Episode 6 Caught Red Handed

Thieves will steal our cars, our valuables,

just about anything they can get their hands on.

To cut down on crime and anti-social behaviour

the police are using new tactics and technology

where the bad guys are getting caught in the act.

I can see the man actually commit the robbery. Lovely, thank you very much.

Local councils, shops and businesses are laying some traps of their own.

Why should we feel frightened for the rest of our lives?

And the general public too can help unsuspecting crooks get their comeuppance.

No way are you getting away.

We did it for everyone else as well that she may be stealing from.

We will name and shame you.

So anyone who is up to no good had better think twice.

They might just get caught red-handed.

Today, the armed robbers who attacked a jeweller's shop

in a terrifying high-street hold-up.

I thought absolutely I was going to die at any moment.

And, unbelievably, a year later, the same gang

and their guns are back for more. This time the jewellers fight back.

Also today, drug driving and a driver who is

so high on drugs he can barely walk.

I would hate to think any of my family was out on the road

with him driving a vehicle.

He has to be stopped before he's back behind the wheel.

And sneaks and ladders.

This man makes the mistake of stealing from a security expert.

These CCTV cameras are situated at a jewellery shop

in Winchester, Hampshire.

It's four days to go until Christmas and inside it is warm

and busy with customers buying gifts for loved ones.

But the atmosphere is about to change to one of cold terror.

The cameras show three men walking up to the shop.

They fling open the door, they rush in

and the man in front pulls out a gun.

Suddenly, the people in the shop find themselves face-to-face

with cold, callous armed criminals.

As we will see a bit later, what happens next the customers

and staff will never forget. But neither will the robbers.

Their lives are about to change for ever.

Jeremy France first set up his jeweller's shop

in Winchester 25 years ago.

We have our own workshops, selling, making and repairing jewellery.

And we sell a lot of diamond engagement rings.

Jeremy's enterprise has grown with a loyal following of customers

and faithful staff, like sales advisor Bryan.

I have a lovely job

of helping people choose their engagement rings,

wedding rings, eternity rings,

other gift things like christening gifts

so, you know, all the happy moments in people's lives.

A nice trade to be in,

creating and selling beautiful objects for happy occasions.

But the problem is it's also a business that is attractive

to the ugly world of crime and violence.

Your insurers tell you at a stage you become a target.

There is a moment when it is obvious to everybody that at some stage

somebody is going to have a go.

The training that we had from Jeremy to expect at some point

you are going to have a robbery.

Almost like an occupational hazard,

is something that you have to accept.

In fact, it's not the first time Jeremy's shop has faced

an armed raid.

Incredibly, this selfsame gang of armed robbers

attacked his shop just 12 months earlier.

On that occasion, it was near closing time

and just off-camera near the bottom right of your screen,

Jeremy was serving a valued customer.

I, funnily enough, was on a day off but I'd come in to see a client.

She was eight months pregnant and I was dealing with her.

That time it was two men who approached the shop.

They rushed in and both of them pulled out guns.

First thing I knew was a gun was getting closer and closer to my face.

It was a Smith & Wesson seven inch barrel six shooter

and I thought absolutely I was going to die at any moment.

That day, Bryan was in the office just behind where Jeremy was standing

together with Jeremy's wife and other staff members.

I was very scared for Jeremy and for the customers.

We also had two other members of staff in the shop as well.

You are very, very concerned for them

because it doesn't take much for a robbery to turn really violent.

All it takes is for someone to take a dislike to you.

Jeremy's training kicked in.

They're shouting, "Get down, get on the ground!" which I did.

I helped the young lady down to the ground.

She was very pregnant and luckily my staff nearby also did the same.

They're all well trained and they did as they were told.

Then two more men with crowbars arrive.

Their job was to ransack the shelves, smash and grab.

They went down to the other end of the shop where the jewellery is kept

and they started breaking the windows open one by one

to get the jewellery out.

If they are able to, staff members discreetly hit their panic buttons

which sets off an alarm and alerts the police.

We carry them on us these days, as well they knew

because they tore mine off me but seven panic buttons were pressed

and we're only allowed to press them if we are out of sight and not in danger.

Jeremy's wife also bravely gets on the phone in the office

which is protected by an armoured door.

It became quite clear to them we were on the phone to police

because she was being quite loud in speaking to the police.

The next thing I saw him do was he walked past me

and I knew what he was going to do.

He was trying to kick the door down to the office.

We sort of all managed to hide under the desks.

It's amazing how much six people can squeeze into a very small space.

Mrs France carried on calling the police

and describing what was happening.

The robbers sweep as much valuable jewellery as they can into their sacks.

It seems like it goes on for hours but it is actually minutes.

Time really does feel like it slows down to a crawl.

After more than two minutes of terrorising the staff and customers,

the security cameras show the robbers quickly leave

to reach their getaway car before the police get there.

Once we realised they had gone, we sort of all locked the door

and sort of made sure that everyone was OK.

We were very stunned afterwards, to be honest.

The police arrive and Jeremy takes stock of what was stolen.

They actually got away with a quarter of a million pounds' worth of jewellery.

The loss is covered by an insurance company

but the shock from the danger had a lasting effect.

For a good week or two afterwards I think

we were all a little bit jumpy when people came in.

If they looked a bit like the robbers

or they were wearing similar clothes.

But we are all determined to get on and you can't let them get you down.

I felt that we were going to be OK, that we would beat them,

they would not beat us.

Jeremy and his staff became increasingly angry about what had happened.

It's a case of you feeling how dare they come into where I work,

point guns at people that I like, you know.

I had dreams. They weren't nightmares as such

but my dreams were like survivors' dreams but almost the reverse.

I wanted to do more, I wanted to have taken the gun off them,

I wanted to capture them.

And Jeremy's dream turns out to be a premonition

because he hears about some new advanced technology.

Literally a few months later,

two pieces of equipment became available to us.

One of them is called SmokeCloak

and the other one is a DNA-encoded liquid.

It's special equipment that is designed to foil robberies

and it might be just what Jeremy needs to help protect his business.

Later, the horror returns when,

about a year on from that original raid,

the armed robbers strike again.

Another terrifying attack but this time, as we'll see shortly,

Jeremy tries to turn the tables on this violent gang.

But first, to another type of dangerous crime and a man who

is in charge of a weapon every bit as lethal as a loaded gun.

He is driving a car while under the influence of drugs.

It's Saturday afternoon in Guisborough in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland.

CCTV footage catches a small blue car pulling up into a petrol station.

The driver nearly crashes into the petrol pump

and that's the first sign something is wrong.

He then tries to get out of the car.

But collapses back into the passenger's arms who has to push him back up.

Clearly, he is in no fit state to be driving.

Without putting any petrol in the car,

he then gets back in and drives away.

Incredibly, this man is about to head out onto a busy road.

But at the last moment,

the car stops right in the middle of the garage exit.

The passenger gets out, followed by the driver.

If you look closely at the man on the right, the driver of the car,

he can hardly stand up, let alone operate a vehicle.

Walking like a damaged robot, he's off to the garage kiosk

to pay for petrol he didn't even put in his car.

It turns out this man is high on drugs

and it is one of the most shocking cases of drug driving

that PC Mark Sykes, the officer who eventually caught him, has ever seen.

I would hate to think any of my family was out on the road,

walking, biking or in the car,

with him driving a vehicle out there.

It is absolutely terrifying to think.

We've all heard the message don't drink and drive.

What perhaps what is not so well-known is the devastating effect

that drugs use has on driving.

Clare Brixey has personal knowledge of the disastrous effects

that alcohol and drugs can bring after her son Ashley

was involved in a tragic accident.

He got into the back of his friend's car,

a 17-year-old girl got into the front passenger seat,

Ashley's friend got into the driver's seat

whilst having more than twice the limit of alcohol

and an abusive level of drugs in his system.

They left Bath travelling at a speed exceeding 80mph.

On the approach to a very sharp left-hand bend,

the car left the road,

it went up an embankment, across the top of a wall,

through a garden fence, across part of the garden

and almost cleared the full length of the swimming pool.

The 17-year-old girl was thrown from the car into the pool

and she managed to get out.

The driver got out of the car without a mark on him.

But Ashley, my son, had been knocked unconscious during that crash

and he couldn't get out.

He drowned.

Clare now works together with Wiltshire Fire And Rescue

on a successful campaign to help prevent tragedies

that are caused by drink or drug driving.

Back now to Guisborough in Redcar and Cleveland Borough.

You'll remember the car driver we saw high on drugs

wobbling towards the garage kiosk to pay for petrol.

Petrol that he thought he'd put in his car but hadn't.

PC Mark Sykes reviews the CCTV footage

that's caught the driver red-handed.

It's just totally unbelievable how nothing serious did happen

for the state he was in.

The vehicle pulls forward right up to the exit route of the garage,

blocking the main route out for other garage users.

When he gets out and he pitter-patters his feet in a circle

and gains his balance and he looks like something out of Thunderbirds.

He is an adult male, he can't walk properly.

If he's in a car driving it, if something happened in front of him,

he wouldn't be able to deal with that straightaway.

It's just endless, the list of what could have happened.

Garage staff clocked the man's erratic behaviour

and phoned the police.

I get the call from a member of staff via my radio saying there was

a gentleman on the forecourt under the influence of drink or drugs.

I drove straight there and he was in the kiosk area

at the time of our arrival trying to pay for petrol he didn't get.

So he's put the cashier in such a state

he doesn't realise what's going on.

And he's totally oblivious that he's done anything wrong.

Thankfully, all the delays give Mark and his colleague enough time

to get to the petrol station before the man is able to drive off.

He does a breath test, he passes the breath test,

he only blows 12 and then he says to us,

"See? I told you, I've done nothing wrong."

But he's still got the white residue around his nose

and he is totally off the planet.

He's just repeating himself, he's twitching.

I thought he is obviously under the influence of cocaine.

And Mark was right. The man had taken a large amount of cocaine.

He pleads guilty at court and was given a 12-week sentence

suspended for 18 months,

150 hours unpaid work and a four-year driving ban.

I was absolutely ecstatic. And I mean ecstatic.

It was nice to know that the judgment I had made at the time was correct.

It was even better to know that somebody

driving on a road in that condition was off the road for four years,

over and done with and his punishment was given.

The driver of the car in which Ashley was a back-seat passenger

was also convicted but that's little comfort for his mum, Clare.

The Safe Drive campaign she now works for in Wiltshire has helped

bring down car accidents involving young drivers

and passengers by 55% over six years.

The message is clear.

If you're going to drive, don't take drugs, don't drink alcohol.

The cost of a taxi will never compare to the cost of a life.

Coming up on Caught Red Handed -

a thief taking steps

in the wrong direction

and very much the wrong place.

You don't really expect a CCTV installation company

to be a target of crime.

Extending ladders and extending problems for the thief.

Back to Winchester, Hampshire.

After the terrifying robbery at his jewellery shop a year ago, owner

Jeremy France has decided to invest in some clever new technology.

SmokeCloak, literally, is similar to the smoke

that they put out in theatres.

What they have done is they have worked through

so that it was legal and safe to be used within a shop.

It basically fills the shop with an impenetrable smoke.

You can't even see your hand in front of your face.

So, you know, it's the old adage

that if you can't see it, you can't steal it.

The smoke is designed to confuse and drive the robbers away.

Another clever piece of kit

helps the police catch up with them afterwards.

This is an amazing innovation.

In effect, it is a DNA-encoded liquid which sprays when activated.

If you get caught by the police, they can basically see

the water on you and it proves you were there when it fired.

Therefore, you can't argue that,

"I wasn't there, I had nothing to do with it."

So, the jewellers will be better prepared

if there's ever another attack.

Once you've been robbed once, they're more likely to come back

cos if they've had a good score once,

they'll think, "Oh, I'll go back there and rob it again."

And that's exactly what happens the very next Christmas.

But the staff are extra-vigilant.

Jewellers, generally, have more stock at Christmas.

I think everybody knows that. And so we do become more vulnerable.

And, sure enough...

Christmas brings Father Christmas

but it also brings armed robbery, in our case.

Early evening, and the shop is busy.

This time, Jeremy is in the back office, while Bryan

and other staff are dealing with customers.

Three hooded men approach the doorway.

Ignoring the warning signs about the newly installed equipment,

they burst in and brandish a gun.

They sort of came in and made all the noise

and waved the gun around a lot.

Pointed it at a couple of my colleagues and customers as well.

I mean, that's the thing -

this time there was a lot of customers in the shop and that's who

I was really worried about because, you know, they've had no training.

When three men run into your store wearing dark clothing,

gloves and balaclavas, it's pretty frightening.

When they pull up a gun, it's terrifying.

But also at that point, I knew we had the water,

I knew we had the SmokeCloak.

I was still scared but I felt safer knowing that we had these things.

I was just waiting for that to go off.

In the office, Jeremy has an early-warning system with him -

Daisy, his dog.

We could actually hear Daisy barking.

Now, Daisy never barks so it was quite strange.

We looked up and saw the gun, obviously, so we hit the buttons.

Smoke starts to fill the room from two angles.

We have it firing from one end and the other end of the room so it

creates a corridor and that corridor is for the robbers to escape through.

We do not want them kept on the premises.

We want them out as quickly as possible.

And it works. The startled robbers scarper.

When it fired off, they really did panic.

Very colourful language was used.

Of course, they then ran through the channel which has got

the water in it and they're covered in it.

Like sheep through a sheep dip,

the robbers are herded through the marking liquid.

They are now marked for good - linked to this crime.

Damp and empty-handed, they sprint for their getaway car.

A moment later, a jubilant Jeremy appears in the doorway.

I think there was a feeling of huge success that everything

we had planned worked perfectly.

The gang of armed robbers are eventually rounded up

by police in Birmingham.

Covered in the revealing liquid, they are found guilty in court

and are put in prison for a combined total of 28 years.

It turns out that Jeremy's equipment might also have saved

a lot of other jewellers from violent robberies in the future.

The gang that robbed us were escalating, in the police's view.

They were robbing more and more and more dangerously.

They were starting to cause injury and I think, when they got to us,

they were on either 12 or 14, so they weren't going to stop

until they got caught.

Since then, Jeremy and the staff have had no more terrifying ordeals.

They're back, happily making and selling jewellery,

safe in the knowledge that they are well-protected.

Why should we feel frightened for the rest of our lives? Well, I won't be.

You can't live your whole life

in fear that something's going to happen again or else they win.

You know, you've got to move on and carry on.

When Jeremy first triggered his equipment,

it was the first time it had ever been used during an actual

robbery in the UK and, boy, did it prove its effectiveness!

Now it's in use right across the country.

If more people use more new, modern technology,

we can bring more offenders to justice and catch more criminals.

Ask your local police about the technology available

to help you in the fight against crime.

Now, another business that's had something stolen

and where technology plays its part.

This time, in a game of sneaks and ladders.

It's the early hours of the morning.

A man stops by a house.

He seems very interested in some equipment that's been

left on this driveway.

In particular, a set of extension ladders.

To avoid overextending himself climbing over the wall,

he sneaks around it.

And he makes off with his ill-gotten gains.

But little does he know that this ladder belongs to a security expert.

A man well-equipped to take steps to get his steps back.

Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.

Barrie lives in this house with his partner and two young children.

Six years ago, he set up a company specialising in CCTV

and other security systems for small businesses.

I fit CCTV for a living so I know the value of decent-quality kit.

The results you get out of it are ten times better.

I've had people go to County Court

and things like that, where I've captured thefts in restaurants

and hotels and bits and pieces and nightclub fights

and things like that,

and there really is mileage in spending decent money on CCTV.

If you're going to do it, you might as well do it properly.

Barrie installed some of his hi tech kit on his own house

so he can demonstrate how it works to potential customers.

People can actually dial into the cameras that I've got here

and be able to view the type of things that they'd be able

to achieve if they had them themselves.

Of course, the best way to show off the equipment would be to

actually catch someone in the act.

But the chances of that happening around here are pretty slim.

It is a decent neighbourhood.

It's a nice place to live and, luckily,

we don't get too much crime.

But one evening, Barrie stores his set of ladders on the front drive.

I've got secure storage where the ladders are kept and locked

but, in this case, it was late one night,

we just finished the job and just put the ladders down.

We didn't really think twice.

It's the weekend so Barrie forgets about the ladders

until getting ready for the next week's work.

Just getting the van ready on the Sunday night

ready for the Monday morning, realise the ladders weren't there, phoned

other work colleagues just to make sure they didn't have the ladders.

They didn't.

Knowing his flight of steps couldn't have flown away on their own,

Barrie goes to see if his demo camera has spotted something.

The camera moves around and it stays effectively where I leave it.

I just so happened to leave it looking at the perfect spot.

Two o'clock in the morning.

A man in a hoodie with a very noticeable logo on it

stops by Barrie's wall.

After a pause, he looks up at an open bedroom window

to check if anyone's watching.

He doesn't see or he ignores the very obvious camera.

Pulling his cuff down, maybe to mask fingerprints -

though he gives up on that - he moves aside a plank of wood.

Then, weighing up that the ladder is too heavy,

he decides to change tack.

Another glance up and, still oblivious to the camera,

he risks creeping in across the noisy gravel...

..carefully picks up the ladder...

..then legs it.

And Barrie has found that his own camera

has captured a real thief in action.

Really shocked, to be fair.

You don't ever really expect... Fair enough, I install CCTV.

Not saying that that guy knew that, but you don't really expect

a CCTV installation company to be a target of crime.

So, really shocked because of that.

And then, as time went on, you kind of feel, you know,

"I really want to get this guy. I really want to capture this guy."

So, you know, the anger sets in.

Barrie's worked out that, how should we say,

he's probably not dealing with a master criminal?

The camera being up here, it's glaringly obvious.

It's not a small camera. It's got infrared lights on the sides.

In pitch darkness, they glow bright red, basically,

so, you know, it's obvious it's there.

He even looked up at the bedroom window and just carried on going.

He had this big logo on his top. It just seems crazy, really.

I guess he lived fairly locally. He came down the hill behind us

and then he, you know, stole the ladders and walked back

in the same direction, which tells me he doesn't live very far away.

You know, they're heavy ladders

so he's not going to get very far with them.

Barrie hands over footage of the thief to the police

and also begins his own campaign to catch him.

I wanted to get as maximum exposure as possible.

I knew this guy was local. I knew someone in the area must

recognise him, must live near him, next to him or whatever.

So I thought the best way of doing that is a social media site.

I wrote a small paragraph about, you know, the description of the ladders.

I said there was a small reward. I shared it out with my friends,

they shared it out with their friends and it had great exposure.

A few days go by and all that networking starts

to close in on the thief.

I had a random text message whilst working and it's just said,

"Hi, there. You don't know who I am.

"Please can you give me a description of your ladders,

"as I think I might know where they are?"

Barrie replies to the anonymous texter with a description.

Then, two days later...

Another text message came to me, saying, "Hi, mate. It's me again.

"I think I know where your ladders are.

"You might want to go and check out

"this address just up the road and go from there."

The address is for a house a short distance away.

The police go knocking

and immediately know the tip-off is a good one.

The guy came to the door wearing the same hooded sweatshirt,

with the same big logo on the front of it.

And, effectively, he just got arrested by the police.

They found the ladders on the property and he was, yeah,

taken to the police station.

Turns out that Barrie's quite right in thinking that this man

is no career criminal.

He has no previous convictions and it seems his attempt

at pinching the ladder

was his first rung on the...er...criminal ladder.

But hopefully Barrie and the police have soon

brought him back down to earth.

After his arrest, he was let off with a strong warning.

It is a deterrent, so he's had a slap on the wrists and been told not

to do it again and it's probably put the frighteners on him a little bit.

If he's caught doing anything like this again,

there will be a conviction.

Barrie's anonymous informant is also happy with the result.

I actually offered him the reward and he basically turned it down.

He said, "No, I don't want it.

"I'm just pleased that, you know, you got your equipment back.

"I'm pleased that someone's been caught for it

"and it's the end of the situation, really."

Join us next time, when the police and the public use tricks

and technology to catch crooks red-handed.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd