Episode 2 Britain on the Fiddle

Fraud is the UK's national disgrace. A staggering ?20 billion stolen from

the state last year - more than the government spends on all our police.

I'm Richard Bilton. In this series I'm on the front line with the

investigators fighting fraud. Get the car clamped or removed? Let's

remove it. Tonight, Blue Badge wars - the people who see disabled bays

as free parking. How can I calm down when my car was towed? Cos you had

taken a disabled space from somebody who needs the bay. The con man on

benefits with a string of businesses, properties and a secret

life. This is the latest manifestation of my mid-life crisis,

which seems to be going on for ever. And the seemingly respectable

businessmen who see VAT as a profitable scam. Can we cut the

filming please? Andrea Cordery's job is to track down con men. She thinks

she's found one, and she's on her way to deliver a summons. This is

not just some lone parent doing an extra cleaning job or something to

feed her starving children or his starving children. This has been

quite, um, deceitful, to say the least. Andrea works for Croydon

Council, and this has been a difficult case. Good morning. Is

that Mr Sussams? Yeah. Hi, I've got something for you. If I could just

leave that for you. Thank you very much. I've managed to serve him with

the summons, I'm just going to make a note of it. We'll hopefully see

him in court next week. Good. Happy, yes! Andrea's target is a man

accused of stealing ?32,000. Stephen Sussams had been getting benefits to

care for his sick friend, Keith Dickenson. When he died he should

have told the council. They say he didn't - he just kept taking the

cash. The person who was in charge of Keith Dickenson's affairs,

according to our records, was his partner, Stephen Sussams. The day

after his partner passed away he'd actually gone in and started taking

money out of the account. The account was not closed, it kept on

running, so the council kept on paying into... For care for a dead

man? For care for a dead man. The council say Mr Sussams cleared more

than ?17,000 from his dead friend's bank account. We needed to get that

money back, so we wrote to him in 2009 asking him to give us a refund

of this money. He did not want to take responsibility for that. That

led to us having to have a closer look at his affairs, and then it

just opened up a whole can of worms for him. I've been looking at this

case for two years. The more I dug, the more extraordinary it became. It

began in one of the smartest parts of Devon. We'd heard that Mr Sussams

had been spotted at the Royal Dart pub. It's a historic building on the

waterfront - next to a beautiful marina - and Mr Sussams seemed to be

in charge. Our undercover reporter caught him as he was getting out of

his Bentley. So, for all that time Stephen

Sussams seemed to be living a double life. Croydon Council gave him a

flat and reduced council tax because they thought he was struggling. But,

in reality, he was living the high life on the English Riviera.

There were two things wrong with what he was doing. You can't have a

council flat if you don't live in it, and you can't get benefits if

you're earning a decent living from your own business. Mr Sussams? I'm

Richard Bilton from BBC Panorama. I was wondering how you could get

benefits and a council house when you've got a pub down in Devon? As

you know... The case is under investigation by the council. I've

no intention of being involved in trial by television. This is your

right to reply, because this is a very nice car, you've got a lovely

pub... Well, Mr Sussams has now got a real trial on his hands. So, yeah,

we're... It's sooner than we thought but, yeah... Let's get it to court

and let's get a decision on it. Andrea is off to a pre-trial hearing

to see how Stephen Sussams will plead. At this point, what would be

good is if he just entered a guilty plea and then we won't need to waste

any more of the tax payers' money. The stakes are high. Croydon has

spent thousands investigating this case. But Mr Sussams says he'll

fight to clear his name. This is Mark. He's one of our...one

of our best investigators on the team. I like to use him as my junior

as much as possible. Thank you. I'll pay you later! Try to teach him the

ropes. Marcin and Mark are out on Blue Badge patrol in one of the

smartest parts of London - Kensington Chelsea. Their job is

to make sure the disabled parking spaces are only used by those

registered as disabled. Not anyone using a badge for a bit of free

parking. So where's this lady? Somewhere here. Somewhere here?

Yeah. Can you be more specific? We're going on holidays and they're

shopping. OK. So where are you going to meet her?. Here. What time? When

they've finished they'll call me. So when do you think that will be?

Couple of hours, three hours? OK. It's actually an offence to park in

a disabled bay and use a disabled badge that doesn't belong to you and

the person isn't in the vehicle. Yeah, but I'm having to drop them in

the shop. What I'm going to have to do is caution you. Yeah. 'It's

usually just everyday normal people' that wouldn't think about doing

anything more serious, but they are quite happy to do this and they

don't often think that there's a victim to this. They don't see it as

a crime sometimes. Yeah. If they see an opportunity to save a bit of

money, they think that the benefits outweigh the risks and they have a

go. Are you disabled? No, I'm not. So you should have parked in a pay

and display bay and paid for parking. I got out to go to my...

This, I want to use my boot. I haven't parked here yet. I'm going

to pick up my mum now, I'm just picking up money... But this is for

people with a disability so they can park... But I'm the registered...

All right, OK, but I... You've stopped in a disabled bay. The badge

is on display on the screen. But I wasn't parking. Listen I'm sorry,

but I believe an offence has been committed, Can I have my badges

back? No, you can't. They're not your disabled badges. No-one told me

that I can't use them while my mum's not in the car. I won't use them,

I'll go and move the car and you can write your report. We will report

that. You can report it, I know you will. Fine. Have a good day. Yeah,

same to you. He's just basically got himself into court. We might have

just given him a caution, but now he's definitely going to court so...

And Marcin and Mark's work is appreciated by those who need he

spaces. Why, what's going on? We're just making sure people are using

their badges correctly. Oh, right, OK. So, thank you very much. No

problem at all. 'I rarely come around here because there's only

just two slots' and if the wrong person gets it it's not fair. Cos

people with disabilities do really need to get out and most of the time

you can't. So I'm grateful that they're out. I'll be obliged to show

them my pass and with a smile, as well. Blue Badge abuse is a small

crime, but it's carried out by a lot of people. It costs us all ?46

million a year in lost revenue - money that could go on schools and

hospitals. And all for a bit of free parking. Now we wait. We wait. Look

at that, straight down a No Entry. And another. Oh, here we go, is he

parking? I think we've got one. Is she going into the bay? I don't know

if she's actually displayed the badge just yet. Yep, there we go.

She's just placed it now. Is it OK if I see the badge? Yeah, sure.

Thank you. If you want to see the details... Thank you very much. It's

the same surname. That's OK. She said that she's just picking her

mother up now. OK. So how long do you reckon you'll going to be? Half

an hour, an hour? I'm not sure. I need to help her shopping in.

Whereabouts is she? Inside Harrods. Have you just dropped her off? No,

I'm picking her up. OK. All right. All right? OK. And I'd like you not

to take any pictures of me. OK. We'll give you half-an-hour. And we

need to see... And I want to see any documents of you, that you're, er...

Yeah, I just showed you my ID. ID of what? That's my Kensington Chelsea

badge, it's got my name on it. But you're not a traffic warden, are

you? The woman heads off to Harrods, but Marcin has his suspicions. He

calls the office. We've just stopped a lady who's using a Barnet Blue

Badge. I was just wondering would you be able to call her at home and

see if she's at home or if she's out and about? Yeah? RADIO: 'Yeah, two

seconds. Stay on the line.' All right brilliant. Yeah, great.

They'll soon know whether she's telling the truth. SIREN Finally,

one that's got caught! In Croydon, the council has got a fight on its

hands. Stephen Sussams is accused of stealing housing benefit, council

tax benefit, and of clearing ?17,000 of benefits out of his dead friend's

bank account. He's denied it all. We're pleading not guilty to

everything. I've spoken to my barrister, they're quite happy that

we should plead not guilty, I think we have to plead not guilty because

I don't believe I've done anything wrong. Nothing really surprises me

in this job. At the end of the day, he's the person who is being put on

trial and he has a right to plead not guilty if he feels he's

innocent. You know, if my defence barrister can put everything across

correctly, which I'm hoping he will be able to...er... ..then I see no

reason why I should be found guilty of anything. It is my life that I'm

fighting for. It's my freedom, it's my reputation. It's everything

you've worked for over the last 40 years. The case will be judged on

the evidence that is put forward. Hopefully, I've got a good enough

case. But anything can happen in court. It all depends on what

happens on the day, really. Andrea has a tense wait before the trial

begins for real. She is at home? RADIO: 'She is at home, she does

have a badge.' OK. Back outside Harrods, Marcin and Mark have heard

back from the office. The woman in the 4x4 can't be picking up her

mother-in-law. The badge holder is definitely at home in Barnet. The

mother-in-law is 12 miles away. Marcin and Mark were told a lie.

Shall we get the car clamped or removed? Let's remove it. They have

the car ticketed so it can be towed if she doesn't come back first. We

don't know where we stand with Marcin pulling out and stopping the

car! Let's try it and see what happens. THEY LAUGH This is high

level fraud we're dealing with here. Oh, she's there! She's there! No,

you're not taking pictures. Why are you... Excuse me, madam. My

mother-in-law is inside the building. Do you know that? Marcin

tries to explain to the woman that he knows her mother-in-law is not in

Harrods but at home. It's her last chance. Sorry, can you come and

speak to us? One second, one second, David. One second, somebody wants to

speak to me. One second. No, I don't want to speak to you. It's less

about the badge and the offence that she's done and more about how angry

she is in the situation and how we need to calm her down and just let

her go and get on with it. It's annoying, because you know you've

done something wrong, so just hold your hands up. Take your punishment.

Take your punishment, basically for trying to commit a fraud and saving

yourself, what, ?5? She didn't look like she needed to save an extra ?5,

did she? You know? The woman will now have to head to

the pound to get her car back. As a nation, we're not good at stopping

fraud, and tax fraud is ten times as big as benefit fraud. ?14 billion is

lost to people who don't pay their fair share. Teams from Her Majesty's

Revenue Customs have the job of clawing that money back. I would

like to welcome you all to the briefing for operation Go-Kart. I'm

the case manager and silver command for tomorrow. Gold for the day is

Andrew McKie, who is also the officer in charge of the

investigation. Our communications strategy will be by radio only. I

want you to ensure that the two suspects in this case are removed

and put into custody as soon as possible. Their targets are two

respectable-looking businessmen. Julian Stone runs a string of

drycleaners and Nicholas Harris is a builder who's done work for Stone in

the past. This all started off with seven invoices coming into local

compliance. The invoices we suspect are false, and they're being used by

one of the suspects to reduce his liability by about ?435,000. The

second suspect has potentially under-declared VAT of nearly

?200,000, so we're talking about in excess of ?600,000 for this fraud.

Next morning, and it's an early start for the teams. They plan to

arrest both of the suspects at the same time. Because these are almost

all undercover officers, we've had to disguise most of their

identities. Derek Chisholm is used to this kind of work but he still

gets tense. In the team that I'm located in we have these probably

once a week. There will always be adrenalin. If there's not then it

can't be good. You're always nervous, cos you don't know what's

going to happen. Confirm address, number 19. Derek's

team is looking for the builder, Nicholas Harris. Not sure if the

bell's working. Mr Harris? Yeah. Morning, Derek Chisholm, Revenue

Customs. I'll just show you my ID. I'm actually here today to arrest

you. Why? I will go through that, but do you want to possibly go round

the corner here so you're out of sight of everybody? OK, the reason

you are being arrested today is on suspicion of fraud. It relates to

suspected fraudulent invoices used in the evasion of VAT and

Corporation Tax. We'd like to transport you to the police station,

please. We pulled out some documents and

paperwork relating to Mr Harris and his companies. We've also bought out

a laptop that will be examined by forensic analysts at a later date to

see if it's of evidential value. That went quite well. Initially it

was a bit of a problem in that he wasn't at home. We were lucky to a

point just asking questions in the neighbourhood to find out his

location. We got him back. Demeanour - calm, therefore my decision was

not to handcuff him. We'll take him now down to custody, get him

detained, legal advice and, hopefully, the interview under

caution. A few miles away, the other team is at Julian Stone's business.

I've got a warrant to search the premises from the Magistrates' Court

at City of London... Yep. ..which is to search the premises here and any

computers, as well. Word of their arrival has spread. Yes, just for

your information his accountant has just telephoned the officer manager.

She was enquiring how many officers were on the premises and she's on

her way, too. To me that would indicate how many people... She's

probably teeing up his lawyers. I think one of our guys tried to speak

to the accountant, but she hung up before we could speak to her so...

Unusual. And it's not long before Mr Stone turns up. I don't want to be

filmed. Can we cut the filming, please? HMRC suspect the two are

working together - that Nicholas Harris has been sending false

invoices to Julian Stone. Well, I did... Yeah, no, I fully appreciate

that, Sir, I fully appreciate that. These operations are important. The

gap between what is owed and what is collected is huge and adding to the

country's growing mountain of debt. For Marcin and Mark, it's round two

with the Blue Badge cheat. Tila Feiner, who parked illegally outside

Harrods, has turned up at the pound with her mother-in-law. Hiya. Hello.

I am fuming! Really? Fuming. She was with me in the store! I said to you

I am picking her up. When I came... "She's in Harrods, I'm picking her

up," you said. No, I made up, because we've got a wedding. Oh, you

made that up? Are you...? Is that what you just said? No, I said I

made up with her to pick her up from Harrods. Do you understand what it

means? Make up? Make up? To make up is to make an appointment to meet

somebody. OK. So, at the time you told us... Yes. ..that she's in

Harrods, "I've come to pick her up, I'll be ten minutes." I was in

Harrods, I nearly fell down the escalators just now. She was at home

- how are you picking her up from Harrods if she's at home? Because I

don't know what time she's going to be in Harrods. She might decide to

be half-an-hour or an hour later. I don't know what time she decided.

You said you came to pick her up. Correct. She is inside Harrods. I

didn't say she's inside Harrods. You said, "She's inside, I can bring her

here in ten minutes." I made arrangements to meet her. Can you

calm down? How can I calm down when my car, my car was towed away...? It

was towed because your mother-in-law was at home in Barnet. That's the

reason. Do you want to sit down? I'm going to go with your

daughter-in-law to the vehicle and we're going to get the disabled

badge, OK? Have you got the keys? Yeah. Have you paid yet? No, I'm not

going to pay. You're not? No, you're going to release the car. Why should

I pay for something that just wasn't right? Why should you do that? No,

we're not going to release the car. Why? Simple as that. Because an

offence has been committed. We towed it because you had taken a disabled

space from somebody who needs the bay. Not you, somebody who needs it.

She needs it. She didn't need it, she was at home. We're going to

stand out ground. We know that the law is on our side. You can scream

and shout all day long or we can sort this out quickly. She finally

agrees to pay up. What do I need now? She'll get her car back, but

it's not finished. She'll now be charged. Can she come with me? Yeah,

I think so. Thank you. Good doing business with you. The moral of the

story is don't try and fight the law when the law is called Mitchey and

Marcin. First day of the trial, how are you

feeling? Yeah, good. It's the start of the Stephen Sussams trial.

Confident? I'm a bit breathless at the moment you'll have to wait. He

faces charges of fraud amounting to ?32,000, but he's come out fighting.

Well, I'm just going to go in there and ask for a little bit more time.

We're a little bit stressed. The defendant has pulled a few surprises

out the bag, so we've been rushing around quite a lot in the last few

days. Stephen Sussams thinks the council's case is flawed. This here,

that needs to come out. What the letter? Yep. Right. OK. Because the

defence are arguing that the jury shouldn't even be told that he was

invited to interview and failed to attend. But he was invited to attend

interviews. Yeah. As a professional fraudster you would have an answer

to everything, you would try to, um... Get out of taking

responsibility for your actions. I'm hoping that they can see this case

for what it is. That they're dealing with a professional fraudster.

Simple. Will you send me copies? If you'd like, Sir. Sorry? If you'd

like, yeah. The case is getting a lot of attention, but he isn't

cracking under the pressure. Come in. Stephen Sussams is confident

he's innocent and has agreed to speak to us. It's a vindictive

prosecution, trying to make an example of someone. I don't think I

did anything wrong, or knowingly did anything wrong. "Knowingly" is the

key. He says he didn't know that the money he took out of Keith

Dickenson's account had come from Croydon Council. It makes you sound

like a grave robber, but in point of fact, I mean - I'd quite happily

show you the will - I was his sole beneficiary. He was a soul mate, and

we'd had so many good times and so much fun over so many years. You

know, I can see no real reason why that money shouldn't have been

withdrawn and the fact that it was withdrawn after his death... Well,

let me tell you, you know, from the moment he died, the bills started

coming in. He says he thought the money in the account was Keith's

pension, not his benefits, and he blames the council for the mistake.

You can see from the papers here, Croydon Council were aware of

Keith's death. I told them to stop paying his benefits, and they had

stopped paying some of his benefits. And then there's receiving benefits

while he ran a posh pub. He thought an employment agency had told the

council. I notified the agency that I no longer needed benefits. They

told me that they would then deal with it and that all the benefits I

was receiving would stop. Um, that didn't happen. The council's case is

straightforward. He moved to Devon, but kept the flat and the payments

they were giving him. That's cheeky isn't it? Mr Sussams smiling. You

think the matter is in court, it's something quite serious. Fighting

Stephen Sussams is starting to get to Andrea. It's been an exhausting

day. I've been in the witness box for quite a long time and hammering

of questions, but right now what I'd like to do is just go home to my

family and curl up. End of a day, yeah. Working behind a till at

Tesco's doesn't seem so bad right now. And with both sides convinced

they're right, things won't get any easier.

HMRC have businessman Julian Stone, and builder Nicholas Harris in

custody. They're suspected of using fake invoices to dodge ?600,000

worth of tax. Nicholas Harris has started to talk and he's denying

helping Stone to fake invoices. He's been shown the invoices and he says

they're not his. They don't look like anything he would produce. He's

admitted that he has done some work for our second guy but they've been

really small, it's been really small value stuff and he doesn't recognize

any of the values we're talking about on those invoices. So it looks

as if we could have been right. But that's pretty much where we're at

the moment. OK, well if you let me know what happens with the second

set of interviews. Yeah. And then we can decide what decisions we want to

make about bailing? All right, as soon as I get any updates, I'll let

you know, yeah? OK, that's fine. See you later. It takes a lot of work,

but in the end the documents show what both men have been up to. Steve

Ferguson and his boss are getting the evidence ready for court. Stone

has used these invoices, which we suspect are fake, to reduce the

amount of VAT which he should have paid us by about 160k, and his

company tax liability by about ?270,000, so we're talking, in

essence, of about a ?400,000 fraud. ?400,000 sloshing around his

business accounts because of his suspected criminal activity - he's

got to get rid of that somehow. If I can show you an example here... The

documents suggest Stone has been paying Harris, but the cheques tell

a different story. According to these cheque stubs, Stone has paid

138 cheques to Harris, but when we looked at the cheques you can see

it's made out to Stone's mother. So what he's done is laundered the

proceeds of his criminal activity through members of his family. Stone

and Harris may not have been working together to dodge VAT, but it turns

out they were both at it on their own. Harris has been earning

hundreds of thousands of pounds and hiding it from the taxman. Mr Harris

has not told us about any of this money coming into his business. He's

been generating vast amounts of profit for himself by charging his

other customers - including Mr Stone - VAT, and then basically putting it

in his pocket. They have enough evidence. Stone and Harris will now

be charged. This is the latest manifestation of my mid-life crisis,

which seems to be going on forever. Stephen Sussams hasn't been letting

the trial get him down, and he's found a cheaper replacement for the

Bentley. I bought myself a sports car, and it takes me longer to get

in and out than it does to do most journeys. But he's been preparing

himself for the worst. What is going to happen is going to happen, so you

might just as well... Yeah, all right, you give it your best shot,

and you put forward how you feel about different things, but that's

as much as you can do. You know, you can't do anymore. Today he'll learn

if the jury finds him innocent or guilty. It's a big day for all

involved. To date, I haven't lost any cases, I've always... I've got a

good, um, prosecution success record. But, at the end of the day,

it is up to the jury. What will be will be. That makes me panic! THEY

LAUGH I hope this isn't the case you lose. It takes the jury six hours to

reach a unanimous verdict. Result! I know! Result, my people, result! I

know, I know, I know! He's found guilty on all counts and jailed for

a year. The judge wasn't having any of it, was he? Absolutely not. He

was not having any of it at all. And he's got a previous conviction, so

that's all been... Yeah. For dishonesty, as well. Anyway, my

part's done - on to the next case. Over to you! Yes, well, I'll add

this to my very large case load. How many years has this taken you? Two

years? Two and a half years? This case has taken me two and a half

years to bring to this point. It just shows how long these cases can

take, there's a lot to it. Zoe Neale now gets involved. It's her job to

get the stolen money back. Yeah, but I've got a lot of bits in the

background, and I am aware of things that I don't think Mr Sussams knows

that I know about. The biggest problem is going to be getting some

stuff out of Spain. Yeah. That's the big issue. Well, as you can see,

Miss Marple is back on to the next case. See you later. Bye. Stephen

Sussams is in jail, and Croydon wants to get back the money he

stole. There's not much left in England - the pub and Bentley are

long gone. But there's a tip-off that Stephen Sussams had another

secret life before he went to Devon. I want to find out what was he doing

in Spain, and if there's anything there for the council to claim. Is

that really the kind of car to transport a disabled person in? I

suppose it's ideal, cos its very low to the ground, easy to get in and

out of... It's not what you usually see in a disabled bay - a super car

with a Blue Badge in the window. There's not much room for a

wheelchair, but... No, no. ..enough room for a walking stick. For a

walking stick, exactly. I'm just going to go and have a look at that

Badge on display. They reckon the Blue Badge is either fake or stolen.

When you see Ferraris parked in disabled bays, it does raise

suspicion. Time for a quick call to the council. That badge was actually

stolen. So now we need to try and figure out a way of trying to get

that Badge back. We need to devise a plan as to how to catch him or her.

I think our best bet is to find out who the owner of the car is... Ah,

there's two policemen. Excuse me! I work for Kensington Chelsea

council. That car there's got a stolen Blue Badge. You can do DVLA

checks can't you? Find out who the owner is? We're just trying to see

what other information we can get. OK, just bear with me a sec. Thank

you. The DVLA say the car belongs to a man called Feroz Gadit. The

owners' surname matches up to what the number plate is, as well, it's a

private plate on it, so... If we stand here he isn't going to come

back to his car. No. They need another tow. We'll call in into the

pound, but by the time they get someone down to put a ticket on it

he may well have come back and gone. They just hope the tow truck gets

here first. I'm in Spain because its seems that

Stephen Sussams had a secret life here, and I've come to find out what

he was doing. Croydon Council lost ?32,000 to

Stephen Sussams' fraud, and now they want it back. They'll try to seize

any assets they can find. Now, we've been told that he may have lived in

the far south of Spain. We got a journalist who lives here to do some

digging. Hi. It's Richard, how's things? Fine, thanks, how are you?

Yep, I'm all right, thank you very much. So, you've been busy? What

have you managed to find out? I managed to find out he did live

here. He did have a life here. Some people knew him - not very many. Not

many people actually want to talk about other people, they're quite

private here. So how serious was he? The Town Hall can tell me if

Sussams' life here was official. So this is living here, this is not

casual? No, no, no. This is living here. To go to a hospital here, a

social security hospital owned by the state, you need to have this. So

this is key to a life here, in this town? Si. So this is really

important, because this piece of paper proves that Stephen Sussams

had a double life. And, actually, the dates are really important

because he applied here in Spain three months after he applied for

housing benefit back in the UK. So this is the place? This is it, yeah.

But Sussams didn't just live here, he had a business. So this was

Stephen Sussams' bar. It was, yes. He ran this place. Yes, he did, and

according to people he worked here, he was behind the bar. How long was

he here then? I think it was about ten months. He was here from May

2008 to February 2009. Whilst he's having that life here, he's got this

separate life back in the UK. A house, benefits, different friends.

Today this bar is owned by someone else. There's nothing here for

Croydon Council to seize. Right, where now? Follow the road around.

We track down the people who sold him the bar, Sandra Sharpe and John

Patemen. Everything looked... Right and correct. Everything down to his

Patek Philippe watch, his Mercedes Benz red top, you know. He went to

the bank with you, didn't he? Yeah. Drew out the cash. It was all in

hard cash and he gave it you and... So we thought well, that's... That's

good. 'But this was deal that quickly ran into trouble.' When did

things change then? When it was time and we were getting towards when he

had to pay his final amount. He said, "I'm not paying you." I went,

"Well, OK then, "you're not paying me the money then this is still my

bar." Well, basically, in the end, he said no, didn't he? He turned

round and said I've worked it out that you owe me money now. So you

painted a picture at the beginning when you first met him of Stephen

Sussams as a kind of smooth operator. What do you think about

him now? Con man. Yeah. Yeah, a professional con man, actually. He

is a confidence trickster. And he's good at it. And he's good at it. Con

Man. 'The deal became increasingly messy. 'Whatever the truth, the

bottom line is Stephen Sussams 'was in business here in Spain while

claiming benefits in Croydon.' So, we know about his business, but

where did he live? This little track here? Mm-hmm. Up here? Yeah. This is

the road? Yeah. You wouldn't even see this, would you? Without

somebody helping you, you'd just pass this by? Sussams' secret home

is hard to find. We need to get up here. You see this opposite? So this

is it here? That's it. So what is this then? Well, this was his house.

Did he buy this then? He bought it between the end of 2006 and the

beginning of 2007. He'd lived here for between two and a half and three

years. But it was trashed recently. 180,000 Euros for a house on a

mountain. A council tenant from Croydon with a double life in the

Sun. You can see that this was a really beautiful place. The pool is

lovely, there's the barbecue area. It's all done to a pretty good

standard. 'His neighbours thought he was a wealthy man. What kind of

place is this? It's a lovely place to come, cos you can be away from

everybody, nobody can see you, you can mix or not mix. So everybody out

here, really, came here because you can just be yourself and be in your

own little space. 'And everyone here knew Stephen Sussams.' What sort of

background did he seem to have? He's bought his own villa, opened up a

business, what was his background? I don't know about his background, but

I thought he was quite well-to-do. I mean, he had a Mercedes convertible,

which was a bit incongruous in the rambla, you know, but I thought he

was a man with money who's trying to do something in the town. And if I

told you that during that period he was actually having a kind of double

life, in the UK he was claiming benefits? That doesn't go with the

Mercedes, does it? Not really, I wouldn't have thought that. He

didn't look the type that would be. Yeah, he was, he was claiming

incapacity benefit, housing benefit... I'm quite surprised that

you've said that, actually. Why? Well, I would have thought from the

way he dressed and carried himself and everything else he was a man of

means. Obviously somebody else's means! There's no doubt that this

was Sussams' house. But something clearly went very wrong. I think

when he left it, he left virtually everything in there, according to

neighbours. And then, somehow or other, somebody got in there and

took everything, trashed the whole place But to go and just leave

everything in there was a bit weird. This place has now been seized by a

Spanish bank. We found his secret mountain hideaway, but there's

nothing left for Croydon to recover. Let's go shopping. Yeah, ?75,000...

Marcin and Mark have been checking out fast cars, and they've found the

make with the stolen Blue Badge. 0-60 in 2.8 seconds, 199 mph. That's

all I'm going to say. They got the car, but they didn't get the Blue

Badge. The owner spotted what was going on and took drastic action.

The removals truck arrived just after 1800 hours. The owner or

driver of the vehicle then came back to the vehicle at 1825 hours and

jumped up on to the truck, opened the car and removed the stolen

disabled badge. It appears to me that he got flustered, got a bit

worried, thought, "There's stolen badge on display. "I'll then get rid

of that so there's no evidence." Of course, we've got loads of pictures

of it on display. And there's something else in those pictures

that makes them suspicious. The vehicle did have a zero cost road

tax license. Either him or somebody else is getting free road fund

license because of a disability. How is he able to jump up on to the back

of a removals truck... Exactly. ..if he's so disabled that he can barely

walk? Yeah. Mark and Marcin have seen enough. It's down to the police

to confront the owner of the car - Feroz Gadit. But when he turns up at

the car pound, he manages to talk his way out of being arrested. The

sergeant can't believe his nerve. We were waiting for him to arrive, and

he arrived there with his mother and another disabled badge which he

showed the authorities down there, and as a result of that he managed

to convince the staff that that was the badge that should have been in

the car. The badge that was displayed was one he actually had

found, and in fact it was all a legitimate mistake. So because of

all the evidence he may have fooled them with, he was able to get away

with it on that occasion. Sergeant Plummer thinks it's time for another

chat with Feroz Gadit. Right we've all got our Met vests and things,

have we? Brilliant, brilliant. For him to be using this badge when he

can quite clearly afford to be paying his way when he parks his

car, I think it's a kick in the face, really, for people that want

to use that for their legitimate purposes where they are disabled.

The best case scenario is going to be that he is there, cos I'd like to

see the look on his face when we do knock on his door, and we do go in,

and we do search his home. And hopefully he'll realise that this

sort of thing is going to have an impact on him and his family. Do you

live here at all? I do. You do? What's your name, Sir? Feroz Gadit.

Feroz Gadit? Correct. OK. Officers are going to need to speak to you,

Feroz, in a few moment, OK? Regarding? What it concerns is a

disabled badge that you had in your car. OK. A few months ago, so when

the officer comes out he'll speak to you about that and ask you a few

questions around that, as well. You're going to be arrested for

handling stolen goods, you're also going to be arrested for fraud and

misrepresentation OK? You don't have to say anything, but it may harm

your defence if you do not mention something when questioned something

you later rely on in court, anything you do say may be given in evidence.

OK, do you understand? I explained to them the whole scenario, I

explained exactly what happened and I explained to them, you know, the,

the circumstances in which I actually... I got that er that

badge. I'm now going to tell you what's gong to happen next. We've

got a warrant here to search your house, so we're going to be

searching your premises and the cars. Having a nicked Blue Badge

counts as handling stolen goods. It's a serious offence. They think

the badge is most likely to be in the Audi on the drive. Got the keys

at work, I believe, so I'll have to get keys sent down here, so someone

can wait here and wait until the keys come over. How can the car be

driven back here if the keys aren't here? So they look for the keys to

the Audi, and it doesn't take long. Where's your spare set? Is that a

spare set? Yeah. Mr Gadit changes his story. I have got it, that

badge. Oh, where is it? I've got it, it's in the car. That's a Badge

that's valid until 2014, so that would have been an extra couple of

years, practically, of him parking for free We had another look inside

it and we found the original one we was looking for, but we've also

found another one. OK, right. I'm going to further arrest you now, OK?

For being in possession of this, I'm going to further arrest you for

handling stolen goods and false representation. And who is this

turning up in the Bentley now? He's turning up at speed, he's just

pulled up and I believe he may be another member of the family. That's

four cars they've got. Your brother's been arrested for being in

possession of stolen property. What property? The disabled badge. What

disabled badge? He can discuss that with you later. Where is he? He's on

his way to the police station. I'm, not going to have any more further

to say to you about that for the moment. If you'd like to go and

speak to your mother, cos she was quite upset. Why are you filming me?

Feroz Gadit is shipped off to the station. I feel very, very pleased

with how its gone. Totally, totally pleased. To turn up there and find

that badge that he said had gone, to discover a second disabled badge, as

well... This man's got no excuse at all, absolutely no excuse. It's very

pleasing to have the result that we've got today. Gadit was fined

?515 for handling stolen goods, but not charged with possession of the

second Blue Badge. Julian Stone was convicted of ?130,000 of tax fraud,

and sentenced to 16 months, suspended. Nicholas Harris was found

to have fiddled ?59,000 and sentenced to six months. Both men

were ordered to repay the cash. My mother-in-law's inside the building,

do you know that? Tila Feiner was convicted of misusing a Blue Badge

and was fined ?300. But what about Stephen Sussams? He's served six

months, and now he's out. Well, this feels a little bit weird, cos the

last time I was here I was chasing Stephen Sussams across this car park

to try and grab a word with him and talk about the benefits he was

claiming. That was a year ago, he's been to jail since then, and now he

wants to have a word with me and have a proper sit down chat. So it

feels odd, but I'm going to go and meet him. Mr Sussams? Come in, yes.

Hi, I'm Richard Bilton, pleased to meet you, how are you? I'm good,

come in. Thanks for agreeing to see me This is what happens when you do

things properly. Well, in fairness, Mr Sussams, we did try and talk to

you properly before, didn't we? No, you didn't. I bear you absolutely no

malice or bad feeling whatsoever. In fact when you've finished the

interview I'll even make you a cup of coffee. Great, that's very kind

of you. Could do with one. I suppose what the viewer might think is you

got send down for stealing 20-odd thousand pounds from the public

purse, and you were claiming benefits that you weren't entitled

to. Do you regret any of that? Do I regret it? Be more specific. Well,

you were claiming money that you oughtn't to have had - that's why

you went to jail. Yeah, I was claiming money that I shouldn't have

had but I wasn't doing it knowingly. Was it my intention to deliberately

take money from the public purse, as you say? And the answer to that is,

categorically, no. Categorically, no, I did not. The fact that I

received monies from the public purse which were paid incorrectly...

Did I do that? Yes I did. Did I spend those monies? Yes, I

redistributed them, yes, I did. You're an intelligent man. I can't

believe that you didn't know that money was a benefit. That's just my

opinion, and think that's probably what the jury thought, as well,

but... I can have no complaints, because I've said on many occasions,

ignorance is no defence... And that's what it was. How come you had

this other life in Spain? Well, it wasn't another life, was it? Well,

you bought a business, you bought a house. This did overlap with some of

your benefit claims. No it doesn't. Your incapacity benefit claim

mirrors the time that you had the lease on the bar. It's about the

same time. Look, you're talking about something which is five years

ago, since when I've had a heart attack, two heart operations and I'm

waiting for a third. I can't give you dates. It never seems to be your

fault. It wasn't your fault when you were taking from the public purse,

it wasn't even your fault when you went to jail. One of the summaries

was that you are a smooth talker, you can talk your way out of lots

and lots of situations. What would you say to people watching this?

What would they understand about you? What should they understand

about me? I mean... I would let them make their own mind up. You and I

have met now for the first time, we've had another frank exchange but

at least we've got to talk properly. If all that you say is true, then

you must be feel a very maligned character. Richard, it doesn't

matter. Well, it does matter a bit, you went to jail... But hang on a

second. Look, you're talking about the past again. The important people

in my life, they know me well enough and they know the sort of person

that I am. But I can only tell you what I know and as I understand it.

Right, thank you. Right, sugar? Well, that was very odd, cos he

makes a good case, you know. He a plausible guy, he's articulate. I'm

still not sure I believe him, and I think he can't explain Spain away.

So I think things are complicated, they're always complicated, but I

think at the end of the day Stephen Sussams is a clever bloke and I

think he knows what he's doing. And Croydon Council doesn't believe

Sussams, either. His conviction for fraud was a breach of his tenancy

agreement. They want his flat back. Crime has not paid for Stephen

Sussams. Next time in On The Fiddle, how

fraudsters exploit a weak system to make benefit claims across Europe...

You want to pay it back? Yes, OK. ..and the smugglers who use fake

boarding passes to buy millions of duty free fags. They want to ban me

from telephone boxes for five years. They must think I'm Micky Bin Laden,

not Micky Pitt.