Episode 10 Caught Red Handed

Thieves will steal our cash, our cars, our valuables.

Just about anything they can get their hands on.

But now the police are using cutting-edge technology

to catch the bad guys.

-CCTV is gold dust.

-Great evidence for the police.

Got to have him stopped.

Local councils, shops and businesses are fighting crime

with their own tricks and traps.

There's a eureka moment when you get that evidence.

And the public are using secret cameras to make sure crooks

-get their comeuppance.

-It makes me feel so angry.

-He's paid the price. He's been dealt with.

-Yes! We've got her.

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

They might just get caught red-handed.

Today, pub landlady Gill is so shocked that someone at work

is deceiving her, she even suspects her partner.

I said, "Roy, you've got a key, you use the key."

And he said, "Gill, what are you saying?"

I said, "I don't know what I'm saying."

I said, "My head's on fire, I just don't know what I'm saying any more."

But then she finds out the truth.

Just really couldn't believe what I saw, to be fair.

Also today, David's egg stall, which relies on honesty,

gets a visit from a dishonest man.

What he does next is just incredible.

I was lost for words, and I'm not normally lost for words.

But David's an ex-cop and knows how to deal with "fowl" play.

Even the chickens are keeping an eye on him.

And when Jo and Matt's fish and chip restaurant is raided

in the middle of the night, they race to the scene.

It's a family business, I felt like they were taking from me.

That's why I reacted like I did.

But little do they realise what they're up against.

We didn't know how dangerous these people were.

We didn't know that they'd been attacking houses with

meat cleavers and weapons.

The Zetland Arms pub in Hull has recently come under new management.

All right, Gill.

Landlady Gill has been in the licensed trade most of her life.

She used to work for a company rescuing failing pubs.

Basically, pubs that people have let go and not bothered about,

they need a bit of TLC. Do you know what I mean?

We sort of go in and do that, clean them up,

turn them around, basically.

Gill lives with her long-term partner, Roy,

who had a career at sea before retiring due to ill health

and severe breathing difficulties.

You see public houses where you think, "Urgh, it's a bit,

"a bit run down a bit," but it's not at all.

The building might be, but the people aren't.

Gill first ran the Zetland Arms seven years ago, and now she's back,

trade is on the up once more.

Obviously I knew everybody and they was all popping in as we

were doing the refurb.

And we had a big grand opening night, it was a fantastic night.

Gill is devoted to her loyal team of bar staff.

They're like my kids, the staff call me mother.

One girl that works with me, I'm mother number two. And it's lovely,

because I've never had any children myself,

-so it's really nice to adopt all these others.

-She just loves people.

Loves to help people. People in return love to help her.

Which makes for a good, happy pub.

But that happiness is to prove short-lived

when one of Gill's team betrays her,

just when she needs her friends most.

Gill tends to put in long shifts at the pub, which can be tiring.

But one day, she begins to feel particularly unwell.

A week before my birthday, that's when I started having problems.

I went to see a doctor, she sent me to see the consultant.

The consultant sends Gill for tests, and a fortnight later,

-she gets the results.

-They rang me, said, "Are you sat down?

"Sorry, Gill, it's cancer."

It was a bit of a shock.

But it didn't stop her. She just carried on as normal.

People said, "Gill, you've got to rest," but she wouldn't.

Gill starts to undergo chemo and radiotherapy.

And if that isn't enough to cope with,

she begins to suffer money problems at the pub, too.

I used to do my tills on a Monday morning.

And then there was large amounts of money going.

There's a shortfall in the pub's takings.

I thought we must have mislaid one of the bills or something like that.

She said, "No." She's never usually wrong.

I just couldn't get my head around it, and I let it go for a while.

And then it happened again.

Gill pays out from her own wages to cover the loss.

I'm on a percentage, but then I have to pay my staff

out of my percentage, so I had to make that money right.

So some weeks I wasn't getting any wages.

In fact, I was owing it money.

She starts to investigate why money might be missing.

We went through every angle to try and say it wasn't one of them

stealing off, because I didn't want to believe it was one of them

stealing off me.

But it put everyone under suspicion, and everyone felt bad.

And it was breaking my heart.

I just used to dread doing the banking on the Monday.

Gill checks the tills at the end of every staff member's shift

but can't find a discrepancy.

It's not going out of the till, so it had to be going out of the safe.

She starts to suspect everyone.

I said, "Roy, you've got a key, you use the key."

And he said, "Gill, what are you saying?" I said, "I don't know what I'm saying," I said,

"My head's on fire, I just don't know what I'm saying any more."

It was awful. He said, "You think I..." I said, "Oh, I don't know," I said, "I'm so sorry."

And then I was crying. I said, "Roy, I didn't mean to say that."

He said, "I know you didn't, Gill. And I know what you're going through."

And I was worried with the chemo.

And I thought, "She doesn't need this on top of going through chemo."

I did get days when I was ill, so the last thing you need is

someone taking advantage when you're poorly.

She's so strong-willed, she just battled on and battled on.

Gill keeps the keys to the safe in her handbag.

It had to be someone that had gone into my bag.

I said to Roy, "What can we do?" He said, "We're going to have to get a camera, Gill.

"And see what's happening."

They call their friend Andy, who installs CCTV systems.

He fits a camera in the office overlooking the safe.

A week later, Gill finds money has gone missing.

I counted the money up. I said, "Oh, my God, it's down again."

And it was down £610-£620.

Andy comes to check the security camera footage with Gill.

I looked at the camera and I just went outside.

Erm... Sorry.

SHE SOBS

But just really couldn't believe what I saw, to be fair,

because I treated this member of staff like one of my own

and it was just such a shock.

The camera clearly shows one of Gill's staff raiding the safe,

stealing the £620 in a wad of £20 notes.

It was a very sad day, sad day for Gill.

She's put her trust in people.

She'll always says, "If you put trust in people, you get trust back."

You know, I've looked after the girl, I always looked after her.

And when I was going for the chemotherapy and radiotherapy,

she used to text me in the morning and say, "I hope everything's OK today.

"Hope you're all right, love you lots."

So, you know, that was difficult to get my head around as well.

Gill was so upset that somebody could do that,

that she had helped repeatedly.

Gill wants to see the woman straightaway.

Roy rang her to come in and said I was ill

and could she come in and do the shift.

She was a little bit strange when she came through the door.

She said, "How was Gill?"

He said, "Go and ask her, she's through there."

So she came in and I said,

"I'm going to show you something and I'd like you to tell me why.

"Why you've done this to me."

Well, she came up with all kinds of excuses.

Gill did give them a chance to own up.

I said, "Give me the money back and we'll say no more about it."

And she denied it and denied it and then in the end, Andy,

we've been friends for years, he lost his temper.

He said, "I suggest you just get out my face."

He said, "She's tried to give you an opportunity,

"she's given you a lifeline. You've thrown it back in her face."

So he said, "Gill, just leave it and stop getting yourself upset.

"We'll get the police."

The police arrest her, but despite being caught on camera,

she continues to deny stealing from the safe.

There's not a lot I can say about the actions

of somebody who does that to someone that's been so good to you.

You've got to have reached the low of the low to do that.

In court, the woman was found guilty of theft and sentenced to

a 12-month community order to do 160 hours of unpaid work.

She also had to pay a £60 surcharge

and repay the £620 she stole.

Finding out it was one of her staff,

someone she regarded as family, was tough for Gill.

You've got to dust yourself down and pick yourself up, haven't you?

One of them things, it's gone now. Just get on with your life.

That side of the book's closed for us.

We just crack on for tomorrow.

But Gill soon found out who her true friends are, and there are many.

They came to a celebration at the pub after she received some

very good news at the hospital.

She's been given the all-clear from cancer.

I rang my sister when I came out and I said,

"I must have had the luck of the Irish because it's gone."

She was absolutely buzzing and all my kids were ringing me,

her children and their daughters and sons.

And it was fantastic, I couldn't believe it.

We were so happy, we both cried. Obviously.

It was just marvellous, just to see what people thought of Gill.

Everybody was absolutely over the moon, you know,

that I'd got through it.

This man is trying to steal a car, but he's in a sticky spot.

He's a large thief and this is a very small vehicle.

It's a little Smart car, but this guy clearly isn't so smart,

because his every move is being caught on camera.

Someone has spotted what's going on and

has started to film the would-be thief on his phone.

He's also called over other people to surround the car

so the thief can't get out.

The man tries to get out of the passenger's door,

but that's not happening.

He jumps over to the driver's side, but that's not happening either.

Sunroof, maybe? Well, it might be a Smart car,

but it isn't smart enough to have an ejector seat.

For some reason, he's holding a screwdriver.

Perhaps he's realised how much he's screwed things up.

A policeman soon arrives,

arrests the man on the spot and releases him from captivity.

But not for long.

The thief has a string of previous convictions and ends up

swapping one small space for another

as he is jailed for 32 months.

Charities receive billions of pounds of donations from the public.

And charity tins are a quick and easy way for that money to be

collected. But unfortunately,

they're also a quick and easy target for cold-hearted thieves.

A retired copper finds himself with a new crime to solve.

I couldn't believe it, the charity box was gone.

It's like the lowest of the low.

But it doesn't prove to be an easy case to crack.

Marske-by-the-Sea, a picturesque village on the edge of the North York Moors.

The ideal spot for a bit of rest and relaxation, and a perfect place to

retire for ex-police officer David after 27 years fighting crime.

I love the area. Nice, honest, straightforward people.

It's just a nice place to live. Everyone's down to earth.

Everyone is just nice and friendly.

David isn't one for a pipe and slippers retirement.

He makes gourmet Scotch eggs, which he sells in a local farmers' market.

And he also looks after 50 rescued animals.

We have two Shetland ponies,

we have a number of commercial Exley hens.

I've got geese, I've got ducks, and people just come here

and they end up dropping me them, the birds,

and I just look after the birds until their end of days.

David's feathered friends provide him with

a daily supply of fresh eggs, which he sells from

a stall outside his house, even when he's not there.

We have an honesty box, and people come along, drive up, they'll

put the money in the box and then take the eggs and they'll drive off.

I get the occasional short-change, but 99.9% of people are honest.

Next to David's honesty box,

there's a charity tin for a cause close to his heart.

My mother-in-law, who's 83,

is recovering after six bouts of chemo for lymphoma.

And what we decided to do when she first got diagnosed,

we decided to get some collection boxes.

But after years relying on his customers to do the right thing,

David's trust is betrayed,

and he must use his police skills once more.

It's a spring morning and David is tending to his animals.

It was a normal, every day.

I feed the ducks first, and then I go do my ponies. Let the birds out.

As I'm walking back from the chicken house,

I find a chain on the floor next to the table.

I couldn't believe that, that the charity box was gone.

David wants to find out what happened, and he can,

because he's installed CCTV cameras.

Scanning through the recording,

he sees a suspicious-looking man loitering near the table.

I'm just watching him and I just thought, you know,

he's up to no good, this one.

David's instinct is spot-on.

The man grabs some eggs and then checks out the honesty box

and charity tin on the table.

He seems to consider stealing them,

then changes his mind and returns to the van.

It's like he has, as people say, an angel on one shoulder

and a devil on the other, but which will he listen to?

He's thinking long and hard there about the honesty box.

Just checking his conscience, "Should I or shouldn't I?"

It looks like the devil's won the debate.

He covers his hand with his sleeve to avoid leaving fingerprints

and nabs the cash customers have left in the honesty box.

I was lost for words, and I'm not normally lost for words,

and I couldn't believe what he'd done.

He looks straight at the camera, but doesn't clock it.

Obviously he hasn't got a clue about the CCTV.

Even the chickens are keeping an eye on him.

Now he's getting confident,

he thinks he can steal the eggs with his right hand

and the charity tin with his left, but it's chained to the table.

Unbelievably, he tries to kick it off

and has a second thought about it

and goes and puts the eggs which he's stolen into his car,

so he's obviously made a decision now what he's going to do.

And this uncharitable man isn't giving up.

And then, what he does next is just, it's just incredible,

he went back over to the charity box and snapped it,

all within about three minutes,

and I just couldn't believe what this person had done.

David realises the crime took place when he was with his mother-in-law

in hospital as she was undergoing chemotherapy.

I was absolutely gutted, I really...

I was angry, I was, erm...

I just didn't know what to think.

But this thief's about to find out that stealing from

a former copper is not a good move.

David posts his footage on the internet with an appeal

for information about the thief.

When I put it on social media,

the response from everybody was absolutely fantastic.

There was people from the area where he was from,

they were acting... Total, total disgust.

The theft strikes a chord with the general public.

When I checked, it was over 43,000 hits.

It had gone absolutely viral.

Dozens of people identify the man

and some extraordinary things start to happen.

David receives an unexpected phone call

from a friend of the thief,

asking him to remove the incriminating footage from the internet.

I was very surprised that this had happened, because...

I think it was just cos he was got bang to rights

and the CCTV was so good.

And the next day, David gets a surprise visit from someone

he believes to be a friend or relative of the thief.

Somebody turned up here in a car and put £100 through the letterbox.

What they'd done, apparently, they had dropped off the person

who'd been here and stolen the money at the police station,

which isn't too far away, dropped the money off and then

they'd gone back round to see them at the police station.

An anonymous note posted with the £100 said £70 of it

was to replace the stolen money

and £30 was an extra donation to the charity.

They wanted to do the best that they could,

and I suppose that's the best they could do in the circumstances.

In court, the man received a 12-month conditional discharge

and was ordered to pay costs and charges.

The way the case was solved restored David's faith in human nature.

I'm really, really pleased with the public response,

I think the public, fantastic, all credit to them.

They don't want to see people stealing things like this,

so, you know, people are good, people are good, you know.

Social media is increasingly being used to help solve crimes,

but how can victims of crime use the internet to best effect?

My advice would be contact the police officer,

show them the evidence that you have and explain to them what

you would like to do, because it may well be that in fact

the police can do that on your behalf.

We feel it's really important that victims work with us

before they think about putting them on social media.

One of the main reasons for that is it might impact on

the ongoing investigation and stop us bringing offenders to justice.

It could be that you alert the criminal as to what you know

and the fact that police are looking for them and they could get rid of

the property that they've stolen, or change their appearance in some way.

It's really important that if you think you've got CCTV footage

of an offender committing a crime, you share it with the police.

Amongst Yorkshire folk, there's a firm belief that their county's

fish and chips are the best in the world...

..which is why 14 years ago Jo's uncle John decided to open

his fish and chip restaurant in York.

It just took off from there, it was massive.

We've always been a close family, and I got

a phone call off John asking me if I wanted to come and be manager,

so I handed my notice in, been here ever since.

Nearly half the 30-strong staff, including Jo's partner Matty,

are family members.

80% of their customers are loyal regulars.

It is all about quality. John never skimps on anything.

The family doesn't skimp on security measures, either.

There are 12 CCTV cameras and silent alarms which are linked to a local

security company where operators are alerted if there's an intruder.

The monitoring station can watch every camera, so as soon as

the cameras are activated, they'll see 12 big screens of exactly what's

happening, they'll know who's in what room and whereabouts they are.

Jo and Matty live nearby,

and they receive a call if an alarm is triggered,

which does sometimes happen if trespassers wander onto the site.

It's always like panic, really, like there's someone,

yeah, summat not good.

But one autumn night, the family gets an alert which turns out to be

far more dangerous than anything they've experienced before.

It's four o'clock on a Tuesday morning in November

and the fish and chip restaurant's CCTV cameras

are about to earn their keep.

An outside light is triggered at the back of the restaurant

by three men in hoodies.

They cut the building's phone lines, believing it will stop

the alarm alerting the police, but the system has another way

of contacting the security company,

and their operator calls Jo and Matty.

As soon as they're phoning at ten to four in the morning,

you know there's a problem.

It was the alarm company saying there's three lads round the back.

We thought it was just some young lads,

so I just jumped in the car and came down as quick as I could.

It just sort of went, I was on the phone to the alarm company,

I was on the phone to the police at the same time,

I was telling my kids to get dressed.

One of the intruders uses a spade to break a window.

At home, Jo gets continuous updates from the security company.

I was trying to tell the police what he was telling me,

so they knew what to expect when they got here.

An intruder climbs through the window.

In the darkness, he throws a computer to the floor

and stamps on it, thinking it controls the CCTV.

He then turns the light on.

The computer's badly damaged,

but live pictures are still being fed to the security company.

Another burglar joins him

and they start rifling drawers for money.

But Jo always locks any cash in the safe before going home at night.

I don't know what they thought they were going to get,

they were never going to get into the safe. I mean,

it's a combination safe that's built into the floor,

it was impossible.

One man heads through to the takeaway area

to see if he can access the tills.

He tries levering the cash drawer open with a sharp kitchen knife...

and then resorts to brute force.

There's nothing left in the tills on a night,

all the float and everything's taken out of there.

The man in the office keeps trying and failing to open the safe.

He takes his frustration out on the computer.

The computer's on the floor and they were jumping on it.

They went through all the drawers, they found some keys

in a drawer and they must've thought they were for the safe.

He goes through to his accomplice by the tills.

A third burglar climbs in and rushes to the others.

Then, outside, Matty arrives in his car

and starts looking for intruders.

I saw a car parked in the corner of the car park.

I thought, it must have been summat to do with...them being here.

As Matty turns the car round,

his headlights sweep inside the restaurant.

It spooks the burglars and they run.

I go round the back to see...if there was anyone else here

and saw somebody jumping over the fence.

Meanwhile, Jo's driving to the restaurant

with her two children in the car.

She couldn't stay at home any longer.

It's a family business, I felt like they were taking from me,

that's why I reacted like I did and I thought, the police will be here,

so then, you feel some sort of safety.

But the police haven't arrived yet,

and Matty doesn't know where the burglars are.

He reverses up to tell Jo about the danger.

Jo pulled in and I told her that they were still here,

so I just told her to... to get herself out of here.

It was really scary.

It was not knowing where they were, for me.

There was Matty in big danger, but there was another three of us

that I was going to put in danger, so I had to go.

Jo drives off.

A few minutes later, the police arrive.

It was a relief, yeah, when, er, the police turned up.

Jo takes the children to her parents nearby,

then she returns to find the police searching the building

and some land behind the restaurant.

The police helicopter came, police dogs came,

it was pitch-black dark going through Strensall Common.

The burglars managed to get away from the site,

but their freedom is short-lived.

I sort of knew they'd get caught, they left too much here,

there was blood on the till,

they found things outside that they'd left.

I know they'd burgled somewhere before here,

because we heard it on the police radios.

I always thought the police already sort of knew who they were.

The police DO know who they are,

and what they told Matty and Jo comes as a great shock.

They realise they may have been in greater danger than they thought,

because the burglars were part of a five-man gang

which had used weapons to terrorise victims.

We didn't know how dangerous these people were,

we didn't know that they'd been attacking houses

with meat cleavers and weapons.

We just thought we were walking into a load of kids round the back.

The quality of Matty and Jo's camera footage helped to catch the gang.

In court, the five men were sentenced

to a combined total of more than 47 years in prison.

Looking back, Jo now thinks they should've waited for the police

before going to the restaurant that night.

We didn't know these people were dangerous and it wasn't till

the police told us who they were, and it was in the paper,

and you'd read the stories, what they'd done to other people...

that it was really scary.

It was a very dangerous situation that luckily ended well.

And for the family's fish and chip business,

it was back to work that same morning.

My main thing was, we need to be open for half-eleven,

we have 80% regular customers that want everything as normal.

Sort of shut the door to the office and opened as usual.

That's all for today.

Join us next time to see some other villains, who've been caught...

red-handed.