Ali/St Helens Carers/Fitzpatrick Saints and Scroungers

In the UK, most of us work hard

and pay our taxes.

Tax is there to fund essential services.

Benefits should go to people who really are in need.

You need a roof over your head and food in your tummy.

And we generally agree that it's right

that a proportion of what you earn should go into a pot

that's there to help you should you need it.

But that money doesn't always find its way to the right people.

Indirectly, they're cheating the people who pay into the system -

the general public.

Ridiculous!

It is a criminal offence.

There are big changes taking place in the welfare system

here in the UK.

And now it's more important than ever

that the right help gets to the right people.

This is the world of Saints & Scroungers.

Coming up...the scroungers out to beat the system.

A jeweller who was sourcing his gold at bargain-basement prices

by smuggling it in

and evading £7 million in VAT.

He was travelling out with one bag

and coming back with two.

So we became suspicious that this was actually fitting in to typical smuggler behaviour.

And those in need of help -

the strain takes its toll on a mother

after 50 years of caring for her disabled daughter.

I just wanted everything to go away.

It...it was just...

just horrible.

The value of gold has risen exponentially over the last decade

and some people have made a lot of money from it.

But where you source your gold from

can determine how much tax you pay.

And there are people who like gold

but don't like paying tax.

Meet 50-year-old Chaudry Ali

who ran Diamond Jewellers Ltd of Southall -

not to be confused with similar-sounding companies.

Southall, a suburb in West London,

has a population of around 70,000

and the HMRC was suspicious that there was smuggling taking place

within the Asian jewellery market there.

So at the end of 2007,

they decided to look into the activity of a number of jewellers in the area

to see what type of business they were doing.

Clare Merrills is a spokesperson for the HMRC.

Throughout the year and across the whole of the country,

different exercises -

look at particular trades in particular parts of the country

that we think there's a high risk of there being some sort of tax fraud taking place.

And there was something about Diamond Jewellers Ltd

that caught their eye.

When we looked at the records, there was some suspicious types of transactions taking place.

So we decided we would actually look a little bit deeper into his case.

The file landed on the desk of HMRC's fraud investigators,

who, due to the nature of their work,

have asked to remain anonymous.

We were liaising with customs officers based at the airport.

They collate documentation

which VAT-registered businesses have to lodge with them

to be able to export their merchandise

or indeed import their merchandise.

What was unusual with Diamond Jewellers

was that they were declaring a large amount of exports,

so selling...it was primarily scrap gold

or fine gold,

selling it overseas.

But what we weren't seeing was very many imports from the company.

In fact, there were very, very few imports.

The investigators had to find out where Diamond Jewellers Ltd

were getting all this gold to export out of the country.

They suspected it was being smuggled in illegally

and sold on without declaring it or paying any VAT,

therefore, not paying into the public purse like everyone else.

We were looking at their books. But also, we were getting information from our colleagues at Heathrow,

saying that there seemed to be an awful lot of travel.

The problem with only looking at paperwork is you get a very limited

view of things.

And we really needed to see what was going on at the time.

So it was decided that the only realistic way of doing that

was to mount a surveillance operation.

The team followed the comings and goings of Diamond Jewellers Ltd

for two months.

Diamond Jewellers employed a couple of couriers,

and they would primarily make trips to Dubai,

but always via a stop in Germany,

a transit stop,

so the courier would travel from Heathrow,

normally into Frankfurt Airport,

and then on to Dubai,

before coming back on the same route.

There were flights direct to Dubai from Heathrow.

During the surveillance, the investigators discovered

that Chaudry Ali was also making frequent trips.

His trips, however, differed from those of the courier,

in that Chaudry Ali only seemed to travel to Frankfurt.

And this seemed to take place in line with the couriers' travel.

You know what? That's OK.

People travel for work all the time.

Even I do.

It's perfectly normal.

But there was one thing that the HMRC spotted about this

which wasn't.

Very often, he was travelling out with one bag.

He'd be coming back with two.

So we became suspicious

that this was actually fitting in to typical smuggler behaviour.

What you can see there is a distinctive brown bag

on the case, and the case itself

also has, which isn't so evident on that picture,

also has some brown piping around it.

This was the bag which Chaudry Ali took out.

So, at that point, we're focusing on Mr Ali's bag

which he's taken out to Frankfurt.

Again, you can see there, we just got a shot of him

heading towards the gate.

And this is the next day.

We've got Mr Ali this time coming back into

London Heathrow.

You'll see him coming to shot in a minute,

carrying different bags.

If you remember before, we had, as my colleague said,

a fairly distinctive black bag with a brown badge on it.

You can see on this occasion, not only does he have more bags,

he doesn't have that particular bag with him.

And we'll see what happens to that bag.

This next section is focused on the courier coming back on the same day.

Here we see the very same bag with the brown piping.

And hopefully...there we are,

the brown badge on it as well.

This is the bag we saw Chaudry Ali leave

the UK with, and it's now in the possession of the courier.

The investigators suspected the bags Ali was bringing in to the country

were full of gold.

He's just checking his bag there,

and if you see in a minute,

it's a slight effort for him to actually

put his bag in the back of the car - he has to put his knee underneath.

They now believed Ali was switching bags with the courier

and the investigators had a hunch as to where this was happening.

Well, Frankfurt is an airport that allows

travellers, those coming inbound and those going outbound,

to actually meet with one another.

Transit passengers...

..can be in the same vicinity as those passengers

travelling out of the airport itself.

So it is a very useful airport for people wanting to smuggle.

By swapping bags, he was breaking the link in the smuggling chain,

a tactic which is often used by drug dealers,

and stops the authorities knowing

where something has really come from.

And because Ali was flying in from a European country,

he was able to breeze through the Blue Channel,

the exit for EU residents with nothing to declare, at UK Customs.

If he was stopped, he could say he bought the gold in Germany

and would be exempt of paying taxes.

By avoiding paying any VAT on the gold,

Ali would be able to sell it on

at a lower price than his competitors,

bagging a huge profit

and at the same time cheating us all out of the money

that should rightfully be going into the public purse.

The team had to prove that Ali was swapping bags with the couriers

at Frankfurt Airport.

And we'll find out later how they got on.

For now, it's time to say farewell

to the scroungers trying to fleece the system

and hello to those we call our saints -

people who do everything to make sure those in desperate need of help

who are too proud or simply don't know how to help themselves

still get what they deserve.

The first couple of years of parenthood can be really testing

as you wait for your child to develop enough to be able

to tell you what they really want

and make their first steps towards independence.

So what happens when that development doesn't take place?

That was the reality for Audrey and Roy Parr

and their daughter Jane, now aged 53,

who, following a difficult birth, was born with brain damage

and needs constant care.

When Jane was born, things went badly wrong.

The lady in charge

decided I wasn't in labour

and gave me two sleeping tablets.

Audrey WAS in labour, and all she remembers

is the nurse calling for a doctor

because the baby's heart had stopped beating.

After the birth, she spoke to the doctor.

I said to him how upset I was

that I hadn't heard my baby cry.

And he just looked at me

and he just said, "Audrey," he said,

"when you start feeling them thoughts,

"I want you to remember two things -

"two more minutes and no baby.

"Five more minutes and no Audrey."

He said, "And that is how close it was."

Unfortunately, the traumatic start

was only the beginning for Audrey and Roy.

I've come down to meet them to find out more.

When did you first notice that Jane's progress and development

wasn't as it should be?

Me...I noticed within

six, seven months.

Because I had had younger siblings

and I had seen them grow up from being babies.

And then, as she went that little bit older,

there was no attempt to crawl.

And certainly no attempt to walk.

The couple did send Jane to an ordinary school,

but she was disruptive and wasn't learning anything.

Then, aged seven, after seeking the help of a child psychologist,

Audrey and Roy were told

that Jane had brain damage.

When you actually see it written down on paper...

..you've got to accept it.

She was a very complex case,

because part of her brain is normal,

but part of her brain is not -

the part that was damaged.

And...

that's when you would get the bad behaviour,

because it was the good and the bad in her brain.

Jane was growing up in the '60s and '70s

and back then there was a limited understanding

of brain damage and its effects.

There seemed to be no help available,

and Audrey and her husband felt completely isolated.

There was no-one officially that you could go and talk to.

Financially, there was no help whatsoever.

40 years ago, there wouldn't have been the same support as there is now.

Many children born with severe learning difficulties

would have been institutionalised.

Things have come on greatly from then.

There wouldn't have been social care packages, certainly no such thing

as direct payments to enable people to get their own support, personalised support.

At various points in her childhood, Jane was awarded benefits

that did help a little with the day-to-day expenses,

but they weren't enough.

Audrey had been forced to give up her job as a shop assistant

to become Jane's full-time carer,

while Roy continued working as an office manager.

And with only one salary coming in

and occasional support from Jane's benefits,

financially, things were hard.

Not only that,

Jane was reaching her teens and was noticing how people were reacting to her.

Outside people...

she got that she wouldn't go near them.

She wouldn't recognise them.

If they spoke to Jane,

Jane would just look at me.

Jane wouldn't utter a word.

As Jane reached adulthood,

the stresses and strains of constantly caring for her were starting to show.

Audrey and Roy weren't getting any younger,

and when Audrey suffered a heart attack

and Roy developed a heart condition,

they became increasingly worried about Jane's future care.

In 2003, they got in touch with a newly opened local charity,

the St Helens Carers Trust,

in the hope they could help them out with some day-to-day support.

The things we did initially for Audrey

was help her to get some aids within her home,

such as a bath seat,

to try and help her caring role.

We also helped to advocate with other services

and agencies, to help take that stress and strain off Audrey and her family's shoulders.

The charity arranged for care workers to look after Jane

for between six and eight hours a week.

And it was a welcome break for Audrey.

But over the years, the help just wasn't enough,

and finally, 49 years of constant caring took its toll.

I'd had a nasty fall.

I couldn't do quite as much as what I knew I should have been doing.

And that started to bother me.

And then I just felt

I was just going downhill.

In 2009, the situation came to a head.

I had had a particularly bad night

and I heard Roy come down the stairs

and I walked across the dining room...

..and I passed Roy...

and I honestly wouldn't have known who he was if anybody had asked me.

And I just said to him,

in my mind, this person who was my husband...

"That's it. I've had enough.

"I'm switching off. I'm going."

I just walked upstairs,

got in our bed...

And I just couldn't do anything but cry.

Audrey had hit rock bottom,

and the family was in need of help.

Having missed a routine appointment with a local support charity,

they called to see if everything was OK

and were quick to get involved when they heard

exactly what had happened.

I've come to meet Joanne Reagan from the charity

to find out how bad Audrey's situation was.

How did you first come into contact with Roy and Audrey and Jane?

Audrey was referred to myself and my team

for help with benefits.

Audrey had been finding things difficult with her caring role.

Her health had been affected because of things she was doing with her caring role.

She was starting to struggle.

She'd had a fall, so Carer Support referred her to myself

to look at health benefits for Audrey.

But it was clear with Audrey she wasn't just suffering physically.

She was struggling with the idea of her role

and how it was going to carry on in the future.

Oh, definitely,

which is why we offer that ongoing emotional support

as well as other things.

Audrey needed immediate support,

so the Trust organised night carers for Jane

to help ease the burden on Audrey.

They also organised some much-needed counselling for Audrey

and reflexology sessions to help her relax.

The next stage was to find out if their financial situation

could be improved.

Joanne did a complete reassessment of Audrey's benefits package

and identified she was entitled to an extra £88 a week.

This meant that instead of getting support from different carers

for six or eight hours a week,

they could afford to employ a carer full-time for Jane.

The family chose Angela,

who'd worked with them on and off for 14 years

and was Jane's favourite carer.

But the help didn't stop there.

Joanne also looked at household bills

and noticed that the family had been overpaying on their Council Tax

by around £50 a month

for six years.

It turned out they were entitled to a rebate

of over £4,000 -

money which Audrey and Roy put towards

a well-deserved family holiday to Spain,

the first they'd had in years.

Joanne is brilliant.

The difference that that girl has made to us

financially

is unbelievable.

They are such a lovely family, and to know that we've helped support them

and helped them within the caring role

and can continue to do that

is just great job satisfaction for us.

For you, Roy and Jane... Now, the next few years

are going to be really tricky.

-And, you know, your situation is always changing anyway.

-Yes.

What difference does it make

-the carers being here?

-Because I know that they will be here

to help me and back me up

in any way that I need.

And I think that gives you peace of mind

for the future.

It's time to head back to the world of the shameless scrounger.

Chaudry Ali, who ran Diamond Jewellers Ltd of Southall,

was suspected by the HMRC of smuggling and selling on

valuable Asian gold.

By buying the gold in Dubai

and collecting it from a courier in Germany,

Ali was potentially avoiding paying any VAT.

This was money that should be going towards our schools, hospitals

and other public services,

and there was possibly millions of pounds of it.

HMRC investigators placed Ali under surveillance.

We did see that he was leaving the premises, travelling to Heathrow.

He was flying to Frankfurt,

coming back from Frankfurt, sometimes with a different bag,

sometimes with more than one bag he'd gone out with,

so then we began to say, "Yes, this is what we think is happening

"and it is actually happening."

The investigators suspected a bag swap was happening

at Frankfurt Airport.

Now they just had to prove it.

We knew that on a particular day,

Chaudry Ali would be travelling out to Frankfurt

and that one of the couriers

had already travelled the day before.

So what we asked the Germans to do

was to evidence Mr Ali arriving

at Frankfurt Airport.

We asked the Germans to conduct surveillance on the courier

that would be arriving from Dubai into Frankfurt Airport

and Mr Ali meeting the courier at Frankfurt Airport,

where we suspected a bag swap was going to take place.

And, um...

that's what happened. The German authorities

carried out surveillance, and they both met in the lounge at Frankfurt Airport

and exchanged bags, as we always suspected they had done.

With Ali making his way through arrivals,

wheeling a bag that had been in the courier's possession

just a few hours earlier,

all the investigators had to do

was wait.

Mr Chaudry Ali was due to arrive at Heathrow

on a certain flight,

so our plan was to arrest him in the Blue Channel.

And that's what we did.

What's on the table there is approximately 35 kilos

of Asian-style gold jewellery.

It's 22-carat gold jewellery.

Chaudry Ali was arrested at Heathrow Airport

on the 27th of April 2008

and this is what he had in his possession, in his hand luggage.

Hand luggage?!

This haul weighs the same as a healthy eight-year-old boy.

The investigators had some serious questions for Ali.

They wanted to know why he was carrying such a huge amount of gold.

He just had an A4 piece of paper that said he was

a VAT-registered jewellery trader based in London,

which he was.

And he traded with EU-based traders.

It was just a standard A4 document

that anybody could have written up

on their computer.

When we arrested Mr Ali, he was quite surprised,

but at the same time, I think he tried to

give off a fairly kind of passive...

He tried to be fairly cool about the whole situation,

but I've no doubt in my mind that he was surprised, yeah.

The document wasn't fooling anyone,

and armed with the warrant,

the investigators searched Chaudry Ali's home

and the premises of Diamond Jewellers Ltd.

When we carry out a search,

it's not something that we do lightly.

It's something that we know that we need to do

so that we can actually get the evidence that we need

to be able to make a case come together.

Very often, people will hide records in their property.

They'll hide money in their property.

You know, it's getting hold of the information we need,

the evidence we need, to actually be able to pull the case together

to get it before the courts.

And the team certainly had plenty of evidence to wade through.

The question was - would they be able to get all of it?

He had in excess of six safes

on the property. Again, not surprising, being a jeweller.

Some of which he was able to provide us with

keys or the combinations for.

But there were a couple of safes

where he informed us were either broken or not used.

Of course, we didn't believe this,

so we employed a locksmith to open the safes for us.

And one particular safe

was a very high-security safe

and it took a great number of hours for a locksmith

to actually break the combination

and pick - what we describe as pick -

the lock to finally open it.

And when he did,

we were pleased to find that that safe contained

not only a quantity of gold jewellery,

but a significant amount of cash in the safe as well.

So the HMRC now had 35kg of gold

that they seized from the airport.

They had £150,000 that Ali had in cash

and they had gold seized from his business premises

worth £1.8 million.

As you can imagine,

Ali now had some explaining to do.

Obviously, we were asking him

where he obtained the gold.

And he provided to us

some documentation to support

where this jewellery had come from.

He suggested that

11kg of the jewellery

came from a company based in Germany.

He also said that he received

an additional 24kg of gold jewellery

from a company based in Italy.

He told us that this jewellery came to him

whilst he was in the departure lounge.

He further explained that this gold jewellery

wasn't being bought by himself

and he was purely bringing it over to the UK

to exhibit on behalf of the Italian company.

Now, we obviously didn't believe these claims.

When asked about the huge stash of gold

uncovered in the safes at the jewellers,

Ali claimed he was simply storing it on behalf of other companies.

But during their search,

investigators discovered money was being transferred from Ali

to one jeweller in India and another in Dubai.

Not only had they found correspondence detailing sales between the three companies,

the investigators believed that they explained the gold that was being sold on in the UK.

Ali was denying everything.

But the team soon found something rather interesting -

a folder which at first glance seemed like a mass of spreadsheets

containing abbreviations, figures and dates.

What we have here

is a specific sheet, and as you can see,

there's very little sense to be made out of this sheet.

Initially, the file was dismissed,

but by cross-referencing the dates on the documents

with flights that Ali and the couriers took,

they were able to establish links.

Each person was named after a make of car

and each of the jewellers was represented by a three-letter code.

The sheets also contained the weight for each gold order,

represented as GNS or grains,

and another code for the currency.

So, for example, pounds sterling was represented as "malca".

What was contained in the codes could account,

could demonstrate

the gold that was indeed being

brought into the UK

and the onward sales of those goods

without VAT.

With the codes cracked,

the investigators were now able to go and meet Ali's suppliers

to prove that he was buying it from outside the EU.

We both travelled to India

to take witness statements from these Indian jewellers.

They established a link between all the historical trade

between the Indian jewellers and Dubai.

We also enquired about their knowledge

of Mr Chaudry Ali, based in the UK,

who controlled Diamond Jewellers.

Many of them had heard of Chaudry Ali

and believed him to have knowledge of this trade.

That further reinforced our belief

that these sheets were in fact

the result of the gold jewellery being bought back into the country

by Chaudry Ali

and subsequently sold off-record,

with the VAT not being paid to the UK Exchequer for these onward sales.

Pulling all the information together,

it was estimated that since the start of 2007,

Chaudry Ali had evaded a staggering £7 million in VAT.

It was time for Ali to pay for his crimes.

And on the 12th of November 2012,

he stood in front of a judge.

Despite the overwhelming evidence against him,

he maintained his innocence throughout.

The trial lasted a month.

At the end of that trial, he was found guilty

of cheating public revenue

and he was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment.

Which we thought was a good sentence for a fraud of that scale.

It seems that in the end Ali's Midas touch deserted him.

And for the next few years at least,

the bars he'll be seeing the most of won't be gold.

They'll be the ones on his cell.