Episode 7 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

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 pack up.

It made me swallow with pride, it was brilliant.

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

They might just get caught red handed.

Today, over 40 brazen burglaries.

A gang steal from victims right before their eyes.

To actually see that footage really paints the picture

and how callous they are.

Police pull out all the stops to close in on the gang.

Also today, a bizarre fraud.

A woman dresses up to impersonate the pensioner she looks after

and then tries to withdraw the victim's life savings.

She did go into a lot of preparation.

The wig, the hat, glasses, walking stick and a carrier bag.

But there's no disguising that there's a flaw in her plan.

And this guy's plan to torch a truck backfires, literally.

He's caught red-hot handed.

It's a cold January evening.

An elderly man sits inside his flat in front of a gas fire

and watches television.

A warm, cosy room.

But it's about to become the scene of a chilling crime.

All of a sudden, two men come into the room.

They start to rifle through the man's belongings.

These are burglars. Particularly callous burglars.

They've no concern for their victim, or whether he sees them or not.

They know an elderly man can't stop them.

It's really distressing to watch, and anybody who watches this,

I'm sure, will feel a real sense of, you know,

their heartstrings pulling, really.

And this is only one of this gang's crimes.

These are ruthless men who've been responsible for a four-month blitz

on the homes of dozens of elderly men and women across the country.

She asked them to leave but they just carry on around her.

They even search the sofa where she's sitting.

They don't care. They just don't care.

But the police certainly do care.

They're racing to stop them before they target more victims.

Detective Inspector Tina Robinson

works for Avon and Somerset's Serious And Organised Crime Group.

There's been a sudden spike in the number of burglaries

at the homes of elderly residents in the area.

Tina starts an investigation.

The majority of the victims were in their 80s and they target them

because, often, people are at home alone.

They don't always realise that someone's come into the property.

They may keep valuables at home and aren't always able to call for help.

These burglaries are exceptionally shocking.

This gang have been either forcing their way in or posing as officials,

then they set about stealing - right in front of their victims.

They were taking jewellery, cash, items of real sentimentality.

Things that have been passed down through generations.

So, items that are...

It doesn't matter if you've got insurance,

they're just irreplaceable.

The police are taking the issue of crime against

elderly people very seriously.

With an increasing number of older people living alone,

it's a country-wide problem.

77-year-old retired nurse Alice suffered a similar

type of crime in her home on the south coast

and she's told us about the impact it's had on her.

I may appear as if everything is just fine.

But it's not fine.

It makes you feel very insecure.

And it makes you feel very angry inside.

Alice lives alone in a flat.

One evening when she had just finished eating

a meal in the living room, she walked through into her bedroom.

I noticed the net curtains in the bedroom had dropped.

And I thought it was a cat or a fox had got through the window.

Alice had left the window open on a chain which was now broken

and she saw muddy imprints on the carpet and bed.

It was just like an animal had jumped

on to the corner of the bed. Because they left this great big dirty mark.

Alice searched the flat for a fox or a cat but

when she saw her bedroom dressing table, the horrible truth dawned.

I've got a little ornament that I keep my rings on.

And the most important ring to me, my wedding ring, had vanished.

Then it hit me.

This is no fox. This is no cat. I've had a burglar.

I just felt quite sick.

To think that this person had got through the window

and walked all over my bed.

Despite being in the very next room, Alice didn't hear a thing.

I couldn't believe it.

Because if I had walked into my bedroom and saw him standing there...

I think I would've died on the spot. I really do.

Because it was the last thing I ever expected.

Back in Avon and Somerset, Detective Inspector Tina Robinson

and her colleagues are on the trail of their own local gang of

burglars who've been targeting the homes of elderly people like Alice.

And they make an important discovery

at the scene of a burglary near Bath.

We did have a great break in the fact that

we had some forensic evidence left at the scene.

One of the burglars has cut himself

and left behind a DNA calling card - some of his blood.

And that was really critical to then confirming Michael McDonagh

was involved in the offences.

This is Michael McDonagh.

He's a career criminal who'd only just left prison

when he was captured in this significant piece of CCTV footage.

It shows the front room of a woman's home.

Because she's been previously burgled, local police have

installed this hidden camera in case it happens again.

The elderly woman is sat on her sofa just out of view

when two burglars enter.

She realises something's going on but doesn't really understand

what they're doing. They identify themselves as police officers and

she asks them to leave, but they just carry on around her.

It doesn't matter how much you describe something in a police

statement, to actually see that footage, to see what they're

capable of and how callous they are,

that really paints the picture.

Importantly, it also shows what two of the burglars

are wearing during the raid.

One's wearing the deerstalker hat and another is wearing a baseball cap.

And a burglar wearing a distinctive deerstalker hat with

earflaps has been described by eye witnesses as far afield

as Cornwall and Lincolnshire following a spate of break-ins.

The sheer scale of these crimes starts to emerge.

They're caught again on another hidden camera

planted by local police. This time, as we saw earlier,

it's an elderly man's house.

Actually there are very few offenders out there who will target

the vulnerable in this way.

There might not be physical violence,

but psychologically it can be very traumatising.

Police from different regions now join together

in a determined operation to stop this gang.

We were working with six or seven other forces, everyone coming

together and everybody just really pulled the stops out.

It becomes a manhunt.

Across the country, police officers

collect information from all the crime scenes.

It's analysed, and a pattern emerges.

Tina's team gets the intelligence they need to start searching.

We were able to utilise technology to establish

where they've been travelling.

They get a positive lead on the gang's movements

when they find that they stopped at a garage in Wiltshire.

What's significant in this footage is identifying

the vehicle that they were using to travel

and to commit the offences, and once we had that vehicle and the

number plate, then we were able to utilise number plate recognition.

We were then able to home in.

The police are hot on the men's heels.

They're now on the lookout for this blue Skoda.

A squad car soon spots it in the town of Street, Somerset.

We did find the vehicle.

It made off from the police and unfortunately the manner

of the driving was so dangerous that the vehicle was able to escape.

But crucially, during the pursuit, the thieves throw out

the hats they've been wearing, including - yes - that deerstalker.

We recovered those items and got DNA

and that was really critical to then confirming Michael McDonagh

and Patrick Connors were involved in the offences.

Patrick Connors is a known associate of McDonagh

and an extensive search is launched for the two men.

Ports and airports are asked to keep a lookout.

Within the next 24 to 36 hours we had located Michael McDonagh.

He is arrested at a house near Bristol.

Then Connors is picked up at a port.

He was trying to leave the country at the time to go to Ireland.

They've got them. Their campaign of crime is over.

Now Tina's team turn their attention to the evidence.

They painstakingly map out every detail of each

one of the burglaries to show the full scale of their offences.

We wanted to make sure that no stone was left unturned and that

when they went to court, that we

could really present all of the information that we had available.

The pair are successfully linked to a shocking total

of 42 burglaries across the UK.

Michael McDonagh is sentenced to nine years in prison.

Patrick Connors is sentenced to six years

in a young offenders institution.

Their bank accounts are frozen and £37,000 is seized.

It will be used to compensate the victims.

The police are still actively trying to identify a third man

seen here on the petrol station footage.

So, anybody who has any information and is able to identify that

individual, then please come forward.

You can either contact Avon and Somerset Police or make

a phone call to Crimestoppers and any information will be followed up.

Tina and her team have received an official

commendation for their work on this case.

And there's also some good news for Alice,

when the man who burgled her flat is also caught

and admits to the crime.

I attended court and the judge gave him the very maximum.

For the present, I feel a bit safe that I know he's locked up.

Yes, it was good news.

Most of us feel safe in our homes and so we should.

Because burglaries, particularly when we're actually in the house,

are mercifully very rare.

But police offer ways to help keep criminals away.

To avoid being burgled,

what we can do is look to put obstacles in the way.

Make it really difficult for that burglar to enter our property.

For example, ornaments on the window sill,

to make it difficult for them to climb in and get easy access.

Or things like wind chimes,

so that if a person was to climb in, they would make a lot of noise.

Anything you can do in advance of the person breaking in, to signal

that the house is occupied, that you're there, makes a difference.

If the lights are on, if there's a radio playing,

if there's a sound of a dog barking, everything makes a difference.

So if you're going to another part of the house make sure you lock the

doors and windows in the rest of the house because it might be that you're

going out to the garden and actually you're leaving your doors open.

That's an opportunity for a thief to walk in.

Don't play with fire. Every mother's advice.

And we're about to see a man who should've listened.

He does something very hazardous,

but fortunately the only thing seriously hurt is his pride.

It's 5:00 AM in Rochdale, and while most people are in bed,

this man is intent on damage of a dangerous nature.

CCTV cameras show him trying to set light to a parked recovery truck.

But while he pours flammable liquid all over the bonnet,

he fails to notice that some of it spills on his clothes.

When he goes to light it, boom!

This fumbling fire setter has set fire to himself and he dashes

down the street, desperately trying to put out the fire on his sleeve.

His getaway driver's waiting, but won't let in his flaming friend

until he dumps his burning top on the ground.

When he does, the pair speed off.

But the police release these images,

asking for information on anybody who's recently burnt themselves.

The culprit is caught and given a good grilling by police.

No further action was taken, but let's hope

having had his fingers burned, he's learnt his lesson.

Coming up, a man collapses in a bar

but a bystander knows just what to do.

He relieves pressure on the man's chest

by stealing his wallet.

How low can a thief stoop?

And the sort of crime show that cops themselves love to watch.

Police surround a building with a burglar still inside,

but it's not a TV drama, this is for real.

I think it's what every police officer joins the job for.

A job like that.

What does a thief look like?

A shifty-looking young bloke in a hoodie, maybe?

No. You'd be surprised.

They come in all shapes, all sizes and all disguises.

These pictures are from a security camera at a bank.

It's a charity fancy dress day.

As it happens, there's another person here who's in disguise -

a thief attempting a bizarre deception.

No, it's not this man here dressed as a superhero, it's this woman.

She wore a wig, a hat, had a walking stick and a carrier bag.

And she walked very slowly to act as an elderly lady.

This is not a game or prank. There's nothing amusing about this woman.

Quite the opposite.

She's a heartless thief who has dressed up to impersonate

the elderly woman she's supposed to be looking after.

She was a callous individual who'd gone out

to fleece an elderly 81-year-old victim.

There are no prizes for guessing what used to be the main

industry in the Leicestershire town of Coalville.

Times have moved on for the town, but the police have discovered

a local woman who's interested in mining of a different kind.

She's digging for money.

The victim was an 81-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer,

and obviously she needed the care of somebody 24 hours a day.

Through an agency, the woman's family employ a full-time carer.

She had only worked for the care company for a matter of months

and she, on a daily basis, would attend the house,

cook and clean for her and she was well aware of the finances

and the money that the victim had in her account.

And the calculating carer works out an elaborate plan to steal

the elderly woman's savings.

She stole the paying-in book, the chequebook and the utility bills.

She stole them so she could impersonate her victim.

There's just one slight problem, though -

the carer's 47 years old.

Her victim's 81.

She did go into a lot of preparation to disguise herself

and pass herself off as an 81-year-old female.

And in a strange twist of fate,

on the day of her sinister subterfuge,

she's not the only one in costume.

It's a fundraising fancy dress day at the bank.

The branch were doing a sponsored superhero day.

Some of the members of staff were dressed as superheroes.

And Batman was on the scene.

And alongside Batman is a woman who's purpose is robbin'.

But watching her at work is more like something from a horror film.

When she walked into the bank, she was walking slowly.

Her answers to the staff at the branch were very slow,

so it was a whole package that she did.

At first, it looks like her ruse may pay off.

She did withdraw £400 in cash.

But some things will always give away a person's age.

When she went to sign for the £400,

it was very quick from the cashier to notice that it was

the hand of a 47-year-old and not that of an 81-year-old.

And now, the so-called carer gets careless.

She then got greedy. Because she attempted then to withdraw £22,000.

The staff ask her for identification.

She shows them the stolen utility bills but, already suspicious,

they want more.

They asked for further identification,

ie a driving licence, passport.

Which she doesn't have.

The assistant called over her supervisor.

At this point she then realised she might've been rumbled.

The carer says she feels unwell and needs some air.

When she leaves the branch, she goes to a waiting vehicle

where her boyfriend is.

A member of staff secretly follows her

and watches her hand over the £400 to her boyfriend.

He's been waiting in a lay-by around the corner.

Meanwhile...

The assistant and the supervisor have contacted the police

and in between that time, the police have attended

and are led into a back room.

But the carer's had a bit of a senior moment.

She realises she's left her victim's chequebook behind at the bank.

And that was her downfall,

as again greed kicked in and she knew that she needed that chequebook

to either carry out further frauds or not leave any evidence behind.

Not knowing the police are at the bank,

the carer phones up to see if she can come and collect the chequebook.

The shop staff at the branch have said, "Yep. You come back."

She goes back in character, thinking she's fooling everyone.

But the bank staff know who's really the fool.

She was shown into the back room, or she shuffled into the back room

and was promptly nicked there by the police officers.

They've got her. But there's still the boyfriend in the car.

Turns out he's not adverse to a spot of acting, either.

When the police went to arrest him, he kept up the pretence,

asking if the 81-year-old was OK.

The "I was only driving Miss Daisy" story doesn't wash with police

and he's arrested with his girlfriend who's clearly

having a very bad hair day.

Even after arrest, she carried on pretending to be

an 81-year-old right up until interview.

But I think once her wig came off, we realised that she was 47.

-And blonde.

-Yes, and blonde.

For their roles in this costume drama, the carer

and her boyfriend are found guilty of fraud by false representation.

They are both sentenced to 16 months in prison.

The bank staff may not really have superpowers,

but they were super vigilant.

That, and a super speedy response from the police have rescued

an elderly woman's savings.

I have visited the victim

and although she's suffering from Alzheimer's

and isn't aware of what's happened,

in relation to her being a victim of a fraud, she is now,

we are confident, receiving good care and she is happy,

and we are happy that she is receiving the care that she deserves.

Now, if we're taken ill suddenly when we were out,

we'd hope that strangers might offer a helping hand,

not help themselves to our valuables.

We've seen a few good Samaritans in this series.

People who've helped out their fellow citizens but now,

here's a tale of a really bad Samaritan.

In the middle of a romantic date,

a man has collapsed with a suspected heart attack.

He is helped to the floor by his companion and other people.

Working together, the woman tries to calm the stricken man

while another man checks his breathing.

Meanwhile, this man nicks his wallet.

Yes. This guy has just stolen from a possible heart attack victim.

He later takes cash out of the wallet before handing it in,

pretending he found it on the floor.

Fortunately the heart attack turns out to be a false alarm

and when the patient returns the next day to pick up

his wallet from the bar, he notices there's some money missing.

But a check of the CCTV cameras leads to the man

being arrested and charged.

He's later convicted of theft.

Let's hope next time he comes across someone in trouble

he'll try to help them instead of helping himself.

Most of the time, police are called after a crime has taken place,

and they then have to track the culprit down afterwards.

But when they join forces with live CCTV cameras and a sharp-eyed

operator, then there's nowhere left for a burglar to hide.

Darlington town centre in County Durham. It's nearly 2:00 AM.

Council CCTV cameras watch over the streets.

There's not much happening.

Actually, there is that bloke there.

He could be just innocently walking home, or he could be up to no good.

And around half an hour later, it turns out to be just that.

He's a burglar.

But the local council

and police are about to get together to spoil his night.

Darlington takes great pride in its Grade II listed market hall.

Albert is the manager there.

The market's Victorian. It's 150 years old.

We sell what you expect in the market - cards, butchery,

fruit and vegetables, that type of thing.

It's the hub of the town centre.

And there's another more modern hub that helps look after the hall

and the rest of the town.

The council's CCTV control room.

Kevin is one of the camera operators.

Well, I've been here all my life, Darlington. Born and bred Darlo lad.

I find it a fantastic place and the people, I've always found them

friendly and helpful.

Camera operators like Kevin are skilled at spotting any

trouble that's brewing.

It's a bit more difficult when there are lots of people about.

But in the early hours...

You do tend to pick up movement, especially when it's quiet.

That particular night, picking the movement up was quite easy

because there wasn't many people around to pick up on.

Kevin spots a man on the pavement. He walks up an alleyway.

Inspector Chris Knox, on patrol in a police van nearby is also

suspicious when he sees the man.

First of all, it was 1:45 AM

on a Monday morning,

and secondly this man was known to us.

The man has previous convictions for burgling commercial properties.

On turning the police vehicle round, the man had disappeared.

So we notified the CCTV operators and asked them

to keep an eye out for him.

Which they do. And moments later, Kevin sees the man again.

Now he's on a bicycle.

I zoomed in initially to confirm it was this particular person,

then zoomed the camera back out so not to infringe

his rights of privacy.

The way the cameras were set up that night,

as he went off one camera he went on to another camera.

So we could keep an eye on where he was going.

After ditching his bike, the man ends up loitering in a doorway

before sauntering across the square towards the market building.

And then he disappeared. The movement stopped.

That did set alarm bells ringing with myself

and the colleague I was on shift with.

Kevin informs the police and an officer arrives to take a look.

Part of the cafe's glass door has been smashed. It's a break-in.

She calls for backup.

We don't enter the premises at that stage,

when you've only got one officer at the scene.

We've got to think of the safety of that officer.

As more units arrive, Kevin's sharp eyes catch sight of a shadowy

figure making his way across the upper floors of the market.

The burglar could be looking for an escape route.

While the police keep guard at the front of the building,

Kevin trains cameras onto all the other exit points.

I was looking at all the cameras so I could see, if he left

which way he was going, what direction he'd be travelling.

Inspector Knox arrives at the scene.

It's pitch black inside the building.

He doesn't know what his officers might be faced with in the dark.

The officer that's in there is at risk

because you've got butcher's shops,

fishmongers, hardware stores where

there's all variety of implements that could be used as weapons.

If the burglar tries to make a run for it,

Kevin's ready to alert police.

Inspector Knox calls in a market key-holder to turn on the lights

and drafts in some specialist help -

a police dog.

It is useful to have a police dog.

They bark a lot, they make a lot of noise and a lot of people

will obey instructions if a police dog's there.

The key-holder arrives.

Now they have light.

Chris' team and the dog search every room

until they get to the top floor where they find a door jammed shut.

It became apparent that the man or an object was behind the door.

Chris decides to send the dog in to sniff the burglar out.

We forced open the door.

A shovel had been placed behind the handle on the other side.

And the dog entered the room.

The dog heads over to a pile of boxes in a far corner

and barks loudly to show he means business.

The police dog could obviously tell there was

something behind the boxes.

The burglar doesn't argue with the dog and gives himself up.

This man didn't put up any struggle

when we detained him and handcuffed him

and brought him out of the building.

There is some damage to the market, but Kevin's eagle eyes and the

rapid response from the police mean the impact on business is minimal.

In court, the burglar is sentenced to six weeks in prison

suspended for two years.

The close working relationship between the CCTV control room

and the police is working well.

A think it's what every police officer joins the job for,

a job like that.

It's not something that comes every day, so to actually get somebody

arrested for a burgling while he's still committing the offence,

you get quite a lot of pride by doing that.

I think one of the biggest positives is the trusting in the system.

The CCTV system, and also the trust in the police.

They were absolutely brilliant. It was all done and dusted within a day.

And what more can you ask for?

That's it for today. Join us next time

when police and the public

will be catching more criminals red-handed.