convicted

0:24:540:24:56

of producing and distributing counterfeit currency.

0:24:560:24:59

He's currently serving eight years in jail.

0:24:590:25:02

Six other people were also convicted as a result of this investigation.

0:25:020:25:06

In Essex, the police are looking into another way

0:25:150:25:19

that the fakers are trying to get goods into the country.

0:25:190:25:22

This time, they're smuggling alcohol.

0:25:220:25:25

Customs have a list of lorries that they're interested in inspecting

0:25:250:25:30

and as they pass through the Dartford Crossing,

0:25:300:25:33

police motorcycles are picking them up

0:25:330:25:35

and guiding them into the services.

0:25:350:25:37

Today is Operation Mermaid,

0:25:400:25:42

which is part of a national operation

0:25:420:25:46

on targeting moving criminals, especially in heavy goods vehicles.

0:25:460:25:50

We've got colleagues from Customs and Excise

0:25:500:25:52

who will be checking for what we can term illegal loads.

0:25:520:25:55

We are having an increasing problem

0:25:550:25:57

with alcohol being brought across from the continent,

0:25:570:26:00

that people are attempting to evade paying duty on.

0:26:000:26:03

PC Alistair Cuthbertson and his team inspect each vehicle as it comes in,

0:26:050:26:10

and the Customs officers look out for anything unusual.

0:26:100:26:13

A suspicious alcohol-laden lorry is brought in and inspected -

0:26:150:26:18

it's loaded with wine.

0:26:180:26:21

Customs have taken the paperwork,

0:26:220:26:23

they're going to make their enquiries,

0:26:230:26:25

I'm going to check the driver's hours and the documents

0:26:250:26:28

and we shall see where we go from there.

0:26:280:26:30

The duty that needs to be paid on alcohol varies

0:26:320:26:35

depending on the strength of the alcohol in question.

0:26:350:26:38

On a load of this size, the duty would cost around £35,000.

0:26:380:26:42

Customs have completed their enquiries

0:26:440:26:46

on this imported load of wine

0:26:460:26:48

and have found that counterfeit paperwork has been used.

0:26:480:26:50

This lorry is actually a fake.

0:26:520:26:54

The real lorry would have looked exactly like this one,

0:26:540:26:57

would have had the same load,

0:26:570:26:59

and would have passed through customs a few days before.

0:26:590:27:03

This fake lorry was using the same paperwork as the real one,

0:27:030:27:05

but while the real lorry had paid its duty,

0:27:050:27:08

this one was trying to get away without paying its dues.

0:27:080:27:12

The counterfeit paperwork means that it's void,

0:27:130:27:16

it won't be allowed to travel,

0:27:160:27:18

and both the load, the trailer and the vehicle

0:27:180:27:20

will be seized and taken away to the pound.

0:27:200:27:22

Customs believe that importers

0:27:240:27:26

try to get away with sending through as many fake lorries as they can,

0:27:260:27:30

all trying to get away with using the same counterfeit paperwork.

0:27:300:27:34

And with this kind of fakery on the rise,

0:27:340:27:36

this is exactly the sort of thing they've been looking out for.

0:27:360:27:39

A lorry of this size could be worth up to £50,000.

0:27:390:27:44

So with his lorry seized forever,

0:27:440:27:47

this man has certainly paid the price for the fakery.

0:27:470:27:50

As Customs officers proceed with seizing the goods,

0:27:510:27:54

the owner of the lorry

0:27:540:27:55

reluctantly removes his belongings from the cabin.

0:27:550:27:58

The vehicle that was seized by HM Customs

0:28:010:28:03

is a very big success as far as we're all concerned.

0:28:030:28:06

That's all from Fake Britain today. Bye for now.

0:28:150:28:18

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