Episode 9 Fake Britain


Episode 9

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Transcript


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

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Welcome to Fake Britain.

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-Get down! Get down!

-On the floor now!

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Put your hands behind your back now!

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It's just an ordinary house.

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It could be anywhere in the country,

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but this is the Fake Britain house,

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and it's filled with fakes.

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You may not know it,

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but your home could be too.

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In this series, we'll be

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investigating the criminals trying

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to get their hands on your cash by

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using fraud, forgeries and fakery.

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AND I'll be showing you how you can avoid being taken for a ride.

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Today on Fake Britain, the fireworks and the fakery that left one man

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blinded and scarred for life.

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I shouted, I screamed. It was awful.

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It was far, far worse than I'd imagined it would be.

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The fake car accessories flooding the market.

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We follow Trading Standards as they investigate...

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..and the fake orphanages that are putting children in danger

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and conning well-meaning British volunteers.

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This place turned out to be an orphanage,

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however, the children weren't orphans.

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Firework displays aren't just for Bonfire Night any more.

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Weddings, birthdays, all sorts of celebrations are marked

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by professional displays

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put on by people who we expect to know what they're doing and keep

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us all safe because it goes without saying, fireworks can be dangerous.

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You'd also expect them to have the correct insurance.

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THIS is a certificate of public liability,

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but this crucial document turned out to be a fake.

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When things went wrong, the results were tragic.

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When we visit a fireworks display, we expect a few things.

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Bright lights, big bangs, and above all, we expect to be safe.

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That's why to put on a professional show, the company doing the

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display has to prove to a firework supplier that it's competent.

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The main way of doing that is to have a public liability

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insurance document.

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Faking a document like this would potentially put us all in danger.

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Surely such a thing would be unthinkable?

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Chris Hignell from Bristol certainly thought so when he came

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into contact with professional pyrotechnician Jason Edgecombe.

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Now, Chris is a businessman and fireworks were his hobby.

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He'd only ever used the ones available to all of us

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over the shop counter.

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But when they met,

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Edgecombe invited Chris to help out at one of his professional displays.

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Chris jumped at the chance.

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I had this huge enthusiasm for firework displays as many

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people do, and he invited me along to assist, to watch from very

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close quarters how a professional firework display is fired.

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Chris says he thought Edgecombe was a professional.

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He'd seen THIS public liability insurance document

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and was reassured.

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I saw the document and had no reason to doubt it.

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And when he got to the display,

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Edgecombe made Chris an even more exciting offer.

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I never expected to be offered the chance to actually ignite

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one of the fireworks, erm, but that was offered to me,

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and I accepted it because of my enthusiasm for doing so.

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I understood that he was a professional who was fully

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insured, and fully trained.

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I wasn't given any training at all.

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I was simply told when he says "now", to light the fuse,

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and that is exactly what I did.

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Chris wasn't used to professional fireworks.

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He'd only used ones before that any of us could buy, like these.

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Edgecombe's were professional grade, and unbeknown to Chris,

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this meant there was no delay on the fuses.

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As soon as I lit the fuse, I felt an incredible pain in my face.

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It knocked me to my knees.

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Even in the dark, I knew blood was pouring from my face,

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and I was soon aware that my hair was on fire.

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I collapsed to the ground and used the dew off of the grass

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on my hands to try and put the flames out on my head.

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One of the other people that was there shouted, "Man down!"

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Unfortunately, Mr Edgecombe chose to ignore the man down

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and carried on with the display for a further seven minutes.

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Chris was drifting in and out of consciousness.

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Meanwhile, Wendy received a call at work.

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I knew he'd gone to help somebody with some fireworks

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and I just knew straightaway that something awful had happened.

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I said to my colleagues I had to go. I dropped everything.

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I drove to where the accident had happened.

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I just stopped my car, got out, ran over to where Chris was.

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The paramedics were dealing with him. You can't describe it.

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You really can't describe what you're seeing

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because you couldn't even distinguish a face.

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Awful. Absolutely awful.

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When it's somebody you love, to see them like that -

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it's very difficult.

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Chris was rushed to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.

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For the first 24 hours,

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I'm led to believe by the doctors, my life was in the balance.

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This was a life-threatening injury.

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Absolutely devastating

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because you think that the person you love is never going to be

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the same again, and you just cannot imagine how life is going to be.

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You've had a life together, you've done lots of things

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and all of a sudden, one split second

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and you feel it's all been taken away from you.

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And you feel nothing will ever be the same again.

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Chris's face was badly burnt.

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He was blinded in one eye

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and surgeons were fighting to save the other.

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The photos from the time are too distressing to show.

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These were taken some months after his first operation.

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While Chris was lying in hospital,

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Edgecombe should have contacted either the local council or

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health and safety officials to report his accident.

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But Robin Wood at Trading Standards in Bath says he was illusive.

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We heard about it three days later via a member of the family

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and when we tried to follow it up,

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we contacted Mr Edgecombe by telephone, by letter,

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by e-mail, we contacted him for several weeks

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and he didn't return the calls at all.

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Eventually, some three months later, we had to go to the lengths

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of getting him arrested in order to get him to answer our questions.

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It turned out there was a reason why Edgecombe hadn't gone to the

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authorities. He was a faker.

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Trading Standards say Edgecombe had faked insurance to get

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hold of the professional grade fireworks that injured Chris,

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and that Edgecombe would never have got those fireworks without it.

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The supplier needs to satisfy themselves that that person

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is a professional, so they do need to see something like

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a liability certificate to prove that that's the case.

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He'd also shown the same fake public liability document to get

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access to the venue where Chris was injured.

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We'd heard from the organisers that they'd seen the document.

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That reassured them obviously that he was competent.

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I don't think they would have allowed Mr Edgecombe to carry

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out the display without the public liability insurance.

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But why had Edgecombe faked his insurance?

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We know he'd been turned down for insurance the previous year

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by all three of the companies that supply this

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type of insurance so he ended up falsifying the insurance to

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make it look as though he did have the competency to carry it out.

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This is the forged public liability document that Edgecombe used.

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The insurance company is genuine, but HE faked the details on it.

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It was issued to a company in the north for a different date

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the year previously,

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so what Mr Edgecombe did was that he got hold of that document,

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he managed to change the typeface

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and make it show that he himself had public liability

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insurance by putting his own company details on it.

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Finding out that Edgecombe didn't have insurance was a bitter

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blow for Chris and Wendy.

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Absolutely awful. When I first heard, I just went cold.

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If he hadn't have had the false insurance,

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he would never have got the fireworks.

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None of this would have ever, ever happened

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and our lives would be as they were before.

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The couple say they're still coming to terms with the devastation

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wrought by both the accident AND the fake insurance document.

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There have been some difficult times.

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Nobody had told me how badly I looked.

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They had covered up all the mirrors in all the bathrooms on the ward

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so that I couldn't see myself, and towards the end of my stay,

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when I was able to go to the bathroom on my own,

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unfortunately somebody had removed the paper from the mirror

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and before I could do anything about it,

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I saw my reflection in the mirror in the bathroom.

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And there was just a scream from the bathroom

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and I knew that he'd looked in the mirror.

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I shouted, I screamed. It was awful.

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It was far, far worse than I'd imagined it would be.

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For him to suddenly see what had actually happened,

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that was the worst bit, I think, really.

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Absolutely terrible.

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I honestly thought my life as I knew it was gone.

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Chris has had 24 operations to remove over 300 blast fragments,

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and he's blind in his left eye.

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Despite being only too aware of the injuries that Chris has

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suffered, AND having been found guilty in court,

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Edgecombe didn't stop his activities.

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While awaiting sentencing,

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Edgecombe decided to put on another fireworks display.

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Mr Edgecombe promised the court that he was no longer conducting

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fireworks displays, that he was only going to act as an employee.

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But before he was due to be sentenced,

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he was found to be actually carrying out a display in Bridport in Dorset,

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in-between injuring Mr Hignell and when he was due to be sentenced.

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It shows his complete disregard for me, my wife,

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and the court system, that he went and did another large firework

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display despite being told by a judge not to.

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Jason Edgecombe was convicted of fraud and health and safety

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offences, and ordered to pay Chris £5,000, but to this day,

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hasn't paid him a penny.

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Edgecombe was eventually sentenced to 36 weeks in prison.

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There's nothing legally to stop Edgecombe from carrying out

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firework displays, and Fake Britain has discovered that

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since the accident, he's set up another fireworks company,

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FireMaster Fireworks.

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He's also been making some interesting claims on his website.

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He says he's never injured a member of his team,

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and that no member of the public has been harmed.

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He also claims that they've never needed to use emergency

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first aid.

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While this might be true for his current company,

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it's certainly not true for the owner.

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Whatever Edgecombe's up to now,

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Chris still has to deal with the aftermath of his actions.

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I honestly thought that physically

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that I would look dreadful for the rest of my life.

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I never imagined that the skills of the surgeons around me

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would get me to where I am today.

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Basically, we have to try and just carry on with our life, try

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and put it behind us, which is very difficult, and try and carry on -

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not let that affect our life if we can.

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Jason Edgecombe told us that whilst he regretted what happened...

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He said he believed at the time that Mr Hignell was more competent

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with category four fireworks than it later emerged,

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and claims that Mr Hignell completed a competency questionnaire.

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He says he continued with

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his display after Chris's injury

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because he thought

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this was safer, and says

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he doesn't believe it continued

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for as long as seven minutes.

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Mr Edgecombe puts his failure to inform the correct

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authorities of the accident down to naivety.

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He said the only reason he'd conducted a further fireworks

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display after promising the court he wouldn't was

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because he couldn't find anyone else to oversee the show.

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Me Edgecombe says he stands by the claims

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made on the FireMaster Fireworks

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website, saying

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they refer only to THIS company,

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and not to his previous one.

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Lose a badge like this from

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your car and you'll probably try

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and replace it.

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There are plenty of shops and

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online traders only too happy to sell you one.

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Some are quite expensive, others just a few pounds,

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but sell enough of them, and you've got yourself a lucrative business,

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which is why car accessories like this are now a target

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for the fakers. We've been on the road with Trading Standards teams

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cracking down on the problem.

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Britain's Trading Standards departments have the

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job of policing the internet to try and identify

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and then weed out the fakes that are being sold there.

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This morning, a team in the Midlands are meeting up to plan

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their latest operation.

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Today, they're on the trail of a trader

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they suspect to be selling fake car accessories.

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Right, what we've got, we've got an internet based retailer.

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They're selling vehicle

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merchandise and accessories.

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They've got a high turnover,

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suspected counterfeit stock in the last three and a half, four years.

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We've had information that they're

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selling car steering wheel badges,

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logos such as Jaguar.

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None of these are actually authorised for use

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so they're all breaching trademarks legislation.

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These products are poor quality copies.

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The team have already made a test purchase of a car badge which

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they've had confirmed as fake.

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They not only believe the accessories are in breach

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of copyright, but that people are paying good money for them,

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believing them to be real, actually getting a substandard product.

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They even suspect some of the goods might be dangerous.

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We've recently had some information from BMW that

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if someone buys a replacement

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but fake symbol to go in the middle of the steering

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wheel where the airbag cover is, when the airbag goes off,

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that's not attached properly.

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The danger is this symbol will actually be projected

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towards the driver at 220mph so it could be a real safety risk.

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We've checked the test purchases.

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They're confirmed as counterfeit, so if it's got a brand,

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a logo or trademarks, we're seizing it.

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The team make their way to the trading

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estate from which the seller is operating.

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Rob Edmunds is confident they've got a productive day ahead.

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It's a large warehouse on an industrial estate.

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You don't buy a warehouse and not have anything in it, do you?

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They follow police to the target address.

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Other officers have arrived before them and entered the unit.

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The business owner is on site

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and Trading Standards explain what's going on.

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Leave us to do what we've got to do.

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If you've got any problems, you come to me.

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The unit is enormous,

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and the team face a daunting task, checking every box for fakes.

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It looks like the team will have a search on their hands to see

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if there are any fake goods amongst the legitimate ones.

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But helpfully, the owner points them

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towards another area of the unit that's nearly all car

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accessories, and Rob Edmunds finds products similar to their test

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purchase which triggered the whole investigation.

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They soon turn up hundreds of branded car badges,

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exactly what they were looking for.

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You've got every type of motor vehicle badge you can think of.

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Every brand, Alfa Romeo down to Vauxhall.

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There's so many different brands. There's a lot of stuff in there.

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The majority of that room will be seized.

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My guess would be the vast majority,

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if not all, of the motor branded parts that we seize will

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actually turn out to be counterfeit,

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but we'll have to run that past the brand owners first.

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No sooner have they started bagging and tagging the goods,

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and they're finding suspected fakes all over the place.

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Premier League merchandise, mainly Man United.

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I suspect that's counterfeit.

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I've just contacted the brand protection

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rep for the Premier League, expecting a call back shortly,

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but I'm 99% sure it's all wrong.

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The suspect goods are coming thick and fast now.

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As well as the car badges, there are spare wheel guards.

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Not all have car marks on them, but any that do will be leaving

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with Trading Standards for further investigation.

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And they find what they believe might be evidence that

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someone is making their own fakes to order from scratch.

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-These are being stuck on here.

-They are, they are.

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This is what we found in a drawer

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in one of the offices,

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and it's a drawer full of printed labels for a wide

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variety of brands such as Suzuki, Freelander, Discovery, er,

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all the major car brands. And what we think he's doing is,

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this is what he's putting onto his wheel covers

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so the fact that we've got a large amount of blank wheel

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covers in the storage shows us how he's actually making them

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to people's orders,

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so he's just sticking these on when they need them, so the whole cabinet

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unit with these brand labels in, will be seized and taken away.

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As well as the accessories themselves,

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Rob turns up what he believes could be crucial documentary evidence.

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While we've been in the office,

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obviously we've been looking for potential suppliers

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and we've found all the documentation that we believe relates to the

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products that we're seizing.

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So, it's going to be important to establish where

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it's coming from, how long he's been purchasing it,

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and the quantities as well that are involved.

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He's just said, "You're taking thousands of pounds worth of goods."

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I said, "Well, we're taking items we believe infringe

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"the Trade Marks Act, or that there are safety concerns over."

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Obviously your hood ornaments that are down on the side,

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they've got to go.

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All of the Discovery, Mitsubishi, Shogun, Piero...

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Sorry, it's got to go, I'm afraid.

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The find is still growing.

0:19:220:19:24

The team believe all these items are being offered on sale to the

0:19:240:19:27

public as the real thing.

0:19:270:19:30

These are Jaguar hood ornaments.

0:19:300:19:32

Soon, the team's own van isn't big enough.

0:19:330:19:36

A larger vehicle arrives. But even that might be too small.

0:19:410:19:46

Whatever trade is going on in this facility,

0:19:460:19:48

the turnover is significant.

0:19:480:19:50

And it doesn't take too long to fill the second van.

0:19:510:19:54

The team get a third lorry and it takes

0:20:010:20:03

so long to load that by the time they're finished, it's getting dark.

0:20:030:20:07

Now it's time to take the whole load off to an undisclosed storage

0:20:090:20:13

area, and with that, it's job done.

0:20:130:20:16

Are we going to get it all in, do you reckon?

0:20:160:20:19

A successful day for the team who've taken a huge amount of suspect

0:20:190:20:23

gear off the market and out of harm's way.

0:20:230:20:26

They'll continue to investigate what they've found.

0:20:260:20:29

So, everything is locked away securely

0:20:310:20:33

and the next step is to complete our investigation

0:20:330:20:35

and bring to a prosecution that we're pleased that we've got such

0:20:350:20:38

a large quantity of fake goods off the marketplace.

0:20:380:20:41

COINS RATTLE

0:20:460:20:47

The reaction of many people to seeing

0:20:470:20:49

one of these on the street is very simple. You give.

0:20:490:20:53

We are a very generous nation when it comes to charity,

0:20:530:20:57

and millions of pounds are collected every year for good causes in

0:20:570:21:01

charity boxes but, as Fake Britain has discovered,

0:21:010:21:05

this can be a target for the fakers.

0:21:050:21:08

There can be few crimes more heartless than

0:21:120:21:14

stealing from a charity, but we've seen before on Fake Britain how

0:21:140:21:18

people still take advantage, even stealing clothes from charity bins.

0:21:180:21:24

But this is not the only way that charitable donations are being

0:21:240:21:28

intercepted by fakers...

0:21:280:21:30

..as Don Young discovered.

0:21:330:21:35

He was out one night for a drink in his local with a friend.

0:21:350:21:39

As they were chatting, a woman entered the pub,

0:21:390:21:42

saying she was collecting for the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity.

0:21:420:21:46

Something about the way she was rattling her tin worried Don.

0:21:460:21:50

Her whole attitude didn't seem to match up with what

0:21:520:21:56

I would expect a charity collector to be like.

0:21:560:21:59

She didn't come up to the table and say, "Oh, good evening,

0:21:590:22:02

"gentlemen, sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I'm

0:22:020:22:04

"collecting on behalf of the Marie Curie Cancer Care Charity and..."

0:22:040:22:08

Nothing like that at all.

0:22:080:22:09

It was just a very quick mumble, pointed the tin, and then as soon as

0:22:090:22:14

she'd done the business, she was off like a rabbit.

0:22:140:22:17

And Don's suspicions grew when, a few weeks later, he ran

0:22:170:22:21

into the same collectors again in another pub in the same area.

0:22:210:22:26

This time, he rang Marie Curie to check their credentials.

0:22:260:22:30

I asked them

0:22:300:22:31

if they had any collectors operating in that area in pubs.

0:22:310:22:34

They said no, but they were aware of a scam going on and told me

0:22:340:22:39

that the police were in the process of gathering evidence.

0:22:390:22:41

Hampshire police were indeed investigating.

0:22:440:22:47

Detective constable Julio Pitso had been assigned to the case.

0:22:470:22:52

He'd been hearing complaints from other members of the public

0:22:520:22:55

about a group claiming to be collecting for Marie Curie.

0:22:550:22:58

One of the complainants had actually worked for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

0:22:580:23:03

She was aware as an employee that there was no designated

0:23:030:23:07

fundraising activity in the area at the time,

0:23:070:23:09

and she was also aware that this person was collecting in a manner

0:23:090:23:12

that that is not designated to be a proper

0:23:120:23:15

method of collection by Marie Curie Cancer Care,

0:23:150:23:19

or any other charity for that matter,

0:23:190:23:21

and that is primarily shaking tins in people's faces.

0:23:210:23:24

She rang the phone number on the ID badge of the woman collecting.

0:23:260:23:30

It rang the phone of this man, Gordon Coe.

0:23:300:23:33

But when police spoke to Marie Curie about him,

0:23:330:23:36

he was known to the charity as a legitimate collector.

0:23:360:23:40

He had applied to Marie Curie Cancer Care in December

0:23:400:23:43

of 2008 to become a fundraiser for them.

0:23:430:23:47

Marie Curie Cancer Care attended his home address and vetted him

0:23:470:23:50

in line with their policies.

0:23:500:23:52

But two years after registering with the charity,

0:23:520:23:55

Coe had only banked £75 with them.

0:23:550:23:58

With suspicions starting to fall on him,

0:23:580:24:01

the charity looked back through its records.

0:24:010:24:04

They found Coe had attended one of their previous fundraising

0:24:040:24:07

events and he hadn't been there alone.

0:24:070:24:10

He brought two members of the public with him which he

0:24:100:24:12

introduced as friends.

0:24:120:24:13

One of those was Pauline Hunt and the other was Susan Christians.

0:24:130:24:17

The descriptions that concerned members of the public had

0:24:170:24:20

given the police matched Susan Christians and Pauline Hunt.

0:24:200:24:25

A week later, Don Young was out again with a friend

0:24:250:24:28

when he saw the same woman collecting in a third pub.

0:24:280:24:32

I thought she had a bit of a cheek trying her

0:24:320:24:34

luck in a number of different places. She was fairly easily recognisable.

0:24:340:24:39

She had obviously an accomplice in a car.

0:24:390:24:41

This time, Don decided to get the police involved.

0:24:430:24:46

He was sharp enough to be able to take

0:24:460:24:48

the registration of the vehicle and he passed that onto the police.

0:24:480:24:52

Ben Chapman was the man driving the car.

0:24:520:24:55

When police checked his movements later on,

0:24:550:24:57

a pattern started to emerge.

0:24:570:25:00

We could plot the movements of the vehicle to tie in with

0:25:010:25:05

the collections at various pubs in the Caterham and Woldingham areas.

0:25:050:25:11

Police decided to take action of their own.

0:25:130:25:15

They arrested the collectors

0:25:150:25:17

and executed warrants on their properties.

0:25:170:25:19

What they found during their search staggered them.

0:25:190:25:22

We found a number of different charity tins, in total,

0:25:240:25:27

around about 15 to 20, all branded as Marie Curie Cancer Care.

0:25:270:25:32

Coe had taken the boxes given to him and copied them,

0:25:320:25:35

faking the charities' branding.

0:25:350:25:37

But that wasn't all he faked.

0:25:370:25:39

We found false documentation and false identification on lanyards.

0:25:400:25:45

Finally, police knew the full extent of what Gordon Coe had been up to.

0:25:470:25:52

He'd recruited a gang of his own collectors using the fake IDs

0:25:520:25:55

and collection tins to open the purses of unsuspecting pub-goers

0:25:550:25:59

across the south-east of England.

0:25:590:26:01

In total, the fake collectors gang turned people's generosity

0:26:030:26:07

into a criminal profit of over £34,000.

0:26:070:26:12

It became clear to us that this was certainly an organised syndicate.

0:26:130:26:17

What they would do is identify an area, then search

0:26:170:26:20

the area for various pubs and go and collect at those pubs.

0:26:200:26:24

They'd do various routes of an evening which would

0:26:240:26:26

tie in with our witness accounts saying that

0:26:260:26:28

they left at four, five o'clock in the afternoon and were

0:26:280:26:31

back by sort of one, sometimes as late as two o'clock in the morning.

0:26:310:26:35

Police say they were spending that money,

0:26:350:26:37

money that should've gone to cancer patients, on expensive

0:26:370:26:41

holidays abroad to places like the Dominican Republic, and Greece,

0:26:410:26:45

despite the fact that most of them didn't have jobs.

0:26:450:26:47

Police interviews confirmed the gang's involvement further.

0:26:490:26:53

This is a recording of Susan Christians cracking under pressure.

0:26:530:26:57

"So, this is a right little organised crime syndicate,

0:26:570:27:00

"isn't it, really?"

0:27:000:27:01

Susan, it's not my job to judge what you've done,

0:27:100:27:13

it's just my job to investigate what's happened.

0:27:130:27:16

But the guilt didn't last long,

0:27:180:27:20

and the police had a fight on their hands.

0:27:200:27:23

ALL the gang claimed they were innocent, in court.

0:27:230:27:26

They just pleaded ignorance, saying,

0:27:270:27:29

"We went to collect because Gordon Coe asked us to and on that basis,

0:27:290:27:33

"when we came back, we emptied the charity tins and took what we

0:27:330:27:37

"thought was our fair share."

0:27:370:27:39

The jury took a different view.

0:27:390:27:41

It was blatantly obvious that it wasn't within

0:27:430:27:46

the scope of a reasonable person to collect on behalf of a charity

0:27:460:27:51

and take what you think are your legitimate earnings without so much

0:27:510:27:55

as an invoice, without so much as a receipt,

0:27:550:27:57

without so much as an audit trail.

0:27:570:27:58

Coe was sentenced to four years in jail.

0:28:000:28:03

The rest of the gang all received prison sentences.

0:28:030:28:05

Marie Curie Cancer Care is far from the only charity

0:28:090:28:13

affected by fake collectors.

0:28:130:28:15

Charities as diverse as Cancer Relief UK, Cerebral Palsy Care

0:28:150:28:19

for children, and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance have all been hit

0:28:190:28:23

by fake collectors.

0:28:230:28:24

But Sophie Kinsman, head of fundraising

0:28:240:28:27

at Marie Curie Cancer Care, says cases like this are still rare.

0:28:270:28:31

All charities have security procedures in place to ensure

0:28:320:28:36

the safety of the public's donations.

0:28:360:28:39

No voluntary fundraiser would be offended if you asked them

0:28:390:28:43

for proof of their identity

0:28:430:28:45

and for a number to call where you could check their credentials.

0:28:450:28:48

If you're at all unsure, please check with the charity or go

0:28:480:28:52

to their website for further information.

0:28:520:28:55

If you're approached in a public house,

0:28:550:28:57

or similar environment that doesn't have a designated event,

0:28:570:29:01

shaking tins in people's faces, asking for money,

0:29:010:29:04

is against the codes of practice.

0:29:040:29:06

So, that should be one of the biggest clues.

0:29:060:29:09

Charity collecting is just not done in this way.

0:29:090:29:11

Lovely leg of lamb.

0:29:190:29:20

But not just any lamb, this is Welsh lamb, and that matters,

0:29:200:29:23

because it's now got protected geographical status.

0:29:230:29:27

It means you can only call lamb "Welsh" if it's actually born

0:29:270:29:31

and bred in Wales. That makes it more expensive.

0:29:310:29:35

Top quality, you see.

0:29:350:29:37

But it also means there's a good business to be had by the fakers

0:29:370:29:40

if they can pull the wool over the public's eyes by selling

0:29:400:29:44

cheaper lamb as Welsh.

0:29:440:29:46

The farms of Wales have long been famous for the quality

0:29:490:29:52

of the meat they produce.

0:29:520:29:54

In fact, Welsh lamb and beef are so sought-after,

0:29:540:29:57

customers are willing to pay more for them

0:29:570:29:59

and Welsh farmer Alan Davies thinks he knows why.

0:29:590:30:03

Welsh lamb has come about through hundreds of years of grazing

0:30:050:30:09

the sheep on the hills of Wales and I believe it's the vegetation on these

0:30:090:30:13

hills which gives the Welsh lamb its flavour, its juiciness, its sweetness.

0:30:130:30:19

Both Welsh lamb and Welsh beef have become so renowned,

0:30:200:30:23

they have protected status from the EU.

0:30:230:30:26

It's an offence to say meat is Welsh when it's not.

0:30:270:30:31

It means that meat can't be sold or described as Welsh

0:30:310:30:34

unless the animals were born and reared in Wales.

0:30:340:30:37

But not everyone treats Welsh meat with the same level of respect.

0:30:390:30:43

Welsh Trading Standards believe some shops and restaurants have

0:30:430:30:46

been faking it, selling meat as Welsh that's anything but.

0:30:460:30:51

And it's something that Gwyn Howells of Meat Promotion Wales wants

0:30:510:30:54

to put a stop to.

0:30:540:30:56

There is a temptation for people to want to fake Welsh lamb

0:30:560:30:59

and Welsh beef on their menus and sometimes in the shops.

0:30:590:31:03

The temptation is born out of a premium image

0:31:030:31:07

and status that the Welsh lamb and Welsh beef brands have.

0:31:070:31:10

Obviously that is very, very wrong.

0:31:100:31:13

It not only misleads the consuming public,

0:31:130:31:15

but also undermines the integrity of those brands and the people

0:31:150:31:18

who have worked so hard to create those brands in the industry.

0:31:180:31:22

It also matters to you and me, consumers.

0:31:220:31:25

Trading Standards estimate the Welsh label will

0:31:250:31:28

add around £1.50 to the cost of your average steak.

0:31:280:31:32

If your steak is a fake, you're paying a premium price

0:31:320:31:36

and not getting what you've paid for.

0:31:360:31:38

Andy McKay is a Trading Standards officer in Caerphilly.

0:31:380:31:42

His is one of 12 Welsh Trading Standards departments that

0:31:420:31:45

have been tasked with policing the problem.

0:31:450:31:48

They're carrying out a survey of pubs and restaurants,

0:31:480:31:51

checking menus to

0:31:510:31:52

see if people advertising Welsh lamb and beef are selling the real thing.

0:31:520:31:57

If it's Welsh, it should be Welsh.

0:31:570:31:59

What we're trying to do is prevent cheaper imports from third

0:31:590:32:02

countries being misdescribed as Welsh beef and Welsh lamb.

0:32:020:32:05

And the results of the survey have turned up some very

0:32:070:32:09

interesting findings.

0:32:090:32:11

Out of 77 hotels, pubs

0:32:120:32:15

and restaurants visited advertising Welsh beef and lamb

0:32:150:32:18

and charging a premium price for it, nearly two thirds, or 50,

0:32:180:32:23

couldn't back up the claims made on menus with evidence that the beef

0:32:230:32:27

and lamb was genuinely Welsh.

0:32:270:32:29

The survey has shown that there are descriptions being made

0:32:310:32:33

that can't be proved. These are maybe misdescriptions.

0:32:330:32:37

They may be due to fraudulent practices.

0:32:370:32:39

If you make that description, you have to be able to prove it,

0:32:390:32:42

so the implication is that the customer could be getting ripped off.

0:32:420:32:45

There is a concern that the member of the public which is buying

0:32:450:32:48

Welsh beef and Welsh lamb is not buying Welsh beef

0:32:480:32:51

and Welsh lamb, and it's actually a cheap import and is in fact fake.

0:32:510:32:55

Restaurants should know where their meat has come from

0:32:570:33:00

and Trading Standards are taking it seriously.

0:33:000:33:02

There will be warnings this time, but if anyone is found

0:33:020:33:05

breaching the rules again, it could result in a fine.

0:33:050:33:09

Like this restaurant.

0:33:100:33:12

In 2011, it was fined for advertising dishes using Welsh black

0:33:120:33:17

sirloin and fillet steak which had actually come from Brazil.

0:33:170:33:23

Elsewhere in Wales, Cardiff Trading Standards have been

0:33:260:33:29

doing their own survey.

0:33:290:33:30

They've been investigating how local butcher's are advertising

0:33:300:33:34

their Welsh meat, and the results also show people willing to

0:33:340:33:38

bend the rules to mislead customers.

0:33:380:33:40

Over the course of two months,

0:33:430:33:44

Cardiff Trading Standards visited 43 butcher's and three of them

0:33:440:33:49

were out-and-out faking it, advertising meat as Welsh,

0:33:490:33:52

but actually selling meat that was born or raised elsewhere.

0:33:520:33:56

This is just a small snapshot.

0:33:560:33:58

They've only been carrying out this work for a few years

0:33:580:34:01

but have found in total 11 businesses faking Welsh meat.

0:34:010:34:06

As guardians of the brand, Meat Promotion Wales is worried

0:34:080:34:12

about businesses advertising the meat wrongly and profiting from it.

0:34:120:34:17

Those people are doing a huge disservice,

0:34:170:34:20

not only to the consumers that they are supplying,

0:34:200:34:23

but also to the industry at large, and we need to seek them out

0:34:230:34:28

and make sure that they correct their ways.

0:34:280:34:32

But it's not just the public that loses out when businesses fake it.

0:34:320:34:36

If a member of the public is being palmed off with

0:34:370:34:40

lamb which isn't Welsh lamb

0:34:400:34:42

and they have a bad experience in the eating of that lamb, then

0:34:420:34:46

obviously they're not going to come back and ask for Welsh lamb again.

0:34:460:34:49

That's going to undermine the business of the Welsh hill farmer and

0:34:490:34:54

would be detrimental to the businesses in the hills of Wales.

0:34:540:34:58

Whether it's a gap year, a career break or even part of a holiday,

0:35:040:35:08

more and more of us are taking the chance to volunteer overseas,

0:35:080:35:12

hoping to help someone less fortunate than ourselves

0:35:120:35:16

but unbelievably there are those trying to cash in on our goodwill.

0:35:160:35:21

Yes, even in the world of volunteering

0:35:210:35:25

not everything is always as it seems.

0:35:250:35:28

With unspoilt beaches, river valleys and historic temples,

0:35:300:35:34

it's no surprise that Cambodia is a popular stop

0:35:340:35:37

on the backpacker trail.

0:35:370:35:40

Every year, thousands of young British travellers come here

0:35:400:35:43

to enjoy its sights and sounds but not all just come to visit.

0:35:430:35:48

An increasing number want to do more,

0:35:480:35:50

fuelling a boom in volunteering.

0:35:500:35:53

Joanna Barclay was one of them.

0:35:530:35:55

As a former assistant head teacher with an interest in

0:35:550:35:58

international development,

0:35:580:36:00

she thought she could use her skills to make a difference in Cambodia.

0:36:000:36:05

She volunteered to help out at what she thought

0:36:050:36:08

was a children's day-care centre but when she got there,

0:36:080:36:12

it didn't take very long for Joanna to realise something was very wrong

0:36:120:36:16

behind its gates.

0:36:160:36:18

The minute I arrived at the children's centre,

0:36:190:36:21

I could see that the conditions were squalid,

0:36:210:36:25

that the children were malnourished, they were being fed on rice

0:36:250:36:29

and a tiny bit of broth.

0:36:290:36:31

They were dressed, some of them in rancid clothes, rags basically.

0:36:310:36:35

There was open sewage which was leaking into the living area,

0:36:350:36:40

the younger children were running barefoot through.

0:36:400:36:43

There was an open rubbish pit,

0:36:430:36:45

there was nowhere to actually deposit rubbish

0:36:450:36:48

so the director was burning rubbish every day so there was an open fire

0:36:480:36:52

that the very young children could run through.

0:36:520:36:56

At first, she thought these conditions might just reflect

0:36:560:36:58

the general poverty in the country but she soon began to discover

0:36:580:37:03

that this place had problems all of its own.

0:37:030:37:07

It wasn't a day-care centre at all, it was being run as an orphanage

0:37:070:37:11

where the children stayed full-time and that wasn't the only thing.

0:37:110:37:16

Jo became so suspicious about how the place was being run,

0:37:160:37:20

she decided to look into the children's backgrounds.

0:37:200:37:24

The director was dodging answering questions about each of the children.

0:37:240:37:29

His story seemed to change on every child

0:37:290:37:32

so I asked to look at the paperwork.

0:37:320:37:34

Basically I did an audit on the 20 children.

0:37:340:37:37

And Jo discovered that the orphanage itself was a fake.

0:37:370:37:42

This place turned out to be an orphanage,

0:37:420:37:45

however, the children weren't orphans.

0:37:450:37:48

Jo had unwittingly been caught up in a dark world of orphanage tourism.

0:37:480:37:53

Most of the children had parents

0:37:530:37:56

and had been recruited from a village in a nearby province.

0:37:560:37:59

It was a shock to both Jo and fellow centre volunteer Sarah Wood.

0:37:590:38:04

I guess for the whole time you just assumed that they didn't have

0:38:040:38:07

parents and they didn't have living relatives and that they were,

0:38:070:38:11

I guess, forced to live in these conditions because

0:38:110:38:14

they had nothing else because they had no-one,

0:38:140:38:16

they had no-one to care for them.

0:38:160:38:17

To find out that that wasn't true

0:38:170:38:20

was mostly just sad for the children.

0:38:200:38:22

I guess you wondered why they weren't with people who love them.

0:38:220:38:27

The children may well have been better off with their families

0:38:270:38:31

because Sarah certainly felt the centre wasn't caring for them.

0:38:310:38:34

Their director had a room out the back and it was full of food

0:38:340:38:38

and it had clothes and it had toys and it had school equipment

0:38:380:38:41

and it was all brand-new and it was all donated by volunteers

0:38:410:38:45

and foreigners and the children weren't allowed to have it.

0:38:450:38:47

All of these things that had been bought with the intention of

0:38:470:38:50

these really amazing, really beautiful, really spirited

0:38:500:38:54

little kids getting it and enjoying it

0:38:540:38:56

and having a better life from it,

0:38:560:38:57

it was really horrible to know that they weren't getting that

0:38:570:39:00

and that they were instead living in the conditions that they were

0:39:000:39:03

when it could've been changed.

0:39:030:39:05

Jo was so shocked by conditions at the centre, she decided to act.

0:39:050:39:10

She reported her concerns to the authorities who shut it down

0:39:100:39:13

and reunited the children with their parents.

0:39:130:39:17

But this isn't an isolated case.

0:39:170:39:19

Benedicta Bywater runs a charity that tries to keep children

0:39:190:39:23

with their families and out of fake orphanages.

0:39:230:39:26

The vast majority of children in orphanages are not orphans.

0:39:270:39:31

A very, very high percentage have at least one living parent,

0:39:310:39:36

they are predominantly what is frequently referred to as

0:39:360:39:40

economic orphans which means they're from a poor background

0:39:400:39:44

and that's soaring.

0:39:440:39:46

The number of orphanages has increased by something like 75%

0:39:460:39:49

since 2005 according to UNICEF.

0:39:490:39:52

With the number of orphanages increasing,

0:39:520:39:54

there's a need for more orphans, so where are they coming from?

0:39:540:39:58

Because there's a need for children,

0:39:580:40:00

orphanages are going out into the community and encouraging people,

0:40:000:40:03

making them believe it's better for their child to be in an orphanage.

0:40:030:40:06

According to the latest figures, in the space of a year

0:40:060:40:10

over 100,000 British people travelled to Cambodia.

0:40:100:40:14

Visiting orphanages and making a donation has become

0:40:140:40:16

part of the well-trodden tourist trail.

0:40:160:40:20

Experts say well-meaning holiday-makers are being conned

0:40:200:40:23

and are fuelling a dark industry of fake orphanages and orphans.

0:40:230:40:29

They are set up as businesses and the children become a commodity.

0:40:290:40:34

That money can come through fundraising,

0:40:340:40:37

it can come in through drop-in orphanage tourists who

0:40:370:40:40

come in for the day and give you some cash.

0:40:400:40:43

You get the organisations that do nightly dances where the children

0:40:430:40:47

come to a restaurant and do a special dance for the tourists,

0:40:470:40:50

brings the money that way and for me, that's just a business.

0:40:500:40:55

Kate Stefanko runs a volunteering company.

0:40:550:40:58

She thinks visitors to Cambodia should be much more aware

0:40:580:41:01

of the true nature of fake orphanages.

0:41:010:41:04

Every volunteer wants to do good.

0:41:040:41:06

They can find themselves in a situation where they're

0:41:060:41:09

actually encouraging the worst possible - child trafficking,

0:41:090:41:12

child abuse, the building and construction of orphanages,

0:41:120:41:17

the creation of "orphans", and I put that in inverted commas,

0:41:170:41:22

simply by creating the demand.

0:41:220:41:25

Some local entrepreneur will say to themselves,

0:41:250:41:28

"Hmm, look at all this money these volunteers are throwing around.

0:41:280:41:32

"We can have a bit of that so why don't we set up our own orphanage?"

0:41:320:41:37

Where is their licensing? How are they legitimate, these orphanages?

0:41:370:41:42

Has anyone actually checked them out?

0:41:420:41:45

Cambodian and English charities have become so concerned

0:41:450:41:48

about the growth in fake orphanages they're now working together

0:41:480:41:51

to try and stamp them out.

0:41:510:41:53

The Safe Haven Trust is supporting this.

0:41:530:41:56

Benedicta says there are things volunteers can look out for

0:41:560:41:59

so they don't fall into the trap of fake orphanages.

0:41:590:42:03

If you're able to do short-term, unskilled placements,

0:42:030:42:06

that's an alarm bell in itself.

0:42:060:42:09

Secondly, if they don't ask you for a criminal record check, don't go.

0:42:090:42:13

If you're able to do drop-in volunteering, don't go -

0:42:130:42:16

unless you have specifically relevant experience,

0:42:160:42:20

childcare, teaching, nursing, something like that

0:42:200:42:24

or are prepared to commit a really long period of time,

0:42:240:42:27

six months to a year, just don't. Don't do it.

0:42:270:42:31

Don't be part of these children's exploitation.

0:42:310:42:34

Don't get involved, it's a murky underworld

0:42:340:42:37

and even if you don't see it, just know it's there.

0:42:370:42:40

Jo says the impact of a well-meaning volunteer can cause lasting damage.

0:42:410:42:47

The reality is, these children, they need professional help.

0:42:470:42:51

They need also to be within their local communities,

0:42:510:42:54

with their families, they need to learn important life skills

0:42:540:42:59

and the best people to teach that are within their local communities,

0:42:590:43:03

not people walking in off the streets from abroad.

0:43:030:43:08

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.

0:43:130:43:15

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