Episode 15 Fake Britain

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

Welcome to Fake Britain.

Police! Move out the way!

-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 fake bike helmets that won't keep you safe.

This helmet could not have failed in a worse way.

The counterfeit pesticides heading for UK farms.

We actually don't know what's inside them.

They might pose a health risk, they might be carcinogenic.

And the fake supermarket saving stamps

that won't help you out on a rainy day.

There is £1,000 on each one of these.

There's nothing obvious on it that would say they're fake.

Wearing a helmet

when you're riding a bicycle might seem like good common sense.

In some countries, such as Australia, it's now also the law,

you have to wear one.

A helmet might save your life in a crash.

But this bike helmet is fake,

it's a counterfeit of this one.

It's dangerous and part of a growing industry

where the fakers are trying to make money out of the success of cycling.

With 19,000 cyclists injured or killed every year,

wearing protective headgear is crucial for most riders.

The Department Of Transport recently claimed bike helmets

could prevent up to 16% of the fatalities on Britain's roads.

But it seems the fakers are now riding on the back of the trend too.

More worryingly, cyclists are buying counterfeit headgear

thinking it offers protection when it may not...

as Andrew McCreery discovered

when he found a bike helmet, supposedly made by Giro, online.

It was a product which I had already had for myself personally.

Seemed to be of good quality, seemed good value for money

and it was just a brand

which we had recognised as widely used in the cycling world,

so we presumed that would probably be the safest bet.

Andrew and his wife, Joanne,

were training for a 130-mile cycle ride around Northern Ireland

to raise money for charity, so they needed the right equipment.

And this event was very personal for them.

Tragically, in September 2012, we had a son who was stillborn.

Zach.

He died just a few days before his due date

and we wanted to do a cycle ride in his memory.

The Giro helmet they'd found for this important bike ride

was being sold by a third-party seller on Amazon for £35.

We were saving £10-£15 in comparison to the retail stores,

so we decided, well, let's give that a go.

That's £10 extra for the charity.

Two weeks went by and the helmet hadn't arrived.

When Andrew chased the Amazon seller,

he was disturbed by what he discovered.

We realised that, although it was a UK seller,

it was a China dispatch,

and we were informed that, in the small print,

that it could be 3-4 weeks before we would expect delivery.

So I suppose alarm bells started to ring at this stage.

But, when the helmet arrived, Andrew had more reason to worry.

The initial concern was the weight whenever we took the helmet

out of the box that it seemed to be much lighter than other Giro helmets.

It was seen to be a really light-foam quality

with some type of cheap plastic veneer over the top of it

which really wasn't meeting the edges in the correct places.

We were absolutely adamant that this just shouldn't be used at all,

that the only place this helmet was really fit to go was to the bin.

And that's where he put it.

The manufacturer Giro confirmed to Andrew that it was a fake

and, eventually, he got his money back.

Amazon told us -

They also said -

Worryingly, though, the counterfeits are still out there.

Fake Britain managed to buy another suspected fake Giro helmet

very similar to the one Andrew bought

from a totally different website.

We took our suspected fake to INSPEC in Manchester.

One of the UK's leading test houses for headgear,

they've agreed to compare it to the original, genuine Giro product

to see if the fake would pass European safety standards.

If we compare the products, looking at the original,

we have one design for the retention system adjustment

and we have a very different design on the suspected fake.

Similarly, for the side buckles, we have one design on the original

and a different design on the suspected fake.

At this point, that doesn't enable us to draw any conclusions

but it's something that obviously the end user can look for

if they're comparing the product.

Andrew and his team will run tests to check that the helmets

comply with the legally-required European standard

for bicycle headgear, EN 1078.

To begin with, the genuine product

will be put through its paces in a series of real-life scenarios.

Firstly, they'll measure its performance

when dropped onto this anvil shaped like a kerbstone.

The test simulates a head, in this case, hitting the kerbstone.

The standard for the shock absorption test includes

a maximum permitted acceleration of 250g.

So for each of the impacts that we're going to perform,

we'll be looking to make sure that the helmet

gives a value which is lower than that maximum.

OK, so let's see how the genuine Giro performs.

CLATTERING

And the result that we've got is 82.3g,

which is well below the 250g limit specified by the standard.

Next up, how will the genuine product cope

when hitting a flat, road-like surface?

So we've got a result of 187.3g

which is still well below the limit of 250g.

That's good performance.

So that's a pass, as expected, for our genuine Giro helmet.

Has the suspected fake got any chance of matching it?

First up, it's the kerbstone test.

That's a terrible result.

As you can see from the helmet, it's actually split in two.

The value that we've recorded is 1209.8g,

many times the maximum permitted by the standard.

That's nearly five times over the golden 250g safety limit.

And, from Andrew, the news just gets worse.

Unfortunately that's also exceeded the maximum that we can record

with our equipment, so the value could even be higher than that,

which is terrible.

I think we can be fairly confident that it is absolutely a fake and,

in practice, that would result in a catastrophic injury for the wearer.

The fake's failed so badly that it can't continue.

Normally we would be able to perform a second impact.

Clearly, in this case, we can't do that.

The lab's test rig is also damaged.

You can actually see where the kerbstone

has hit straight onto the headform

and put an indentation in the test headform.

If that were somebody's skull, then that would not be very nice.

Should you have an accident, there would be

potentially very, very serious consequences.

So we took our results

to one of Britain's leading brain injury centres,

the National Hospital For Neurology And Neurosurgery in London.

What does neurosurgeon Lewis Thorne

think of the performance of the fake helmet?

This has fractured at the side.

You can just see that the ear would be in this space here,

and where this comes away here

would expose the side of the head

which is actually the thinnest part of the skull

and most susceptible to fracture.

Lying underneath that area is one of the main arteries

beneath the bone,

and if that's damaged with a fracture of the skull,

that'll cause high-pressure bleeding over the surface of the brain,

rapidly putting pressure on the brain,

and it's the kind of thing that,

if it doesn't get urgent surgical treatment, is undoubtedly fatal.

This helmet could not have failed in a worse way.

And Lewis is shocked by the discovery of fake bike helmets

like this on the market.

Brain injuries are devastating.

They are the leading cause of death in young adults

and, as far as I'm concerned, helmets save lives.

And if you've got a helmet like this,

that's not going to save your life.

To find that people are prepared to put other people's lives at risk

for the sake of a small profit is totally reprehensible.

Saving stamps have been around for years in the UK.

As long ago as 1880, penny and postage stamps

were bought by people for their Post Office savings accounts,

and saving stamps are still sold in high-street stores and supermarkets.

Thousands of people collect them.

The problem is the fakers have gone into the saving stamps business too.

In these times of austerity, some supermarkets have reported

a rise of up to 40% in people buying into their saving stamp schemes.

When times are hard, people like to use them

to save for their weekly food shop

or for Christmas presents for the kids.

Money is tight for everyone, so

if you can prepare yourself enough by using saving stamps, it helps.

When you've got a young family, it's easier to put money away each week.

The problem is that the fakers want a piece of the market too,

as Nottinghamshire Police are about to find out.

They're on the trail of counterfeit saver stamps

from one of Britain's biggest supermarket chains - Morrisons.

We're en route to Coventry.

The Border Agency

have intercepted a package of stamps to a value of £25,000.

Detective Constable Glenn Finbow

suspects organised crime could be behind this hoard.

I doubt this is a one-man operation or a one-person operation.

One person can't go into a superstore

and cash in £25,000 worth of stamps in one hit.

It's got to be, potentially, nationwide.

It seems the fakers are targeting saving stamps

because they can be used like cash.

Unwitting shoppers have been duped into buying them too.

One woman was recently arrested for trying to use fakes in Tesco.

Back at Coventry postal hub,

Nottinghamshire Police have taken delivery

of £25,000 worth of saving stamps.

So what do they make of them?

We've seized this one package which has obviously...

It's got Chinese writing on it.

It's come from China to an address in Nottinghamshire.

It seems the fakers are using cheap Chinese counterfeiters

to do their dirty work and avoid UK law.

But the arrival of this seemingly-innocuous parcel

from the Far East

raised suspicions at customs.

Border Force picked this up initially

because it is such a small package for such a large supermarket chain

and it's not actually going to any Morrisons store,

it's going to the home address of someone else in Nottingham.

So it's back to base for Glenn and his colleagues

with their counterfeit hoard.

Now they're out of the package, they can take a closer look

alongside some genuine Morrisons saving stamps.

These are forgeries, these are the originals.

-I'll tell you what, it's not bad, is it?

-It's not bad at all.

-It's very good.

-That is a pretty good...

-Yeah, I wouldn't be able to tell.

-Fake.

So, Glenn and his colleagues are surprised by their quality.

But, side-by-side, next to the genuine saving stamps,

they have spotted some differences.

-That's a darker yellow.

-Yes.

-A more golden colour.

The genuine ones are slightly brighter yellow

and the Morrisons logo behind it it's quite light on these

and not quite as light on the fakes.

And it's the same size, same perforation,

the font sizes are the same.

If someone gave me one of those, I would have no clue.

-There's nothing obvious on it that would say they're fake.

-No.

You could probably buy several flatscreen TVs

with each of these small bundles.

There's £1,000 on each one of these.

They're all sequential numbering,

starting at 3201, 3202, all the way through.

And it ends in 4200.

There's 1,000 numbers in this bundle.

£1,000 worth of stamps.

And if Border Force hadn't intercepted this small package,

Morrisons would have paid the price.

If these went out into the open market

and back into Morrisons, Morrisons would be £25,000 down.

It turns out these aren't the only fakes that have been found.

Morrisons say that -

They advise all customers that -

But in the meantime, Glenn and his fellow officers

will follow up the leads they have on the packaging.

We've obtained a few more intelligence details

off of the actual box itself.

A couple of names, couple of addresses.

We'll be doing some intelligence-led police work

and see what avenue they lead us down.

The police investigation is ongoing.

Earlier we saw how fake bike helmets on the market

are putting lives in danger.

If you've got a helmet like this, that's not going to save your life.

Well, Fake Britain has been alerted to another dodgy batch of helmets.

This time heading for real bikers - motorcyclists.

26 were recently seized by Trading Standards.

Today they've brought them

to the British Standards Institution, or BSI,

to see if they comply with European or British safety standards,

as all motorcycle headgear must do under UK law.

What we want to find out is whether these are safe or not,

so BSI are carrying out some tests for us on the safety of the helmets

and also on the safety of the visors themselves.

The visor suggests it complies with European standards

but lab manager Mark Mayo suspects this is a fake claim.

The visor says that it's homologated to E22-05

but it is not the correct terminology for that standard.

So the makers can't even quote the correct standard,

which should read ECE 22.05.

Nevertheless, the BSI is going to see

if the claim made on this helmet is fake

with a series of tests on the visor.

The test we're going to show you now is the abrasion test.

It's to simulate whether a visor is scratch...

how scratch resistant it is and whether or not,

over a period of time,

the visor will still be able to be viewed through.

As Trading Standards watch on, a square section is removed.

This will now be subjected to the kind of wear and tear

a motorcycle visor could get during its lifetime.

We're going to drop sand on it which simulates particles

hitting the visor when it's actually in use.

We'll then see how much effect that has

on the transparency of the visor.

After 5kg of falling sand,

the sample is taken to another lab for a diffusion test.

Here, a laser is aimed at the visor to measure the amount of light

that gets through after the abrasion.

The results were five times the limit, so that's a definite fail.

What this means is that by the time the visor is coming towards

the end of its life,

the motorcyclist won't even be able to see through it properly

and it is not... Basically not fit for purpose.

So the claim that the visor meets the European standard is a fake.

What do Trading Standards make of these results?

Well, I'm really disappointed. The helmet clearly doesn't perform.

It doesn't look as though it's going to perform as it should

which presents a worry for the wearer.

Next, the team from the BSI prepare a penetration test.

This simulates how well the motorcycle visor

can withstand the impact of a stone or other flying debris.

We'll drop a mass from one metre,

we hit the punch and that will penetrate the visor

and depending on how far it goes through,

determines whether it's a pass or a fail.

There is a difference of 6mm penetration into the visor

and the limit is 5mm, so this is a failure.

So, on a second count,

the claim that this visor meets European standards

is proven to be a fake.

For the final, most critical test,

the BSI team is going to measure how well the helmet itself

will protect the rider in the event of a crash.

This will simulate in a real-life accident

someone coming off a motorbike.

This is one of the impact tests it has to pass

to meet the European standard.

So will it be third time lucky?

The impact energy is 975g which is a massive impact.

It's over three times the limit, it's actually off the scale.

That's brain injury, definitely.

So this helmet's catastrophically failed the European standards.

And there's worse news for the visor.

The visor's cracked in half but could quite easily have shattered

into more pieces, which could have caused serious eye injuries.

Trading Standards have been warning bikers about the dangers

of buying helmets that don't meet legal safety standards.

Their investigation continues.

I would be concerned for anyone who is going to be wearing this helmet.

The worst thing is they think they're protecting themselves

by wearing a helmet

and it's barely going to provide any protection whatsoever.

Pesticides are often used to help grow the food we eat.

They're regulated and tested

and the residues that remain on the food when we buy it are monitored.

But even then, it's a controversial subject.

So, it's been alarming for Fake Britain to discover

that potentially-dangerous fake pesticides are in circulation.

Experts tell us that the worldwide trade

in counterfeit and illegal pesticides

is said to be worth around a massive £4 billion,

and UK farms could be on the counterfeiters' hit list.

This is Felixstowe Port

where Border Force have made a shocking discovery of counterfeits.

Not the usual fake perfume or children's toys...

These are fake pesticides,

and they're potentially hazardous chemicals.

Well, the consignment originated in China

and it's been imported into the UK.

The products themselves are generally used in pesticides which would

typically be in something like this designed for agricultural use

rather than retail sale.

Acetamiprid is an insecticide and was developed in Japan.

The Japanese manufacturer has told Border Force that this

consignment must be counterfeit

because it's arrived from China, outside the usual supply chain.

The packaging is blank because it's probably going to be used

in some sort of further manufacturing or packaging process

somewhere in the UK.

But because it's counterfeit,

we don't know where that manufacturing will take place

or that repackaging or relabeling.

And then what will happen to it after that?

The genuine acetamiprid

is used to destroy aphids like blackfly and greenfly

which suck the sap from young plants and damage crops.

This insecticide is approved for use on fruit and vegetables

that we all buy, like apples, lettuce and potatoes.

Although acetamiprid is not widely used throughout

the UK's farming industry,

researchers at Harper Adams University in Gloucestershire

have been monitoring other fake pesticides

that have entered Europe from elsewhere.

Somewhere between 5% and 7% of the pesticides being used in the UK

are likely to be illegal and,

again, a proportion of those will be counterfeits.

Certainly, the manufacturers of these illicit products

are becoming smarter.

They are producing product that is increasingly more likely

to fool the authorities.

Like any counterfeit products,

the worry for experts like Chris Sambrook and Dr Richard Byrne

is not knowing what hazardous chemicals are contained

within the fakes.

A manufactured pesticide is gone through years of testing,

years of investment, it's regulated, it's...

We know how it behaves in the environment.

The real problem with these counterfeit pesticides

is that they might be carcinogenic.

They might accrue in the soil system, they might pollute watercourses,

they might pose a health risk to the operators.

The costs of fake pesticides affecting the food we eat

are potentially high for everyone.

There is a potential for these...

for the residue from these products which again are untested,

getting into the food chain

and having a long-term impact as a consequence of that.

If it's a fake product that's being used,

sprayed onto vegetables or fruit,

I think the risk there is likely to be somewhat greater,

simply because the residues have a greater potential

to get into the food chain because they won't have had time

to dissipate, and I think anything that's certainly sprayed onto

a fruit crop would be a worry.

For people like Robert Young, whose family has been farming food crops

for generations, that's the concern.

Even though he's never encountered fake pesticides,

news of attempts to bring them into the UK is a worry.

I think that's very disturbing.

All our crops are grown to farm assurance standards

for human consumption and we have to guarantee

that no adverse pesticides are used on them.

It could put something toxic in that would make it unsalable

and then the crop would be unmarketable,

so there's a huge financial risk.

And if you've got a fake pesticide,

then you don't know the ultimate consequences that will happen.

Pesticide usage in the UK

is one of the most highly regulated in the world.

All chemicals have to be tested

and approved by the Chemicals Regulation Directorate.

Many farmers like Robert use certified suppliers,

an adviser or agronomist to suggest which pesticides to use,

and he has to record when he sprays them.

But with companies allowed to source pesticides from elsewhere in Europe,

the danger is if the fakes get into the system

at a weaker point in the chain.

The biggest risk would be

if distributors got something unwittingly and passed it on

to the farmers, and I think that is the bit that...have to be cautious.

Europol estimate that up to 25% of pesticides

in some European countries have been sourced illegally.

Organisations including the National Farmers Union

have set up the 'Watch Out!' campaign

to help farmers spot the counterfeits.

The industry take the use of pesticides extremely seriously.

Consumer confidence is absolutely paramount to our industry.

We've seen that there's a problem over in Europe

but we want to make sure it doesn't become one here.

Back at the port of Felixstowe,

for these fake pesticides, there's only one destination.

The safest thing for us to do is to just destroy them

and make sure they're out of harm's way for good.

Without the Border Force,

these could have been heading to a field near you.

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.