Episode 6 Fugitives

-Go on!

-On the run...

-Get back here!

-..and over here.

Hands out now. Hands out!

When foreign criminals flee their home countries,

many hide out in the UK.

Give me your hands.

But if they think they're safe, they're wrong.

They know they're wanted.

A lot of these people are waiting for that knock on the door.

But the traffic in fugitives isn't all one way.

Across Europe, there are hundreds of British criminals

also trying to escape justice.

From the sun-drenched Costas

to the busy streets of the Dutch capital,

this is how the police take down the fugitives...

You're under arrest under the Extradition Act.

Police officer!

..both at home and abroad.

On today's programme...

Hands out now. Hands out now!

..there's no place left to hide for an armed robber

wanted by Polish police.

It's a rude awakening for this fraudster,

who thought he'd got away with it.

You need to understand that you're under arrest

under the Extradition Act 2003.

You do not have to say anything,

anything you do say may be given in evidence.

West Yorkshire Police have one of the busiest extradition units

in the country.

Get down now!

Do not mess about!

Other hand. Now!

In the past six years,

they've arrested more than 400 criminals and suspects.

Open the door, or force will be used to gain entry!

Contact.

This is the force's extradition specialist, PC Dave Lockwood.

And he's teamed up with colleague PC Tom Allen.

Tonight, they're after a Polish man

convicted of a series of increasingly violent robberies.

The offences - the first one's an attack on a shopkeeper,

where he's gone in and stolen a till.

The second one is a bit worse than that,

he's basically thrown some tear gas in, and then a third one,

he's threatened the victims with Airsoft gun and tear gas,

and used violence on them to steal money.

Wanted in Poland,

violent armed robber Bernard Kulewicz

was sentenced to three years in prison,

and has a year still to serve.

So, we'll not take any chances with this lad.

-Nope.

-Go in, see if he's there, do a search,

get him cuffed and see what we deal with.

-See what we find.

-Okey dokey.

All right, pal, let's roll.

They have intelligence linking the wanted man

to five different addresses.

The first is thought to be the home of his brother.

SOFT WHISTLE

That side.

Do you want to...

Tom's going to the front door, I'm going to go to the rear.

So hopefully, he'll get contact up front,

if you want to stick with Tom.

While Dave covers the back exit,

Tom tries the front door for signs of life.

There's no answer.

It looks like no-one's home.

But now the fugitive could be tipped off that police are looking for him.

He did live there,

but he doesn't any more.

So we're going to shoot round to the ex-girlfriend's house now,

before the neighbours can notify him.

So, get there as soon as we can

so he doesn't have chance to abscond if he's there.

They've got to get to the next house on the list fast.

They believe this is the home of the wanted man's ex-girlfriend.

Hello. Can I just come in for two secs and I'll explain to you?

-Yeah.

-But the woman who answers the door has only just moved in.

The man they're after is long gone.

I was sure we'd get him at one of these two addresses,

it looked really good. So I'm really gutted, to be honest,

really disappointed.

These officers won't be giving up the hunt.

A month later, the Polish robber is in their sights again.

Have you run those names through?

I think it was Bernard that was the wanted male?

-OVER RADIO:

-Bernard, he's showing still wanted.

The person we're looking for is back at the address as we speak.

We've got to go for him.

The Spanish Costas.

A great place for some sun, sea and sangria,

but also a magnet for British criminals trying to escape the law.

Spain has a great lure for fugitives,

because of how easily

they can replicate their British life in Spain,

so they can access English-speaking schools, the weather's good.

They can still get things like Sky Sports.

It sounds silly, but it's those little things

that make life comfortable and gives them a reason to set up home there.

One shady character who thought he could escape to the sunshine was

Manchester-born con artist Tony Murphy.

A fraudster with a taste for exotic and expensive foreign trips,

Murphy liked to live the high life,

and had the holiday snaps to prove it.

Tony Murphy's offending was,

he was heavily involved in a lot of fraudulent activity.

Things like overstating his income,

his employment on credit card applications,

so fraudulently obtaining credit.

Murphy got his hands on hundreds of thousands of pounds of cash

and assets by lying through his teeth when applying for loans.

He soon came to the attention of Greater Manchester Police.

When you looked at the patterns

around his finances,

and how he lived his life,

it appeared that he was living a cash lifestyle.

He was living well beyond any known legitimate means.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Murphy claimed to be unemployed,

and said he'd only earned £2,000 in six years.

But detectives knew he owned two houses,

one of them on this street in Manchester.

We could see from even the initial stages of a financial investigation,

that he was what the police would term "asset rich".

There followed a painstaking investigation,

but police were missing the vital evidence they needed

to prove their case.

The idea was to expose the lies

that were told in obtaining the mortgages,

the credit card agreements, the credit agreements,

that he had obtained over a series of years, really.

In coordinated raids, officers swooped on Murphy's properties.

We executed search warrants,

we did that at both of his addresses that he owned.

We actually found him here, on this road, in one of the houses here,

which is where he was living at the time.

Murphy was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty

to several counts of fraud.

But rather than face time behind bars,

Murphy packed his bags and went on the run.

He was now a fugitive.

But, it didn't take long for the National Crime Agency

to find out where he'd gone.

We had some pretty good intelligence from the off that he was in Spain.

We had some further intelligence, some financial intelligence,

that suggested his partner in the UK

had some financial transactions in Spain,

which confirmed to us what we thought, that he was out there.

His partner was travelling out to see him regularly,

so we obviously had an overview of where she was going and when,

which helped us to narrow it down to the Alicante region,

so a very popular region with fugitives.

With the NCA tracking Murphy's family, the net began to close.

Now the case was in the hands of this woman, Olga Lizana,

who for five years ran the Spanish national police's fugitives unit.

Though Tony Murphy didn't know it,

he was now on her list of wanted fugitives to hunt down.

I don't think Tony Murphy was stupid,

but he never realised we were also investigating his family to get him.

Fugitives on the run might think they've escaped justice

when they cross the border,

but they'd be wrong.

Police officers like to arrest people who have fled

and who are fugitives.

It's part of why you join.

It's the job of the National Crime Agency

to track down foreign criminals who've fled to the UK.

These individuals have committed crimes somewhere in Europe,

have fled and are wanted.

They may continue to commit crime when they're in the UK.

So it's in the UK's interest for us to deal with these people

and to send them back to where they're wanted.

Although the UK's relationship with the EU is changing,

one of the most powerful tools

at the NCA's disposal remains the European Arrest Warrant.

We receive 18,000 new European Arrest Warrants every single year.

So hundreds a week. We put them on the Police National Computer

and from that point onwards,

any police officer within the United Kingdom

can arrest that individual for the European Arrest Warrant.

Any fugitive named on a European Arrest Warrant will find themselves

instantly wanted across 32 countries.

At the click of a button, it is Europe wide,

within milliseconds,

so any police officer on the street,

if they happen to stop that individual,

they will know there and then

that they are wanted and be able to arrest them.

And the system works both ways.

The National Crime Agency also leads the hunt for British criminals

who've gone on the run.

There are essentially two types of European Arrest Warrant.

You have incoming, from Europe to the UK,

and outgoing, from the UK to Europe.

We don't send very many.

About 170 or so a year.

We are looking at people who have committed serious robberies,

drug dealing, serious child sexual exploitation offences.

Murder, rape, etc.

The more serious end of the scale of criminality.

And I think it's right that the UK does that.

Irrespective of whether European Arrest Warrants continue to operate

in the same way, the message for fugitives is clear.

We WILL keep looking for you.

We WILL find you.

We WILL bring you back.

In West Yorkshire,

police officers Dave Lockwood and Tom Allen are out

hunting fugitives wanted on European Arrest Warrants.

A month ago, they were looking for this man, Bernard Kulewicz,

a convicted armed robber wanted in Poland,

but so far, he's given them the slip.

Now, tonight, more than four weeks later,

a call comes through over the radio.

Have you run those names through?

I think it was Bernard that was the wanted male.

-OVER RADIO:

-Bernard, he's showing still wanted.

We've got to go for him.

It's a reported sighting of the criminal they've been chasing

for more than a month.

The person we're looking for is back at the address as we speak.

So we're going to get across to South Elmsall

and see if we can lock him up.

Dave and Tom need to make their way across town as fast as they can.

This is the first time anybody's seen him at the address,

so we don't know how long he's going to be there.

So the quicker we can get there,

the more chance we've got that he will still be at the property.

They arrive back at the house they visited a few weeks earlier.

But after repeated knocking, no-one's answering.

We've got down here as soon as we could,

we're covering front and rear

and we're putting challenges in at the address,

knocking on the door, flashing our lights, and we're getting nothing.

Dave's in no mood to give up the hunt.

I'm not willing to come away from this address without going in,

so we've got some more officers en route down to us.

I think the plan will be, they'll cover the rear,

Tom and I at the front, and we go in and do a search.

Dave and Tom get ready to force entry into the house.

But just as they're about to put the door in, it's opened.

-Hello.

-Yes, hello.

OK.

Dave, someone's answered.

-What's your name?

-My name?

-BLEEP

Who else is in the house?

-My baby.

-Just you and your baby?

-No men?

-No.

-Right.

Are there any men in the house?

-My baby is here, please go out.

-Anybody else?

-No.

Right, we've been told... We have information...

-Yes.

-..that a wanted male is in this house.

-No.

-Called Bernard.

There's nobody here.

The woman insists there's no-one else in the house.

But they're not convinced.

The man they're looking for has a history of serious violence.

Dave's called for backup to help with the search.

We've got an uncooperative female,

she's finally opened the door and we've got the ram here.

Tom's just doing a search.

If you want to hold the door and watch the windows, I'll back him up.

The officers start searching for any sign of the fugitive.

There's nothing here. No documents or owt.

She's got kiddie things on everything.

No. No ID, no nothing.

I've got her ID. Is there a cellar? Downstairs?

-Yes. No, it's nothing.

-There's nothing.

-What's this here?

-It's just a cupboard I think, mate.

The house is bare,

and the officers find no sign of the wanted man.

But now they are sure the woman knows exactly

who they are looking for.

We've searched the premises. Looking at the identification,

I believe it's the girlfriend of the wanted male.

Girlfriend, partner, wife.

Whatever she is, she's uncooperative.

For now, it seems this armed robber

has once again dodged the law.

But the night's not over yet.

Bernard.

Bernard, come out.

Across the UK, a major week-long operation is underway,

aimed at taking foreign offenders off the streets.

It's coming up to five in the morning.

In the West Midlands,

Sergeant Ian Hands is on his way

to check out a fresh lead on a wanted fugitive.

We're just en route to an address in West Brom,

where there's a Polish lad

that's wanted on a European Arrest Warrant for fraud.

The man Ian's after is convicted fraudster Grzegorz Badura.

He was sentenced to two years in prison back in 2005,

but went on the run after serving just seven months.

Now he's been traced to an address in West Bromwich.

I'm just coming up the road now.

So we'll go straight towards the front and then hit the door.

Pulling up quietly, Ian meets two other officers at the house.

BANGING ON DOOR

As it's so early, it takes a little while for the door to be answered.

Hello, chap.

And it's opened by the man they're after,

a rather groggy Badura.

You don't want to let your dog out, do you?

-Grzegorz Badura?

-Yes.

OK. Mate, we've got a European Arrest Warrant out for your arrest

for fraud back in Poland.

We've managed to get back there, knock the door and, good as gold,

he was there, not expecting us.

Still asleep in his bed with his wife.

He was shocked to see us,

but on then speaking to him, once he'd let us into his house,

he knew about the European Arrest Warrant, he knew that was in force.

-Are you aware of this?

-Yeah.

Yeah?

What? Sorry?

-Is dealing with it?

-Yeah.

Because there's a warrant out for your arrest,

we have to take you to the police station.

-Can I get dressed?

-Yeah. We'll get you dressed and everything,

we won't take you out like that.

He felt he was safe because he'd spoken to his solicitor

but, ultimately, until that arrest warrant is taken out of force,

it's still there for us to execute.

Just to be sure, while Badura's getting ready

and saying goodbye to his wife upstairs,

Ian double-checks with the police control room

that his warrant's still in effect.

Yeah, yeah, so the warrant's still live.

Everything's still in order. We'll phone up the custody block,

see if we can get him in at Smethwick police station.

And he'll be taken there now.

The wanted man was convicted of seven fraud offences in Poland

back in 2005,

and still has a year-and-a-half of his prison sentence left to serve.

The past has caught up with him back in Poland and

he'll have to be processed and sent back there to be dealt with.

You all right, mate?

It's highly unlikely. Highly unlikely, mate.

Grzegorz, you need to understand that you're under arrest

under the Extradition Act of 2003.

You do not have to say anything,

but anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Fraudster Badura is taken into custody.

He's found out to his cost

that the UK is no safe haven for criminals

who haven't done their time elsewhere.

So, he's been here a number of years.

He had his family there, he was all set up.

It was a nice clean home.

He had a fairly new house, new car.

He was working full time, his wife's working full time.

He thought he was settled and up and running in this country and,

unfortunately, on that morning, we've changed his life for a while.

Back in October 2012,

Tony Murphy, a fraudster with a taste for adventure,

went on the run.

He pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and money-laundering

worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

But instead of returning to court to be sentenced,

he did a runner and headed for Spain.

What we find in Spain a lot of the time is that's their end goal.

That's their end destination,

so a lot of them want to move there and set up their life there.

And for a lot of them, they just want a normal life,

they want to carry on as if nothing's happened in the UK,

as if they have no past.

In the UK, it's the National Crime Agency

who lead the search for British fugitives abroad.

Once they knew that Murphy had gone to Spain,

they turned to Inspector Olga Lizana

to try and pinpoint his exact location.

At the beginning, we didn't get much information about Tony Murphy.

We just knew he was moving around Calpe and Benidorm,

Alicante, all the places like that.

Tried to check all that information,

but we were always a little bit late.

Meanwhile, back in Britain,

the National Crime Agency was tracking Murphy's family.

His partner was travelling out.

We knew when she was travelling out, we knew how she was travelling out.

So for us to pass that information to the Spanish,

it was invaluable for them.

She travelled out there several times,

so we built up a pattern of when she travelled, and once the Spanish did

start looking at her movements,

we were able to put a picture together of where we thought he was.

And when Murphy decided to bring his partner and kids out to Spain

to live permanently, police were waiting and watching.

All the information we can have about the fugitives

helps us to find them.

The kids are a good piece of information

because, well, more British fugitives

that have got kids here in Spain,

they take them to British schools.

The family settled in the village of Muxtamel near Alicante,

amongst a large community of British expats.

With the academic year just beginning,

Murphy enrolled his kids at an English school.

So we make some enquiries about two kids

because they've got two little kids.

We were sure they were at school here.

And we just tried to find out what the school was.

Police surveillance soon spotted Murphy

regularly doing the school run.

It gave Spanish police the ideal opportunity to arrest him.

Jose Luis led Alicante's serious crime team.

TRANSLATION:

Murphy put up a fight as Jose tried to arrest him.

After a year on the run,

Tony Murphy's time as a fugitive was at an end.

He had changed a little bit.

He cut his hair and, you know, the sun here is nice,

so his skin was a little bit different.

But we were sure it was him.

One of the best times to arrest someone

is when they're not expecting it,

when they're doing something as mundane as the school run.

They don't expect to be arrested,

so that was a really good time to take him out.

Back in Manchester,

the arrest reinforced the police's warning to those who go on the run.

Ultimately, you will be caught and we will catch up with you.

It might be by design, or it might be by accident,

but you will have to come back, and it's not going away.

In West Yorkshire,

officers Dave Lockwood and Tom Allen have been chasing a violent criminal

wanted for armed robbery.

But since they first tried to find him a month ago,

this fugitive has managed to evade capture.

I was sure we'd get him at one of these two addresses.

It looked really good. I'm really gutted we haven't.

Really disappointed.

After weeks of hunting for him,

they've had a tip-off that the man they're after, Bernard Kulewicz,

is right here in this house tonight.

But the woman who answered the door is adamant

there is no wanted man here.

Nobody here.

-Is Bernard here?

-Please go.

Tom and Dave search the property from top to bottom,

but they find nothing.

There's nothing here. No documents or owt.

Until, finally, a clue.

What did strike me as odd, though,

was the fact that she was willing to answer the door

whilst leaving her young baby, young child, upstairs alone.

And then, when we've gone back in and done a further search,

noticed a pair of trainers which are a UK size 8.

Bernard. Bernard, come out.

Hands out now. Hands out now.

MAN SHOUTS

-Who are you?

-Lucas.

All right. Don't mess about.

Let him cuff you.

I noticed instead of a bed,

they had two single mattresses on the floor,

with a gap down the middle.

So, a little tap down the middle, found a foot,

which is when I shouted Dave up,

just in case he did want to try his best to get away.

Yours?

The man claims his name is Lucas, and hands over an identity card.

Tom doesn't believe the card is genuine.

Why are you hiding?

Why hiding?

The false ID isn't fooling anyone...

..because the officers have a secret weapon they can turn to.

I'll get the fingerprint machine, just to make sure.

It takes just one minute for the fingerprint machine to check the

Europe-wide security system and prove this is Bernard Kulewicz,

the violent robber already convicted in Poland.

-Boom.

-Boom.

You're under arrest for three robberies, one of which is armed.

You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say

may be used in evidence.

After hiding, lying and providing fraudulent documents,

this slippery criminal has finally been brought to book.

He is under arrest for three offences of robbery

that occurred in Poland.

His girlfriend is not impressed.

With what he's done now, no chance he's getting bail.

Not a chance in hell.

Just when you think you're having a bad night,

it all comes nice.

Even once this robber is taken into custody, he's still trying to hide,

this time from the camera.

A month to the day, I think,

since we started looking for this chap.

So, absolutely fantastic to get him in.

-BLEEP.

-These handcuffs aren't coming off until you stop being aggressive.

-BLEEP.

-All right?

Come here.

BLEEP.

You need to calm down, fella.

-Calm down?

-BLEEP.

But no matter how much he doesn't like it,

this criminal's days on the run look to be over.

In here, shoes off. Shoes off.

Shoes.

See you later.

Job done.

For fraudster Tony Murphy, the high life was over.

He was sent back to the UK to start his two-and-a-half year sentence.

Polish fraudster Badura appealed against his extradition,

but the judge turned him down

and he was sent home on a military plane in June 2016.

And the armed robber caught hiding between the mattresses

is now back behind bars in Poland.

See you later.

Job done.