Episode 5 Dom on the Spot

Never before have so many on-the-spot fines

been issued in Britain.

-You're about to fine me. I don't have any money for that.

-Come here!

We're going to be following the men and women who hand out

over £30 million-worth of tickets every month...

-Hello.

-That gets my goat!

My jaw is dropping!

..for behaviour that's downright dangerous...

..simply selfish...

It's been defrosted a while that, hasn't it?

..or just, well, plain silly.

Get off your phone, doughnut!

We'll be revealing the cost of their bad behaviour...

-How much is the fine on this one?

-£100 for no seat belt.

-It's expensive.

-I know, yeah.

..and how this could affect you.

I'm in the middle of a job. I'm working. I'm a builder.

-The police are on it...

-Your mouth, now.

..the parking wardens are on it...

Once it's printed, that's it. There's no point arguing the point.

..and I'm on it.

Put your seat belt on! Cheeky monkeys!

I'm Dom Littlewood and I'm...

This time, when they said, "Ride shotgun with the police"...

It's a domestic incident where a female's saying

she's had a gun put to her head.

..I didn't think they meant it literally.

It's pump-action, isn't it?

There's a fast food fail in Pendle.

We've got more pizza dough.

He's obviously not very good at his job either, by the looks of things.

And the heat is on for one takeaway tipper.

You're looking at going to court and being fined very heftily for it,

so you need to think on your feet now.

I know what you're thinking - has Dom got a new ride?

-Morning, guys.

-Morning.

-Morning.

This is an unmarked police car and, today, I'm in Herefordshire.

I'm riding shotgun with the West Mercia traffic police

and I've been warned to expect the unexpected.

-That's right, guys, isn't it?

-Oh, yeah.

-Yeah.

I'm out on patrol with PCs Mark Simpson and Tom Milton.

They're looking for speeders, drivers on the phone -

anything that can be hit with an on-the-spot fine.

But the thing about life as a traffic cop

is that anything can happen,

and that can mean being diverted at any moment.

UNCLEAR RADIO MESSAGE

Can you give us an idea what's going on, guys?

Basically, we've been called.

It's a misrouted 999 call for the Met police.

It's a domestic incident where a female's saying

that she's had a gun put to her head

by her ex-partner or her current partner.

-Wow!

-That's all we've got at the moment.

Crikey! These boys weren't joking

when they said, "Expect the unexpected."

I thought they'd be handing out fines and slapping wrists,

not facing pistols at dawn.

-If there's a firearms incident going on...

-Yeah.

..don't you guys have to have bulletproof vests on

and firearms yourself?

The authorised firearms officers,

they'll go in and be able to deal with this.

-We're Taser support officers, so we've got a Taser...

-OK.

-..that we carry.

-Phew! I'm relieved backup's on the way.

You don't want to be the guy that takes a Taser to a gunfight!

And as we speed off to answer the call...

Get out the way! Where did they get their driving licence?

Out of a Christmas cracker? Good Lord.

..we've got more news about the suspect and the weapon.

-POLICE RADIO:

-We had to caution last year

for possession of a starter pistol. There's no indication as to whether

the starter pistol was taken from him.

This guy has been cautioned in the past

for having the kind of replica gun that fires blanks

and is used for starting races.

Sounds like he likes his guns.

So, it's possibly a starter gun,

er, which, for all intents and purposes,

could have been modified and it could be a real firearm.

I've got to say, these guys seem to be taking it all in their stride.

Me? I'm a little bit more unsure.

What are you expecting to see when we get there?

Another unit's just timed on.

I'm just trying to read the log, to see exactly what's going in,

but the most important thing is we don't go charging in.

Well, I'm happy to agree with that.

Even if it's not a real gun, there's still definitely real danger here,

especially for the victim who's called 999.

I'm going to hang back and let the guys do their stuff.

Show us who's in the house, please.

Police officers coming in.

It sounds like there's nobody in the house. The police are in.

I can hear them shouting, "Show yourself."

But, potentially, someone round here could have a gun right now.

Keep my eyes peeled, just in case.

You've got to admire these boys.

They were expecting to deal with dodgy driving

and with just one call, they're facing up to this.

Stand still. There's somebody there. Sounds like they've got their man.

There's somebody in cuffs. Seems quite calm at the moment.

No signs, that I'm aware of, of a gun at the moment.

They're actually searching the house now

to make sure there's no firearms obviously been hidden away.

Hello, puss, you all right?

Bit of a crazy situation, isn't it?

Crazy indeed. I might not look it, but I'm still a bit nervous

about what the cops might bring out of this place.

And it's looking like they turned up something pretty shocking.

Now, I don't know about you,

but that looks very much like a pump-action shotgun.

Gordon Bennett!

Is it a real firearm?

No, it's not an actual firearm. It might be a BB gun or something.

-It's pump-action though, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's a BB gun or an air rifle -

something that fires small metal pellets.

It's not a lethal weapon, but it sure looks like one to me.

-Who'd want something like that in your house anyhow?

-I don't know.

-Whatever sort of weapon that is...

-Trouble is...

Are we happy with what it is?

I think it's just a BB gun, mate, to be fair.

Obviously, we can't check 100%, can we?

We'd need firearms guys, but I'm sure it's a BB gun, mate.

And the search has turned up another surprise.

Is that...? That's a second one, is it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Don't touch anything on that.

-It looks BB.

-Yeah, it is, yeah.

It's got no hammer on it, which is a good sign, I suppose.

-Yeah, it does say "BB" on the side.

-Yeah.

-But you never know.

Yeah, they can all be modified, can't they?

-Obviously, we've searched the house, ongoing upstairs.

-Yeah.

We've basically found a gentleman in the back bedroom.

Why he's not come out the bedroom to our calls, I don't know.

Basically, I've had to red dot him with the Taser,

for the time being, cos, obviously, I wasn't sure...

That means you just got ready to shoot it, but you didn't.

Yeah, you just present the Taser and I've just had the Taser on him

whilst he's been in the bedroom.

He's not showing us his hands, initially,

-so a little bit concerned about what's going on.

-Yeah.

He's come out the bedroom, been handcuffed by my colleague

and then we've brought him out the property.

In that bedroom, obviously, we found this weapon,

which we think possibly is a BB gun

and, obviously, the black handgun as well,

which was also in the bedroom.

Fortunately, the weapons are now secure,

but this isn't the end of the story.

In the call that came through, it wasn't just that somebody had a gun.

-Somebody was pointing it at a woman's head.

-Yeah.

So, the fact that you've now found guns

and a guy in there who's acting a bit strangely makes you think

-it could have been a very serious situation.

-Of course, yeah.

And, obviously our concern now is there's been a female

that's phoned this in, or somebody's phoned this in,

or a female that's had the gun held to her head,

so where's the female now?

So, we need to find out where the female is, really.

Thankfully, we learn the woman who was in danger is now safe and well,

but the man who threatened her,

well, he still seems to be causing problems.

Keep yourself calm, keep yourself calm.

Smoke your cigarette, OK.

We're waiting for a van to come. You can stand out here if you want.

Stand against the wall.

It really is quite a sorry state of affairs.

The police have come rushing down here, risking life and limb,

travelling at high speed, to take care of this incident.

There's two guns there. I felt the weight of them.

One's plastic, the other one is almost certainly just a BB gun,

but they certainly LOOK very threatening and very scary.

You've got a guy here now who's more interested in having a cigarette

than apologising or explaining what's going on.

So, no fines,

but definitely a lot more excitement than I was expecting.

Our other team's locked him up and arrested him

and we're just waiting for a van to take him into custody

and he'll be dealt with accordingly now.

They are replica firearms. They are BB, BB guns.

However, if that was pointed at you in a live situation,

it's difficult to know what you're going to say.

One of them looks like a pump-action shotgun

and one looks like a 9mm Glock, so if it was pointed at me,

there'd be some serious consequences for that.

Yeah, there certainly would.

Can you get back to chasing speeding motorists, please?

Give me a chance to calm down a bit!

It's a sad fact that some people are willing

to dump their waste onto our streets.

It clogs up the rivers or the lakesides.

It just doesn't make it look nice.

I've seen pictures of places where it used to look nice

and then, cos of fly-littering, it's just, literally messed up.

I don't like fly-tippers at all.

The simple reason is they're making a mess of our country

and also, they're making everyone suffer.

I was driving along the other day

and somebody had thrown a nappy out of the back seat.

They'd probably changed the baby

and just thrown the thing out of the window.

All sorts of things get chucked,

from building materials to mouldy food.

You need a strong stomach in the fight against environmental crime.

-What is it?

-Yeah, delicious!

But this grime fighter has come prepared.

It's a good thing I only had cheese on toast

for breakfast this morning, isn't it?

You had cheese on toast? Very nice.

Environmental crime officers Jon and Lesley are on patrol in Pendle.

-Right then, where are we going?

-Left.

They've had a complaint from a local business owner

that somebody's been dumping rubbish in their bins,

and it's not the first time it's happened.

We came here, I don't know whether it was last week

or the week before, and it's a persistent problem.

Someone had left their trade waste in their skips. Left then right.

It's not cheap for shops and restaurants

to get rid of their waste.

They pay the council a fee each time the bin is emptied,

so this local business isn't too keen

on someone else's rubbish hitching a ride in their bins.

This is their stuff. The stuff that's in the bins is their stuff.

So, are you searching and I'm taking photographs?

-I don't want to touch it.

-No.

It's Jon's turn to wade through the waste today. Lucky guy!

Whatever's in the bags could hold vital clues

about where it came from.

This is a bag of self-raising flour.

No person in their right mind would have this much flour in the house.

Industrial bags of flour? Hmm, now who would need THAT?

-Oh, there you go.

-What?

-There you go.

-There you go what?

Ta-da! That's your kebab.

Oh, doner kebab! Haven't had one in ages!

More pizza dough.

He's obviously not very good at his job either, by the looks of things.

So, it's looking pretty likely

-that this waste came from a local takeaway.

-Eurgh!

But which one? He's going to need some solid evidence

of the business it came from to follow this up.

So, this is a Just Eat receipt.

-You're going to love this!

-Is it a different one?

It's a result!

The receipt shows the name of a local takeaway

and it's the one who was in trouble before.

Could the bag have come from there?

One of two things has happened here.

Either the customer has ordered an absolute tonne of food

and eats about 1,000 eggs in a weekend,

or this belongs to the fast food company

that have dumped all the waste here.

-Shall we go and walk over? It's just across the road.

-Yeah, can do.

We'll speak to the lady at the shop first.

The bins belong to a local carpet shop.

This is the second time the owner has had to deal

with somebody else's waste and she's not happy about it.

-Hello, we're back again.

-Yeah.

Right, we've searched the stuff at the back,

and it does come back to the same pizza place, so, surprising.

That you've had the words with?

Yeah, and they've got their own bins. I've even checked.

They've got the bins in place, so they want to use yours...

Well, they've not even used your bins this time, have they?

They've just thrown it down the side.

-No, they didn't bother putting it in.

-So, yeah.

-So, what now?

We're going to have a chat with them,

but I don't know what you're going to do about it

because they'll just keep using your bins.

-We'll have to put chains on, but we shouldn't have to.

-No.

-No.

-Shouldn't have to spend and put chains on.

-No, you shouldn't.

-Especially when they've been told.

-Yeah.

The penalties for fly-tipping include on-the-spot fines,

court appearances and even prison sentences,

but the threat of action clearly hasn't worked so far.

It's really frustrating.

Costs us, every other week, £30-odd to empty,

so I'm paying for somebody else's rubbish to be skipped.

There are no words. You're like, the frustration is...

I got angry, got angry.

Done all that and now it's just, you hope that they deal with it

and they learn their lesson.

Jon and Lesley need some answers.

Across town at the pizza place, they try to find more evidence

and here it is. They can't fit any more rubbish in their own bins.

-Have you taken a photograph of that?

-Good thinking.

Well, if THEIR bins are overflowing, could that be why

they appear to have dumped their waste somewhere else?

You remember that one of the bins

-had loads of peppers, pepper heads?

-Yeah.

Peppers. So, it's food waste,

but does it match the items they found earlier?

-Yeah.

-You can see that they're just...

-Yeah, it's the same stuff.

But just as they're about to leave...

Is this the same guy I spoke to? I don't know.

Could this be the owner? If it is, he's got some questions to answer.

-Hello.

-Hello, sir.

-Are you the guy I spoke to the other week?

-Yeah.

-Are you the boss?

-No, I'm not the boss

but I am the responsible manager.

Ah, not the owner, but the manager.

We found some of your bins fly-tipped

at the other side of town.

I think, I think that there is a conspiracy.

Some of the restaurants, they don't want other restaurants,

because it makes... They don't like other restaurants to grow.

A conspiracy?

He seems to think that other restaurants in the area

have dumped HIS waste to get him in trouble.

I'm not sure Jon and Lesley are going to buy that one.

When I spoke to you previously,

-you were keeping your black bags in your kitchen.

-Yeah.

And then what you did is move the bin bags from the kitchen

to your car and take them to the tip.

So, how could anybody else have moved them

-to the other side of town?

-I really don't know.

-This is a very good question.

-It is a very good question.

You're looking at going to court and being fined very heftily for it,

so you need think on your feet now

and tell me how that waste has got...

I'm not sure I fancy this guy's chances of getting away with it.

Let's have a look at what we've got.

Some bin bags were fly-tipped across town.

Jon's traced the rubbish back to this restaurant,

but this guy is pleading his innocence.

Will that get him off the hook or is he about to be given a hefty fine?

-For example...

-You need to answer these questions.

Sir, sir, we've got another business in Nelson,

and she has got tears coming down her face

because your waste keeps finding its way in her bins.

If it wasn't you that took the bin bags,

you need to have a serious word with your staff.

What's it to be? It looks like he's starting to sweat.

The best course of action here

is you need to come in for an interview where we work,

so we can record a conversation properly,

so that we can then decide what is the next course of action.

If he was hoping to talk his way out of it,

then he might not be so lucky. They're taking his details.

As I am a responsible citizen, I apologise.

I promise that I will keep them inside the bin -

no, inside the basement -

and I will take them out only when they collect the bins on Tuesday.

I don't think his charm offensive will wash with Jon and Lesley.

JON SIGHS

-All right, thank you.

-Want to eat something?

No, no, we're fine, thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

-I'll try to do my best.

-Thanks. Bye-bye.

Jon and Lesley couldn't prove fly-tipping,

but the manager was in breach of his duty of care and was fined £300.

Now, we all think we know what fly-tipping looks like -

a bin bag or two, or seven.

Or maybe an old fridge-freezer.

But a whole articulated lorry trailer?

I wouldn't have believed it myself

if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

What you're looking at there is an articulated lorry.

The bit at the front is called a tractor unit.

The bit on the back is called a trailer.

Believe it or not, the tractor unit wasn't there.

The trailer was - filled up with people's waste.

It could be full of all sorts of dangerous chemicals, rubbish,

asbestos, building equipment... No-one knows.

Whoever dumped it there has cleared off and it's the responsibility

of all these guys here to get it somewhere safe and unloaded.

It beggars belief that anyone would abandon a huge trailer

in the middle of a busy road,

let alone one which could tip or burst open at any time.

-Would YOU want to drive past it? I know

-I

-wouldn't.

-Jim, how you doing?

-Hi, there.

All this livery on the side, all the name and everything else,

it obviously doesn't belong to THEM, does it?

No, we've made enquiries on that, Dom.

Harris Transport, whose livery this trailer has,

sold this two years ago to a company down in Southampton,

-who have subsequently gone into liquidation.

-Right.

-So, the trail has gone cold on that one.

-Yeah.

Give me a guess - how much weight's in that?

Well, we estimate somewhere in the region of about 40 to 50 tonnes

but, until we get it into our contractor's yard,

we won't know, for sure, how much and we won't know what's in there.

Someone's transported it from A to B, here,

and any time that could have gone.

-It could have hit pedestrians or other cars.

-Yeah, yeah.

I suppose, in theory, if it went on one side,

the whole lorry could have tipped.

Yeah, I mean, anything could have happened.

They parked in a dual carriageway. It's not even parked up in a lay-by.

So, the immediate problem is it's causing an obstruction to traffic,

so we've had to put traffic calming procedures in place

to push vehicles out onto the other side of the dual carriageway.

Obviously, the guy who's driven it here has probably decided

it's got a little bit unstable -

as you can see, from the way it is now -

and has decided to abandon it here.

But it could have tipped over at any time.

Anyone passing could have been killed.

When you're transporting that down the road,

I know you'll do it very safely and slowly,

but if it decides to rip its belly, that's going to close this road off

for a long, long time and cost a fortune to get it all cleared up.

Potentially.

This is a major trunk road, leading up to the A13,

which is the main route in and out of London for east London.

This is fly-tipping at its absolute worst, isn't it?

-That's unbelievable.

-And if you manage to find out who it is,

no doubt you'll come down on them,

-you'll hit them hard, won't you?

-We'd be looking to prosecute.

Tracking down the person responsible isn't going to be easy,

but if they do, the driver could be looking

at an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison.

What's going to happen now?

You had to bring down this tractor unit here to get it away,

-so that's your own one.

-Yeah.

How far have you got to transport it now to the waste yard?

Right, we've got a contractor we use

and they've got a depot just five minutes up the road

where we can take this

and we've arranged for the police to be here as well,

so that they can block off the roundabout that's up the top,

-cos we can only move this at about 3 or 4mph.

-Yeah.

Cos the danger is, as soon as we start moving it, it could tip over.

Well, I hope it doesn't, because I've been asked to ride upfront,

as the trailer makes its perilous journey to the depot.

Oh, well, let's hope whoever's driving this thing

has got plenty of experience.

I've got to say,

you've got to be the youngest HGV driver I've ever seen in my life!

-How old are you?

-19.

-He's a teenager!

He's driving a heavy goods vehicle! Good on you.

-When did you pass your test?

-A year ago, when I was 18.

-Wow!

You're the youngest I've ever seen.

What's happening here? The police have gone ahead now.

They've shut the roundabout off,

-so we can keep the lorry as straight as we can.

-OK.

-If anything's going to happen, it's going to happen when we tilt.

-OK.

-The reason being, they want you to stay as straight as possible.

-Yes.

So, you close the roundabout, obviously,

-you haven't got to weave in and out.

-That's it.

-There's plenty of bouncing around.

-Yeah.

-Why is that?

Is it cos the trailer's dangerous, it's old?

This trailer's not designed for the weight that's in it.

A bulging, overloaded, dangerous HGV trailer, driven by a teenager?

I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

It gets worse, this, doesn't it?

-Now we've got to turn in.

-Right, so if anything's going to happen,

this is probably the most dangerous point.

-We're not expecting anything, are we, in theory?

-No.

Famous last words, Rob.

I'm starting to wish I hadn't agreed to this!

Just steady, yeah. Steady.

Now I don't want to count my chickens too soon,

but it does look like we've made it in one piece.

I must say, Jordan, I think you passed your test

with flying colours.

-Have to reverse it into a parking space.

-Yeah.

Great! That drama is over, but the clean-up job is only just beginning.

Well, you saw the palaver it took to get that from point A to point B,

which was only about two miles down the road.

This poor guy here now has got to unload

the trailer from the tractor, which means he's got to risk his life

of that thing bursting open

and burying him under whatever's in there. We don't know.

And there's a few raised eyebrows from the crew.

-You didn't even think we'd make it this far?

-No.

I had odds on the first roundabout.

Crikey! I'm lucky to still be in one piece!

What's going to happen now?

We'll unload it and once it's completely empty,

the trailer will go to be cut up and used as scrap.

What do you suspect's in there? Building waste?

-I would say it's stuff that's got to go to its end of life.

-Yeah.

-To the landfill site.

-Do you reckon there's any chance

they're going to get a clue who might have dumped it there

-or where it came from?

-Possible.

There may be some envelopes or bits of paper in there, you never know.

-Yeah.

-You don't know until you open it.

-It could be full of stolen jewellery.

-Could be.

Could be gold bullion.

-Yeah, there's a lot of that gold bullion still around.

-Touch wood.

And, you know, we could split that reward evenly, couldn't we?

And if there is some gold in there, it would certainly come in handy

to help pay the costs of cleaning all this mess up.

Jim, let's talk money now.

How much is this likely to cost the council,

the taxpayer round here, to dispose of this properly now?

I reckon this is going to cost us the best part of about £20,000.

-That's an awful lot of taxpayers' money, isn't it?

-It's unbelievable.

I think you're going to be lucky to get any clues in that lot,

-aren't you?

-Er, very unlikely.

If we get anything, then, who knows, we could do a prosecution.

-That ain't going to be good for the person who done it.

-Oh, no.

If the person who fly-tipped this trailer full of rubbish is caught,

the penalties can be severe.

It can be an unlimited fine, it will go to Crown Court

and they could get up to five years in prison.

Let's hope they get caught.

Crikey! You don't see that often, do you?

But now, we're in beautiful, tranquil West Wales.

Hopefully, I can put my feet up in the voiceover studio

and finally catch my breath.

Because, surely, there can't be too many on-the-spot fines here.

Hold your horses! I thought this was going to be a nice, relaxing story.

You can't park there, I'm afraid.

"You spoke too soon, Dom," I hear you say, and that I did.

Here comes civil enforcement officer Debs...

There's no unloading or loading. Instant ticket.

..and her colleague Bethan.

It wasn't his lucky day, to be honest.

These two are the parking protectors of Pembrokeshire.

Dropped kerb? They're on it.

Upside down blue badge? They're there.

Nothing gets past these ladies.

Is this your vehicle?

Unless it's an old boy who can't quite read the signs.

I'll take it back this time, but don't put it there again.

Today, the ladies are going to give us

the Dom On The Spot consumer guide to parking offences...

Ooh, dropped kerb.

..starting with the dropped kerb.

We've got a vehicle here, blocking the disabled access.

Right, so, let's take a look.

A vehicle parked over a dropped kerb,

but no yellow lines or other road markings.

Hmm, tricky one, this.

It's an instant ticket, so as long as it takes her

to tap in the details and take some pictures, the ticket is issued.

Though, obviously, not tricky for Debs and Bethan.

It's an instant £70 ticket and the key is in those raised humps.

A dropped kerb is...

Although they're obviously put in place for disabled people,

we've got families with pushchairs, wheelchairs,

mobility scooters, blind people.

As soon as they see that, or feel it with a stick,

they know it's a crossing point.

If they want to cross the road and there's a car there,

chances are they're going to walk into the car.

They can't cross the road.

It looks like the drivers of Pembrokeshire cover

the whole range of parking offences.

Chances are there's a barber's just by there,

they've gone in to have their hair cut.

We've already had a dropped kerb offence.

Next, it's that old favourite - yep, parking on double yellow lines.

There's a bay just beyond the car

which is a 30-minute bay which it could have parked in.

Now, this one's easy.

Double yellows, no blue badge.

I'm pretty sure this is going to be a fine.

They've got 20 seconds left now.

Well, unless the driver comes back within 20 seconds.

No, time up, and it's a £70 ticket.

Too late, buddy.

That was an expensive trip to the supermarket, wasn't it?

There you go. He's been in Tesco's, doing his shopping.

That's what we get on this street all the time.

He could just nip round the back into the car park,

he could get a free half hour

and it's only a two-minute walk to the shop, so...

It wasn't his lucky day, to be honest.

Hello, you're in the taxi rank, I'm afraid.

Double yellows, no blue badge.

OK, unfortunately, I'm going to have to book you because...

-I'll move the car.

-There we are. If you're going to move, that's fine.

When they said to me, "Dom, it's a story

"about parking enforcement officers in rural Wales"...

You can't park on the doubles, I'm afraid.

..I thought this was going to be a quiet afternoon.

I think she understood.

It's turning out to be anything but for these two.

This sign here, it's no unloading or loading

of any kind between 11 and 4, Monday to Saturday.

It works a bit like a double and single line

but, because it's controlled at certain times,

it's an instant ticket.

-Yeah.

-There's no waiting around for Debs.

That's two instant £70 tickets in one stretch.

It's what people's conception of us is.

They don't want to see us, they don't want us booking people

but, when there's an issue, "Where's the traffic wardens?"

and they want us around.

She has got a point, you know.

I know what you're all saying - "It all seems a bit petty."

But just put yourself in the place of a disabled driver, a blind person

or the driver of an emergency vehicle

and maybe you'll think a bit differently.

Look, we're not saying you're all a bunch of fare dodgers,

but I'm sure it's a scenario

that may be familiar to more than a few of you.

There are reasons for not getting a train ticket, I suppose -

if you can't get one on the station, which sometimes happens,

and you could get one on the train and then the conductor doesn't come.

Hmm, they are expensive. I can see why some people might dodge them.

I think we've all done it before. I think everyone, at some point, has.

Maybe the warden's not been at the gate

and you kind of just walk through and think, "Yes."

Imagine the scene.

Morning rush hour, you're running late

and there's one of those annoying queues for tickets.

So, you get on the train and you buy a ticket there.

But there's no-one to buy it from,

so now, if there's no-one on the barriers,

well, "Happy days", I hear you say.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

But if the revenue enforcement team are out mob-handed,

then you could be looking at a £20 penalty fare. Refuse to pay that?

Well, "See you in court", I believe they say.

Think about that when you hit the snooze button

for an extra five minutes.

Today, I'm at Euston Station in London,

with the revenue protection team of the London Midland network,

keeping an eye on the work of officers, like Margi Sexton.

-I actually had a complaint about me once...

-About YOU?

About me, because the gentleman said that I was too smirky,

cos I smiled at him.

"I want to complain about her. She's smirky."

-Do you want to see MY angry face?

-This is my natural happy face.

My angry face is like this. Grrr!

I tell you what - if you were coming in on the next train

and you didn't have a ticket

and the sight of all these inspections greeted you,

it's a bit like the All Blacks, isn't it? Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo.

You're in trouble!

Margi and her colleagues are taking part in a blockade,

manning every exit of a platform, so no-one can get off without a ticket.

-But this isn't some sleepy village station.

-Thank you.

Euston is one of the country's busiest mainline station,

and this is rush hour, so that means, yep, that's right,

people - thousands of people!

Good morning, ladies and gents. Can I have all tickets, passes

and Oysters ready for inspection, please?

Everybody who gets off that train now is going to be filtered

through these two gates here, so there really is very little chance

of avoiding the inspectors.

And, as you can see, there's thousands of people on board there.

It is a hell of an inconvenience, and I can understand people

who've bought a ticket just want to get through and get to work.

Going to see a few people with very unhappy faces, I think.

Anyone without a ticket will be hit with a penalty of £20

or twice the single ticket - whichever is greater.

Wow, there's an awful lot of people right now not looking awfully happy.

There's an awful lot of people complaining

that tickets are being checked but, let's be honest,

if everybody bought a ticket, there wouldn't need to be the checks.

People desperately want to get to work, so you can see they're upset.

Margi and her colleagues get to work

and it's not long before the penalties start mounting up.

Gordon Bennett, so I'm counting,

and there's one, two, three,

four, five, six, seven, eight.

There's a lady there who looks

like she's trying to get one. Possibly nine.

Eight.

The system's corrupt! Look at them all! Money, money, money, money!

Sir, you're blocking the way.

Remember that excuse about running late, blah blah blah?

Well, you won't be the first one to use it.

I did hear you argue with the guys. You felt it was unfair.

-For what reason?

-Well, I joined at an unmanned station.

-Yeah.

There was one ticket machine there. Quite often in the morning,

particularly if you're getting an early train, obviously,

you have to be there quickly to get onto the train.

There was a long line at the ticket machine that meant,

if I'd have queued 10, 15 minutes, I would have missed my train.

Anyone who's had to catch a train can sympathise,

but that doesn't change the fact it's another penalty fare.

We're into double numbers. I'm not even going to bother counting them.

But not all of them are taking it quite so easily.

Margi might have a bit of a problem with this fare dodger.

Looks like he's decided to do a runner and try and get away,

but he's not going to be able to get away from Margi that easily.

You just had quite... Was it a scary experience?

Not necessarily,

because I tend to speak to people the way I wish to be spoken to.

Unfortunately, he didn't like the fact there was going to be

-a penalty fare, so he walked away.

-You gave chase, though, didn't you?

No, I walked swiftly with him.

I had to explain to him that this is only a civil issue.

Receiving a penalty is a civil issue but walking away

and leaving the premises can then become a criminal issue

and if I'd have had to call the police on him,

he could, potentially, have a criminal record.

This guy could have had a lucky escape,

though it might not feel like it to him.

If he had carried on walking away, what would have happened next?

-The police were on the way.

-Oh, really?

The police were on the way anyway, as he was walking away.

He is intending to appeal, which is his right.

Yeah, let's be honest.

If he ain't got a ticket, he ain't going to bother appealing, is he?

Instead of a criminal prosecution, he's got a £20 penalty fare.

But at least, there's some innocence amongst all these commuters.

If someone now got caught for fare evading,

how much do you think the penalty would be?

-I wouldn't have a clue, mate.

-Have a guess.

-Um, £100? I don't know.

-I always pay. Is it lower?

-Keep going down, yeah.

-£50?

-Down.

-£40?

-Down.

-£30?

-Down.

-£20? £20 for...

-If you're caught fare evading.

-I thought it was more than that, to be honest.

-Right.

-I thought it was more than that.

-You always buy yours?

-Always, yeah.

-Always got my ticket.

-That's it - a man after my own heart.

Oh, hang on a second. Hold that thought.

Something's going on here.

Euston, we have a problem.

-Jamie!

-Oh, I didn't tap in, did I? Apparently, I didn't tap in!

Looks like my new-found mate has forgotten to swipe his Oyster card

at the start of his journey. Could that be a penalty fare?

-Oh, well, you know how much the penalty's going to be.

-I do.

-I've just been told by Dom.

-He knows what he's getting.

-Oh!

-20 quid down.

How much would the fare have been?

-Um, I believe it would be about a tenner.

-All right.

-So, £10 more.

-Yeah. You crashed and burned but not in a big way.

-I've got money on it.

You can tell I've got money on it.

It was funny how he came over to have a chat with me,

let the crowds go down, then went through and the same thing happened.

I don't know about you, but I keep seeing a common denominator

in all these penalty fares.

Or should that be a common excuse?

What I found is a common denominator here

is everybody is in a hurry -

"I've got to work" and "I haven't got time to pay this", whatever.

But the irony there is, if you bought a ticket,

-you wouldn't actually be held up, would you?

-Well, that...

One of the rules and regulations of the Railway Act

is to give yourself enough time

to purchase your ticket before you travel.

Have you ever read the rules of the Railway Act?

They're on the back of your ticket...

-I didn't say that!

-..in red.

-I didn't say where they were.

-I have.

Tickets, passes and Oysters ready for inspection, please.

In just a few hours, so far, there's been 110 tickets issued.

Bear in mind, this is just London Midland we're following today.

When you take all the train networks across the country,

you're probably talking about hundreds,

if not thousands, of fare evaders every single day of the week.

And this is only 11 o'clock in the morning.

That's an awful lot of revenue,

paid for - yes - by the rest of us passengers.

The average set of car tyres is good for around 20,000 miles -

enough to take you from Land's End to John o'Groats over 20 times.

But how do you get rid of tyres when they're worn out?

Most garages charge a couple of quid to dispose of them,

and do so properly, but that's not always the case.

In Buckinghamshire, investigator David Rounding has been

hot on the trail of a serial tyre dumper.

That's right - tyres in big piles on public roads.

Unbelievable, and causing environmental chaos!

We first heard about this particular dumper in October, 2014.

He was... He began dumping single loads of around mid-50s tyres -

50 to 60 tyres in the road.

50 or 60 tyres a time soon adds up

and, since David's been tracking this rubber bandit,

they've managed to illegally off-load

somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 tyres,

and all under the cover of darkness.

The usual pattern was an unlit country lane, quite quiet,

and of course, that means it would be very unlikely

that somebody would see the tyres being dumped.

Much like the Loch Ness Monster,

sightings of this mysterious menace were thin on the ground.

So, to catch their tyre tipper,

David and his team needed to firm up their evidence.

We had two cameras in this particular location

but we were working elsewhere as well.

We had a camera in the bushes there

and one down at the other end of the road.

They may have gone down to the woods,

but this is no teddy bears' picnic.

The hi-tech surveillance operation led

to the team's first recorded sighting of a perpetrator.

What that allowed us to do was we got the number plate of the vehicle.

Once we knew the vehicle we were looking for,

we could backtrack through the police camera records

and find out where that vehicle had been.

That tied in to a lot more dumping incidents.

Not only was this dodgy tyre tipper a one-man ecological disaster,

their abandoned rubber also posed

a very serious threat to public safety.

You're talking about something which is a dark material in itself.

On a dark highway,

the person driving up in the middle of the night

is not going to see them as well as they might.

If the weather conditions are bad, there's every chance

that somebody could have either skidded to avoid them

or crashed into them.

Only a right doughnut would do something this reckless.

But David now had a breakthrough in the investigation.

Identifying the vehicle meant, with the help of the police,

they could trace it to an address.

That's the van that we've identified

from the vehicle registration number.

You can see the side of the van there,

we're looking at the wing mirror on the driver's side

and it's identical.

We looked on the back of the van

and you can see a distinctive sticker

and we could check that against the surveillance footage

that we had and, again, we matched the surveillance footage

and you can see the same sticker in the same place.

But now there's a snag.

The team know they have the right van,

but without clearer surveillance footage,

they couldn't identify a suspect.

To get an arrest, they would have to firm up their evidence.

Time to get serious and call in the police

and a night-time stakeout of the dumper's favourite spot.

There was a police car at either end of one road

where he was dumping and he made a run for it.

He might have done a runner, but he wasn't getting off THAT easily.

Time for reinforcements of the four-legged variety.

Obviously, we're talking about the middle of the night,

so it was pitch-black and what the police did to capture him

was they brought in a police dog

and the police dog picked up the scent very quickly

and found him hiding up a tree.

Yep, you heard it right - up a tree. What a muppet!

With the suspect in custody, David can start the interview process

and, hopefully, put this case to bed.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention, when questioned,

something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand that?

Yeah, why am I here?

Well, he's about to find out.

But even after being caught on camera

and then caught up a tree, this lad's still claiming he's innocent.

-Do you own a Ford Transit van?

-No, I don't.

-OK.

-Do you have access to one?

-No, I don't.

The question is,

what was he up to in the middle of the nowhere in the dead of night?

I've got nothing to hide.

Basically, I've been out having a jog

-and basically, I've been arrested for no reason.

-OK.

Well, that's a new one on David.

-How far had you jogged?

-I always... I jog a couple of miles.

I've lost a lot of weight in the last couple of months,

so I'm jogging all the time.

So, basically, he's claiming he's been jogging and not fly-tipping.

You always jog at night, cross-country in the pitch dark?

-No comment.

-Did you have a torch?

-No comment.

He's not got much to say for himself

and, to be honest, it doesn't look like he's got a leg to stand on.

Is it right, when you were detained, you were hiding up a tree?

-No comment.

-Up a tree?

What's he out there doing? Pretending to be a cat?

After the interview, he was reported for summonses

but we still needed to bottom out the ownership of the van,

so we contacted a relative of his.

It was actually his sister who was the registered owner of that van,

and we interviewed her, regarding the van's use.

-Do you own a van?

-No comment.

-Are you the registered owner of a van?

-No comment.

Are you likely to reply "No comment" to all questions that we put to you?

No comment.

It seems like being uncooperative with the authorities

runs in the family but, luckily it's not good enough for the judge.

As a result of the two interviews and the evidence that we'd gathered,

both the suspect and his sister were both charged with the offences,

regarding the dumping of the tyres.

It was sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court

and they were both fined around £10,000 each to pay.

Ten grand each - that's a whopper of a fine!

Hopefully, these two will think twice

before illegally off-loading their waste in the future.

That's all for today. Join us again for more Dom On The Spot.