Browse content similar to Episode 18. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Welcome to a world where nothing is quite as it seems. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
Welcome to Fake Britain. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
Police! SHOUTING | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
-Get down! Get down! -Get on the floor, now! | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
Put your hands behind your back, now. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:24 | |
Here at the Fake Britain house, things might look familiar, | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
but don't be taken in. Because this is a house that's filled with fakes. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:33 | |
In this series, I'll be revealing the counterfeits, copies and cons | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
that are flooding the market, | 0:00:37 | 0:00:38 | |
fooling the public, | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
making money for the criminals and maybe even putting you in danger. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
We'll be investigating those fraudsters | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
who are cashing in by selling us something that isn't real. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
And we'll be showing you how to avoid falling for a fake. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:55 | |
Today on Fake Britain, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
fake alcohol blighting Britain's pubs. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
This was actually found for sale behind the bar on an optic, | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
and could actually kill you. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:04 | |
Fake architects who could leave your renovation in ruins. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:08 | |
They were stuck with this place that wasn't safe, | 0:01:08 | 0:01:10 | |
and they had to pay tens of thousands of pounds to put it right. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:14 | |
Fake art that's fleecing art lovers for millions of pounds every year. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:18 | |
They say it was found in an attic in the 1960s, when in reality, | 0:01:18 | 0:01:22 | |
it was probably made last year in China. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:23 | |
And what's in your takeaway? | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
Fake Britain lifts the lid on lamb kebabs. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
Looking at its label, I suspect the product is probably fake. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
Keys, wallet, jacket... Got everything. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
See, I'm off down the pub. Going to meet my friends. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
Might even have a drink or two. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:48 | |
It's part of the British way of life. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
So, in a British pub, you can rely on being served the real thing... | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
can't you? | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
The black market industry for fake alcohol in Britain is now worth | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
an estimated £1 billion, | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
as sales for counterfeit wine and spirits are on the rise. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:09 | |
We've seen before on Fake Britain knock-off booze being sold | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
in local shops and off-licences up and down the country. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
We're going to be seizing this, | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
because it isn't a whisky. It's fake. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
And we've seen just how dangerous these fake drinks can be. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
It contains high levels of methanol. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
This product needs to come off sale today. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
But in St Helens, Merseyside, | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
Trading Standards officer Collette Rai has just uncovered | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
a seriously shocking case of fake spirits, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
and one that showcases a terrifying trend - | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
fakes being sold over the counter to pub customers. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:45 | |
This is probably the largest operation | 0:02:45 | 0:02:47 | |
that St Helens Trading Standards have been involved in. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
It all started | 0:02:51 | 0:02:52 | |
when Environmental Health received complaints about a pub | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
called the White House that was thought to be hoarding a stash | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
of 1,500 empty beer kegs in the back yard. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
But Collette at Trading Standards suspected | 0:03:04 | 0:03:06 | |
there could be more to this than met the eye. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
The pub was associated with low-level criminality, but I don't think | 0:03:09 | 0:03:15 | |
any of us had any idea of the scale of what we were about to find. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
In the past, Trading Standards have dealt with pubs passing off | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
cheaper spirits as premium brands as a way to bolster their profits, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:28 | |
known in the trade as substitution. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
But as Collette and the team searched the White House pub, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
they quickly suspected a number of bottles for sale behind the bar | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
might be fake - | 0:03:39 | 0:03:41 | |
and they found a further stash | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
of almost 1,000 potentially fake bottles | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
boxed up in the flat above the pub. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
Trading Standards chief Darrell Wilson didn't waste any time | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
getting the suspect spirits out of harm's way | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
until they knew what they were dealing with. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:57 | |
As you can see, this is everything that Collette and the team | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
seized from the pub. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
This is Prince Consort vodka. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
There is such a brand as Prince Consort, so this is a fake, a copy, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:09 | |
made to look very convincing, with all the labelling | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
and the wording just as you'd expect on the original item. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
Even on the back of the bottle they go to the trouble of copying | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
a duty stamp and a bar code. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
But this isn't genuine, it's fake. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
There was worse to come, as Darrell sent the fake Prince Consort vodka | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
to be analysed at the lab. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
It contains industrial alcohol, which, | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
if you were to consume this in any quantities, could make you very ill, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
and could actually kill you if you carried on drinking this. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
Sadly, over the last 10 years, | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
there have been hundreds of deaths worldwide linked to fake alcohol. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
And as a result, we are all urged | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
to examine the bottles we buy to check they're legit. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
But these fake spirits were being served to unsuspecting locals | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
on a licensed premises by a landlord and landlady, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
Cedrick Fitzpatrick and Barbara Gallimore, | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
so the customers had no control over what they were drinking. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
This was actually found for sale behind the bar, on an optic. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
This was actually being sold to customers, which is quite worrying | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
when you consider that people just going to their local pub | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
for a drink with their friends are actually being served | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
something which certainly in any quantity can be quite dangerous. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
These fakers didn't stop there. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
The team also uncovered a bootleg brand called Revolution vodka, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:34 | |
that purported to be produced for the discount supermarket chain Aldi. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:39 | |
When we checked, they'd never heard of Revolution vodka. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
It's all part of the method to try and sell this to people. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:46 | |
And there was a further bootleg brand of Scotch whisky | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
that was also being sold in the White House. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:52 | |
There is actually no real brand of Dexters. This is a fake brand. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
And they don't actually contain whisky. | 0:05:57 | 0:05:59 | |
It's just a brown spirit, but it's not whisky. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:03 | |
So, being fake, they're illegal. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
And obviously there's 500 bottles of this we seized. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:10 | |
The pub was immediately shut down, | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
and has quickly fallen into disrepair. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
The White House, as you can see, is now completely empty. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
It's boarded up. It's been closed for some time because the licensee | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
lost the premises licence and so can no longer operate. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:27 | |
It's a frightening revelation - | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
900 bottles of potentially lethal fake spirits with a retail value | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
of almost £50,000, all being sold from a pub. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
St Helens Trading Standards have seen substituted spirits in pubs, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
and we've seen fake alcohol in off-licences, | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
but we've never seen it on sale in a pub before, | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
and we've certainly never seen it in such quantities. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
This is the biggest stash of fake spirits we've seen in St Helens, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
and I'd suspect it's one of the larger ones in the country. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
In the UK, pubs are governed by strict licensing laws, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:02 | |
and as St Helens councillor Seve Gomez-Aspron points out, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
if you can't trust a pub not to sell you fakes, who can you trust? | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
It's important that the community should go out and be able | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
to be trusting the people they're buying drink off, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
because you can end up in a vulnerable position. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
Selling fake alcohol has always been an issue, | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
but more of a backstreet trade. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:21 | |
I think when people do it under the banner of a reputable pub, | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
it dupes the public into thinking it's someone they can trust. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
If they're buying that under that misapprehension, | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
then it's totally unfair and the council and authorities | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
should deal with it very severely. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
Thanks to the St Helens Trading Standards team, | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
there's no more fake booze being traded from this public house. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
And for flogging the fakes, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
Cedrick Fitzpatrick received a nine-month prison sentence, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
Barbara Gallimore, a six-month custodial sentence, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
suspended for 12 months. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:51 | |
I think the strong message that we need to send out is, | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
if you dabble in fake booze, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:55 | |
Trading Standards WILL come after you, they WILL prosecute you, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
and you WILL be punished for abusing their trust. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
Later, we discover that Dexters isn't the only phoney Scotch | 0:08:00 | 0:08:04 | |
doing the rounds, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:05 | |
and reveal the tricks they use to flog you the fakes. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
People will be buying this in the mistaken belief that it's Scotch. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
It's quite clearly a fake whisky. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
Look at these. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:20 | |
They're architectural drawings, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
the plans for building work at someone's home. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
A lot of money is being spent on these, | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
and much more on the actual work itself. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
Now, they look very complicated, very professional. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
More importantly, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
they were the start of someone getting the home they dreamed of. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
Can you imagine the problems | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
if these were actually full of mistakes, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
and the architect who drew them up was a fake? | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
After a short break, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
our national obsession with property is alive and well again, | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
and many of us Brits are choosing to stay put and renovate the house | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
we live in, rather than foot the cost of moving to a new one. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:01 | |
But there have been scores of cases up and down the UK | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
of homeowners who've put their faith in someone | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
they think is a professional architect, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
but who turns out to be nothing more than an unqualified charlatan. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:14 | |
The law states you can only use the term architect | 0:09:14 | 0:09:17 | |
if you've registered with the Architects Registration Board, | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
and it takes about seven years of education and training | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
before this can happen. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:25 | |
One person who's been on the receiving end of a fake is Frank. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
It's not his real name, but he's asked us not to reveal his identity. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
Never one to shy away from a challenge, Frank decided | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
to self-build a loft conversion to transform his 1930s semi. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:44 | |
I've always wanted to build a loft. It's always been an ambition of mine. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
So I understood the rough outline of what was required. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
So, before he started, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
Frank was looking for an architect to draw up some plans to work from. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
He saw an advert in the local paper. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
He was just one man working from home who showed me a bunch of plans, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
and I suppose he gave the impression that he would deliver what I asked. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
Convinced he'd met a fully qualified architect, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
Frank paid him around £900 | 0:10:09 | 0:10:10 | |
to design a loft conversion and produce the drawings he required. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
When they came through, | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
it even stated on the planning paperwork that he WAS an architect. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:20 | |
But when Frank spotted what he thought were some mistakes | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
in the plans, the so-called architect started to get | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
more and more evasive. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
It was very difficult for me to question him, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
because he's the font of all knowledge, isn't he? You know? | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
He's the architect. He's the guy who knows it all. So I'm obviously wrong. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
Taking the architect's word as gospel, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
the plans were submitted to the council, and approved. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:44 | |
But a few months later, Frank was about to discover a massive mistake. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
The big error with him was that on the planning side, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
with my particular property, being a semidetached, | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
you're allowed 50 cubic square metres | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
as a maximum enlargement of the roof volume, | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
and he, unfortunately, made a miscalculation | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
by 15% to 20%. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
The plan said it was 50 cubic metres, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
but in reality, it was only 40, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
hardly giving Frank any room to stand up in. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
It meant he'd just paid £900 for designs and planning approval | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
that were completely unusable. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
Once the penny dropped, I thought, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
blimey, the reason why he never answered my questions, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
the reason why he became quite abusive, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
it all came true, that he didn't like me asking the questions | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
because he couldn't answer them, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
which caused me a lot of time and stress and hassle. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
And it wasn't long before Frank realised he'd fallen for a fake. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:42 | |
Yeah, I just felt ripped off, really. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
And the guy is out there, purporting to be something that he's not, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
and charging people accordingly. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
Frank did some digging on the internet | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
and discovered that the supposed architect he'd hired | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
had already been prosecuted for being a fake. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
They're thieving, aren't they, from people? | 0:11:57 | 0:11:59 | |
They're deceiving and thieving. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
It's like if I have an ailment and I go and see a doctor, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
I want to see someone who's going to put me right. HE LAUGHS | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
I don't want somebody purporting to be something they're not. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
Unfortunately it's not a one-off. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
This is a real issue in the UK, especially as we're finding | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
we're doing more and more building work to improve our homes, | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
and we're finding that people who are pretending to be architects | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
are being prosecuted by the architectural registration board. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:25 | |
Paula Higgins offers an advice service to homeowners, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
and recently helped a couple who got duped by a fake architect | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
they'd hired for a major house renovation. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
They thought they were employing a professionally qualified architect. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
The architect, in passing, referred to himself as an architect. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
But after entrusting him to design and project manage | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
a £200,000 refurbishment, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
they realised he was a fake, after glaring errors. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
He failed to get the required planning permission, | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
or ensure that the extension was built to regulation. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
It was quite late in the build when the client actually realised | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
that he was a fake architect, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
so they were stuck with this place that wasn't safe, | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
wasn't properly signed off, | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
and had been very difficult for them to sell, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
and they had to pay tens of thousands of pounds to put it right. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
We've got to point out that it is perfectly legal to offer services | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
similar to that of an architect, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
like architectural drawing services, for example, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
as long as you don't use the term "architect". | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
But unfortunately, genuine architect Philip Atkinson is seeing | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
more and more unqualified fakers illegally using the term. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
It is a problem to us. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:39 | |
It's a problem that we're seeing that is growing. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
If somebody employs a fake architect, it's a tragedy really, | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
because people will be paying fees to somebody who isn't competent | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
to deliver their project, and there are huge risks involved with that. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:53 | |
And it's not only the homeowners that lose out. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
We're losing business to people who are giving a lesser service | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
for the same fees. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:00 | |
It's not just fake architects that can dash your dreams | 0:14:00 | 0:14:04 | |
of creating a perfect property. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
In Wolverhampton, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:07 | |
Trading Standards Officer Susan Bellingham has come across | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
another type of faker | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
cashing in on the house-renovating and building boom. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
This man, Harjit Singh, was offering his services | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
as a planning agent - | 0:14:18 | 0:14:19 | |
someone who arranges planning permission for a fee. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
One of his clients contacted the council | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
when they suspected something wasn't quite right. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
It first came to light | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
when planning services at Wolverhampton City Council | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
received a planning notice | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
that they suspected was a fake planning notice. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:40 | |
Planning promotion is a legal requirement in the UK | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
if you're building a new home | 0:14:43 | 0:14:44 | |
or carrying out major changes to an existing one. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
Harjit Singh completed an application for a developer | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
to build four bungalows, charging him a fee of £1,300. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:57 | |
Eight weeks later, Mr Singh told the developer the permission | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
had been granted, and gave him this document. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
The problem is, it was a fake. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
As you can see, it looks a genuine document, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
and consumers, householders, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
developers that are new to the business | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
may think it is a genuine document. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
So on the surface, the document looks legit, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
with all the information you'd expect to find | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
on a planning permission notice. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
The Wolverhampton City logo is on the top right-hand corner, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
which is the correct logo that the council uses. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
The name of the planning officer is correct. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
But when the planning officer ran a check on the reference number | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
issued for this particular application, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
things took an unexpected turn. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
The reference number that's on the document, | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
that actually was a reference number for a different property. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
Planning permission hadn't been authorised, | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
and this was a fake document. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:49 | |
Rather than submit a planning permission application | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
for the developer, conman Harjit Singh had cut and pasted | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
his own fake version of the notice, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:00 | |
saying that the permission had been granted. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
As they say, the devil's in the detail, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
and there were a few things Harjit Singh didn't get right. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
This is a genuine planning permission document | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
issued by Wolverhampton City Council, | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
and this is one of the fraudulent fake planning commission documents. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
As you can see, Wolverhampton City Council appears on both. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
However, at the end page, there's a signature here, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
that's a fake signature of Nick Edwards, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
and he's never been director of planning and transportation. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
Now concerned that Mr Singh might be a serial faker, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
Susan did some checks | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
to see if he'd ever submitted any planning applications, | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
and found that he had. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
But one of these applications had been refused, | 0:16:43 | 0:16:45 | |
and when she contacted the homeowners, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
it seems they were given paperwork that told a different story. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
The householder was under the impression that a two-storey | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
extension could be built on the side of his house, which wasn't the case, | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
because planning permission hadn't actually been authorised. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
But like the developer before them, they'd paid Mr Singh a fee, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
only to discover they'd been the target of a fake. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
The householders were very shocked | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
when they found out that their planning permission notices | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
were fake. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
They couldn't believe it and were very upset about it. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
In total, Susan discovered three people had been affected | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
by Mr Singh's fake planning permission notices. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
But thanks to her investigation, they were all told | 0:17:27 | 0:17:29 | |
about the fakes before they'd started any building work. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
It wasn't all good news. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
The consequences were that the projects were delayed. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
There were also cost implications, | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
and the fact that they've got to go through the process again | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
employing different planning agents or architects, | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
and start almost from scratch. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
And as planning consultant Hayley Ellison knows, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
if you're building with fake planning permission, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
ultimately the homeowner is going to pay the price. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
If you don't obtain planning permission | 0:17:58 | 0:17:59 | |
and you do building work, the local planning authority | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
do have the powers to take enforcement action. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
The extreme is that they'd ask you to revert the property | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
to how it was before, which obviously would be very costly. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
As for Mr Singh, well, for faking planning permission notices, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
he received a 12-month suspended prison sentence | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
and 200 hours' unpaid work. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
He was also fined just shy of £8,000. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
It's very concerning that there are people | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
who produce fake planning permission. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:26 | |
It's quite worrying that people would potentially inflict that | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
on a householder who doesn't really understand necessarily | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
what they're getting themselves into. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
The Architects Registration Board told us | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
that if you want to check the credentials of an architect, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
you can do so by visiting the board's website. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
If you're concerned about a planning agent, you should contact | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
your local authority planning office for advice. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
HE SNIFFS | 0:18:57 | 0:18:58 | |
Now, that is the smell of Saturday night. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
We've looked at takeaway food that isn't everything it should be | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
on Fake Britain before. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
The curries that are a con, the fish and chips that are a bit fishy, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:09 | |
and the pizzas that are faking it. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
So all I've got left is the lamb kebabs. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
And if I ordered lamb, the law says it must BE lamb. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
I mean, what else COULD it be? | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
Kebabs are one of Britain's top takeaways. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
In fact, we Brits are eating so many | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
that the industry is said to be worth about £2.2 billion. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:33 | |
That's a lot of doners. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:35 | |
Kebabs originated in Turkey, and in legitimate restaurants | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
like this award-winning establishment in north London, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
you get the real thing - | 0:19:42 | 0:19:43 | |
kebabs that are made using either chicken or lamb. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
But here's the thing. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:49 | |
Lamb kebabs are the most expensive to produce, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
as wholesale prices for lamb meat | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
are almost twice that of beef or pork, at around £35 a kilo. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
And there are kebab shops up and down the country | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
selling fake kebabs, swapping out the expensive lamb | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
and instead giving you cheaper meat, such as beef or pork. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
It's 11am, near West Malling in Kent, | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
and county council Trading Standings officer Susan Harvey | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
is heading off to carry out a test purchase | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
on a local kebab shop that they suspect | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
is selling fake lamb doners. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
Today we'll be taking a formal sample, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
and this is basically just to see whether the product is fake. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
You know, is it actually lamb, or has it got other meats in it? | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
Pretty straightforward, really. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
Susan will buy a kebab, | 0:20:37 | 0:20:38 | |
and then have it analysed to find out what meat it contains. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
If it turns out to be fake, the seller could face a hefty fine. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
Now, Susan wants to get a sample of the lamb kebab | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
as if she was a regular customer, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
so for now she's going to keep the fact she is with trading standards | 0:20:52 | 0:20:56 | |
on the QT, | 0:20:56 | 0:20:57 | |
which means the Fake Britain camera's going to loiter outside. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
Can I have... a large lamb doner, please? | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
That's all, thank you. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:08 | |
And, with the sample in the bag, it's time for phase two. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
I've purchased it. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
I've just come out of the shop, and now we are going to go in | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
and I'll tell them who I am, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:18 | |
and then continue my inspection of the premises. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
It was described on the menu board as a lamb doner kebab, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
so therefore I would expect that to contain only lamb. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
From the tip-off she's received, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
Susan suspects she's got a fake lamb kebab, so she's going to have | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
a chat with the staff and have a butcher's around the shop. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
-Hi, there. I'm from Kent County Council Trading Standards. -Yep. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:41 | |
-OK, just came in and purchased the lamb doner kebab from you. -Yep. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
OK, what I'm here to do is to do a formal sample of the food, | 0:21:44 | 0:21:48 | |
because what we're going to be doing is checking for any other species. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
-All right. -So if it's got anything other than lamb in the kebabs, OK? | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
-OK. -So I will need to come out round the back as well. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:59 | |
Susan knows the kebab shop could be buying the lamb meat in good faith, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
and the meat could be mixed further up the supply chain, | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
so she wants to have a root around the kitchen for any evidence | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
that could be useful. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
I'll just go out the back, really have a look at any documentation | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
or labelling they've got for that product, if they have any, | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
of course, for the product, still, or any details of the supply to them. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
-Where is the best way through, through here? -Yeah. -Yeah? Thank you. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:25 | |
Out the back, Susan wants to have a closer look | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
at the packaging that the doner kebab came in. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
When the kebab comes in to you, is there any wrapping, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:35 | |
is there any labelling or documentation | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
that you get with it, do you know? | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
-Yeah, yeah. -Have you got one at the moment, in storage? | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
-I put it here. -You've put it in the bin, have you? OK. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
I'll have a look at that. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:47 | |
Susan's interested to see if the packing label contains | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
any information that might show if the kebabs on sale are fake. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:54 | |
At the top it does say "Mixed meat doner kebab", | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
so it leads me to conclude it does contain beef in there. OK? | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
Cos otherwise I would expect it to say "lamb doner kebab". | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
The kebab shop worker is looking anxious. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
It's not surprising, since the label's ingredient list | 0:23:09 | 0:23:13 | |
makes Susan believe she may well have just bought a fake lamb kebab. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:18 | |
-It looks like it might be beef. -No, it shouldn't... It's lamb. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
Yeah, it's got lamb, | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
but there's something else written above there, isn't there? | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
-Do you understand what the issue is here? -Yeah, yeah. -So a lamb kebab... | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
-You need to find out what is inside. -Exactly. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
And it's difficult to read this, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
but I think that possibly says it's got beef in it. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
It looks like the supplier has labelled the meat correctly, | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
but the shop is selling mixed meat kebabs, advertising them as lamb. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:45 | |
Looking at its label, I suspect the product is probably fake, | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
which we obviously will need to confirm by speaking to the supplier | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
and also by the test that we get done by the public analyst, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
because it looks to me as though it contains beef as well as lamb. | 0:23:55 | 0:24:00 | |
With the suspect kebab and label bagged and tagged... | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
-OK, thank you very much. -No problem. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:05 | |
..Susan's work here is done. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
Thank you. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
So now that will just go straight back to the public analysts, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
and then they will test it to look for the beef and lamb in there, | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
and they will get an idea of the percentages, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
if there's more than one meat in there as well. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
Back at base, chief tester Jon Griffin has analysed the lamb kebab | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
by checking the DNA to reveal what meat it contains, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
and whether it's a fake. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
There can be an array of meats in there, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
or you might just find the one. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
A couple of shakes of a test tube, and it's official. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
The lamb kebab IS a fake. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
It contained 42% beef, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
and only 58% lamb. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
And the restaurant that sold it is given a written warning | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
to ensure they stop selling fakes. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
We have seen an increase in these things. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:58 | |
It has been at a consistent level. There is a misdescription concern, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
and if they're what we're calling fake kebabs, | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
then the consumer is suffering from that point of view, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
because they're not getting what they're paying for. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
The consumer must know what they're buying, | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
that's the most important thing. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:12 | |
Earlier we saw how St Helens Trading Standards, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
for the first time, uncovered a stash of fake spirits being sold | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
to unsuspecting customers in a licensed pub. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
This is the biggest stash of fake spirits we've seen. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
One of the brands on offer was a fake Scotch whisky. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
It's just a spirit, a brown spirit. But it's not whisky. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
Now, Scottish whisky, known as Scotch, is so popular, | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
it's a multibillion pound industry that employs over 45,000 Brits. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:49 | |
In one year alone, Scottish distilleries produce enough bottles | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
to stretch between New York and Edinburgh six times over. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
Not that you'd want to do that. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
Whisky writer and lecturer Charles MacLean has a nose | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
for the Scottish dram, and understands why it's so popular. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
When you buy a bottle of Scotch whisky, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
you're buying a hell of a lot more than liquor in a bottle. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
You're buying craft, you're buying culture, you're buying history. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:15 | |
And if the whisky is not what it says it is, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:20 | |
it leads to disappointment. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
And yes, you've guessed it, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
there are disappointed drinkers up and down the UK, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
as Scotch whisky has been targeted by the fakers. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
And it's the job of Scottish Whisky Association lawyer Lindesay Low | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
to flush out the fakes. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
Scotch whisky is defined by law. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
There are very strict regulations regarding how it must be made, | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
and the industry is closely supervised by UK Customs | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
who make sure that people are playing by the rules. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
In order to sell it as a genuine Scotch whisky, | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
there are certain boxes the drink has to tick, | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
and failure to do so will make it a fake. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
Scotch whisky is a very pure and natural product. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
There's only three raw materials that are used in its production, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
and that's water, cereal and yeast. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
Another important part of the production process, | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
it has to matured for at least three years in Scotland, in oak barrels. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:18 | |
The ageing of whisky in the wooden barrels is an expensive process, | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
and there are fakers out there trying to cash in | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
on the lucrative market by passing off substandard spirits | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
as a drop of the good old stuff. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
When we come across fake Scotch whiskies, we generally find | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
that they consist of unaged, neutral spirits, | 0:27:34 | 0:27:38 | |
possibly with a small amount of genuine whisky added to them, | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
to give them a superficial appearance and flavour of the real thing. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:46 | |
And it's not just what's inside the bottle that is designed to dupe. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
It's the bottles themselves. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
OK, well, we've got a few bottles here that we've discovered in the UK, | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
and they're all fake whiskies. | 0:27:58 | 0:27:59 | |
The first of these is Dexter, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
and this product was seen widely across England. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:06 | |
It's the fake brand we saw Merseyside Trading Standards | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
seize from the White House pub. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
The Scottish Whisky Research Institute ran specific tests | 0:28:11 | 0:28:15 | |
on the liquid in the bottle that claims to be a Scottish whisky, | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
just to see whether it's been aged in oak barrels | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
or whether it's just a cheap fake. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
Probably most importantly, | 0:28:24 | 0:28:25 | |
they've looked at the compounds that are present as a result | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
of it being aged in barrels, so we can tell from that it's not been aged | 0:28:28 | 0:28:33 | |
for three years as required, and therefore it can't be sold as whisky. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
It also revealed that the liquid was a neutral, unaged alcoholic spirit, | 0:28:36 | 0:28:40 | |
most likely dyed to give it a similar colour to whisky. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:44 | |
It's quite clearly a fake whisky. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
And it's not the only one. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:50 | |
In fact, over the last 10 years, Lindesay has seen 20 different | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
fake Scottish whisky brands being sold in Britain. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
Here's one of his personal favourites. | 0:28:57 | 0:28:59 | |
This is another fake whisky. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:01 | |
Looking at it, it's got a lot of Scottish imagery, | 0:29:01 | 0:29:04 | |
it's got the Highland dancer. It's called Scottish Swordsman. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
If you read the back label, | 0:29:08 | 0:29:10 | |
"..aged and blended in the Highlands in the old Scottish tradition." | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
But again, this is completely fake. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
It's neutral, unaged alcohol, a far inferior product. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:19 | |
Genuine blended Scottish whisky retails from around £12 a bottle, | 0:29:19 | 0:29:23 | |
and the cost of producing it varies depending on how long | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
the liquid has aged for. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:28 | |
But a neutral, unaged spirit, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
packaged as a fake Scotch like this Scottish Swordsman, | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
can be knocked up in a Del Boy distillery for significantly less. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
There can be no doubt that people will be buying this | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
in the mistaken belief that it's Scotch. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:43 | |
And as Charles MacLean knows only too well, | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
it's the drinker's palate that ultimately pays the price. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:49 | |
These counterfeiters who can buy some very cheap-based spirit | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
and colour it up and stick it into a bottle, | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
is...from a flavour point of view, is disastrous. | 0:29:56 | 0:30:01 | |
But drinkers aren't the only ones to suffer. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:04 | |
Scotch whisky sells because it's a natural, high-quality, | 0:30:07 | 0:30:10 | |
iconic product. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:12 | |
If it's widely faked, we could lose that, | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
and it's something we probably wouldn't be able to get back. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:17 | |
Later, recycling's not always good. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:22 | |
Old bottles filled with botched Scotch. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
You know, maybe it's single-cask washing-up liquid. I don't know. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:28 | |
But it's not the real deal. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:30 | |
Take a look at this. It's a name you might recognise. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
LS Lowry. Famous for the "matchstick men" he created in industrial scenes | 0:30:38 | 0:30:42 | |
of life in the north-west of England where he lived, | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
he often made sketches like this on almost anything - | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
back of a napkin, or a postcard. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
Look, here's another, signed "Lowry". | 0:30:51 | 0:30:56 | |
In fact, we've got a whole pile of them. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:58 | |
You guessed it, they're fakes. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:00 | |
If they were real, they could be worth thousands of pounds each. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
When it comes to art, the fakers are everywhere. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
From a Monet to a Michelangelo, | 0:31:10 | 0:31:12 | |
fake art has been around almost as long as art. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:16 | |
However, in recent years, | 0:31:16 | 0:31:17 | |
fake art has taken on a more sinister trend, | 0:31:17 | 0:31:21 | |
something art and antiques valuer Aubrey Dawson | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
is seeing a lot more of. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
In the past, | 0:31:26 | 0:31:27 | |
a lot of paintings were forged with the intent of trying to deceive | 0:31:27 | 0:31:30 | |
the big museums, the big galleries, | 0:31:30 | 0:31:32 | |
and the people at the top of the art market. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
Today, with the advent of the internet, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
pictures are far more available to the people on the street. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:41 | |
So forgers and fakers are not focusing so much on the Rembrandts | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
on Monets, Picassos, | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
they're focusing on smaller artists who are much easier to fake, | 0:31:46 | 0:31:49 | |
lower prices, and as a result, people will buy them. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:53 | |
So, online fake art sellers trying to swindle art lovers | 0:31:53 | 0:31:57 | |
out of their hard-earned cash doesn't sound too good. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
And what's worse, it looks like it's here to stay. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
For the fraudster, it's big business. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:06 | |
We've seen a great influx from the Far East, so in some parts of China | 0:32:06 | 0:32:10 | |
there's whole cities dedicated to churning out fake paintings. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:14 | |
So the sellers say it was found in an attic in the 1960s, | 0:32:14 | 0:32:18 | |
when in reality, it was probably made last year in China. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
One of the few living artists to be targeted by the fakers | 0:32:21 | 0:32:25 | |
is Ashley Jackson, a watercolour painter from Yorkshire. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
There are people in life who want an easy way out. | 0:32:29 | 0:32:33 | |
And this is their easy way out. Fake everything. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:36 | |
To me, they're killing an industry. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
And like a lot of things in the world of fakes, | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
it all began with a tip-off to Ashley's agent, Claudia. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:47 | |
We received a phone call to the gallery from an anonymous caller | 0:32:47 | 0:32:51 | |
advising us that Ashley Jackson's work was being sold | 0:32:51 | 0:32:55 | |
on an online auction site. | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
There is a genuine resale market for Ashley Jackson originals, | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
which can fetch tens of thousands of pounds - | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
but when Claudia had a thumb through the adverts, | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
she could tell something wasn't quite right. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:10 | |
This one, its title is saying | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
"Original Ashley Jackson watercolour signed 1972." | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
In terms of knowing it's a fake, | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
it's poor composition, and the signature's not Ashley's. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:21 | |
And it is just a poor, wishy-washy imitation. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
If Claudia's eagle eye | 0:33:25 | 0:33:27 | |
wasn't enough to prove these paintings were fake, | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
it was a howler the fraudster made | 0:33:30 | 0:33:32 | |
which was the final nail in the coffin. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
One of the later drawings he's done, | 0:33:36 | 0:33:38 | |
I think he found that the first one had sold so well | 0:33:38 | 0:33:41 | |
and that he'd reproduce a second one of the same image. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
He's reproduced an image | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
and said it's an Ashley Jackson original watercolour. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:47 | |
His wording is that he's saying it is an original. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
Now, the whole point of an original | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
is there is only one of them ever made. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:55 | |
It's got to be unique. | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
The bloke churning out this fake art clearly had difficulty | 0:33:58 | 0:34:01 | |
understanding that concept, as he faked the same image twice. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:05 | |
It's ridiculous to think that he could even feel | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
he could get away with it. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
His forging days were numbered, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:13 | |
as Claudia and Ashley reported the fakes to the police, | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
and the fraudster was swiftly collared and given a caution | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
along with a lifetime ban from eBay to stop him selling any more fakes. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:24 | |
So when somebody says this is a faceless crime, | 0:34:24 | 0:34:27 | |
or a victimless crime, they're wrong. Totally wrong. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
Because this person isn't just stealing his artwork | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
and his name, he's stealing his life. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
And he's not the only thief. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:37 | |
The more popular Ashley Jackson has become, | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
the more fakes he's seen in circulation. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:43 | |
We get a lot of people coming to the gallery and saying, | 0:34:43 | 0:34:45 | |
"I've got an Ashley Jackson." | 0:34:45 | 0:34:47 | |
And I look at it, I'm sorry, sir, it ain't an Ashley Jackson, | 0:34:47 | 0:34:50 | |
because mine's got soul in it. That has got money in it. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:54 | |
Unfortunately the internet is awash with fake artwork. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
Aubrey Dawson doesn't have to look far to find some suspect paintings, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
and the usual array of tricks the fraudsters use to convince you | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
that the artwork is real. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:07 | |
So here we've got a lithograph by the really popular artist, Marc Chagall. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:12 | |
An original would go for around £3,000. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:15 | |
This seller's got a trick up his sleeve | 0:35:16 | 0:35:18 | |
to try and shift a shifty fake. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
With it comes a little certificate of authenticity | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
from the National Art Guild, signed by a chap called George Kopel. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:27 | |
Looks very official. Looks very authentic. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
This would give you confidence. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:33 | |
Certificates of authenticity, | 0:35:33 | 0:35:35 | |
along with a documented history known in the trade as provenance, | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
are the two main ways in which a buyer can feel confident | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
that a piece of art is genuine, unless of course THEY are fake. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:45 | |
I've done a bit of research | 0:35:45 | 0:35:46 | |
and the National Art Guild doesn't appear to exist, | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
and either does this chap George Kopel. An out-and-out fake. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
So by attaching the certificate of authenticity, | 0:35:54 | 0:35:57 | |
the seller is trying to give a buyer confidence, trying to make him think | 0:35:57 | 0:36:02 | |
that this is a real picture, it's been seen by an expert, | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
it's definitely genuine, it's definitely legitimate. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
It's an out-and-out fake. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:09 | |
But it isn't the only move that a faker will use | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
to pin you to a canvas. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
Today Aubrey's off to meet author and lecturer Dr Richard Howells, | 0:36:15 | 0:36:19 | |
whose fascination with the fakes inspired him to purchase | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
a stack of artwork by the most faked British artist, LS Lowry. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:27 | |
-Aubrey! -Richard, nice to see you. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
-Come and have a look at these dodgy Lowrys. -Let's go and have a look. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
Over the last five years, Richard's bought around 25 or so | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
fake sketches online, sold as being by the great late Lowry. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:43 | |
And there are a number of different ways the fraudsters make these fakes | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
look like genuine artwork. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:48 | |
Some of these look very artificially aged. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:51 | |
I think you're spot on the money there. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:53 | |
-I mean, let's have a little look at this one here. -Ah, yeah. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:56 | |
-That's a winner. -So we've got a nice little industrial scene | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
with the tall chimneys, and what looks like some Earl Grey. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:03 | |
-Yeah! -That's been... | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
So, the fakers use the classic "let's make it look old" trick. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
If you look closely, though, there are some subtle mistakes. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:13 | |
If you have a closer look, you can actually see a little bit | 0:37:13 | 0:37:16 | |
of the original white paper there | 0:37:16 | 0:37:18 | |
-where they haven't quite got all the staining. -Oh, yes! | 0:37:18 | 0:37:20 | |
Absolutely, because this has been stuck on, hasn't it? | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
This is just a modern, crisp bit of A4 paper. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
Now, Lowry was notorious for producing sketches | 0:37:26 | 0:37:28 | |
on anything from scraps of paper to restaurant napkins. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:32 | |
It's estimated there are around 8,000 genuine Lowry sketches | 0:37:32 | 0:37:36 | |
in existence. So taking full advantage of this, | 0:37:36 | 0:37:40 | |
some of the fake art producers will go one step further | 0:37:40 | 0:37:42 | |
to convince you it was the work of the great man himself. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:46 | |
If we turn it over... It is quite possible | 0:37:46 | 0:37:48 | |
-that Lowry would have owned books like this. -Yes. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:50 | |
So in your fantasy scenario, you're just picturing Lowry sitting there | 0:37:50 | 0:37:53 | |
in his living room, reading the book, and then going, | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
-"I have an idea." -That's right. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:57 | |
It's plausible, it's telling what you want to hear, isn't it? | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
But the materials are only half the battle. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:02 | |
If a fake is to sell well, | 0:38:02 | 0:38:04 | |
it needs a good, old-fashioned story to go with it. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
When you've bought some of these pictures, how are they described? | 0:38:07 | 0:38:11 | |
The standard pitch would be, "This was an old attic find in Salford." | 0:38:11 | 0:38:16 | |
"This turned up at a car-boot sale in Greater Manchester." | 0:38:16 | 0:38:20 | |
So the pieces purport to have been found in or near Salford, | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
which is where Lowry lived, to further convince you it's for real. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:28 | |
They are very clever, | 0:38:28 | 0:38:30 | |
-because they plant a little seed of hope in your mind. -Yes. | 0:38:30 | 0:38:33 | |
"It was found in Manchester," | 0:38:33 | 0:38:35 | |
-some sort of link to Salford in the 1950s, the 1960s. -Yeah. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:39 | |
I mean, all these poor attics around the country. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:41 | |
They must be groaning under the weight of these things. Absolutely. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:45 | |
By faking the pictures' provenance, | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
or at least dangling the carrot | 0:38:47 | 0:38:48 | |
that you could be about to pick up an undiscovered gem, | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
all that fakers are really trying to do | 0:38:51 | 0:38:53 | |
is get their mitts on your money. | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
I've seen fakes exactly like this sold, and they're sold for big money. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
-They're sold for £500, £1,000, £2,000. -Whoa. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
Richard may have bought his for fun, | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
but for anyone else thinking about buying artwork online, be warned. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
Your Manet may not be worth much MONET. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
Earlier we saw how Scotch whisky has fallen foul of the fakers. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
It's not just the modern whiskies. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
In Blackpool, online whisky auctioneer Angus MacRaild | 0:39:26 | 0:39:30 | |
deals in rare vintage whiskies, a commodity that's in great demand. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:36 | |
Whisky in general, particularly malt whiskies and vintage malt whiskies, | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
in the last few years at auctions have been getting | 0:39:39 | 0:39:41 | |
increasingly more valuable. Prices are going up all the time. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
It's a problem now that, as more money comes into more whisky, | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
certainly on the secondary market, the auction market, | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
then more fake bottles appear. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:51 | |
Now, it's common for some genuinely old bottles to fetch | 0:39:51 | 0:39:55 | |
thousands of pounds at auction. Some even tens of thousands. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:59 | |
But there are fakers out there buying empty antique bottles | 0:39:59 | 0:40:03 | |
and refilling them with a modern liquid. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
And as a result, collectors up and down the country | 0:40:06 | 0:40:09 | |
are getting duped into buying what they think | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
is a bottle of liquid history, | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
but turns out to be nothing more than a worthless fake. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
I'll give you a couple of examples. We've got here a few Macallans. | 0:40:17 | 0:40:21 | |
This one here, we know this is a fake. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
But to the outward eye, it looks OK. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:27 | |
The untrained eye might just see that and think, | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
"It's a bottle of whisky, a bottle of Macallan, it's fine." | 0:40:30 | 0:40:32 | |
But for an eagle-eyed auctioneer like Angus, | 0:40:32 | 0:40:35 | |
there are a few telltale signs that the bottle's been refilled. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:39 | |
First of all, the capsule looks pretty shoddy. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
It looks like it's been reworked to some extent. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:43 | |
That's a really telltale sign, | 0:40:43 | 0:40:45 | |
because normally on capsules, they should be very tight, very clean. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:49 | |
That's the genuine version there. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:54 | |
So you can see the capsule's much cleaner, | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
the whole bottle is much cleaner. | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
So the capsules have been put back on | 0:40:58 | 0:41:00 | |
to give the appearance that the fake bottle has never been opened. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:04 | |
It's not the only way to spot the fakes. | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
If you give it a shake, | 0:41:07 | 0:41:09 | |
you get this froth that just sits there. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:12 | |
The froth, or beading, as it's known in the trade, | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
indicates how strong the liquid inside the whisky bottle is. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
But when Angus compares the real one to the fake, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
it's pretty obvious which is which. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:24 | |
You give them both a shake, | 0:41:24 | 0:41:26 | |
and you notice immediately the differences. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
The beading here dies down | 0:41:30 | 0:41:31 | |
in concurrence with the 43% alcohol whisky. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
This... Who knows? | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
Maybe it's single cask washing-up liquid, I don't know. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
But it's not the real deal. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
Being a fake, it's worth a couple of quid at most. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:44 | |
If it was genuine, it would fetch around £700. | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
But the effect is not just on the price of the whisky. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
In the last few years, Angus has noticed | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
as the number of fake refilled bottles has gone up, | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 | |
so has the price for genuine empty bottles. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:01 | |
Here's an empty bottle of Macallan Private Eye | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
which is being sold online. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:05 | |
And the price that's being asked is £199. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:09 | |
200 quid for an empty bottle does seem a touch steep. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:13 | |
But if you scroll through the elaborate photo gallery, | 0:42:13 | 0:42:16 | |
and description, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:17 | |
you'll find a rather interesting sales pitch. | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
"Bottle is empty. £1,500 when full. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:23 | |
"Check out Bonhams auction," or something. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:26 | |
If you click the link, lo and behold, you'll find | 0:42:26 | 0:42:28 | |
a recent sale at auction, where a full bottle fetched £1,500. | 0:42:28 | 0:42:33 | |
It's clear that they know what someone who buys it | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
is probably going to do with it. Refill it. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
£199 buys you an empty one, | 0:42:38 | 0:42:40 | |
and if you've got the means to refill it and reseal it, | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
then there's definite motivation there | 0:42:43 | 0:42:45 | |
for people to go and fake a bottle and make money on it. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
Terrible. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:50 | |
That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye. | 0:42:56 | 0:42:58 |