Episode 12 Fake Britain

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

Welcome to Fake Britain.

Police!

-Get down! Get down!

-Get on the floor, now!

Put your hands behind your back now!

Here at the Fake Britain house, things might look familiar,

but don't be taken in because this is a house that's filled with fakes.

In this series, I'll be revealing the counterfeits,

copies and cons that are flooding the market, fooling the public,

making money for the criminals and maybe even putting you in danger.

We'll be investigating those fraudsters who are cashing in by

selling us something that isn't real

and we'll be showing you how to avoid falling for a fake.

Today on Fake Britain, the counterfeit shampoo hitting

our high streets and the damage it can cause to those who use it.

You'd itch so vigorously, it would make a certain patch bleed.

We reveal the fake scanners that have

infiltrated Britain's security industry.

This will be the difference between life and death in some cases.

And the counterfeit candles burning a hole in your pocket.

They spat and they crackled. They were dangerous.

The UK hair care industry is big business.

We're spending nearly £1.5 billion a year,

looking after our crowning glories.

But if you were spending your money on these products,

that promised to hydrate, clean,

make your hair glossy or control dandruff, well, you'd be wasting it.

Every single one is a flaky fake. And that's not all.

As well as parting with your cash for a counterfeit,

there could be worse to come.

One of Britain's biggest

and best selling shampoo brands is Head & Shoulders.

Since it hit the shelves in 1961...

The most effective dandruff shampoo you can buy.

..this famous anti-dandruff treatment has ranked among the UK's top five

hair products.

But now, it seems the fakers want to soak up some of the action.

Leanne McLean from Cornwall Trading Standards

is on the trail of suspected counterfeit Head & Shoulders.

The previous day, they made spot checks on local stores

and they may have landed some fakes.

Yesterday, we carried out a seizure at two stores, one in Falmouth,

one in Liskeard. And that was Devon Trading Standards,

there's another shop on their patch which I've asked them

to go in to and just make sure all the products are off sale.

The stores in question belong to one of the south west's largest

discount chains, Trago Mills.

The previous day,

Trading Standards seized around 160 bottles of suspected

counterfeit Head & Shoulders from two stores,

including this one in picturesque Falmouth.

So, today, with colleague Ben, Leanne's making spot-check

purchases at other discount shops in the area.

They're concerned that other bargain outlets could be using

the same supplier.

We had a complaint about a lady

who purchased some Head & Shoulders shampoo,

so we're specifically today looking for any Head & Shoulders

products or any other cosmetic products that look suspect

and if we find any, then we will seize them from the shelves

and send them off for further analysis.

The person who sparked off the investigation was Sharon,

when she bought what she thought was some bargain priced

Head & Shoulders from another discount chain,

the 99p Store in St Austell.

I'd been using Head & Shoulders for four years previously

and obviously when the 99p Stores opened, bargain.

But instead of fighting dandruff,

Sharon's Head & Shoulders seemed to do the exact opposite.

After the third use,

I kind of noticed that I was getting dandruff and that after like a day

or so, it would be itchy and then it started to get extremely sore.

After using it again for...

I think it was about two weeks,

it still wasn't any better.

Sharon seemed to have an allergic reaction to the Head & Shoulders

brand she'd always loved and trusted.

But the symptoms that came next were a real cause for concern.

You'd itch so vigorously, it would make a certain patch bleed.

I was quite angry

to think that something that I'm paying my money for is

making me sore.

I kind of figured then that something wasn't right with it

and decided to e-mail the 99p Store.

I got back quite a short reply, just to say,

"please pass along the barcodes".

So I did that and I never heard anything back at all.

Nothing whatsoever.

It was at this point that Sharon turned to Trading Standards.

They collected two suspect bottles she'd bought and sent them

off for analysis.

Weeks later, it was confirmed - she'd bought counterfeits.

With today's spot purchases completed,

Trading Standards Officers Leanne and Ben head back to base.

Here, they bag up the samples they've taken from three major

discount stores in the last two days.

They will be sent off to the lab for chemical analysis as well,

to confirm 100% as to whether they are genuine or counterfeit products.

We should get that back in about a week

and that should confirm or deny our suspicions.

Later, Cornwall Trading Standards reveal their results.

And Fake Britain reveals exactly what's in the bottle.

What you're essentially putting on to your face and skin

and that of your family and loved ones is junk.

We've all seen things like these.

They're used to scan us at airports, sports events and music concerts,

checking to see we're not carrying something we shouldn't.

Safety and security is a serious business

and that's what these scanners are designed to ensure,

so you may be alarmed to discover that while this one is real... BUZZER

this almost identical one is a fake.

BEEP

These are on sale right now and they could be putting lives at risk.

Security is big business.

The global industry for services

and devices is predicted to rise to £88 billion by 2019.

Part of any security team's arsenal

is one of these metal detecting wands.

The first of these was designed for the Los Angeles Olympic Games

in 1984 and it's been used in

numerous security settings ever since.

But, now, the fakers have got their eye on this product's success.

They're doing exact copies and when I say exact,

they are so close, you really cannot tell the difference.

We can't tell the difference, until we, either turn them on,

or look inside them.

We've had confirmed fake ones being used in music festivals,

erm, in warehouses, erm, blue-chip companies, security firms.

Now, that's a potential time bomb, because we now have lots

and lots of fake items out there being used by professionals

and they have no idea they're using a fake super scanner.

Is seems most of the counterfeits are being sold online

and Nigel is going to show us how clever the fakers have been.

Here we have the fake super scanner and also a genuine super scanner

and, as you can see, the construction, extremely similar.

Every tiny little detail is copied.

When you look very closely, though, you can

tell everything is creaking and the whole thing is loose.

How good is the fake at detecting a metallic object that could do

some damage, like this knife?

A genuine super scanner, you can see, we are picking it up,

a good 40, 50 cm away.

If we now take the fake unit, at 40, 50 cm, nothing, absolutely nothing.

It's only when we get closer, we are now just getting a signal.

Its performance is extremely poor, by comparison.

You're not going to pick up this object on a lot of occasions.

Well, that's not good enough. It's got to pick it up every single time.

Fake Britain decided to test this counterfeit security

scanner in London.

In the last year, there have been 11,000 knife-related offences

and just over 1,500 firearms incidents in the city.

Like many of the capital's late-night music venues,

Hootananny's takes security very seriously.

To help in this battle to keep their customers safe,

they use genuine security wands.

So, to put the fake security wand to the test, we'll plant

some potentially dangerous objects on our lucky target, Matt.

Later on, he'll visit Hootananny's with a group of friends.

We have a Swiss Army penknife, which is not classed as an offensive

weapon, however, could inflict a lot of damage

in a number of different ways.

First up, Nigel puts the knife in place.

That's perfect.

Next up, he has a replica gun.

It is an internationally recognised test piece

for the security industry.

It's an imitation single-shot gun.

Weapons in place, next stop for our target is the venue.

Will the fake pass our security test and detect the weapons?

Nigel hands over the fake security wand to the experienced door staff.

They haven't been told whether they're using the counterfeit,

or the genuine product.

He sits nearby to monitor the fake's performance.

Meanwhile, Matt and his pals arrive in line.

I'm surprised at the distance, though.

He's getting very, very close to the body.

So the fake has to be used closer to the body than normal.

I can only presume he's having to do this

because the performance is nowhere near as good as the genuine item.

Now it's time for our target, Matt, with his concealed weapons.

BEEPING

That's his belt.

The fake seems to be picking up large objects.

Phone.

But not, so far, the knife or the gun.

BEEPING

I think he might be picking up the shoelace eyelets.

Seems like the fake's found something.

The shoelace eyelets are aluminium.

And inadvertently, it's actually led him to the fake gun.

The counterfeit scanner's uncovered Matt's replica gun,

but not the knife.

That's a serious breach of security.

Potentially, you've got somebody walking around with a knife

in a nightclub. Not good.

And extremely worrying.

But before Matt can do any real damage,

the real superscanner's brought out

to reveal what he's really hiding.

BEEP

LONG BEEP

Here we go. Ooh, straight to it.

Ha.

Yeah, there we go.

That was a huge, huge signal which you could hardly miss.

He's found it, he's got it.

This could be the difference between life and death in some cases.

The difference between picking up an offensive weapon, potentially

a gun, a knife, a CS gas canister, or not picking it up at all.

And that's... The potential for that is quite serious.

Earlier, we saw Cornwall Trading Standards on the trail of fake

Head & Shoulders shampoo for sale in discount chains.

Trading Standards sent off samples of suspected fakes.

Now they have the results back from the manufacturer.

We sent off a representative sample of 14 bottles.

Seven of those came back as being counterfeit,

which is a 50% fail rate,

which I think shows the scale of the problem we have here

with counterfeit cosmetic products.

But it's the quality of the counterfeit packaging

that's appalled Cornwall Trading Standards.

This makes it difficult for shoppers and the shops to spot the fakes.

They are extremely good counterfeits.

They look almost identical to the real thing.

It's not just one small part of the Head & Shoulders

set of shampoos, it's every different type

they are managing to counterfeit now and counterfeit very effectively.

Samples of the 160 bottles seized from local discount chain Trago Mills

all turned out to be counterfeit, but Trading Standards sympathise

with the difficulties that even some retailers have in spotting the fakes.

In this instance, the copies were so incredibly good,

the store in our opinion had done everything that it could

to make sure that it wasn't selling counterfeits and as such,

we have closed the investigation against the store that sold it

by way of providing them with advice

on how to potentially spot counterfeits in the future.

Trago Mills told us they've been...

They say...

They say...

But because of the danger to public health,

the Cornwall Trading Standards investigation remains wide open

to find out who supplied the retailers

with the counterfeit products in the first place.

Even though these bottles look convincing on the outside,

the manufacturer, Procter & Gamble, has sent Leanne

and her team some data about what could be lurking on the inside.

With this particular counterfeit batch of Head & Shoulders shampoo,

they've told us there could be irritation to your breathing,

it could be harmful if you swallow any of the product,

it could be irritating to your skin...

They say here, "a risk of serious damage to your eyes."

They've also said it's potentially toxic to wildlife

should it make it into any river courses.

It's quite a serious issue, this.

This isn't just a cheap product that you're paying too much for.

This could cause you serious damage

and serious health implications for the rest of your life.

But it's not just shoppers in Cornwall

who've risked their health by using fake shampoo.

Our investigation takes us across the Irish Sea,

500 miles away to Antrim in Northern Ireland.

It was at this B&M store ten months previously,

that Nicole Patterson bought a bottle of Head & Shoulders.

She used it to wash the hair of her five-year-old daughter, Imogen.

The next day after using it,

it looked like there were particles of paint in her hair.

It wasn't until the second time that there were instant speckles

over her hair.

Afterwards, Imogen ended up with the scalp of her head

sort of peeling away.

It wasn't like wee small bits of dandruff, it was quite big flakes.

But it wasn't the only symptom troubling five-year-old Imogen.

I said, "Is it sore anywhere?"

She just said, "Mummy, it's really itchy."

It wasn't just a wee scratch like that, it was actually going

mad into the head, you know, and scratching like crazy.

When I had looked and even pulled parts of her hair over,

you could see the big flakes coming out.

Nearly a year on, Nicole believes her daughter still has symptoms.

Well, now in Imogen's hair, you can actually see, like,

speckles of flaky skin coming away.

You know, it is constant, just coming out from the scalp.

It just seems to be an ongoing problem.

Nicole's now considering taking her daughter to a dermatologist.

The bottle of Head& Shoulders she bought at B&M was confirmed

to be counterfeit.

I think whenever you go to a reputable store,

you don't expect to walk in and buy counterfeit goods. You don't.

And that does make me really angry, the fact that I went in

and I bought something that was counterfeit and actually used it.

So Nicole made a complaint to Northern Ireland Trading Standards

and within weeks, officers had seized counterfeit shampoo

at 15 discount stores across the region.

We seized almost 2,000 bottles of the illegal product.

We suspect, though, that there's quite a lot of counterfeit shampoo

that appeared right throughout Northern Ireland that quite possibly

has been sold to consumers from these high street retail premises.

This batch was seized from seven shops belonging to the large

UK discount chain Home Bargains.

But Trading Standards also made seizures from eight stores

belonging to the chain where Nicole bought her shampoo, B&M.

Again, this is more counterfeit Head & Shoulders product.

Quite a sizable amount.

We've seized almost 600 bottles from this retailer alone.

B&M Retail told us they were...

..from one of the wholesale suppliers of this product.

They say...

..across all B&M stores.

..of the parties responsible further up the supply chain.

Fake Britain has sent samples of a bottle

bought by Nicole at B&M in Northern Ireland and a batch of counterfeits

seized by Cornwall Trading Standards for chemical analysis.

Over two weeks,

Loughborough University's Chemistry department has been testing

our fake samples and comparing them with the genuine product.

They tested for the all-important zinc compound.

This is the active ingredient in the genuine Head & Shoulders

that battles dandruff.

There's practically no zinc in the sample.

What this means is if you bought this shampoo to control dandruff

or to treat dandruff on your hair, it's actually going to do nothing.

So not only is this shampoo counterfeit,

it's also completely useless.

More alarmingly in the fakes, Professor Thomas

and his team have uncovered a substance called lilial.

It's a cosmetic ingredient that has health effects.

It's a skin sensitizer and it could hurt you if you're allergic to it.

Under EU regulations,

a known allergen like lilial must be strictly labelled.

This substance can cause contact dermatitis.

If you picked this counterfeit up and one of your family was sensitive

to this product, to this molecule here, it would hurt you.

It would injure you.

You would need a trip to the doctor.

But it doesn't stop there.

In the sample that Nicole bought, Loughborough have found another

chemical that causes concern and it's also not labelled on the bottle.

What we've just found here at ten times the level

that we've seen anything else is diethyl phthalate.

These are gender-bender chemicals.

They affect reproductive health, certainly in animal studies.

You wouldn't want them in products that

you are putting into close contact with your children.

All the retailers involved in selling counterfeits told us

they were unaware that they were selling fakes

and that they were shocked to find them in the supply chain.

None of these retail stores faced prosecution.

99p Stores told us they were...

They say as soon as Trading Standards

brought the matter to their attention...

They say they...

Home Bargains told us they've been...

They say they had...

They say...

They say it's clear that...

Professor Thomas is also alarmed by the fact that fake shampoo

is being sold on the high street.

They're throwing in mixtures of chemicals in an unregulated,

uncontrolled, unmanaged way.

And what you're essentially putting onto your face

and skin, and that of your family and loved ones, is junk.

When it comes to a good night in, there are a few key ingredients.

A good meal, a little bit of mood music, soft lighting...

And the best way to get that is through one of these -

a luxury scented candle.

It's an increasingly popular product which appeals to people like

new mum Susie Alton from Lydham in Shropshire.

When she recently spotted some well-priced small luxury

scented candles online,

she thought they would make ideal presents for her friends.

The candles were advertised as being made

by upmarket British beauty label Jo Malone.

They were advertised as genuine Jo Malone candles

and the seller had quite a few of them

and the picture looked like proper Jo Malone standards.

And they just looked absolutely beautiful.

At 17.95 each, the candles weren't cheap,

but it was still less than their usual retail price of £22.

She bought four.

Susie put the candles into action.

I decided to have a romantic night in and I decided to put these

candles out across the windowsill with some other candles which I had.

So I lit them and the smell... It smelt like furniture polish.

What happened was they spat and they crackled. They were dangerous.

Luckily, buying through PayPal, Susie had purchase insurance

and she managed to get her money back and the seller barred.

But she's not the only candle lover to be duped.

In fact, Jo Malone candles have become a key brand

for the fakers to rip off,

as Sussex Police recently found out.

They were tipped off about some suspect Jo Malone candles

being sold at a local craft fair.

Graham Miles eventually raided the house of the people running

the stall and he was astonished by what he found.

Everything on this table are the items that were seized

from the home of just one of our suspects.

Lots and lots of counterfeit candles very much like this.

I think it's 250 odd.

These larger Jo Malone candles usually retail for £39 each,

but the fakes are considerably cheaper to produce.

Graham estimates it at around £3.50 a pop.

In here, you can see reels and reels of labels, various types.

On this one, you've got the arrow that tells you to open up the label

so you can see more information inside,

but there is nothing behind it, there's no back to that label.

And that's one way you can tell that it's a counterfeit.

And the candle fakers had big plans for the future.

Along with labels and the candles themselves,

police found a staggering 26 boxes of metal lids.

This is the kind of quantity we're looking at.

Metal lids, all engraved with the Jo Malone name.

Something like 5,000 of them.

This person was operating on a large scale.

And was really making some quite significant profit.

The people Graham arrested in connection with the candles were

running a secret cottage industry.

They'd order cheap, unbranded candles from a manufacturer, get fake labels

printed and then add the specially engraved lids

and ribbons to make the candles appear like the real thing.

But it's not just financially that you could be losing out.

The candles aren't just cheap imitations, they can be dangerous.

Previous tests by Trading Standards on fake Jo Malones

have seen the glass the candle comes in explode when lit.

Today, though, the law has finally caught up with the counterfeiters

that Graham's team has been investigating.

At Lewes Crown Court in Sussex, one of them

received a 12-month sentence for conspiracy to manufacture

and another received 270 hours of community service

for conspiracy to sell counterfeit goods.

It is sending a message. As with any kind of sentencing,

it's to put other people off from doing it.

It does affect everybody, the breaching of trademark offences.

We all buy branded goods.

If those goods are getting manufactured by others,

it impacts upon the price we pay,

it impacts upon the quality of the product we get.

I think it's important

that people are put off from counterfeiting those things.

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.