Episode 2 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 antisocial behaviour,

the police and other agencies are using new tactics

and technology where the bad guys actually get caught in the act.

Brilliant footage. Police officers love CCTV.

'Local councils, shops and businesses

'are laying some traps of their own.'

As soon as he walked into the picture I knew who he was.

'And the general public too can help unsuspecting crooks

'get their comeuppance.'

We definitely needed proof.

You're not going to get away with it, you might as well just pack up.

It made them swallow their pride, it was brilliant.

'So, anyone who's up to no good had better think twice.

'They might just get caught red handed.'

'Today, a hooded mugger draws a gun on a young student,

'something you don't expect to see on a British street.'

He was aggressive.

He pointed the gun towards my stomach.

'But something the attacker doesn't expect,

'the courageous student stands up for himself.'

'Also today, arson in a tower block.

'It's the scene of over 100 fires.'

Dangerous, crazy,

can't put into words how much it put people in danger.

'But who's setting the fires?

'The residents and police are hot on the trail of the culprits.

'And these fly tippers dumping sofas think they've got away with it,

'but they're furnishing the council with evidence,

'as hidden eyes are watching their every move.'

'The streets of Manchester, near the university.

'It's the early hours of Saturday morning,

'and a student is walking home after a night out with friends.

'A man brushes past him on a bicycle.

'But this is no innocent cyclist.

'He's about to put the student through a terrifying ordeal -

'a robbery at gunpoint.'

'The gun is actually a detailed replica,

'but to the student, it looks very real.'

He was aggressive, saying, "Give me what you've got,"

and "I'm going to shoot you."

'He was quietly walking home,

'but now this student is suddenly in fear of his life.

'But he bravely starts to put up a fight.

'It looks like a fight he can never win, but though the student

'doesn't know it, he is not completely on his own.'

The only thing that kept going through my mind was,

"I hope somebody'd do it for my daughter or son

"if that was happening to them."

'It's a race against time to stop the attacker.

'Manchester is a big student city.

'Nearly a sixth of the population study at its two universities.

'Both unis are on PC Richard Beckinsale's patch,

'and he knows how students, out on the streets of a strange city

'carrying phones, computers and cash,

'can often be a target for criminals.'

There is a little bit of naivete, students moving from different areas,

have not experienced living in the big city before,

they don't know what it's like,

they don't know what the dangers are,

especially late at night. Street robbery, phone snatches,

that kind of thing. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there

who are out to get you.

'Dominic's a first year degree student here.

'He doesn't want his face shown but would like to tell his story.'

The place I'm from is quite small, so I wanted to come to a big city.

My focus was just to come to university and study

and enjoy myself, so I didn't think about crime.

'And it's a shame he should have to.

'After all, he's studying to become a mechanical engineer,

'working to build a good life for himself in the future.

'And so that Dominic doesn't have to focus on crime,

'the university employs some people who do.

'There's a dedicated security team set up to protect students.

'They sometimes work undercover, so we can't show THEIR faces either.

'Alan is a supervisor.'

There's a need for campus security

because we are in the middle of a very busy city,

and it's surrounded by a lot of areas

where a lot of people come in to commit crimes, basically.

We have dozens and dozens of cameras

covering a wide area of the university.

We are the first point of contact for any problems anybody's got.

'And one cold November night, Dominic has a problem,

'a big problem that offers a threat to his life.

'He's walking back home after a night out with friends.'

I think it was ten to four in the morning.

It's a road that I'd walk up numerous times in the day to

get from university, and I'd had no concerns.

'At this time of night, Alan in his control room

'is always extra vigilant.

'He's already noticed a man who's cycled into the area

'and approached two students.'

You're never sure, so we just kept watching him.

Obviously, his actions, the way he was chatting to the lads and that,

there was just summat not right. So we just watched him.

'Alan's suspicions increase when the two students leave

'and the cyclist puts on gloves and a balaclava.

'As he goes to cycle off,

'something catches his attention across the road.

'It's Dominic walking home, listening to loud music.

'The cyclist rides past.

'It looks innocent enough, but really, he's checking Dominic out.'

I had my earphones in and I was completely oblivious.

'But then the cyclist dumps his bike behind a cash machine.'

This is when it started really getting suspicious,

discarding his bicycle and coming out on the main road.

'Alan alerts security officers on the ground

'to go and take a closer look.

'The man heads straight for Dominic,

'but then things take a sudden and terrifying turn.

The man pulls out a gun.'

It took me by surprise.

I only realised that the gun was pointed towards me

when I felt it against my stomach.

Seconds later, when the firearm appeared, obviously, I had to

immediately tell the lads that the situation had drastically got worse.

You know, this could be a major, major situation here.

'Alan also calls the police.'

ALAN'S VOICE ON PHONE

'He can only watch as the armed mugger

'shouts his demands at Dominic.'

He was aggressive, saying, "Give me what you've got,"

and "I'm going to shoot you."

You might expect Dominic to be numb with fear

and to give an armed robber whatever he wants.

But no.

Dominic actually faces up to the man instead.

I was angry, full of adrenaline.

I told him that he couldn't have my phone.

It would have taken away all my contact with family, friends.

I just didn't want him to have it.

Then Dominic even tries to grab hold of the mugger's gun.

His goal was to get something from me

and I just wanted to come out unharmed

and away with all my stuff, if that was possible.

It was quite a quick reaction, to grab the gun

and to just hold it to the floor.

I did try to pry the gun from him, but I couldn't get it.

I'm just sat here, hopeless, thinking,

"This gun could go off at any time."

I mean, it must have been terrifying for him with that gun.

You can see it being waved around.

Remember, Dominic believes he's struggling with a gunman

who could shoot any second.

But he keeps a cool head. He has to find a way to escape.

As we were fighting for a few minutes

and he still hadn't shot me,

I think I started to doubt if he was going to do it.

He risks letting go of the gun.

I told him he could have any money that was left in my wallet.

I'd just been out on a night out

and I knew that there wasn't much in there.

As a member of the public walks by, oblivious to the situation,

Dominic sees an opportunity.

He points to something behind his attacker.

The gunman is distracted.

Dominic punches him

and runs away as fast as he can.

The robber doesn't give chase or fire his weapon.

I didn't want to run off without distracting him further.

I wanted to give myself a good chance to get away from him.

So...the first time I've ever hit someone was to hit him,

but I thought it was suitable in order to get away.

Dominic's managed to find a way to escape,

but for Alan and his security team, and the police,

a potentially dangerous gunman is still on the loose.

Later - the university security team face the gunman.

You don't want anyone to get hurt, to get shot or anything,

but the experience kicks in, you just deal with things as best you can.

But there's an astonishing twist

when the mugger claims that HE was the one who was attacked first.

-ON TAPE:

-'Look at him, look what he's doing.

'He's grabbing hold of me. He was overpowering me.'

Dominic's ordeal is, of course, very rare.

Gun crime in the UK, even with replicas, is at a low.

But we can all find ourselves out and about

in an area we don't know too well.

So, what can we do to keep ourselves safe?

It's really important to stay alert.

A confident person who has a purpose

and knows where they're going is far less likely to be a victim

than, maybe, somebody who has headphones

and is lost in the moment or lost in that music.

If you're approached by someone threatening you,

it's really important

that you draw attention to yourself.

Make as much noise as possible and call for help

and then, as soon as possible, call 999.

Some people are really brave and confront their attackers.

But actually, that's not always the best option

and it's not worth them taking your life

for you trying to intervene, to protect your property.

Coming up - mystery arson attacks at a tower block

and the residents feel they're under siege.

As soon as you heard the sirens, you knew exactly -

"That's the fire brigade. They're coming here again."

But who's doing it? Is it one of their 250 neighbours?

And here's a new one - a skateboarding shoplifter.

He grabs a TV, glides past security,

but has to pull off a speedy 180 turn

when he can't find his way out of the store.

But first, we're in Stoke-on-Trent.

This neighbourhood has been driven potty

by persistent fly-tipping.

The council have installed some well-placed hidden cameras

to try and stop it.

It's Sunday lunchtime, and while most people are at home,

relaxing on the couch,

this couple are about to dump THEIR couch illegally.

But before they do, they notice a man nearby

who's also shifting something heavy.

While his girlfriend adopts an "am I bothered?" pose,

our man with a van has a plan.

He's worried about being spotted, so he wanders down the alley

to have a quick word with the other man -

perhaps to compare lifting techniques,

but most likely to find out

if the man suspects any dodgy goings-on.

Once he knows that no-one's paying attention,

Van Man returns and signals to his girlfriend

to start offloading.

They make quick work of dumping two sofas

before getting back in the cab and driving off.

But if they thought it was a case of "sofa, so good",

the dumping duo are sorely mistaken.

The council's "eye on the fly"

has recorded their vehicle's registration.

Found guilty of fly-tipping, they are each fined

and ordered to pay costs.

Hope they were sitting comfortably when they got the bad news.

Criminal activity thrives on the fact

that no-one can keep a lookout 24 hours a day

and they know that only too well at a tower block in Lincolnshire

that's been coming under repeated attack.

A mysterious whodunnit at a tower block in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.

Fires keep breaking out - over 150 blazes so far.

-AUTOMATED VOICE:

-Doors closing...

It's arson and the residents have no idea who's starting the fires.

They've been at their wit's end.

It was really a nightmare.

You couldn't sleep at night.

You were always worried.

But who can be the culprit...or culprits?

The selfishness of their own gratification,

whatever that can be, to put others in such danger.

The police, fire service, housing charity and residents

are all becoming desperate to solve the mystery.

Sutton House is owned by a charity called North Lincolnshire Homes.

It is a high-rise building.

We have 19 floors. Each floor has four flats

on a communal landing

and we can have up 280 residents.

Hiya, Mari, how you doing?

Residents are looked after by a caretaker service.

Mari works from an office on the ground floor.

Quite a variety of residents, really -

all ages, different backgrounds.

We've got some vulnerable tenants in here, some elderly tenants.

Just keep an eye on them all.

19 floors is a long way to have to go down

when you need to put the rubbish out

so they solve the problem by having a handy rubbish chute

on each landing.

They would dispose of their rubbish through the chute.

That would fall down to the bottom.

At the bottom, it would be collected and emptied by the caretakers.

When fires start to break out in the basement,

the police realise that the chutes are involved.

We had a spate of, maybe over a month,

maybe ten fires.

And then they stopped for a short period

and then they started and we had something like ten again.

And it just repeated.

Whoever is setting the fires

is lighting paper on one of the landings

then dropping it down the chute to ignite the rubbish in the basement.

It automatically sets alarms off at ungodly hours in the morning.

We've got the fire brigade turning up.

You've got them running up and down the stairs,

so it disturbs just about everybody and frightens a lot of people.

These repeated blazes become a torment

for everybody in the building.

As soon as you heard the sirens, you knew exactly -

"That's the fire brigade. They're coming here, again."

And then you would just hope and pray

that nothing has... No damage has been done.

Just the smell of smoke - and it does travel up, unfortunately -

is enough to frighten people.

Thankfully, Sutton House is solidly built.

The actual chute is actually so thick in concrete and stuff,

it would have to be some explosion for it to really cause any damage.

The arson was fairly low-risk,

but still, there was always the possibility

of that risk escalating

and, obviously, the concern for people's safety

was uppermost for us.

It's uppermost for police, too.

Richard Higgins was working as a police sergeant

when the fires first started.

It soon became clear to him

that it was going to be a tricky case to solve.

If you look at the block of flats,

it's a vertical street, but it's not like a street,

because on a street, people have front doors

and they've generally got four windows.

So there's opportunities, every time somebody comes past,

for somebody to see them,

whereas in the flats, there's no way of looking out onto the landing,

so the chances of people being seen is cut right down.

With no witnesses to the crimes,

Richard's team try using some hidden cameras

and they get what looks like a breakthrough.

We did catch somebody committing arsons,

who admitted to three arsons

and he wasn't a resident of the flats,

he was visiting somebody.

That man is convicted and stops visiting the area. But...

The arsons continued, so he may have set some fires,

but he wasn't THE arsonist.

Whoever the arsonist is, they seem to be alert to any moves

made by the authorities or the residents

and stays one step ahead.

Doesn't take people long to work out,

"There's something going on, I'll behave myself."

The police, fire service and housing charity

pool their resources together.

They make flat-to-flat enquiries, interview residents,

give awareness talks.

But whenever the chase hots up, the fires stop

and the trail goes cold again.

Several people may be responsible,

but...you just couldn't pin it down.

It's proving it, cos everybody is getting frustrated

cos you've got to nail it, you've got to get it right.

We did feel like we were having a game of cat and mouse,

but we knew that ultimately, in the end,

the arsonist would either slip up or we would catch them.

The next step, really, was getting the CCTV in.

The charity that owns the tower block,

North Lincolnshire Homes, raises enough to invest

in some sophisticated surveillance technology.

This is our CCTV system.

All 19 floors have got at least two cameras on,

lifts have got cameras on,

outsides have cameras - back, front doors.

Every angle is covered.

We did rather hope it would come in useful,

but in actual fact, it put a stop to it for a while.

It was clear that if he or she wanted to continue

committing arsons,

then they would have to go out on the street.

A little time later, Mari gets to work

and hears some all-too-familiar news.

I came on duty one day to be told we'd had a bin fire.

I just assumed it was another bin chute fire,

and cos the CCTV was reasonably new,

I was one of the few that knew how to work it

and I just happened to click on at the right time

to find an outside bin set fire to.

Mari rewinds the footage to see who's responsible.

As soon as he walked into the picture,

I knew who he was.

It's just getting light, at 4:34 in the morning.

A male resident called Peter Dixon

saunters across to an industrial bin.

He spends the next minute leaning over the side of it.

Then he wanders off.

Two minutes later, flames appear.

And then the fire really gets going.

Mari knows she's looking at some red-hot evidence.

I must admit, I was right chuffed,

cos I thought, "Yes! We've finally got somebody for this."

And I just managed to trace him all the way back to his property,

so we knew exactly who it was.

Put times to it and everything.

I was just...buzzing.

News of the breakthrough reaches Richard at the police station.

I was over the moon and he was arrested

and brought to the police station

at which point...he wasn't as happy as I was.

He was sick that he'd actually been beaten.

It appears that Dixon had failed to see one of the cameras

that overlooks the bin.

That's the camera that the gentleman spotted,

pointing a totally different way.

This is actually the camera we caught him on,

which points directly to the bins that we've got there

that he set fire to.

Why he lit the fires remains a mystery.

I don't know whether

he had a fascination with fire engines, or...

..the sheer thrill of lighting fires.

I'm not sure why he did it, really.

Getting inside somebody's head like that, it's...don't know.

The selfishness of people, for their own gratification,

whatever that can be, to put others in such danger

just for a bit of excitement,

it's just completely wrong.

In court, the judge agrees.

For that one bin fire, Dixon is sentenced to three years in prison.

There is no evidence that links him to all the other fires.

We can't say that this person was responsible

for the 160 fires in there,

but since he's been on remand and sentenced,

those fires have stopped.

It may be that the conviction acted as a deterrent to others,

but whoever was responsible,

life is back to normal at Sutton House.

The residents are much happier now.

They're now enjoying the amount of investment we've put into the area

and we've...we've been really happy with the result.

Since the arsons have stopped, it is so much more relaxing

and you feel a lot safer now.

Mari's happy the cameras did their job.

Absolutely pleased as punch that it paid off for us.

You know, the expense of having all this equipment in,

although it weren't just for that,

it had actually caught a really serious offender.

Now, as getaway vehicles go,

skateboards probably aren't the obvious choice.

But here's a shoplifter who thinks he knows a trick or two

until he tries to pull one stunt too many.

Just before closing time

and this superstore has a late customer -

a hoodie-clad man carrying a skateboard.

He head for the electronics department.

A member of staff offers his help.

It seems the man would like a phone accessory -

difficult choice, but... "Uh, yeah, this looks good.

"I'll have this one."

The man heads off in the general direction of the checkouts,

but en route, he makes a second selection -

a flat-screen TV...

..and takes to his skateboard.

He doesn't want to waste any time by actually paying for it,

so he skates right for an exit.

But he's forced to do a quick turnaround

when he runs into a locked door.

The thief brandishes a small knife to evade capture

and escapes through another door.

But he finally skates into trouble further down the road

when the police arrest him -

presumably, it's easy to spot someone TV shopping on a skateboard.

Convicted of robbery,

the skateboarder is now a boarder in a prison cell.

Back to Manchester,

and the frightening attempted robbery

where a masked man has threatened a student with a gun

and he's been bravely fought off.

But the gunman is still on the loose.

He's been tracked by the university security staff

on their CCTV cameras.

They need to keep him in view

until a team on the ground can get there.

We can't show their faces

because they sometimes work undercover.

He just decides to stroll nonchalantly back to his bike

as if, you know, this is an everyday occurrence to him.

What a disgusting thing to do. It's bad enough mugging someone,

but to have a firearm thrust in your face or your chest,

it's something the poor gentleman's got to live with

for the rest of his life.

They need to stop this gunman while they can see him.

As he cycles off,

unarmed guards arrive in vehicles.

They risk everything to intercept him.

They're led by a brave security man called Dave.

My genuine thoughts were for the student,

how he must have been feeling - I kept thinking,

"I hope somebody would do it for my daughter or son,

"if that was happening to them."

Dave wrestles with the armed man.

Repeatedly going for his waistband of his trousers.

They were anxiously shouting, "We need the police here, straightaway."

PC Richard Beckinsale is arriving.

I knew that is was a situation that was violent that I was going into,

that I needed to act quickly.

Richard immediately searches for the weapon.

I just reached into his pocket, took it out

and...I remember picking it up

and the weight of it - metal, really heavy gun -

I just remember looking at it, thinking,

"That's a real firearm, that is."

The disarmed mugger is handcuffed and taken into custody.

He is identified as 32-year-old Jason Dunne.

Currently at Longsight Police Station with Jason Dunne,

who's been arrested on suspicion of a firearms offence and robbery.

Just filming the clothing that he's wearing at this moment in time.

Dunne's clothes are seized for evidence

and on closer inspection,

his gun turns out to be an extremely convincing replica.

It's a really heavy, heavy metal and it's extremely realistic.

If you're walking home, 4am,

someone holds that up to you, points it to your face

and tells you it's a gun and they want your things,

you're going to think it's a gun.

Detective Constable Laura Sheppey investigates the case.

The offender is wanting the intended victim

to believe that it's a real firearm.

It doesn't matter whether it works or not,

you can still find yourself in prison

for a very, very long period of time.

Dunne realises this, so now, unbelievably,

he tries to switch the story round, saying he was the victim

and the student, Dominic, was the aggressor.

DUNNE, ON TAPE: 'He kneed me into my groin

'and when I've gone to get it out, I think he's realised,

'and he's grabbed it like that in my hand.

'I said, "Let go of me, man. What are you doing?"

'He was overpowering me.'

Nice story.

We know that that's a complete lie

and the CCTV completely blows that version of events out of the water.

Police officers love CCTV.

Dunne didn't know the whole incident's been filmed on CCTV,

but even when he does, he still rather pathetically

tries to cling to his story.

-ON TAPE:

-'I think it's very important, Jason,

'you watch this very carefully.

'He does not knee you before you get that firearm out of your pocket.'

DUNNE, ON TAPE: 'Look at him, look what he's doing - he's grabbing hold of me.'

'You're grabbing him and he's frightened of you.'

'No, no, no - that's when he starts grabbing it, now,

'because I've brought it out.'

-'You've brought it out...'

-'There - he's just kneed me.'

'Jason, this CCTV, this doesn't lie.

'How scared do you think he is?'

'How scared do you think I am?'

'You're the one with the gun, Jason.'

'Can I stop this now? I want to speak to my solicitor.'

It could have ended up being Dunne's word against his victim's

if it wasn't for the CCTV captured by the university security team.

To have the incident from the very, very beginning, if you like,

even before it started, to the very end,

with him being carted off by the police officers,

it was the making of this case.

Brilliant, brilliant footage.

Unsurprisingly, in court,

Dunne pleads guilty to attempted robbery

and is sentenced to five years in prison.

Manchester University security staff

are commended for their brave actions.

For them to respond so quickly and also to try and help me

so quickly...

I really respected that.

But Dunne may never have been caught at all

if it wasn't for Dominic.

By standing up for himself, he delayed Dunne long enough

for the security team to catch him.

Met his match, really -

didn't actually think our victim would fight back and he did.

Understandably, it took Dominic a little while

to get over his experience, including some sleepless nights.

But he's back on course to become a mechanical engineer.

Plans for the future would be to finish my degree

and hopefully secure a good job

and have as much of a good time as I can while I experience it.

That's it for today - join us next time

when police, and the public,

will be catching more criminals red-handed.