Browse content similar to Episode 9. 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 | 0:00:07 | |
-Get down! Get down! -On the floor now! | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
Put your hands behind your back now! | 0:00:22 | 0:00:24 | |
It's just an ordinary house. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
It could be anywhere in the country, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
but this is the Fake Britain house, | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
and it's filled with fakes. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
You may not know it, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:34 | |
but your home could be too. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
In this series, we'll be | 0:00:37 | 0:00:38 | |
investigating the criminals trying | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
to get their hands on your cash by | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
using fraud, forgeries and fakery. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
AND I'll be showing you how you can avoid being taken for a ride. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
Today on Fake Britain, the fireworks and the fakery that left one man | 0:00:52 | 0:00:57 | |
blinded and scarred for life. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
I shouted, I screamed. It was awful. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
It was far, far worse than I'd imagined it would be. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
The fake car accessories flooding the market. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
We follow Trading Standards as they investigate... | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
..and the fake orphanages that are putting children in danger | 0:01:15 | 0:01:19 | |
and conning well-meaning British volunteers. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
This place turned out to be an orphanage, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
however, the children weren't orphans. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
Firework displays aren't just for Bonfire Night any more. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
Weddings, birthdays, all sorts of celebrations are marked | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
by professional displays | 0:01:40 | 0:01:41 | |
put on by people who we expect to know what they're doing and keep | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
us all safe because it goes without saying, fireworks can be dangerous. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
You'd also expect them to have the correct insurance. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
THIS is a certificate of public liability, | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
but this crucial document turned out to be a fake. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
When things went wrong, the results were tragic. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
When we visit a fireworks display, we expect a few things. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
Bright lights, big bangs, and above all, we expect to be safe. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
That's why to put on a professional show, the company doing the | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
display has to prove to a firework supplier that it's competent. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:24 | |
The main way of doing that is to have a public liability | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
insurance document. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
Faking a document like this would potentially put us all in danger. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
Surely such a thing would be unthinkable? | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
Chris Hignell from Bristol certainly thought so when he came | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
into contact with professional pyrotechnician Jason Edgecombe. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:46 | |
Now, Chris is a businessman and fireworks were his hobby. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
He'd only ever used the ones available to all of us | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
over the shop counter. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:54 | |
But when they met, | 0:02:54 | 0:02:55 | |
Edgecombe invited Chris to help out at one of his professional displays. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
Chris jumped at the chance. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:01 | |
I had this huge enthusiasm for firework displays as many | 0:03:02 | 0:03:07 | |
people do, and he invited me along to assist, to watch from very | 0:03:07 | 0:03:13 | |
close quarters how a professional firework display is fired. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:18 | |
Chris says he thought Edgecombe was a professional. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
He'd seen THIS public liability insurance document | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
and was reassured. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
I saw the document and had no reason to doubt it. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
And when he got to the display, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:33 | |
Edgecombe made Chris an even more exciting offer. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
I never expected to be offered the chance to actually ignite | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
one of the fireworks, erm, but that was offered to me, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:46 | |
and I accepted it because of my enthusiasm for doing so. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
I understood that he was a professional who was fully | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
insured, and fully trained. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
I wasn't given any training at all. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
I was simply told when he says "now", to light the fuse, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
and that is exactly what I did. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
Chris wasn't used to professional fireworks. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
He'd only used ones before that any of us could buy, like these. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
Edgecombe's were professional grade, and unbeknown to Chris, | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
this meant there was no delay on the fuses. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
As soon as I lit the fuse, I felt an incredible pain in my face. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:28 | |
It knocked me to my knees. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
Even in the dark, I knew blood was pouring from my face, | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
and I was soon aware that my hair was on fire. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
I collapsed to the ground and used the dew off of the grass | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
on my hands to try and put the flames out on my head. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:48 | |
One of the other people that was there shouted, "Man down!" | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
Unfortunately, Mr Edgecombe chose to ignore the man down | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
and carried on with the display for a further seven minutes. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
Chris was drifting in and out of consciousness. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
Meanwhile, Wendy received a call at work. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
I knew he'd gone to help somebody with some fireworks | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
and I just knew straightaway that something awful had happened. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
I said to my colleagues I had to go. I dropped everything. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
I drove to where the accident had happened. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
I just stopped my car, got out, ran over to where Chris was. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:25 | |
The paramedics were dealing with him. You can't describe it. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
You really can't describe what you're seeing | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
because you couldn't even distinguish a face. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
Awful. Absolutely awful. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
When it's somebody you love, to see them like that - | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
it's very difficult. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:41 | |
Chris was rushed to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
For the first 24 hours, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:48 | |
I'm led to believe by the doctors, my life was in the balance. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:52 | |
This was a life-threatening injury. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
Absolutely devastating | 0:05:55 | 0:05:56 | |
because you think that the person you love is never going to be | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
the same again, and you just cannot imagine how life is going to be. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:03 | |
You've had a life together, you've done lots of things | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
and all of a sudden, one split second | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
and you feel it's all been taken away from you. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
And you feel nothing will ever be the same again. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
Chris's face was badly burnt. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
He was blinded in one eye | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
and surgeons were fighting to save the other. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
The photos from the time are too distressing to show. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
These were taken some months after his first operation. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
While Chris was lying in hospital, | 0:06:33 | 0:06:34 | |
Edgecombe should have contacted either the local council or | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
health and safety officials to report his accident. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
But Robin Wood at Trading Standards in Bath says he was illusive. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:46 | |
We heard about it three days later via a member of the family | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
and when we tried to follow it up, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
we contacted Mr Edgecombe by telephone, by letter, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
by e-mail, we contacted him for several weeks | 0:06:58 | 0:07:02 | |
and he didn't return the calls at all. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
Eventually, some three months later, we had to go to the lengths | 0:07:05 | 0:07:10 | |
of getting him arrested in order to get him to answer our questions. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
It turned out there was a reason why Edgecombe hadn't gone to the | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
authorities. He was a faker. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
Trading Standards say Edgecombe had faked insurance to get | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
hold of the professional grade fireworks that injured Chris, | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
and that Edgecombe would never have got those fireworks without it. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:34 | |
The supplier needs to satisfy themselves that that person | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
is a professional, so they do need to see something like | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
a liability certificate to prove that that's the case. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
He'd also shown the same fake public liability document to get | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
access to the venue where Chris was injured. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
We'd heard from the organisers that they'd seen the document. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
That reassured them obviously that he was competent. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
I don't think they would have allowed Mr Edgecombe to carry | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
out the display without the public liability insurance. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
But why had Edgecombe faked his insurance? | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
We know he'd been turned down for insurance the previous year | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
by all three of the companies that supply this | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
type of insurance so he ended up falsifying the insurance to | 0:08:15 | 0:08:20 | |
make it look as though he did have the competency to carry it out. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
This is the forged public liability document that Edgecombe used. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
The insurance company is genuine, but HE faked the details on it. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:34 | |
It was issued to a company in the north for a different date | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
the year previously, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:41 | |
so what Mr Edgecombe did was that he got hold of that document, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
he managed to change the typeface | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
and make it show that he himself had public liability | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
insurance by putting his own company details on it. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
Finding out that Edgecombe didn't have insurance was a bitter | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
blow for Chris and Wendy. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
Absolutely awful. When I first heard, I just went cold. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
If he hadn't have had the false insurance, | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
he would never have got the fireworks. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
None of this would have ever, ever happened | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
and our lives would be as they were before. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
The couple say they're still coming to terms with the devastation | 0:09:10 | 0:09:15 | |
wrought by both the accident AND the fake insurance document. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
There have been some difficult times. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
Nobody had told me how badly I looked. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
They had covered up all the mirrors in all the bathrooms on the ward | 0:09:25 | 0:09:30 | |
so that I couldn't see myself, and towards the end of my stay, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:35 | |
when I was able to go to the bathroom on my own, | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
unfortunately somebody had removed the paper from the mirror | 0:09:37 | 0:09:42 | |
and before I could do anything about it, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
I saw my reflection in the mirror in the bathroom. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
And there was just a scream from the bathroom | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
and I knew that he'd looked in the mirror. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
I shouted, I screamed. It was awful. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
It was far, far worse than I'd imagined it would be. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:02 | |
For him to suddenly see what had actually happened, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
that was the worst bit, I think, really. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
Absolutely terrible. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
I honestly thought my life as I knew it was gone. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
Chris has had 24 operations to remove over 300 blast fragments, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
and he's blind in his left eye. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:26 | |
Despite being only too aware of the injuries that Chris has | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
suffered, AND having been found guilty in court, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
Edgecombe didn't stop his activities. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
While awaiting sentencing, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
Edgecombe decided to put on another fireworks display. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
Mr Edgecombe promised the court that he was no longer conducting | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
fireworks displays, that he was only going to act as an employee. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:55 | |
But before he was due to be sentenced, | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
he was found to be actually carrying out a display in Bridport in Dorset, | 0:10:57 | 0:11:02 | |
in-between injuring Mr Hignell and when he was due to be sentenced. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:07 | |
It shows his complete disregard for me, my wife, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:13 | |
and the court system, that he went and did another large firework | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
display despite being told by a judge not to. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
Jason Edgecombe was convicted of fraud and health and safety | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
offences, and ordered to pay Chris £5,000, but to this day, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:30 | |
hasn't paid him a penny. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
Edgecombe was eventually sentenced to 36 weeks in prison. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
There's nothing legally to stop Edgecombe from carrying out | 0:11:37 | 0:11:41 | |
firework displays, and Fake Britain has discovered that | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
since the accident, he's set up another fireworks company, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
FireMaster Fireworks. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
He's also been making some interesting claims on his website. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
He says he's never injured a member of his team, | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
and that no member of the public has been harmed. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
He also claims that they've never needed to use emergency | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
first aid. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:04 | |
While this might be true for his current company, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
it's certainly not true for the owner. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
Whatever Edgecombe's up to now, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
Chris still has to deal with the aftermath of his actions. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
I honestly thought that physically | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
that I would look dreadful for the rest of my life. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
I never imagined that the skills of the surgeons around me | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
would get me to where I am today. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
Basically, we have to try and just carry on with our life, try | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
and put it behind us, which is very difficult, and try and carry on - | 0:12:35 | 0:12:40 | |
not let that affect our life if we can. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
Jason Edgecombe told us that whilst he regretted what happened... | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
He said he believed at the time that Mr Hignell was more competent | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
with category four fireworks than it later emerged, | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
and claims that Mr Hignell completed a competency questionnaire. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
He says he continued with | 0:13:04 | 0:13:05 | |
his display after Chris's injury | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
because he thought | 0:13:07 | 0:13:08 | |
this was safer, and says | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
he doesn't believe it continued | 0:13:10 | 0:13:11 | |
for as long as seven minutes. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
Mr Edgecombe puts his failure to inform the correct | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
authorities of the accident down to naivety. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
He said the only reason he'd conducted a further fireworks | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
display after promising the court he wouldn't was | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
because he couldn't find anyone else to oversee the show. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
Me Edgecombe says he stands by the claims | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
made on the FireMaster Fireworks | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
website, saying | 0:13:34 | 0:13:35 | |
they refer only to THIS company, | 0:13:35 | 0:13:36 | |
and not to his previous one. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
Lose a badge like this from | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
your car and you'll probably try | 0:13:47 | 0:13:49 | |
and replace it. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:50 | |
There are plenty of shops and | 0:13:50 | 0:13:51 | |
online traders only too happy to sell you one. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
Some are quite expensive, others just a few pounds, | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
but sell enough of them, and you've got yourself a lucrative business, | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
which is why car accessories like this are now a target | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
for the fakers. We've been on the road with Trading Standards teams | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
cracking down on the problem. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
Britain's Trading Standards departments have the | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
job of policing the internet to try and identify | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
and then weed out the fakes that are being sold there. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
This morning, a team in the Midlands are meeting up to plan | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
their latest operation. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
Today, they're on the trail of a trader | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
they suspect to be selling fake car accessories. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
Right, what we've got, we've got an internet based retailer. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
They're selling vehicle | 0:14:36 | 0:14:37 | |
merchandise and accessories. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
They've got a high turnover, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:40 | |
suspected counterfeit stock in the last three and a half, four years. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
We've had information that they're | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
selling car steering wheel badges, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
logos such as Jaguar. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
None of these are actually authorised for use | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
so they're all breaching trademarks legislation. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
These products are poor quality copies. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
The team have already made a test purchase of a car badge which | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
they've had confirmed as fake. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
They not only believe the accessories are in breach | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
of copyright, but that people are paying good money for them, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:09 | |
believing them to be real, actually getting a substandard product. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
They even suspect some of the goods might be dangerous. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:17 | |
We've recently had some information from BMW that | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
if someone buys a replacement | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
but fake symbol to go in the middle of the steering | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
wheel where the airbag cover is, when the airbag goes off, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
that's not attached properly. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:31 | |
The danger is this symbol will actually be projected | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
towards the driver at 220mph so it could be a real safety risk. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:39 | |
We've checked the test purchases. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:40 | |
They're confirmed as counterfeit, so if it's got a brand, | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
a logo or trademarks, we're seizing it. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
The team make their way to the trading | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
estate from which the seller is operating. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
Rob Edmunds is confident they've got a productive day ahead. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
It's a large warehouse on an industrial estate. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:00 | |
You don't buy a warehouse and not have anything in it, do you? | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
They follow police to the target address. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
Other officers have arrived before them and entered the unit. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
The business owner is on site | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
and Trading Standards explain what's going on. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
Leave us to do what we've got to do. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:15 | |
If you've got any problems, you come to me. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
The unit is enormous, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:20 | |
and the team face a daunting task, checking every box for fakes. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:25 | |
It looks like the team will have a search on their hands to see | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
if there are any fake goods amongst the legitimate ones. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
But helpfully, the owner points them | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
towards another area of the unit that's nearly all car | 0:16:34 | 0:16:38 | |
accessories, and Rob Edmunds finds products similar to their test | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
purchase which triggered the whole investigation. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
They soon turn up hundreds of branded car badges, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:49 | |
exactly what they were looking for. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
You've got every type of motor vehicle badge you can think of. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:58 | |
Every brand, Alfa Romeo down to Vauxhall. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:02 | |
There's so many different brands. There's a lot of stuff in there. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
The majority of that room will be seized. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
My guess would be the vast majority, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
if not all, of the motor branded parts that we seize will | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
actually turn out to be counterfeit, | 0:17:14 | 0:17:15 | |
but we'll have to run that past the brand owners first. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
No sooner have they started bagging and tagging the goods, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
and they're finding suspected fakes all over the place. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
Premier League merchandise, mainly Man United. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:27 | |
I suspect that's counterfeit. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:29 | |
I've just contacted the brand protection | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
rep for the Premier League, expecting a call back shortly, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
but I'm 99% sure it's all wrong. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
The suspect goods are coming thick and fast now. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
As well as the car badges, there are spare wheel guards. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
Not all have car marks on them, but any that do will be leaving | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
with Trading Standards for further investigation. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:54 | |
And they find what they believe might be evidence that | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
someone is making their own fakes to order from scratch. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
-These are being stuck on here. -They are, they are. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
This is what we found in a drawer | 0:18:06 | 0:18:08 | |
in one of the offices, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:09 | |
and it's a drawer full of printed labels for a wide | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
variety of brands such as Suzuki, Freelander, Discovery, er, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
all the major car brands. And what we think he's doing is, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
this is what he's putting onto his wheel covers | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
so the fact that we've got a large amount of blank wheel | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
covers in the storage shows us how he's actually making them | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
to people's orders, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:31 | |
so he's just sticking these on when they need them, so the whole cabinet | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
unit with these brand labels in, will be seized and taken away. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
As well as the accessories themselves, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
Rob turns up what he believes could be crucial documentary evidence. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
While we've been in the office, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:46 | |
obviously we've been looking for potential suppliers | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
and we've found all the documentation that we believe relates to the | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
products that we're seizing. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:53 | |
So, it's going to be important to establish where | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
it's coming from, how long he's been purchasing it, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
and the quantities as well that are involved. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
He's just said, "You're taking thousands of pounds worth of goods." | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
I said, "Well, we're taking items we believe infringe | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
"the Trade Marks Act, or that there are safety concerns over." | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
Obviously your hood ornaments that are down on the side, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
they've got to go. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:14 | |
All of the Discovery, Mitsubishi, Shogun, Piero... | 0:19:14 | 0:19:20 | |
Sorry, it's got to go, I'm afraid. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
The find is still growing. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
The team believe all these items are being offered on sale to the | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
public as the real thing. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
These are Jaguar hood ornaments. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
Soon, the team's own van isn't big enough. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
A larger vehicle arrives. But even that might be too small. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:46 | |
Whatever trade is going on in this facility, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
the turnover is significant. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
And it doesn't take too long to fill the second van. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
The team get a third lorry and it takes | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
so long to load that by the time they're finished, it's getting dark. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
Now it's time to take the whole load off to an undisclosed storage | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
area, and with that, it's job done. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
Are we going to get it all in, do you reckon? | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
A successful day for the team who've taken a huge amount of suspect | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
gear off the market and out of harm's way. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
They'll continue to investigate what they've found. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
So, everything is locked away securely | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
and the next step is to complete our investigation | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
and bring to a prosecution that we're pleased that we've got such | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
a large quantity of fake goods off the marketplace. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
COINS RATTLE | 0:20:46 | 0:20:47 | |
The reaction of many people to seeing | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
one of these on the street is very simple. You give. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
We are a very generous nation when it comes to charity, | 0:20:53 | 0:20:57 | |
and millions of pounds are collected every year for good causes in | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
charity boxes but, as Fake Britain has discovered, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
this can be a target for the fakers. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
There can be few crimes more heartless than | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
stealing from a charity, but we've seen before on Fake Britain how | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
people still take advantage, even stealing clothes from charity bins. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:24 | |
But this is not the only way that charitable donations are being | 0:21:24 | 0:21:28 | |
intercepted by fakers... | 0:21:28 | 0:21:30 | |
..as Don Young discovered. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
He was out one night for a drink in his local with a friend. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
As they were chatting, a woman entered the pub, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
saying she was collecting for the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
Something about the way she was rattling her tin worried Don. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
Her whole attitude didn't seem to match up with what | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
I would expect a charity collector to be like. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
She didn't come up to the table and say, "Oh, good evening, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
"gentlemen, sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I'm | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
"collecting on behalf of the Marie Curie Cancer Care Charity and..." | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
Nothing like that at all. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:09 | |
It was just a very quick mumble, pointed the tin, and then as soon as | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
she'd done the business, she was off like a rabbit. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
And Don's suspicions grew when, a few weeks later, he ran | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
into the same collectors again in another pub in the same area. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:26 | |
This time, he rang Marie Curie to check their credentials. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
I asked them | 0:22:30 | 0:22:31 | |
if they had any collectors operating in that area in pubs. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
They said no, but they were aware of a scam going on and told me | 0:22:34 | 0:22:39 | |
that the police were in the process of gathering evidence. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
Hampshire police were indeed investigating. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
Detective constable Julio Pitso had been assigned to the case. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:52 | |
He'd been hearing complaints from other members of the public | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
about a group claiming to be collecting for Marie Curie. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
One of the complainants had actually worked for Marie Curie Cancer Care. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:03 | |
She was aware as an employee that there was no designated | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
fundraising activity in the area at the time, | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
and she was also aware that this person was collecting in a manner | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
that that is not designated to be a proper | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
method of collection by Marie Curie Cancer Care, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
or any other charity for that matter, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
and that is primarily shaking tins in people's faces. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
She rang the phone number on the ID badge of the woman collecting. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
It rang the phone of this man, Gordon Coe. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
But when police spoke to Marie Curie about him, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
he was known to the charity as a legitimate collector. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
He had applied to Marie Curie Cancer Care in December | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
of 2008 to become a fundraiser for them. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
Marie Curie Cancer Care attended his home address and vetted him | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
in line with their policies. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
But two years after registering with the charity, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
Coe had only banked £75 with them. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
With suspicions starting to fall on him, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
the charity looked back through its records. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
They found Coe had attended one of their previous fundraising | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
events and he hadn't been there alone. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
He brought two members of the public with him which he | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
introduced as friends. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:13 | |
One of those was Pauline Hunt and the other was Susan Christians. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
The descriptions that concerned members of the public had | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
given the police matched Susan Christians and Pauline Hunt. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:25 | |
A week later, Don Young was out again with a friend | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
when he saw the same woman collecting in a third pub. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
I thought she had a bit of a cheek trying her | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
luck in a number of different places. She was fairly easily recognisable. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
She had obviously an accomplice in a car. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
This time, Don decided to get the police involved. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
He was sharp enough to be able to take | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
the registration of the vehicle and he passed that onto the police. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
Ben Chapman was the man driving the car. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
When police checked his movements later on, | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
a pattern started to emerge. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
We could plot the movements of the vehicle to tie in with | 0:25:01 | 0:25:05 | |
the collections at various pubs in the Caterham and Woldingham areas. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:11 | |
Police decided to take action of their own. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:15 | |
They arrested the collectors | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
and executed warrants on their properties. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
What they found during their search staggered them. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
We found a number of different charity tins, in total, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
around about 15 to 20, all branded as Marie Curie Cancer Care. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:32 | |
Coe had taken the boxes given to him and copied them, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
faking the charities' branding. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
But that wasn't all he faked. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
We found false documentation and false identification on lanyards. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:45 | |
Finally, police knew the full extent of what Gordon Coe had been up to. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:52 | |
He'd recruited a gang of his own collectors using the fake IDs | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
and collection tins to open the purses of unsuspecting pub-goers | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
across the south-east of England. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
In total, the fake collectors gang turned people's generosity | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
into a criminal profit of over £34,000. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:12 | |
It became clear to us that this was certainly an organised syndicate. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
What they would do is identify an area, then search | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
the area for various pubs and go and collect at those pubs. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
They'd do various routes of an evening which would | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
tie in with our witness accounts saying that | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
they left at four, five o'clock in the afternoon and were | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
back by sort of one, sometimes as late as two o'clock in the morning. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
Police say they were spending that money, | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
money that should've gone to cancer patients, on expensive | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
holidays abroad to places like the Dominican Republic, and Greece, | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
despite the fact that most of them didn't have jobs. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:47 | |
Police interviews confirmed the gang's involvement further. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
This is a recording of Susan Christians cracking under pressure. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
"So, this is a right little organised crime syndicate, | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
"isn't it, really?" | 0:27:00 | 0:27:01 | |
Susan, it's not my job to judge what you've done, | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
it's just my job to investigate what's happened. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
But the guilt didn't last long, | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
and the police had a fight on their hands. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
ALL the gang claimed they were innocent, in court. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
They just pleaded ignorance, saying, | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
"We went to collect because Gordon Coe asked us to and on that basis, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:33 | |
"when we came back, we emptied the charity tins and took what we | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
"thought was our fair share." | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
The jury took a different view. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
It was blatantly obvious that it wasn't within | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
the scope of a reasonable person to collect on behalf of a charity | 0:27:46 | 0:27:51 | |
and take what you think are your legitimate earnings without so much | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
as an invoice, without so much as a receipt, | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
without so much as an audit trail. | 0:27:57 | 0:27:58 | |
Coe was sentenced to four years in jail. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
The rest of the gang all received prison sentences. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
Marie Curie Cancer Care is far from the only charity | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
affected by fake collectors. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
Charities as diverse as Cancer Relief UK, Cerebral Palsy Care | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
for children, and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance have all been hit | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
by fake collectors. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:24 | |
But Sophie Kinsman, head of fundraising | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
at Marie Curie Cancer Care, says cases like this are still rare. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
All charities have security procedures in place to ensure | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
the safety of the public's donations. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
No voluntary fundraiser would be offended if you asked them | 0:28:39 | 0:28:43 | |
for proof of their identity | 0:28:43 | 0:28:45 | |
and for a number to call where you could check their credentials. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
If you're at all unsure, please check with the charity or go | 0:28:48 | 0:28:52 | |
to their website for further information. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
If you're approached in a public house, | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
or similar environment that doesn't have a designated event, | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
shaking tins in people's faces, asking for money, | 0:29:01 | 0:29:04 | |
is against the codes of practice. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:06 | |
So, that should be one of the biggest clues. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
Charity collecting is just not done in this way. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
Lovely leg of lamb. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:20 | |
But not just any lamb, this is Welsh lamb, and that matters, | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
because it's now got protected geographical status. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:27 | |
It means you can only call lamb "Welsh" if it's actually born | 0:29:27 | 0:29:31 | |
and bred in Wales. That makes it more expensive. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:35 | |
Top quality, you see. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 | |
But it also means there's a good business to be had by the fakers | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
if they can pull the wool over the public's eyes by selling | 0:29:40 | 0:29:44 | |
cheaper lamb as Welsh. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:46 | |
The farms of Wales have long been famous for the quality | 0:29:49 | 0:29:52 | |
of the meat they produce. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:54 | |
In fact, Welsh lamb and beef are so sought-after, | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
customers are willing to pay more for them | 0:29:57 | 0:29:59 | |
and Welsh farmer Alan Davies thinks he knows why. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:03 | |
Welsh lamb has come about through hundreds of years of grazing | 0:30:05 | 0:30:09 | |
the sheep on the hills of Wales and I believe it's the vegetation on these | 0:30:09 | 0:30:13 | |
hills which gives the Welsh lamb its flavour, its juiciness, its sweetness. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:19 | |
Both Welsh lamb and Welsh beef have become so renowned, | 0:30:20 | 0:30:23 | |
they have protected status from the EU. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:26 | |
It's an offence to say meat is Welsh when it's not. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
It means that meat can't be sold or described as Welsh | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
unless the animals were born and reared in Wales. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
But not everyone treats Welsh meat with the same level of respect. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:43 | |
Welsh Trading Standards believe some shops and restaurants have | 0:30:43 | 0:30:46 | |
been faking it, selling meat as Welsh that's anything but. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:51 | |
And it's something that Gwyn Howells of Meat Promotion Wales wants | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
to put a stop to. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
There is a temptation for people to want to fake Welsh lamb | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
and Welsh beef on their menus and sometimes in the shops. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:03 | |
The temptation is born out of a premium image | 0:31:03 | 0:31:07 | |
and status that the Welsh lamb and Welsh beef brands have. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
Obviously that is very, very wrong. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
It not only misleads the consuming public, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:15 | |
but also undermines the integrity of those brands and the people | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
who have worked so hard to create those brands in the industry. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
It also matters to you and me, consumers. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
Trading Standards estimate the Welsh label will | 0:31:25 | 0:31:28 | |
add around £1.50 to the cost of your average steak. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:32 | |
If your steak is a fake, you're paying a premium price | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
and not getting what you've paid for. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:38 | |
Andy McKay is a Trading Standards officer in Caerphilly. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:42 | |
His is one of 12 Welsh Trading Standards departments that | 0:31:42 | 0:31:45 | |
have been tasked with policing the problem. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
They're carrying out a survey of pubs and restaurants, | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
checking menus to | 0:31:51 | 0:31:52 | |
see if people advertising Welsh lamb and beef are selling the real thing. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:57 | |
If it's Welsh, it should be Welsh. | 0:31:57 | 0:31:59 | |
What we're trying to do is prevent cheaper imports from third | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
countries being misdescribed as Welsh beef and Welsh lamb. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
And the results of the survey have turned up some very | 0:32:07 | 0:32:09 | |
interesting findings. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:11 | |
Out of 77 hotels, pubs | 0:32:12 | 0:32:15 | |
and restaurants visited advertising Welsh beef and lamb | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
and charging a premium price for it, nearly two thirds, or 50, | 0:32:18 | 0:32:23 | |
couldn't back up the claims made on menus with evidence that the beef | 0:32:23 | 0:32:27 | |
and lamb was genuinely Welsh. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
The survey has shown that there are descriptions being made | 0:32:31 | 0:32:33 | |
that can't be proved. These are maybe misdescriptions. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:37 | |
They may be due to fraudulent practices. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
If you make that description, you have to be able to prove it, | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
so the implication is that the customer could be getting ripped off. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
There is a concern that the member of the public which is buying | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
Welsh beef and Welsh lamb is not buying Welsh beef | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
and Welsh lamb, and it's actually a cheap import and is in fact fake. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:55 | |
Restaurants should know where their meat has come from | 0:32:57 | 0:33:00 | |
and Trading Standards are taking it seriously. | 0:33:00 | 0:33:02 | |
There will be warnings this time, but if anyone is found | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
breaching the rules again, it could result in a fine. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:09 | |
Like this restaurant. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
In 2011, it was fined for advertising dishes using Welsh black | 0:33:12 | 0:33:17 | |
sirloin and fillet steak which had actually come from Brazil. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:23 | |
Elsewhere in Wales, Cardiff Trading Standards have been | 0:33:26 | 0:33:29 | |
doing their own survey. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:30 | |
They've been investigating how local butcher's are advertising | 0:33:30 | 0:33:34 | |
their Welsh meat, and the results also show people willing to | 0:33:34 | 0:33:38 | |
bend the rules to mislead customers. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
Over the course of two months, | 0:33:43 | 0:33:44 | |
Cardiff Trading Standards visited 43 butcher's and three of them | 0:33:44 | 0:33:49 | |
were out-and-out faking it, advertising meat as Welsh, | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
but actually selling meat that was born or raised elsewhere. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:56 | |
This is just a small snapshot. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
They've only been carrying out this work for a few years | 0:33:58 | 0:34:01 | |
but have found in total 11 businesses faking Welsh meat. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:06 | |
As guardians of the brand, Meat Promotion Wales is worried | 0:34:08 | 0:34:12 | |
about businesses advertising the meat wrongly and profiting from it. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:17 | |
Those people are doing a huge disservice, | 0:34:17 | 0:34:20 | |
not only to the consumers that they are supplying, | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
but also to the industry at large, and we need to seek them out | 0:34:23 | 0:34:28 | |
and make sure that they correct their ways. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:32 | |
But it's not just the public that loses out when businesses fake it. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:36 | |
If a member of the public is being palmed off with | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
lamb which isn't Welsh lamb | 0:34:40 | 0:34:42 | |
and they have a bad experience in the eating of that lamb, then | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
obviously they're not going to come back and ask for Welsh lamb again. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
That's going to undermine the business of the Welsh hill farmer and | 0:34:49 | 0:34:54 | |
would be detrimental to the businesses in the hills of Wales. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
Whether it's a gap year, a career break or even part of a holiday, | 0:35:04 | 0:35:08 | |
more and more of us are taking the chance to volunteer overseas, | 0:35:08 | 0:35:12 | |
hoping to help someone less fortunate than ourselves | 0:35:12 | 0:35:16 | |
but unbelievably there are those trying to cash in on our goodwill. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:21 | |
Yes, even in the world of volunteering | 0:35:21 | 0:35:25 | |
not everything is always as it seems. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
With unspoilt beaches, river valleys and historic temples, | 0:35:30 | 0:35:34 | |
it's no surprise that Cambodia is a popular stop | 0:35:34 | 0:35:37 | |
on the backpacker trail. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:40 | |
Every year, thousands of young British travellers come here | 0:35:40 | 0:35:43 | |
to enjoy its sights and sounds but not all just come to visit. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:48 | |
An increasing number want to do more, | 0:35:48 | 0:35:50 | |
fuelling a boom in volunteering. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:53 | |
Joanna Barclay was one of them. | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
As a former assistant head teacher with an interest in | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
international development, | 0:35:58 | 0:36:00 | |
she thought she could use her skills to make a difference in Cambodia. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:05 | |
She volunteered to help out at what she thought | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
was a children's day-care centre but when she got there, | 0:36:08 | 0:36:12 | |
it didn't take very long for Joanna to realise something was very wrong | 0:36:12 | 0:36:16 | |
behind its gates. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:18 | |
The minute I arrived at the children's centre, | 0:36:19 | 0:36:21 | |
I could see that the conditions were squalid, | 0:36:21 | 0:36:25 | |
that the children were malnourished, they were being fed on rice | 0:36:25 | 0:36:29 | |
and a tiny bit of broth. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:31 | |
They were dressed, some of them in rancid clothes, rags basically. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:35 | |
There was open sewage which was leaking into the living area, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
the younger children were running barefoot through. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
There was an open rubbish pit, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
there was nowhere to actually deposit rubbish | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
so the director was burning rubbish every day so there was an open fire | 0:36:48 | 0:36:52 | |
that the very young children could run through. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
At first, she thought these conditions might just reflect | 0:36:56 | 0:36:58 | |
the general poverty in the country but she soon began to discover | 0:36:58 | 0:37:03 | |
that this place had problems all of its own. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:07 | |
It wasn't a day-care centre at all, it was being run as an orphanage | 0:37:07 | 0:37:11 | |
where the children stayed full-time and that wasn't the only thing. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:16 | |
Jo became so suspicious about how the place was being run, | 0:37:16 | 0:37:20 | |
she decided to look into the children's backgrounds. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:24 | |
The director was dodging answering questions about each of the children. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:29 | |
His story seemed to change on every child | 0:37:29 | 0:37:32 | |
so I asked to look at the paperwork. | 0:37:32 | 0:37:34 | |
Basically I did an audit on the 20 children. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
And Jo discovered that the orphanage itself was a fake. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:42 | |
This place turned out to be an orphanage, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
however, the children weren't orphans. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
Jo had unwittingly been caught up in a dark world of orphanage tourism. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:53 | |
Most of the children had parents | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
and had been recruited from a village in a nearby province. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:59 | |
It was a shock to both Jo and fellow centre volunteer Sarah Wood. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:04 | |
I guess for the whole time you just assumed that they didn't have | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
parents and they didn't have living relatives and that they were, | 0:38:07 | 0:38:11 | |
I guess, forced to live in these conditions because | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
they had nothing else because they had no-one, | 0:38:14 | 0:38:16 | |
they had no-one to care for them. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:17 | |
To find out that that wasn't true | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
was mostly just sad for the children. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:22 | |
I guess you wondered why they weren't with people who love them. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:27 | |
The children may well have been better off with their families | 0:38:27 | 0:38:31 | |
because Sarah certainly felt the centre wasn't caring for them. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
Their director had a room out the back and it was full of food | 0:38:34 | 0:38:38 | |
and it had clothes and it had toys and it had school equipment | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
and it was all brand-new and it was all donated by volunteers | 0:38:41 | 0:38:45 | |
and foreigners and the children weren't allowed to have it. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
All of these things that had been bought with the intention of | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
these really amazing, really beautiful, really spirited | 0:38:50 | 0:38:54 | |
little kids getting it and enjoying it | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
and having a better life from it, | 0:38:56 | 0:38:57 | |
it was really horrible to know that they weren't getting that | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
and that they were instead living in the conditions that they were | 0:39:00 | 0:39:03 | |
when it could've been changed. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
Jo was so shocked by conditions at the centre, she decided to act. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:10 | |
She reported her concerns to the authorities who shut it down | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
and reunited the children with their parents. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:17 | |
But this isn't an isolated case. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:19 | |
Benedicta Bywater runs a charity that tries to keep children | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
with their families and out of fake orphanages. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
The vast majority of children in orphanages are not orphans. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:31 | |
A very, very high percentage have at least one living parent, | 0:39:31 | 0:39:36 | |
they are predominantly what is frequently referred to as | 0:39:36 | 0:39:40 | |
economic orphans which means they're from a poor background | 0:39:40 | 0:39:44 | |
and that's soaring. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:46 | |
The number of orphanages has increased by something like 75% | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
since 2005 according to UNICEF. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
With the number of orphanages increasing, | 0:39:52 | 0:39:54 | |
there's a need for more orphans, so where are they coming from? | 0:39:54 | 0:39:58 | |
Because there's a need for children, | 0:39:58 | 0:40:00 | |
orphanages are going out into the community and encouraging people, | 0:40:00 | 0:40:03 | |
making them believe it's better for their child to be in an orphanage. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
According to the latest figures, in the space of a year | 0:40:06 | 0:40:10 | |
over 100,000 British people travelled to Cambodia. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:14 | |
Visiting orphanages and making a donation has become | 0:40:14 | 0:40:16 | |
part of the well-trodden tourist trail. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:20 | |
Experts say well-meaning holiday-makers are being conned | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
and are fuelling a dark industry of fake orphanages and orphans. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:29 | |
They are set up as businesses and the children become a commodity. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:34 | |
That money can come through fundraising, | 0:40:34 | 0:40:37 | |
it can come in through drop-in orphanage tourists who | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
come in for the day and give you some cash. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:43 | |
You get the organisations that do nightly dances where the children | 0:40:43 | 0:40:47 | |
come to a restaurant and do a special dance for the tourists, | 0:40:47 | 0:40:50 | |
brings the money that way and for me, that's just a business. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:55 | |
Kate Stefanko runs a volunteering company. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
She thinks visitors to Cambodia should be much more aware | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
of the true nature of fake orphanages. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:04 | |
Every volunteer wants to do good. | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
They can find themselves in a situation where they're | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
actually encouraging the worst possible - child trafficking, | 0:41:09 | 0:41:12 | |
child abuse, the building and construction of orphanages, | 0:41:12 | 0:41:17 | |
the creation of "orphans", and I put that in inverted commas, | 0:41:17 | 0:41:22 | |
simply by creating the demand. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
Some local entrepreneur will say to themselves, | 0:41:25 | 0:41:28 | |
"Hmm, look at all this money these volunteers are throwing around. | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
"We can have a bit of that so why don't we set up our own orphanage?" | 0:41:32 | 0:41:37 | |
Where is their licensing? How are they legitimate, these orphanages? | 0:41:37 | 0:41:42 | |
Has anyone actually checked them out? | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
Cambodian and English charities have become so concerned | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
about the growth in fake orphanages they're now working together | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
to try and stamp them out. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
The Safe Haven Trust is supporting this. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:56 | |
Benedicta says there are things volunteers can look out for | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
so they don't fall into the trap of fake orphanages. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:03 | |
If you're able to do short-term, unskilled placements, | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
that's an alarm bell in itself. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
Secondly, if they don't ask you for a criminal record check, don't go. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:13 | |
If you're able to do drop-in volunteering, don't go - | 0:42:13 | 0:42:16 | |
unless you have specifically relevant experience, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:20 | |
childcare, teaching, nursing, something like that | 0:42:20 | 0:42:24 | |
or are prepared to commit a really long period of time, | 0:42:24 | 0:42:27 | |
six months to a year, just don't. Don't do it. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:31 | |
Don't be part of these children's exploitation. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
Don't get involved, it's a murky underworld | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
and even if you don't see it, just know it's there. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
Jo says the impact of a well-meaning volunteer can cause lasting damage. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:47 | |
The reality is, these children, they need professional help. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:51 | |
They need also to be within their local communities, | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
with their families, they need to learn important life skills | 0:42:54 | 0:42:59 | |
and the best people to teach that are within their local communities, | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
not people walking in off the streets from abroad. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:08 | |
That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:15 |