Episode 7 Fake Britain

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

Welcome to Fake Britain.

Police!

-Get down!

-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...

We reveal the scandal of fake part worn tyres that are a crash

waiting to happen.

I could have killed anybody that got in my car.

We expose the fake face mask filters putting workers' lives at risk.

This is one of the worst masks I've ever seen.

And we investigate the counterfeit games controllers packing

a potentially shocking punch.

I mean, that's pretty terrifying.

You're taking the risk of something exploding in your hands

and actually damaging you for life.

Running a car can be very expensive.

You've got road tax, insurance, servicing and, of course, the fuel,

so it's tempting to try and save money wherever we can.

A new tyre can cost well over £100, so you might opt for this -

a part worn tyre. Much cheaper, they're subject to strict

regulations and inspections,

and they are legal to sell, except this one isn't because it's a fake.

We've discovered that dangerous fakes like this

are on sale all over the country and they are putting lives risk.

Like many of us, mum of four Gina Gee relies on her car to get around.

I use my car on a day-to-day basis.

I take my kids to school, I take my mum to and from work.

I'm a home carer, so I have the lady I look after in my car as well,

so I use my car every day.

But also, like many of us,

she finds keeping it on the road an expensive business.

So, when her tyres needed replacing, she opted for the most

economical way of doing it.

I've only been driving for just over a year,

so it's the first time I've had to buy tyres.

Because I needed more than one tyre replacing,

I chose to go for part worn tyres. My partner told me where to go.

I went down there and they put part worn tyres on my car,

which were cheaper.

Whilst new tyres for Gina's can cost well over £100 each,

part-worns can start from as little as a tenner.

It's a similar story for most makes and models.

The sale of tyres is governed by the Motor Vehicle Tyres Regulations Act -

this sets standards such as minimum tread depth and repairs.

Part worn tyre dealers are responsible for making these safety

checks and that's exactly what genuine ones like this do,

showing they've done so by marking the tyre wall

with an indelible white stamp.

If the tyre doesn't meet those part worn safety standards,

it's a fake.

After all that, when a part worn tyre dealer puts their tyres on sale,

they are declaring that they're safe,

and that's exactly what Gina thought she was getting.

I went in, they were very chatty,

very bubbly, quite friendly down there.

I had all four children with me,

so I was then stood with four children in a garage.

Obviously watching my children, not what was being done with my car.

When she later took the car to another garage with a mechanical fault,

he also looked at her tyres and was shocked by what he saw.

He wasn't happy with me to drive away in the car.

None of the tyres that they had put on were legal,

none of them were safe.

They were just really dangerous.

Gina alerted the authorities

and her tyres were passed to Trading Standards officer Dan Brown,

who had already been investigating local dealers.

He examined Gina's tyres and became concerned about the state

they were in and how roadworthy they might be.

Clearly here you can see a repair that has been done to a hole

through the tyre, which is in an illegal position in the tyre,

as it is in a dangerous position. Secondly, we have another tyre here.

Again, from the same complainant. The tyre wall here has been damaged.

And when under pressure conditions, this tyre was bulging out.

Now, under road conditions,

this could have potentially put somebody's life at risk.

These tyres clearly haven't been checked - their safety -

before they're sold to consumers.

Gina's isn't an isolated case.

Dan Brown has been investigating several local part worn tyre dealers.

One of them, Luke McKenzie,

was caught selling unsafe part worn tyres to unsuspecting motorists.

He received a nine-month suspended sentence.

These traders should not be, and cannot be, allowed to supply

unsafe or fake part worn tyres

that are putting members of the public...public's lives at risk.

Every year, more than 1,200 motorists are injured in an accident

where illegal, defective or under inflated tyres play a part.

Gina was one of the lucky ones, she and her family escaped unscathed,

but the realisation of what could have happened has hit her hard.

Devastated...

would be the best word to describe how I felt.

I felt like I had put my kids at risk,

and myself and anyone that had been in the car.

(Sorry.)

You blame yourself...

..because I could have killed anybody that got in my car.

And I thought it was safe, and it wasn't.

But the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the fakers.

To find out just how dangerous fake part worn tyres can be,

Fake Britain decided to put them to the test.

Tyre expert and test driver Steve Dalby will get behind the

wheel of a car that will be fitted with fake part worn tyres.

But the damage on some of them is so bad

the team are having a hard time even fitting one to the wheel.

There's really a very dangerous damage on the side walls.

And in order for us to keep an eye on this while we're fitting it,

I'm just going to mark it with a yellow crayon.

I'm going to stick it in a safety cage

because I'm not confident that when we inflate the tyre it's going

to inflate safely, as a new tyre or a normal tyre would.

I'll put it in that cage so that, if it does explode, we're safe.

TYRE INFLATES

I'm going to gently pull it out and have a look at it...

..and you can see how horrific this bulge is on that tyre.

And if that tyre was to go on a car and fail,

I'm sure it would fail pretty quickly.

-You want to put that on and run it?

-No, I wouldn't, no.

Even for Steve, this is too dangerous to drive.

But with four tyres eventually fitted, he's ready to hit

the road and find out just how fake their claims of roadworthiness are.

As Steve heads to the track,

the effects on handling become immediately obvious.

Front end slides and the back end slides.

Very difficult to control.

Not much grip. Had enough of those.

The main danger with illegal part worns is that their damage

makes them leak air as they run and the tyre constantly loses pressure.

So, to simulate the situation of a slow puncture, we are

deflating one of the rear tyres to see how it would feel,

as a typical driver, driving a part worn tyre

that is gradually deflating.

Now mimicking the state of most fake part worn tyres on the roads,

performance becomes far more unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Taking all of my concentration to stop the car from spinning,

and already I can feel the back end is really sliding a lot.

And nearly lost control completely there.

TYRES SCREECH

A little bit all over the place.

It is really tricky to control.

Steve is an experienced driver, but he's finding it hard to keep

these fake part worn tyres on the track.

-BLEEP

-hell!

Who knows what sort of trouble

the average driver would find themselves in.

Oh, there it goes.

A complete spin out.

I wouldn't like at all to have this sort of tyre on my car.

A recent national study found a staggering 98% of part worn

tyres have been sold illegally

and over a third of those had potentially dangerous damage.

As far as Gina is concerned,

the fakers are putting innocent motorists' lives at risk.

It is like they don't care whose lives they are putting in danger.

The fact that they can get away with putting dangerous tyres

on people's cars like that,

knowing they have got people going into those cars, little children,

elderly people, I don't know how they can sleep at night-time.

It is disgusting.

But the problem isn't simply confined to a handful of dealers.

It's an epidemic that reaches right across the country.

Later, we join those on the front line, as Trading Standards officers

fight back, tackling the suspected fakers head-on.

We have looked at it and it doesn't appear to be safe.

We have to seize it.

As a nation, we are obsessed by design, from kettles to cars,

from phones to furniture and, not forgetting, kitchen gadgets.

We want to spend our money on things that don't just work well,

but also look great.

Companies can spend years creating, perfecting and protecting

their designs, but the fakers are always hot on their heels.

Look at these.

One of them is an innovative invention that has cracked

a key task in the kitchen. The other is a fake that's a complete failure.

Could you tell the difference?

Design is the lifeblood of many businesses

and countless millions are spent by companies every year trying to

produce something that's new, fresh and which stands out from the crowd.

And to come up with the next big thing,

they turn to people like inventor and designer Mark Sanders.

His success stories include the Strida folding bike.

But we've seen before on Fake Britain

how the fakers ripped off his design,

turning it into a bone-shaking ride.

The crank is incredibly loose.

HE WINCES

It seems as though the fakers are the biggest

followers of his innovations because, as fast as this serial

inventor can make it, it seems someone's out there faking it.

Well, basically, everything on this side of the table are the

authentic, genuine product

and all these fellas are all copies.

And a product like this one,

which is a fully automatic jar opener,

it simulates what your hands do

when you both grip a lid and grip

a jar and then twist in the opposite direction,

like a robot would - fully automatic.

CAN OPENER BUZZES

And that was a real technical challenge,

probably about a year's worth of development,

and that was pretty much full-time.

These products have taken Mark years to perfect,

but the fakers are knocking out cheap copies in weeks that,

on the surface, are virtually identical,

like this automatic can opener.

This one is the real one.

This one is the fake.

They've copied the mechanism as well, which has gone through many,

many test cycles.

We've got a very strong patent on that mechanism,

but it hasn't prevented people just copying it completely.

The fakers may think they've lifted the lid on Mark's design secrets,

but without having put in his years of development,

it's time to find out if it can rival the performance of the real thing.

Let's try the genuine one.

-Basically, you put it on the lid...

-CAN OPENER BUZZES

..and then it automatically walks around the can...

opening the lid.

-BUZZING CONTINUES

-It gets to the end

and it automatically shuts itself off.

OK. And then you have the lid stuck to the opener,

which you then flick in the bin.

The real thing makes short work of the job.

But can the fake cut it?

The first thing we notice is that it's a lot louder.

As you can see,

although it looks the same, it doesn't work as well.

Erm...

It's gone about a quarter of the way around,

the lid is still stuck on there,

and somebody has just wasted

a lot of money on this.

That's fakes.

The fakers may have copied the form,

but by cutting corners the function simply doesn't deliver,

and it's the same story with some of his other inventions.

This is the real chopping board.

You can grasp the handle and it forms a chute,

so you don't miss the pan.

Now, this looks the same, but if you compare the thickness of

plastic, it's actually about half the thickness.

Mark sold his original chopping board design to British

kitchenware company Joseph Joseph,

who now market the genuine article under their brand-name.

They also have an in-house design team

and innovative twists on kitchen classics,

combined with a distinctive look, are how they've made their name.

Like Mark, they've had their own designs counterfeited,

but owner Richard Joseph has seen

the scale of fakery here escalate.

We've probably had 100 products faked that we know about.

These are the ones that get copied the most.

So, this is a fake lemon reamer

and this is the original.

Now, you can see they're virtually identical.

This is one of our "Elevate" tools.

That's the original.

That's the fake.

The key design feature in this is it's got a foot that we've put

into the handle, so when you're picking it up

and putting it down on the countertop, it keeps the head of

ladle off the countertop and basically makes it hygienic.

With the fake product, when you place this on the table,

the head actually comes into contact with the table

and that means it's a product that doesn't work.

In fact, it seems as though the fakers are flooding the market

with their knock-offs.

If you put in "Index Chopping Boards",

a trademark name, you have 8...9...

10, 11, 12...

I'll carry on. 13 companies, just there, that are producing copies.

They're all infringing our trademark

and claiming it as their own, and selling either direct copies,

direct fakes or versions of.

Fakery has cost us millions of pounds over the years.

It was affecting the business so badly we decided to

bring in our legal counsel to deal with

the problem we had is on an international scale.

In 2010, in that single year, we spent more money on protecting

our intellectual property and tackling

the copiers than we did on design.

Perhaps their most faked product is this set of eight stacking bowls

and measuring cups, known as the Nest Eight.

So, here we have the original Joseph Joseph Nest Eight

and here is the fake.

And, as you can see, they're virtually identical.

One thing that isn't identical is the price.

Whilst the real thing retails for around £35,

the fake generally costs £20 or less.

And as at first glance they look the same, for many people,

it appears as though that can be the deciding factor.

£20 because it's the same.

-I'd take the £20.

-I'll go for the £20 ones.

They look exactly the same, so probably the cheapest one.

-Well, I'd obviously picked the £20 one.

-Saving £15.

They may look the same, but the counterfeit contains

a very unwelcome addition because some of

what the fakers are serving up has the potential to make you

chronically ill.

Fake bowls like these are being sold in California, where the law states

that products must carry a warning if they contain dangerous materials.

The materials they've chosen

can cause cancer and

child defects at birth,

so it's quite incredible.

They first of all should never be on sale,

and secondly very damaging for the consumer

and for us as a brand, as well.

These cheap and potentially dangerous plastics are the reason this

product can undercut the genuine article.

Knowing this, will our street sample

still think the fake is a bargain?

Well, then I'd definitely not buy it!

Because, obviously, long-term, if it's going to affect me

and my health, then I'm not going to be interested in it.

That's terrible, isn't it?

I would definitely buy the dearer one now.

Yeah, that would scare me, slightly, to be honest.

-I wouldn't go for it.

-I'm going to pay £15 more for this one.

I'm going to pay for this one.

It just shows you how you can be deceived, really, isn't it?

We are a nation of DIY lovers and, for lots of those

"can't put it off any longer" jobs around the house,

we should wear one of these -

a protective mask with a special filter.

They're also essential safety wear in many jobs to

protect against potentially dangerous

dust, particles and fumes.

But these filters are fake

and anyone using them might never

know they'd put themselves at risk

until it was too late.

Hope Robertson understands why face masks are so important.

Up until 2000, her husband David worked on the shipyards of the Clyde.

He was an electrician, always in the yards.

Back then, they didn't get overalls, they didn't even get a mask.

They didn't even have a tissue paper to put over their nose.

They were given absolutely nothing at all.

David was exposed to asbestos day in, day out,

with seemingly no ill effects.

Then, in late 2000, Hope began to notice changes in him

which caused her concern.

Christmas time, New Year time, he started to lose weight,

not vast amounts, but he was losing weight and he wasn't eating.

And he had what you call a slight tickly cough.

Nothing much to write home about, but it was...

the change in his temperament.

Hope made an appointment with the doctor,

who was immediately worried,

and sent David straight to the hospital for tests.

That was on the Monday.

On Tuesday, it was our wedding anniversary,

our 36th wedding anniversary.

And on the Thursday, February 24th,

they came and they told us that he had mesothelioma.

Pleural mesothelioma is a cancer of the lungs

and doctors linked David's to his years working

without being issued a mask and being left exposed to asbestos.

It can lie dormant for over 20 years before symptoms appear,

by which time, as in David's case, it can be highly advanced.

Four weeks exactly after he got out of hospital, he died at home.

As quickly as that.

We didn't get a chance to say a proper goodbye.

That really hurt, not being able to have just that extra bit of time.

And that was it, all over...

..all because of neglect.

And David's wasn't an isolated incident.

Whole communities whose workers weren't at the time issued

with face masks were to suffer the same fate.

This is my late husband's name on here.

All these other people, all the way down,

they were all exactly the same.

They've all died from either asbestosis or mesothelioma.

Heartbreaking.

What did they do to deserve this? Absolutely nothing.

And they died just purely because

they were not given the proper equipment.

It's precisely cases like this that led to a change in the law.

Now employees in a range of professions are protected

and given face masks to help prevent a repeat of such a tragedy.

And it's not only asbestos particles that can be lethal.

All dusts carry their own risk.

Carpenters like William Kirby are 80 times more likely

than the rest of us to develop nasal cancer from inhaling sawdust.

I could be working an eight-to-ten-hour,

to 14 hour day, using bench saws, electric planers -

each one creates dust and it's very important to wear a mask.

In fact, from workers like William

to the thousands of us doing DIY at home,

we're all exposed, and a range of companies make masks

to protect against these dangers.

One of the biggest and most trusted names is a brand called 3M,

but we've discovered one of the filters for their face masks

is being faked.

We bought some of the fake filters online and took them

to 3M's headquarters to show technical manager Alan McArthur.

He believes it's very important to use the genuine item.

These are one of the particle filters we sell in the UK.

They attach onto our masks,

can be a half face mask or, in this case, a full face mask.

Once they're fitted and the wearer is wearing the product,

the contaminated air, as they breathe,

passes through the filter and the particles are captured,

and the wearer then is breathing cleaned air.

We're making many thousands of respirators every day

and, over the world, we have other factories as well

making respiratory protective equipment.

And annually, yes, globally,

runs into millions and millions of devices.

The reputation and our brand is very important to us.

It is something we take seriously

because it's... The health of the wearer of the product is at risk.

Genuine filters that are P3 grade

should offer the wearer the highest level of protection

against everything from brick dust to asbestos.

A filter like this might have saved David Robertson's life

in his asbestos-filled workplace.

The fake filters claim to offer P3 grade protection,

but if they don't perform,

the wearer could unwittingly be inhaling toxic particles

with devastating long-term effects.

These filters have been through

a stringent testing and certification process

and we know how they'll perform when they are on the device.

With fake filters, how they perform is unknown.

Many of 3M's genuine products are tested here at the BSI,

British Standards Institution.

They check face masks used by everyone from the public

to the emergency services and the military.

Expert Mike Thompson has agreed to put the fakes

through one of the tests all masks of this grade

must meet to be sold anywhere in Europe.

The aim of this test is to represent fine particles

to see whether they penetrate through the particulate filter media.

Basically what this will show us is, if you were the wearer,

how much of this would go into your lungs.

Sodium particles are blasted into the box to mimic a hazardous environment.

The air is then sucked through the filter into a device

acting as the wearer's lungs.

Hardly any sodium should pass through to this stage.

When assessed to European standard, it should protect the wearer

from 99.95% of particles that they are subjected to.

But it only takes a few seconds for Mike to see

unusually high amounts leaking through.

There's quite a lot of particulates going through the actual filter.

Five minutes in, the first full set of readings come back

and the results are damning.

The penetration value is over 14%.

For this European standard in this class,

it should be no more than 0.05%.

So if you're the wearer wearing this,

you'll have little protection at all.

It will be nearly 300 times the actual limit

for this European standard.

With such a disastrous performance, Mike decides to shut the test down.

We would normally subject this filter to an exposure limit

that would be at least for 30 minutes.

But at this case, it's failed right at the start.

There's no point carrying on.

This is one of the worst masks I've ever seen.

For 3M, the brand the fakers are ripping off,

it's a warning for customers to be on their guard.

Buy through reputable channels within the UK.

I think searching for a bargain on a website

is where you may find trouble.

And for Hope Robertson, who lost her husband to asbestos exposure,

the message to the fakers putting others at risk is loud and clear.

These are people's lives that are at stake.

I just don't want anybody else to go through

what myself and my family went through

because it's a horrible way to go.

It's a dreadful way to go.

After a hard day's work,

we've all got our different ways of kicking back and relaxing.

For an increasing number of people,

it's escaping into the world of video games.

In fact, eight out of ten households now have games consoles.

And to use them, you need one of these - a controller.

You've guessed it, it's a fake.

But you might not have guessed that this controller is not only

a waste of money, it's also potentially dangerous.

There are an astounding 22 million games consoles

in regular use across Britain and,

with the average gamer now being an affluent 30-something,

it's big business...

..as PlayStation Magazine editor Matthew Pellett knows.

We're far from the days of gaming just being a niche entertainment product.

We have situations where games are costing millions of dollars to make,

so it's a massive, massive industry,

with millions and millions and millions of dollars involved,

and it is growing bigger every year.

With its rich pickings,

it's been an area which has long been a target for the fakers.

A few years ago,

they targeted the lucrative trade in counterfeit video games.

But with games now harder to copy,

they've moved on to wireless controllers like these

for Sony's popular PlayStation 3 console,

which has sold over 80 million units.

People go online and buy what they expect to be an official controller,

and it turns out that maybe

it isn't an official controller when it arrives.

And that's exactly what happened to teaching assistant

and games fan Raymi Salas.

In the week, I work in a school,

so it can be quite a stressful environment.

So when I come home, it's a nice break.

I can sit down and have a couple of hours

just taking my mind away from things.

It's not only gaming that I personally do with the PlayStation -

I look at videos and go online -

so it's important to have the controller

and have a good one that works.

And when Raymi's original controller broke,

he bought a new one from an online marketplace.

But not long after it arrived, something went wrong.

It must have been maybe two days later,

I was playing with it and it just didn't feel right.

Some of the buttons, when I pressed them, they weren't reacting.

So then I started to think, "Is this an original or not?"

I compared it with my other controller

and I noticed more and more things that were not the same.

I was angry about it, you know.

I'm paying all this money for something that is not real.

Because I felt cheated,

I wanted to warn people that would be in the same position,

so I thought I'd make a video, uploaded it on YouTube.

The serial number, ZC2H,

it's not the same as the box that it came with, ZCU.

Rimey began to get responses to his video

from others who'd also been duped,

suggesting the problem might be widespread.

So, to get an idea of how prolific the fakers are,

we asked PlayStation Magazine to reach out to their followers

and see how many had fallen victim to counterfeit controllers.

Within 24 hours, editor Matthew Pellett was inundated with replies.

The response was quite extraordinary.

We had almost 10,000 likes on Facebook,

well over 200 people responded.

We didn't expect the number of responses that we got

and it was one of the most popular stories of the entire month.

Disturbingly, readers weren't just reporting counterfeit controllers not working,

but suggesting there may be a more serious risk for anyone using them.

A guy called Alan here, who bought a fake one

from an independent games store,

and he reported the pad actually got quite hot when he was using it.

And we've got one from Gadget Mann, who replies to say that he bought

a fake one and it used to smell funny and once he had it on charge

and smoke actually started coming out of the pad,

which is pretty worrying, naturally.

It's massively concerning to see our readers reporting that,

in some instances, they've bought a fake controller

and that there are actual physical problems with it.

In fact, we've discovered a counterfeit warning put out

by Sony themselves, which mentions the risk of explosions.

And with so many seemingly making their way onto the market,

Fake Britain decided to lift the lid on these counterfeit controllers

and reveal what dangers lie beneath.

Steve Gurewitz works with companies producing genuine

third-party controllers

that are compatible with consoles, including PlayStation.

With the help of his technical experts,

he's conducted an autopsy of the fake

with some potentially alarming findings.

What we have with the official one is this robust plastic mould,

which holds all the components in place.

And with the fake one, we have no plastic mould,

so everything is free to rattle around.

With the battery, the official one

is in a proper protective plastic casing.

It's got all the official CE markings on.

It's a lithium ion battery, of course.

On the fake one, it's quite literally wrapped in cheap plastic.

The battery carries no CE markings and we have no idea

if this is a safe battery or a dangerous battery.

What we have is the battery held on with a bit of foam

and a bit of glue and, if the battery burns,

good chance that foam, that glue and that PCB board

is going to burn with it.

Sony pioneered work in lithium ion batteries

and the ones used in their genuine products

are extremely safe and stable.

But lithium can be a notoriously unstable metal

and we've seen here before on Fake Britain the effect that fake

or cheaply produced lithium batteries can have.

They run the risk of overheating

and going into a state of thermal runaway,

where one overheated cell sets off a chain reaction in the others.

That is more likely to happen with a fake battery

due to the fact of the poor quality control,

the lack of safety features that are within these devices.

A fake controller, fitted with an unstable battery like this,

could overheat or potentially even explode.

Already taken aback by the number of fakes seemingly on the market,

Matthew Pellett is shocked by the revelation

that gamers might not just be sold duds but dangerous goods.

I mean, that's pretty terrifying.

For the sake of saving ten or 20 quid,

you're taking the risk of something exploding in your hands

and damaging you for life, it's clearly not worth it.

Earlier, we met Gina,

who had a lucky escape after being conned by a part worn tyre dealer

selling dangerous tyres making fake claims to be safe.

I felt like I'd put my kids at risk

and myself and anyone that had been in my car.

But that wasn't a one-off.

Fake Britain can reveal that thousands of unsafe part worn tyres

are on sale across the country.

Industry insiders, like Stuart Jackson of Tyresafe, fear the rise

of these dodgy dealers is not only tarnishing the whole trade,

but putting lives at risk.

It is a concern for us that we have people, unscrupulous dealers,

across the country.

The unknown, hidden dangers of a part worn or used product

is the biggest issue.

Has it been damaged? Has it been in an accident? We just don't know.

What we do know is that every year, in the UK,

more than 1,200 motorists are injured in an accident where illegal,

defective or underinflated tyres play a part.

Very few people are in the position of being able to cope

in the event that they have a sudden tyre failure.

Alerted to a rising tide of fakers blighting the tyre trade,

the authorities are clamping down on this criminal activity.

In London, trading standards officer Samuel Abdullahi

is heading out with partner Andy Faulkner on an operation

aimed at stopping suspect tyre dealers in their tracks.

Many of the tyres we do find are unsafe,

they should never have been supplied to consumers

and businesses should not have them on their premises for supply.

Hence the reasons why we do the inspections,

to make sure that the public are safe.

And because it's up to the part worn tyre dealers themselves

to check their tyres are roadworthy,

the only way to make sure they aren't faking it

is for Trading Standards to go door-to-door.

-Hello, boss.

-As Samuel and Andy begin their search,

it's clear this owner doesn't want us along for the ride.

-Turn off the camera, please.

-OK.

-Turn off the camera, please.

The owner claims some of this stock has just arrived

and is yet to be checked,

but nothing should be on display until it's been tested

and declared up to standard.

As none of it is marked up, it may all be on offer to the public

and one tyre has immediately caught their eye as potentially dangerous.

This one has no ticket.

It seems the owner is reluctant to give it up and wants them

to take at a better-looking tyre instead.

-No, no, no, I'll give you paperwork.

-Yes.

If it doesn't have part worn tyre, it is wrong.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

This one is rubbish tyre - take other one.

It's on your business premises, OK, and it's in possession,

and we've looked at it, and it doesn't appear to be safe.

-No.

-Listen to me...

-Give me other one.

Give me this one, give me this one, give me this one.

-This one is rubbish.

-I don't want that one.

If we identify an item which we believe is unsafe,

which is in here, we have to seize it.

As their attempts to reason with the owner stall,

Andy takes matters into his own hands.

We got the tyre.

A bit of a discussion about

whether we were to be taking the tyre or not,

but it's not really up for debate.

It looks as though it's unsafe,

we have suspicion that it is, so we'll be taking it today.

With this suspected unsafe tyre off the streets,

it's onto the next dealer on the list.

I'm Samual Abdullahi, I'm from Trading Standards.

To avoid any confusion this time,

Samuel determines upfront what's on offer to the public.

-Just to clarify, which ones have you got for sale?

-That's for sale.

-These are for sale.

-Yeah.

-OK, that's fine.

-Also that one is for sale.

And these ones also are for sale. OK, then, that's fine.

As he explains the situation to the owner over the phone,

it doesn't take Andy long to uncover signs

of suspected fakery around the yard.

So you, as a business, applied that sign to say that it's part worn?

Yeah, yeah, that's part worn.

The tyres are marked part-worn,

meaning they have claimed to have passed all the safety checks

demanded by law, but Andy has his doubts.

This is just a tearaway sticker.

The point of the marking is to be able to see that it's been shown

to everyone that it is a part worn and people are aware,

and it is supposed to be compliant with the legislation.

Um... That is probably not, to be honest.

As he delves deeper, his suspicions appear to be well-founded.

The concern we've got with this one is we've got a chunk straightaway

that's come away from it. You can see the concern.

Andy and Samuel seize two more suspect tyres

they think could be putting the public at risk.

They both have the part worn stamp on them,

which is not the right way.

It needs to be permanent, on the actual tyre itself.

And this one here has got a patch on the inside,

which shows that there has been a repair.

Clearly it may be dangerous.

The question is, how unroadworthy is it?

To find out, back at base, Samuel has called in Steve Dolby.

Steve's an expert with over 30 years' experience in tyre testing.

He can tell whether what's been seized is safe,

as its markings claim, or whether it's being sold by fakers

making a profit by putting the public at risk.

What we've found is that quite a few tyres have the part-worn marking,

but they're still effectively in an unroadworthy condition.

Samuel's got a stack of recently seized tyres.

He wants Steve's verdict.

First up is one of the tyres he's just brought in

and Steve begins by checking the tyre's age.

The four numbers here,

meaning that the tyre was made in week nine of 2003.

So this tyre's already 12 years old, so it's quite an old tyre.

I would suggest it shouldn't be put back onto the road at that age.

Although there is no age limit in law for part-worn tyres,

tyres are changed on average every three years -

this one is over four times that age.

Alarm bells are already ringing and, seconds later,

Steve finds hard evidence

that the tyre's claims to be road safe are fake.

So, straightaway, there's a repair in the side wall of the tyre.

Only specific repairers can do that,

they have to be registered to do that,

and they would have to stamp it on the inside, who's done it and when.

Effectively, you've got to rebuild the side wall of the tyre.

It's a major job. This has just been a bit of a bodge job.

The patch over the repair could be a serious issue.

It could suddenly deflate rapidly, causing big problems.

Disturbingly, it's not the only defect.

We can see another patch on the inside.

With a repair on the inside,

there should be a corresponding one on the outside

where the road damage actually took place.

But with no such repair made to the tyre tread,

it means the cause of the damage has never been dealt with.

The person who's repaired the tyre has just put a patch

only on the inside, but it hasn't sealed the hole on the outside.

The tyre can start to separate,

which could eventually cause a rapid deflation on the motorway.

And the problems don't stop there.

-It looks like a razor blade or a Stanley knife.

-Looks like a knife.

That will have sliced through some of the cords of the tyre,

so it's a very serious bit of damage.

You could end up with a serious accident with this tyre

fitted on a car. It should never go back into the marketplace.

With the tyre Samuel seized declared a fake on multiple counts,

taking it out of service may well have saved someone's life.

It seems like the problem is endemic.

The tyre's probably had some sort of nail or screw through it.

The entire stack of tyres, from many different dealers,

all failed to make the grade

and some of them were even marked to confirm

that they'd passed safety standards.

It's still shocking to see the number of tyres that have not met

the safety standards.

It's still disturbing, the whole part worn tyre industry, really.

Samuel's case against the part worn tyre dealers is still ongoing...

..and his work to protect motorists still isn't done.

It has definitely been a worthwhile operation

and there are plenty of other traders out there

which we haven't visited, so we will be targeting them in the future.

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.