Episode 9 Fake Britain

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

Welcome to Fake Britain.

Police!

Get down! Get down! Get on the floor now!

Put your hands behind your back now.

Here at the Fake Britain house,

we'll reveal the fakes that are flooding the market,

conning people like you and me and making money for the criminals.

We'll investigate the fraudsters who are selling us

something that isn't real and could be dangerous.

And we'll help you avoid falling for a fake.

Today on Fake Britain:

The fake clothing banks

that are fleecing kind-hearted Brits.

A fake bank is one that is depriving the poor

and the needy throughout the globe.

The fake identity cards that could lead to

a construction site catastrophe.

Fake cards are changing hands for between £300-£500.

And the fake fancy dress costumes endangering lives

-and harming British business.

-It's a very cheap synthetic.

Probably burns like the clappers.

Giving away old clothes to charity can make a real difference.

£100 million each year goes to worthy causes

because the clothes we're happy to give away are valuable.

But the fakers know that, too, and they're desperate

to get their hands on the stuff we want to go to a charity.

So, do you know where your gift of clothes could end up?

We've all seen clothing banks like this.

You'll find them on the high street or at an out-of-town

shopping centre.

In total, there are over 14,000 across the UK

and more than half of the estimated 540,000 tonnes of clothing

we recycle annually are collected through these banks.

The clothing is then sold overseas.

Ghana and Pakistan are two of the most popular destinations and the

profits are used to fund charitable projects both here and abroad.

Ravi Zutshi works at Planet Aid UK, a large not-for-profit

organisation which owns nearly 1,500 clothing banks across the UK.

The used textile business is massive.

There are many, many thousands of tonnes of used clothes,

used shoes collected every month from thousands of collection banks.

And it's surprising how valuable our unwanted clothing is.

We collect 120 tonnes of textiles each month

and the value of that is approximately

£600 to £700 per tonne.

A large clothing bank on a busy site will typically be filled

within a week, and the clothes donated in that time

can be sold for £200.

Over the course of a year, that's £10,000.

Planet Aid manage the clothing banks sites for a number of local councils

including seven locations here in Harlow, Essex.

However, the property team at Harlow Council have received

a report from a local shopkeeper about some mysterious clothing banks

which have suddenly appeared overnight.

Joe McGill from Harlow Council's property team believes

these clothing banks are fake.

As you can see, this is one of the fake clothing banks

that we've identified in Harlow.

There are six in total at present

and we're looking to have them removed from the area.

Joe and his team have been unable to find a registered charity

using this exact slogan and logo design.

Unlike other charities, where the council understands

where all the clothing is going and the public know which charity

they're contributing to,

no-one knows where this clothing will end up.

The fakers have used the Kids Go Green logo,

not to be confused with any organisation using a similar name,

on all six of the bins placed around Harlow.

The council has taken action and issued notices, ordering

the banks to be removed within three weeks, under the threat of seizure.

But Joe's had a report that his notice has been

removed from at least one of the banks.

The bin's located behind the side wall in an alleyway,

and just sat around the corner away from a CCTV camera.

Joe's suspicions have been confirmed.

The fakers have swiped the notice.

There's another fake.

And his next stop brings him

to a busy thoroughfare, where the fake's been brazenly placed

next to two genuine banks and is now causing a health hazard.

This one, as you can see, is uncontrolled.

They don't clear it up, they don't keep it tidy.

We don't have any idea who actually owns this particular bin, either.

It's got the same logo as the one in Sherards Hatch

and all the other ones that have been placed in Harlow.

As for the state of the site, Joe's going to have to get someone

down here, creating further costs for a hard-pressed local council.

Joe also picks up some useful information

on when the banks are being emptied.

Have you seen anybody coming up to the banks or anything?

The vans turn up at around quarter to six, ten to six,

when I'm out walking the dog in the morning.

They'll come up, they'll empty the clothes bank,

fill up their vans and go.

But this problem stretches far beyond Harlow.

Unfortunately, it's not the first time we've heard

of fake clothing banks.

We've heard reports of fake clothing banks over the years

in many, many locations.

Up in Scotland and then down in Yorkshire, we've had many reports

in Warwickshire, and even in our home town of Corby.

Back in Harlow, another fake clothing bank has been identified.

This time, it's been placed on land owned by Tesco.

However, the site is managed by one of the biggest

charities in Britain - Oxfam. The charity have issued

a notice of intent to seize the bank.

But members of the public are still mistaking the fake bank

for the real thing.

I have to say it's very good because I would have put my stuff in there.

I wouldn't have noticed any difference.

Oxfam's Andrew Horton has come down to put a stop to this.

The fake bank has been placed next to Oxfam's genuine banks.

So, what are the signs the clothing bank you use is the real deal?

Just take a second to look at the bank that's in front of you.

It's got a recognised charity.

If you've got doubts if it's a charity,

look on the Charity Commission website when you get home.

Make sure it's registered with them.

Has it got the right, sort of, labels on, to warn you

about what happens if you get into the bank or trap your finger?

Has it got a number saying what the registered charity is?

And if you've got any questions, give us a ring.

Instead of the public giving goods to charity, which is

what they want to do with their waste material,

they're actually giving it into the pockets of whoever is operating this bin.

So, we're going to do something about it today.

But this fake won't be fooling anyone else.

Oxfam have arranged for the bank to be seized.

It's going to be taken to our site, where it will be held for another 14 days.

So if the operator wants to come and collect their rogue bank,

they're welcome to do so, but we might ask them a few difficult questions.

We'll then open the bank, if they don't turn up,

we'll sell the goods for Oxfam's charitable purpose and then

we'll destroy the bank so it doesn't appear on a Tesco site again.

Oxfam may have recovered the fake bank on their site

but the day before Harlow Council are due to seize the fake banks

on their sites, four of the six banks disappear.

Joe McGill is not happy.

Whoever is behind this deception in placing the fake clothing banks in Harlow,

has little or no regard for the public of Harlow,

nor do they have any regard for the money they're taking away

from the charities and those charities who the council supports.

For Ravi at Planet Aid, the real victims here are the vulnerable

people who depend on the money raised by clothes donations.

Every item of clothing,

every kilo of clothing that goes into a fake bank, rather than

in to a legitimate clothing collecting bank, is one

that is depriving the poor and the needy throughout the globe.

Fancy dress is fun and if you're a parent,

no doubt at some stage, you've picked up an off-the-peg outfit

for your kids. They can be fantastic. Look.

Lots of little girls would love to be the princess at the party

in this dress.

But this dress isn't the one that dreams are made of.

Quite the opposite, because it's a fake.

Wearing it could put your child's life at risk.

We spend over £250,000 every year on fancy dress.

There's an incredible range of costumes available -

pirates, nurses, historical characters, sailors,

Disney princesses - even neon gorillas.

Dressing up is a much-loved British pastime

enjoyed across the country by children and the young at heart.

But fakers know there are profits to be made from make-believe

and now fake fancy dress costumes are flooding into the country.

Jodie Frisby has two young daughters who love to dress up.

Her youngest daughter, Katie-May,

had her heart set on an Elsa dress from the hit Disney cartoon, Frozen.

Every little girl wants something for Christmas

and that was her main thing.

I just wanted to make her happy, so I searched wherever I could really

to get one that was, A, top quality and B, not massively expensive.

Jodie went online and found a dress that she thought would be perfect.

I was quite impressed with it for the price that I saw it for.

Two weeks later, the package arrived.

When it first arrived, I was here to get the post.

I opened it up, I was squealing.

I was so excited when I got it,

because I knew Katie-May would love it.

It looked top quality when it was all wrapped up, you know,

I was really dead pleased with the dress.

And Katie-May was delighted with her gift.

Katie-May was really, really excited to see the dress.

She screamed, she wanted it on there and then.

So, we opened it up and put it on

and she was quite happy dancing around the living room,

doing her little Elsa poses, singing Let It Go.

She was in her element.

But it wasn't long before Jodie realised that Katie-May's new dress

wasn't everything it claimed to be.

Three hours later the dress started to fall apart at the seams.

It started to come apart in two halves.

It was the bottom half of the skirt, and the top half was like a T-shirt

and the cape, it frayed pretty badly.

It took a lot to get it sewn back together the first time it fell apart.

It's fell apart twice more since then.

It's been sewn up a couple of times, but the last time was,

it was literally in two halves.

Fake Britain sent the dress to Disney.

They confirmed it was a fake.

But the fakers aren't just targeting children's costumes.

Adult fancy dress is also being faked

and it's costing some British fancy dress companies millions.

Morning, Tina.

Ray Peckett is managing director at Smiffys,

one of the UK's largest manufacturers of fancy dress.

These costumes don't just suddenly appear.

We employ 30-odd people who are just designing

and getting the product to market.

The counterfeiters and fakers just nip in, steal our product,

make out that it's their product and do the job for nothing.

They are jeopardising the jobs of our designers.

We are one of the only people in the world that actually

designs our costumes from scratch, and these people's jobs

are being jeopardised because their work is being stolen.

Desperate to safeguard his workers and his company,

Ray has asked the authorities to act - and they have.

Right, here is our latest seizure.

One of the biggest to date.

The pirate costume.

These costumes are just part of a haul of 3,000 fakes.

Copying on this scale is damaging the company's profitability.

The turnover we figured that they are costing us

is about 10% of our business.

You are talking £6 million a year, year in year out.

The fakers have attempted to reproduce every detail

of the genuine product.

So, we've got two pirate costumes here.

On the right we have got the genuine Smiffy pirate and on the left,

we have got the counterfeit.

They've scanned our packaging.

They've reproduced it identically to ours.

The quality of printing is a little bit different

but to the consumer, this one looks like a Smiffy product.

The reason we know it's not originally was that the insert card,

the packaging doesn't actually fit.

But it's not just the packaging that's being faked.

Not only have they copied the packaging,

they've actually copied our sewing label and care instructions.

So, there we go.

To all intents and purposes, this is a Smiffy product.

Ray decided to take matters into his own hands.

To find out more but the criminals behind the fakery of his product

one of his team travelled to China and posed as a businessman

looking to buy counterfeit costumes.

We actually were invited inside and here we are being shown

the Disney dress.

The entire showroom is filled with knock-offs,

the whole thing is selling fakes, that is all they do.

Those are the guys who run the factory.

There's all the samples offered to us and, basically,

we could have anybody's product in any packaging we liked.

All they do is counterfeit.

They mentioned they were having a bit of trouble with Smiffys,

that Smiffys had been putting some pressure on them,

so we are actually making some effect with these people.

But the fakers were less than impressed by Ray's undercover work.

They have an attitude that is appalling.

They have actually threatened some of my staff.

They've gone into gory details of what would happen to them

and their parents if they continue pursuing them.

The fakers have also targeted the children's costume market.

This fake product is being sold online using the marketing image

of a real Smiffys costume.

The two products that you've got here,

one is the genuine Smiffy product which has been tested

for heavy metals, nasty dyes and things which are quite bad

for the consumer, especially for kids to have.

Here, having assumed they were getting this, what turns up is this.

As well as the damage to his business,

Ray's concerned about the safety of the fake children's costumes.

OK, we've got the two costumes laid out here.

What the consumer would have been expecting is this one here

which is the Smiffy item.

It comes with a mop cap, long sleeves, the apron attached

and a nice collar with sleeves with frills on.

What the knock-off fake item is actually like is a long T-shirt.

It's got short sleeves and a roll neck collar.

Well, it's another T-shirt probably made of...

It's a very cheap synthetic, it probably burns like the clappers.

Children's fancy dress clothes are not subject to flammability testing,

although some retailers are insisting on safety standards

for what they stock.

The change came after TV presenter Claudia Winkleman

led a campaign.

Her daughter was badly burned in a Halloween costume.

Responsible manufacturers like Smiffys have always ensured

that their clothing is fire resistant.

The concern is, the fakers are using cheap materials and dyes to maximise

their profits, and these fake costumes could continue to be a fire hazard.

Fake Britain decided to put this theory to the test.

We asked fire safety officer Matthew Perrin to perform a test on

a genuine Smiffys costume to see how it would compare with a fake one.

He begins with a genuine costume.

But getting the material to catch light is easier said than done.

On the fourth attempt, the tunic finally catches fire.

But it quickly and safely self extinguishes.

This is how costumes made by responsible manufacturers

should perform when they catch fire.

Now, it's time to test the fake Smiffys costume.

It catches fire immediately and burns violently for well over two minutes,

possibly because the fakers have used cheaper materials and dyes.

We wanted to know if this was a one-off.

So, we decided to test a fake Frozen dress,

seized by Nottingham Trading Standards.

It's not long before the entire costume is engulfed by flames.

This material is burning quite rapidly.

Quite a large spread of fire across the material.

We are also seeing these droplets coming off, as well.

Matthew Perrin is concerned about the flammability of the material

used in this fake dress.

This has been burning for about three or four minutes now.

As you can see, the material itself,

rather than doing what it should do, and actually putting itself out,

almost self-extinguishing, the material itself, as you see,

is adding to the fire. It is almost fuelling the fire.

We'd expect some serious burns to anyone wearing this.

We showed footage of the test results to Jodie Frisby,

who unwittingly purchased a fake dress online.

Jodie is shocked by the dress' flammability.

The way the back bit goes up, that is the most shocking bit.

It started off at the front and now the whole back has just gone.

I don't think she'll be wearing that dress again.

Yeah, I'm really shocked that my little daughter has been

exposed to any sort of danger by wearing a fancy dress costume.

You don't think that a fancy dress costume is going to cause

your daughter any harm.

As well as the familiar passport or driving licence,

we're all getting used to using lots of IDs, perhaps for work,

the gym, events or, look, the railcard.

But faking IDs is big criminal business,

even the enforcement agencies whose task it is to crack down

on the problem are surprised at what they discover the forgers are up to.

Detective Carl Eade and his team at the National Crime Agency

are at the forefront of cracking down on identity fraud.

More specifically, the faking of identity cards.

For three years, Carl and his team were on the trail of a prolific

network of identity card forgers.

The operation's been ongoing for some time.

We've identified numerous cells producing

and distributing these documents.

Their painstaking detective work culminated in raids

where they uncovered fake ID factories churning out passports,

driving licences and other bogus identity documents in their thousands.

It would normally be a room within someone's house

or it may have been a flat specifically purchased for that purpose.

It normally consists of a room with computers, monitors.

You'll have various different types of printer,

some quite standard, some quite specialist, like a card printer.

The computers will be loaded with graphic software

and photo imaging software.

There'll be scanners.

But from that room, they can create thousands of IDs.

The NCA team recently identified this man,

Medi Krasniqi, as a seller of fake identity cards.

They knew he was operating around Turnpike Lane in north London.

But to stop Krasniqi, they'd need to find the man

who was forging the fake ID cards he was selling.

That would lead them to the fake ID factory.

The criminals were careful to disguise the handovers,

making it hard to catch them in the act.

These cards were often concealed.

They were not handed directly over,

they may be left on a shelf in a shop.

But the NCA team were about to get their break.

They followed Krasniqi, as he made his way across north London,

eventually arriving at this fast food restaurant.

Minutes later, the elusive forger of the fake IDs arrives

and sits down next to him.

Carl Eade's team were in position outside the building.

All they needed to do now was patiently wait for the exchange

of fake cards to happen between Krasniqi and the ID card forger.

Krasniqi then stands.

He picks up an empty tray from the same table.

And in that small moment of the tray being picked up and moved,

over 70 fake ID cards are handed over in an envelope

and are placed in Krasniqi's back pocket.

The moment both men leave, the NCA officers race to arrest them.

Krasniqi was caught red-handed with the 70 fake ID cards.

And when the team raided a property linked to his name,

they found £12,000 in cash hidden behind the oven.

At the flat belonging to the forger of the fake cards, Arsene Meci,

the NCA discovered one of the fake ID factories they'd been searching for.

Amongst the materials needed to create fake passports,

driving licences and other ID documents,

the officers found a type of card they'd never seen before.

Initially, we were, I have to say,

quite unaware of the requirement for the Construction Services cards.

However, as we downloaded the databases,

it was quite clear that this was a prominent area of their work.

The forgers had realised that ID cards are now mandatory

on the vast majority of construction sites across the country.

They'd been selling fake ID cards to construction workers

in their thousands.

This is one of the Construction Skill Certification Scheme cards

that were seized.

This is a fake card which states that this gentleman

as a construction site operative,

and that he's accredited to work on construction sites.

Basic construction identity cards were sold for as little as £50.

But other, more specialist fakes, like this one can be sold for 500.

This, again, another plastic card that's been created.

Again, it will have been layered on the computer.

This one is for Engineering Services Skills Card, which states

the registered holder of this card holds

the construction qualifications listed on the reverse.

On there, it states he's specialist in ductwork erector

and ductwork installer.

Meci and Krasniqi eventually pleaded guilty to all charges.

They were sentenced to six and a half years

and five and a half years in prison respectively.

Meci will be deported to his native Albania

on the completion of his sentence.

Many of the fake construction ID cards for which Meci and Krasniqi

were responsible carried the logo CSCS.

And that stands for Construction Skills Certification Scheme.

It's the largest of the identity card schemes and Graham Wren is the CEO.

For a supervisor or a site manager,

the card is a really valuable tool in confirming the individual's

identity, in confirming the qualifications they hold.

Fake identity cards can allow workers to operate dangerous equipment

without having had to pay for any training.

Fake Britain asked CSCS to investigate the scale of the problem,

so they ran a survey of construction site managers.

The results showed fake cards were being used on one in five sites.

But the authorities are fighting back.

The Construction Industry Training Board has been tasked with

tracking down the people using fake cards.

Investigative officer Ian Sidney is the first port of call

when a fake card is discovered.

We have uncovered quite a black market for fake cards

in the construction industry,

especially for some of the plant cards we found, which again,

we know are changing hands for between £300 and £500.

Ian has just discovered that a construction worker using

a fake identity card has caused an accident.

We've received a complaint from a health and safety advisor

for a construction company, following an incident

on one of their construction sites involving a forward tipping dumper

being involved in an accident.

As a result of the accident, they have checked on the card

held by the driver and it would appear that the card he'd produced

to them when he arrived on site was a fake card.

Luckily, there was nobody injured

but there was some damage caused to property on the site.

Ian needs to track down the man who's been using the fake card

before he can cause any more damage.

What we'll do this morning is we'll obviously attend his address,

hopefully he'll be there and we can then try and recover the fake card.

But we have no powers of arrest,

so we use the local police to use their powers of arrest.

If we then need to search the premises for evidence,

they will use their powers to search his address and also to detain him.

The team arrives at the address, but the suspect isn't there.

-Is there anybody by that name who lives here?

-No.

No. No.

Clearly, it's quite common that subjects will give false addresses,

false dates of birth and even false names, especially

if they're here as migrant workers with no rights to work.

So it's quite a common thing that we do come across quite regularly.

So the team calls the number on the fake card.

I just need for you to confirm your address,

-because the address we've got on file is

-BLEEP.

-And you're not living at

-BLEEP.

-You was there?

The lady says you don't live there, but you're now telling me

that she's called you and told you that we've been with the police?

The suspect eventually provides the team with a second address.

You're at that address now?

OK. OK. All right. Well, thank you very much for your help.

I'll see you shortly.

Ian and the police arrive at the second address

and finally the suspect comes out to meet them.

We're from the Construction Industry Training Board.

We're fraud investigators. OK?

And we're looking to speak to you about a previous card

that was issued to you, a CPCS card. OK?

This one is a card that was issued to you which you

-used on a building site.

-I keep it.

-OK.

This card, we believe, is a fraudulent card.

The suspect is arrested and handcuffed. His wallet is searched.

And they find the fake card.

This is the fake card. As you can see, it's got his picture on.

This is for a forward tipping dumper and a ride-on roller.

It's a good result. We've got the fake card.

The suspect's taken to the local police station for interview.

An hour later, Ian gets an update from the custody sergeant.

Our subject's now been interviewed, formally admitted his involvement

in the offence and how he came to have possession of the fake cards.

As he had no previous convictions, he's been formally cautioned for the

offence by the police and that's an end to the criminal investigation.

But cases like this are putting the construction industry

under greater scrutiny.

It's fakery that could ultimately lead to a serious accident.

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.