Handbags, Gladrags & Jail Saints and Scroungers

Theft of public money costs the UK taxpayer over £20 billion a year.

It was over £1 million of public money that this pair took.

It's money which should be going into the public pot

to spend on essential services.

Or it could be used to build new hospitals and schools.

And throughout the country, there are specially trained

investigators making sure that justice is served.

It's not a question of IF we catch them, it's WHEN we catch them.

In this series, we meet the men and women across the UK

who are committed to catching criminals stealing from you and me, the British taxpayer.

Take a step and you can grab my hand.

But we also hear the stories of people who genuinely need

assistance from public money.

I'd lost my job and we were sinking gradually further and further.

And sometimes, they don't even realise they're entitled to it.

People say there's no hope, but there is.

Go on, Holly!

Today, the couple with the millionaire lifestyle

paid for by cheating the taxpayer.

They were able to fraudulently reclaim £232,000 worth

of VAT on goods that they hadn't actually purchased.

Take that! A jujitsu instructor

stealing thousands in Disability Living Allowance.

It is a blatant fraud and, clearly,

Mr Kemp's physical capabilities have improved.

And how hitting rock bottom was the shock one woman needed

to turn her life around.

I knew that I had to change and I knew that if I didn't,

the kids would be gone and I'd be in prison or dead.

190, 200...

Handbags, shoes, jewellery -

auctioned off for thousands of pounds.

At £1,400, all done...

Thank you very much.

But this is no ordinary sale,

because the money raised here goes to pay for services we all need.

This is a proceeds of crime auction,

and these luxury goods have been seized by the authorities

after years of investigation into criminal cases...

like the one involving Emmanuel and Behnaz Scotts.

The couple led a millionaire lifestyle.

They carried designer bags - well, she did -

shopped in expensive boutiques, and lived at an exclusive address.

So they were living here in Chelsea Harbour,

which is an exclusive area in London.

They rented a penthouse apartment on the top floor,

a four-bedroom property, very nicely maintained,

living a lifestyle that can only be associated to that of the rich and famous.

With neighbours including Michael Caine and Robbie Williams,

the Scotts had a celebrity lifestyle to match.

They regularly ate at fine-dining establishments.

They attended casinos on a regular basis

and even sent their eldest daughter to private school.

But, unbeknownst to their neighbours,

the Scotts' high life was paid for by low crime -

a scheme to defraud the UK taxpayer of hundreds of thousands of pounds,

as HMRC would find out in 2010.

They were defrauding the system and obtaining VAT back on items

which they weren't entitled to,

which allowed them to have this lavish lifestyle

that only the rest of us can dream about.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, HMRC.

It's their job not only to collect the taxes needed

to provide our public services,

but also to track down those who try to cheat the system.

HMRC has a large Criminal Investigations division

which works closely in collaboration with other investigators

such as the police, local authorities and so on

to investigate serious frauds against the tax system.

The Scotts' fraud involved a government scheme for shoppers

visiting from outside the EU.

Overseas visitors are able to reclaim the VAT that they pay

when they purchase goods here when they leave the country.

And with VAT at 20%,

that can be a hefty refund on a large shopping spree.

The process is simple.

First, the shopper shows their passport at the till.

Once the seller is satisfied that the customer lives outside of the EU,

they would generate the reclaim form, which is completed by the customer.

That's then taken to the port or airport with the goods,

and at the point of departure from the European Union,

it would be stamped by customs.

Then all the visitor needs to do when they get home is send off

the form to a processing company for their VAT refund.

But if a fraudster could find a way to get that refund without

having paid any VAT in the first place, well, then they'd be rich.

In 2010, HMRC uncovered information which suggested someone had

found a way to do just that.

Investigators don't like to reveal their sources,

but the information they received prompted them

to get in touch with a VAT processing company.

Premier Tax Free is an agent for a number of high-value

retailers operating in the UK.

They administer the VAT reclaim scheme on behalf of those retailers.

The company had noticed something strange.

Tens of thousands of pounds of VAT refunds were being

claimed on purchases made in just three Chanel stores in London.

Even stranger, the money was going into bank accounts based not

outside the EU, but in the UK.

All very odd, given that the scheme is for non-UK residents.

A number of suspicious payments had been paid into various accounts

that all had similar names,

which we've identified to belong to Mr and Mrs Scotts.

The investigation picked up pace.

HMRC applied for production orders to make the Scotts' banks

hand over detailed information about their accounts.

With these, officers established very large sums were passing into

the couple's accounts and on into other accounts in different names.

The next step was to contact Chanel.

The Scotts were well-known to the staff at the three stores,

who remembered them being very high spenders.

But, as investigators looked further,

it turned out that that was an illusion.

They would regularly purchase high-value items and later

take them back to a different Chanel store for an exchange or a refund.

Recycling the same money, the Scotts were creating

an image of a wealthy couple with tens of thousands to spend.

This pattern of behaviour not only familiarised themselves with

the staff in those three stores

but it also built up a relationship of trust between them.

And once they built their relationship with the sales staff,

it was time to make some real money.

Mr Scotts created a number of false sales invoices

which he presented to the staff in his preferred stores

and convinced them that when he had been purchasing items

at another location, they had failed to generate the VAT reclaim vouchers.

The staff who by now were familiar with their spending pattern,

didn't question the amounts on the sales invoices

and subsequently generated the forms for their customer.

And with these forms, Emmanuel Scotts was able to get

thousands of pounds of VAT refunded on products he hadn't even bought.

The value that the customer can reclaim when leaving the UK

would be 20% of the value of the goods that they've purchased.

By making false invoices for such high-value goods,

the Scotts were able to meet huge VAT returns each time they claimed.

But there was one more puzzle.

The forms needed to be stamped by Customs on export from the UK.

So how did Scotts manage that?

Through our investigations with colleagues in France,

we were able to establish that a customs stamp had been falsified.

Sifting through the accounts, officers found Scotts had

bought some date stamps just before the fraud started.

It's believed this specialist order of fixed date stamps would have

been used to facilitate the fraud.

The fact that they were fixed date only is highly suspicious,

as they would have had very limited use for a legitimate cause.

This fake customs stamp was the final stage in a fraud that

enabled Scotts to steal a fortune.

Once Mr Scotts was in possession of these forms,

he falsified them by using a false customs stamp,

which allowed him to validate the forms and the sales invoices.

These were then processed and the funds reclaimed were

subsequently paid into their various bank accounts.

In the first half of 2009 alone, he applied for 33 refunds,

pretending he had spent over £1 million at Chanel.

During that period, they were able to successfully fraudulently reclaim

£232,000 worth of VAT on goods they hadn't actually purchased.

That's almost a quarter of a million pounds stolen from the UK taxpayer

in just six months.

VAT fraud is certainly not a victimless crime.

The victims in this case are the public, and the money that is

defrauded could have been used to build schools or fund hospitals.

But the couple's spending spree would soon be coming to an end.

Later, HMRC now has all the evidence it needs to raid the Scotts'

luxury Chelsea penthouse.

But what else will they discover about what the Scotts are up to

and how will the couple explain themselves?

While some take everything they can get from society,

there are others who do their best to give it back.

Corraine Casey is a volunteer at the crime reduction charity Nacro.

'When I know I'm coming down to do the training

'or anything to do with Nacro and meeting other services'

and things like that, it just...

I love getting up in the morning and it's a focus in life.

As a mentor, Corraine provides help

and advice to drug addicts trying to get clean.

The aim is both to improve their lives

and to reduce the cost of addiction to the state -

£13 billion a year in drug-related crime alone.

Volunteering for Nacro, for me, is...

I love it. We're there for support.

So, Corraine on a day-to-day basis will be meeting people face-to-face,

taking them for a coffee,

talking about their difficulties

in accessing services and encouraging them to attend services.

The two-day course, that was really good.

With the addiction side, if someone's trying to come off it,

I say to ring me, because it'll get a bit harder before it gets better.

And that's the best time to call me,

because I can sort of try and lift them a little bit and...

You know, just to keep going and, "You will get there in the end."

Because I know they can do it.

Corraine speaks from experience.

12 years ago, in the grips of heroin addiction,

she gave birth to a baby girl who was already addicted.

Nurses had to treat the newborn

as she suffered the painful withdrawal process.

It was when Georgia started withdrawing, at first,

I thought, "She's got no symptoms. She's going to be OK."

But I didn't realise that it took a few hours

for the heroin to come out of her system.

I didn't really know how I was going to live with myself.

But I knew that I had to change and I knew that if I didn't,

that was it - I was going to be in addiction for the rest of my life.

The kids would be gone and I'd be in prison or dead.

In England alone, 20 babies are born every week addicted to drugs

that they've absorbed in the womb.

It was Corraine's shocking experience that finally

forced to turn her life around.

That was the changing point in my life.

I was just looking at her

and couldn't believe what I had done to my own flesh and blood.

It was just devastating. Really soul destroying.

And that's...when I knew that I'd never touch it again.

And she's been true to her word.

How does somebody get into such a state that they take drugs

while pregnant, putting their baby at risk,

and what can be done to stop it happening?

You know, some people do have shocking starts to their lives,

and if you haven't been the product of a problem background yourself,

then it's easy to make snap judgements about who is to blame.

I've come to Lincolnshire to talk to Corraine and hear her story.

So, describe to me the household when you were growing up.

-Your dad was ill...

-Yeah, my dad was a paranoid schizophrenic.

And my mum, she suffered with depression

and he self-medicated, drinking every day, not taking his medication.

So that made things worse.

They split up, then we went into care,

um, and when we came out of care, we found out

that my dad had died whilst in a secure unit for the mentally ill.

-When did you lose your dad? How old were you?

-I was ten.

-OK.

-I was meant to be going to visit him that day.

What happened to your mum?

Um, my mum turned to drink.

I think she was lost.

The routine that you had as a child, you know,

the sort of things that I'm familiar with -

getting up in the morning, spend the day at school, you come back,

your parents will be there in the evening.

How does that compare to the sort of things that you experienced?

Um, well...

after my dad had died and we came back out of care,

my mum was still drinking,

so she wasn't there a lot of the time.

We were just sort of doing our own thing.

Cooking. I was cooking from a young age and washing.

Doing my own washing, going to school if I felt like it.

Then, as I got a little bit older, probably 13, me and my friends

used to get money together, go and sit in the field,

drinking, having a laugh.

So, tell me how things changed, how did you start using substances?

I met and got involved with somebody.

All their friends were using it.

I ended up trying it...

and that was it really.

The drug Corraine was smoking was heroin.

She had no idea how addictive it could be.

I didn't really think, to be honest,

I just tried it and liked the feeling,

and it just took you away from everything for a while.

So, we're talking about serious drug use now,

and all the income, everything that is coming into the household

-really is focused on providing that?

-Yeah.

-And very quickly, that environment changes?

-Yeah.

It went from normal to having no heating, no electric,

selling things, because if you don't have it,

I couldn't look after my daughter, and you can't function.

Once you get an addiction, you can't function without it.

Corraine's life was spiralling out of control.

Then in 2001, she became pregnant.

She had come off drugs during a previous pregnancy

but this time was different.

The second time round, for some reason,

it just got a hold of me, even stronger than the first time.

And eventually, I went into labour.

I had to tell the midwife that I was still using.

And my daughter was born,

but she was an addict herself.

Even though that was the worst day of my life, in a sense,

looking back now, everything came out, all my family found out,

it was like a relief.

I'd been hiding something for so long that it was a relief

to actually say, yeah, I'm an addict.

So your daughter went through withdrawal symptoms.

What was that like to watch?

I was just crying for days.

It was just really sad.

The guilt and the shame.

Every time she was crying,

you know it's a different cry to a normal baby cry.

It was telling me again, this is what you've done.

What was different this time?

Why did you know, yourself, that you wouldn't go back?

I just knew that I had been so selfish

and it was so devastating seeing a little baby going through that,

and I just knew that these kids, they love me and I'm all they've got,

so if I don't change my life for them, I never will.

Corraine's daughter, Georgia, has suffered no lasting effects

from the heroin that got into her even before she was born.

-See if you can get through to five.

-Five? That's easy.

Mum! That was your fault!

As Corraine got clean, she was helped by her own mum

who had given up drinking.

Corraine's now been off heroin for 12 years.

My life now is basically routine.

Get the kids up, they all have their breakfast,

I drive them all to school.

Just doing normal things that I felt, I want to do that,

because I didn't have that.

I want to go to my kids' sports day and cheer them on

and give them more attention.

It really does bring them on when they have that,

you know, the things I missed out on in a way.

I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for what happened,

but I'm making changes in my life to look after my kids properly,

to give them love and meet all their emotional needs and, yeah,

I think life's going to be good in the future.

It's easy to look at Corraine's family history

and deduce that there is a cycle of addictive behaviour

that is passed down from one generation to the next.

If that is the case,

then Corraine is certainly doing her level best to stop it in its tracks.

For her and for her family.

Yay!

Can you do it where you do a cartwheel into a back one?

Now, as well as looking after her kids,

Corraine wants to use her experience to help others

and that's how she found Nacro.

I was looking through a volunteer site

and this one just popped out at me

and it said they're looking for people with experience

of substance misuse and I thought, am I actually reading that right?

I could probably be good at this

but I didn't even know there was somewhere like that

that wanted people like me who had been through an addiction.

People like Corraine are fantastic at delivering

those services cos they've been there,

they've done it, they've got the T-shirt.

So the support they offer people, they can say,

"We've been here, we've done that, we know how you're feeling

"and we know you can get off substances."

I just thought, I'm just one of those lowlifes

who's had an addiction and never done anything good in my life

and there was nothing left out there really for me.

Since Corraine's been volunteering, she's been taking on new challenges

and as well as helping others, she is learning and developing herself.

I'm a little bit nervous because it's a lot of new people, so...

Today Corraine is giving a first-hand account of addiction

to new volunteers.

The story is about a girl I know very well.

She didn't have the best start in life.

It's quite nerve-wracking delivering training to people

so you can see how much she's grown in confidence

from not really wanting to talk in the group

to now actually delivering training within the group.

The important message I want to share today is that people can change.

I believe in them, and last but not least,

there is always great hope for the future.

I did it and you can too.

Corraine's next goal is to get a paid job

helping people with substance abuse and mental health issues.

Now she is registered on an Access course at college

so she's hoping to go on to further education and higher education

which is fantastic and she's just come on in leaps and bounds.

Corraine is now an inspiration

to others who have struggled with substance abuse

and she wants to show that you can go from being a burden on society

to someone who can raise a family, lead a stable life

and make a positive contribution to everyone around you.

It's just absolutely unbelievable, the people you meet

and now helping other people.

It's just great.

Jujitsu, a martial art developed centuries ago

by Japan's samurai warriors.

Alden's Mark Kemp was a skilled instructor.

But it turned out he was equally skilled

at fiddling the benefit system

because while he was doing this, he was also collecting

tens of thousands of pounds

meant for people with severe mobility problems.

At the Department for Work and Pensions' Manchester office,

the fraud team works hard to catch the tiny minority

who try to play the system.

They are helped by tip-offs like the ones they had received about Kemp.

Mark Kemp had been in receipt of disability living allowance

since 1992.

He had claimed disability allowance on the basis that he'd had a stroke

and that he had severe lower back pain, pains in his legs

and was virtually unable to walk.

He said he couldn't walk more than 20 yards in five minutes.

Mark Kemp's mobility problems were so severe, he received

the highest rate of DLA, which included an allowance for a car.

For many people, it's a life-changing benefit

but it comes on the condition that if your circumstances improve,

you must tell the authorities.

Four years after his stroke, Kemp had the chance to do just that

when it came time to reapply for DLA.

Instead, he claimed his mobility problems were ongoing.

In 1996 he filled a renewal form in, and again,

reaffirmed his condition that he'd had strokes

and that he'd had severe mobility needs

and that he used a cane to assist him with walking.

On the basis of that declaration,

Kemp continued receiving the allowance for the next 15 years.

But the law would eventually catch up with him.

In 2012, someone who had seen Kemp in action at a class

reported him to the authorities.

The allegation came in - suggested that he had been actively

involved with a local martial arts group,

so our investigation started from there.

And that wasn't all.

The team was also told that Kemp had a Motability vehicle.

When somebody has a Motability vehicle,

they have it on the basis that they are entitled to

Disability Living Allowance at the higher rate.

That's normally reserved for people who are virtually unable

to walk any length of distance.

The DWP's fraud team launched a surveillance operation

involving secret filming.

The aim - to prove Kemp was lying about his mobility problems.

The surveillance on Kemp lasted around two months.

It involved a couple of sessions where

he was actively teaching students in martial arts, once in Nuneaton,

and another time in Tameside in Manchester.

And when the team reviewed the footage,

they were shocked at what they saw.

This is Mr Kemp.

And he's demonstrating to students jujitsu moves -

as you can see, a series of kicks and body blows

being parried by Mr Kemp.

And, clearly, he's as fit and active as anybody else in the room.

The footage was the clear evidence the fraud team had been looking for.

It is a blatant fraud, and, clearly, Mr Kemp's physical capabilities

had improved since he put his original claim in in 1992.

But to rule out any doubt, investigators also gathered footage

of Kemp going about his day-to-day life.

Here we have video evidence of Mr Kemp

on a family day out in Southport.

My investigators had followed him from his home in Oldham that day.

And in total he walked three-and-a-half miles that afternoon

and only had a couple of times when he sat down to take a rest.

The secret filming had shown

Kemp no longer had the mobility problems he claimed.

But to work out how much money he cheated the taxpayer of,

the fraud team had to establish when his condition improved.

The harder part is to discern how long his capability has been

like this, so we have to go back over his time when he was, you know,

doing martial arts classes and get witness evidence,

witness statements from people who participated in those classes.

The team identified people who'd regularly attended

Kent's martial arts group.

They testified he'd shown no sign

of any physical disabilities for years -

in fact, all the way back to when he reapplied

for the Disability Living Allowance.

And photos on a jujitsu website backed up what they were saying.

We managed to get...

a decision going back to 1997,

which meant that his overpayment for Disability Living Allowance

grossed £35,000.

That's £35,000 of taxpayers' money

intended for people with severe disabilities.

Armed with the video evidence,

it was time to bring Mark Kemp in for questioning.

At first, he stuck with the story

that he still had mobility issues.

Mr Kemp said that his capabilities hadn't changed

since he last completed a claim form in 2006

and he still had difficulty in walking unaided,

and that he needed assistance when he was out and about.

But his tune soon changed

when confronted with the evidence against him.

Clearly, the video evidence that we were able to gather

during the course of the surveillance period

refuted that.

We showed him various video clips

during the course of the interview, under caution,

and he couldn't deny that he was physically capable of doing things

that he'd said previously he wasn't capable of doing.

After the interview, the authorities had everything they needed

to bring Mark Kemp to court.

Because of the strength of the video evidence,

he pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud.

Mark Kemp appeared at Manchester Crown Court

and received a six-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months

and a curfew and tagging order.

His overpayment of £35,000 is now subject to criminal proceedings

under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The Department will be seeking to secure the full repayment

of that £35,000 through the courts.

Mark Kemp got away with his fraud for 15 years,

and had become so complacent he allowed photos of himself in action

to be put online.

Only a very small proportion of claimants abuse the system.

What Kemp's story shows

is that while fraudsters might think they're safe,

investigators now have computers and cameras too

and they will use them to find you.

Earlier, we heard how the law was catching up with VAT fraudsters

Emmanuel and Behnaz Scotts.

They'd been cheating a VAT refund system designed for non-EU shoppers,

stealing almost a quarter of a million pounds

from the UK taxpayer in just six months.

The Scotts were essentially confidence tricksters,

and this was a serious and quite complex fraud.

Now, armed with the Scotts' bank account details,

evidence from boutiques and proof of the purchase of date stamps,

HMRC had all they needed to raid the couple's luxury penthouse.

The first search took place in the September of 2010.

Officers attended and they arrested Mr Scotts at the premises.

It was evident that they were living a lavish lifestyle.

They regularly enjoyed fine dining.

They purchased a number, a high number, of luxury items,

accessories, clothing, shoes, handbags,

along with make-up, perfume.

The list was endless.

But despite all the opulence, they still weren't averse to

receiving yet another helping hand from the taxpayer.

The investigation revealed that both Mr and Mrs Scotts

had no form of declared income.

They were both registered as unemployed

and they were in receipt of benefits,

in particular, housing benefit,

which I believe was paid for in the region of £700 a week.

During the raid, investigators found the date stamps

they suspected had been used on the VAT refund forms.

They also uncovered financial records that shed more light

on the complex web of accounts the Scotts had set up

to manage their criminal earnings.

In total, there were in excess of 140 bank accounts.

Analysis of those accounts showed that there were many transactions,

equal to £4 million, being credited to their accounts.

Once we started looking at the transactions

in the bank accounts more closely,

it became apparent that they had in the region

of 50 alias identities.

It was incredible to think that between them

they were able to facilitate that many alias identities

and keep on top of all of the passwords that would be necessary

for the bank accounts and maintaining their personal data.

Emmanuel Scotts was taken from the penthouse

to Chelsea Police Station for questioning.

How would he account for the date stamps, the bank accounts

and the millions of pounds of undeclared income?

When he was asked to provide an explanation

as to where the credits in his bank account were coming from,

he maintained that he was a professional gambler.

Scotts claimed he'd regularly win between £10,000 and £70,000 a night.

But when HMRC contacted the casinos the Scotts liked to visit,

they were told, while the couple did like to gamble,

they rarely won.

Similarly, while Scotts admitted visiting the three shops,

his recollection of events was rather different.

He denied creating the false sales invoices for Chanel,

and he also denied ever approaching them

and asking for the VAT reclaim forms,

despite the fact that Chanel staff remembered it clearly.

And it was the same story for the date stamps uncovered in the raid.

When he was questioned about the purchase

of the specialist fixed date stamps,

he struggled to provide an explanation, and later alluded to

the fact that he couldn't remember why they had been purchased,

and that they must have been bought for a business that didn't take off.

But nobody was buying that.

Effectively, Mr and Mrs Scotts used the false custom stamps

to give an image that they had exported the goods

out of the country

when, in fact, the goods had never even been purchased.

Subsequently that allowed them to reclaim the VAT fraudulently.

Emmanuel was charged with intent to defraud HMRC

and handling the proceeds of crime.

But it was more difficult to prove Behnaz's part in the fraud.

It was always HMRC's belief that Mrs Scotts was

as involved in the fraud as Mr Scotts was,

as there was evidence to show that the money being claimed

was being paid into as many of her bank accounts as they were his.

However, she insisted she'd known nothing about that fraud.

Eventually, she was charged with handling the proceeds of crime.

In March 2012, the case went to the highest court in England

and Wales, the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey.

-JUDGE:

-You may be seated.

Confronted with the weight of evidence against them,

the Scotts had a change of heart, and both pleaded guilty.

He was subsequently sentenced to four years' imprisonment

for the back fraud and three years' imprisonment

for the money laundering, which he's serving currently.

During the sentencing,

it was discovered Emmanuel had been prosecuted for an identical fraud

involving John Lewis department stores,

and was also under investigation by the Metropolitan Police

for a major cheque fraud.

The judge wasn't convinced by Behnaz's claim

she knew nothing about the VAT fraud.

She was subsequently sentenced to 51 weeks imprisonment,

which was suspended for a period of two years,

and she had a 12-month supervision order with

a requirement for her to attend a probation programme.

In addition to that, she had a curfew order with a tag for four months.

A great result for the Criminal Investigations team at HMRC.

It was quite clear that Mr and Mrs Scotts are serial fraudsters

and would continue to commit frauds unless they were dealt with.

But the office's work wasn't over yet.

HMRC's policy is always to, not only obtain a successful conviction,

but to do everything in its power to recover

the proceeds of the crime by whatever legal means are available.

The judge determined that the couple had benefitted

by their criminal lifestyles to the tune of £4.1 million,

and as such, he also determined that they had assets available to

meet a confiscation order, and these were valued in excess of £53,000.

In July 2013, the team went back to the Scotts' rented apartment

to confiscate the couple's valuables.

On this occasion, they seized in excess of 600 designer items of

clothing and accessories, which have been determined as available assets.

The proceeds of the Scotts crimes took 15 officers a whole day

to list and box.

Though most of the money the couple had stolen was gone for ever,

HMRC investigators were determined to get back as much as possible

for the taxpayer, and as we're about to see,

these expensive luxuries would be the key.

The sleepy village of Swardeston in Norfolk.

It's mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Not somewhere you would associate with the world of high fashion,

but today's different, because this is the place HMRC have chosen

to hold their proceeds of crime auction.

It's a big day for investigator Emma,

who's hoping for a good turn-out.

All the items that are here today have been advertised as items

that have been seized by HMRC.

There will be various people attending,

there will be passing trade, members of the public,

through to specialist dealers and collectors.

Everyone's hoping to get a bargain, knowing that their fancy shoes

and strange, furry bags have been seized by the HMRC

under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The Proceeds of Crime Act is the legislation

used by all law enforcement departments

to determine the extent and whereabouts

of criminal benefit. Without it, we wouldn't be able to pursue

the recovery of the country's stolen finances.

To get to this point has been a long process for Emma.

The process that's involved with that is,

I would have to get the items authenticated and then

subsequently valued for a second-hand value on the re-sale market.

Once I've got all the facts, I then present that to the court

and the judge will then determine whether or not he considers

the assets to be available to pay any subsequent confiscation order.

Ultimately, he did find the assets as available,

and that's why we're here today, to sell the goods.

We hope to send out the message that we don't stop at sentencing,

and that wherever possible,

we seek to pursue recovery of criminal benefits.

And in this case,

that includes some of the most expensive names in fashion.

Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo and many others,

all found piled up at the Scotts' rented Chelsea penthouse.

We hope to achieve somewhere in the region of £45,000-£49,000 today,

but of course, it all depends on the auction on the day.

What I can say is that the smaller items

would have cost around £100 each,

and the more expensive items could have been anywhere up to £6,000.

But of course, despite being barely worn, these items are now

second-hand and can't be expected to make those sums.

Add to that the unpredictability of an auction,

and as the bidding starts, it's a nervous time for Emma.

We'll start the sale now. Good luck.

Number one, which is a Christian Louboutins. We'll start there.

Lot one now. How much for these now? £50 for these somewhere.

£40, bid with me. At £40. Five anywhere? At five. £50 bid. At £50.

With me in the book. I'm selling then. All done at £50, Carrie.

The auction gets off to a bit of a slow start.

These are brand-new. They're £500 in the shop. They're worth £100. £80?

£60 bid. At £60 and bid. Five...

But soon, the bidding gathers pace, and Emma's feeling a lot happier.

We must have around 50 people here at the moment, and the bids

are already coming in thick and fast, so it should be a good day.

-AUCTIONEER:

-Lovely bag there now.

And a good day for Emma and the HMRC is a good day for the taxpayer,

because the money raised here goes back in the pot

that pays for essential services that we depend on, and as Emma

tallies the rising total, it's clear the sale is going according to plan.

We've stepped outside from the auction, which is going

really well at the moment. We haven't quite got to the juicy stuff,

such as Chanel or Louis Vuitton, but things are flying quite nicely

off the shelves, so to speak, so fingers crossed it will all go well.

Selling then. £1,250. Thank you very much.

At £1,400. All done. Benton. Thank you very much.

Selling then. All done at £1,150.

Sam buys the bag.

And when it comes to the big-ticket items,

including the Scotts' beloved Chanel, bids come flying in.

Even the auctioneer's daughter gets involved.

Selling it then. All done at £1,350, my daughter.

I paid £1,350 for this today, but I think it's still a great bargain.

Would have cost an absolute fortune...

And there are plenty of bargains to go around.

I bought a lovely rose, cos I'm a rose in a garden of weeds.

And they go very nice on your dresses.

And I do like Chanel, so...

I could afford it here.

In the Chanel shop, they're rather expensive.

Eventually, every one of the 600 items

confiscated from the Scotts' spending spree has been

snapped up for genuine money, just ever so slightly less than expected.

It's been a really successful day.

We've sold absolutely everything, raising over £42,000.

A lot of happy bidders, and it's all great,

cos it's all money back for the country's finances and the taxpayer.

And what are those happy bidders' thoughts

on where their bargains have come from?

I thought it was very, very nice,

but I can't imagine one woman having so much stuff.

It was absolutely too much, cos if you have one nice thing,

you appreciate it, but if you have that amount,

it's not very good, is it?

It's quite nice when somebody's just paying good, honest money

gets to have the bag in the end.

There's a moral in here somewhere.

It's better to work hard and pay for what you get properly,

isn't it, otherwise, as you can see, it gets taken away from you.