Episode 14 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

Between now and the end of this programme, 40 homes will be burgled.

Coming up...

Police get help from an unlikely source.

I'm not happy with what I've done. I'm showing remorse.

In Hertfordshire, a small business is being crippled

by repeated burglaries.

It's a family-run business, really.

Something like this has a knock-on effect to everything.

And we see how powerful it is

when stolen goods get returned to their rightful owners.

It was like a little miracle, it was just amazing.

It was like the return of old friends.

ORCHESTRA MUSIC SWELLS

Early morning in Hatfield, and DC Jim Miller is working

on the case of three burglaries in a well-off part of the town.

Jim's managed to arrest two men.

Now, one of them has agreed to help the police,

taking them on a tour of the homes he burgled.

He's obviously part of a burglary team

that's been committing burglaries over a period of months

in Hertfordshire and the metropolitan areas.

Andrei has started to admit his involvement in these offences

and, following legal advice, wishes to clear his criminality.

It helps Jim build a picture of how burglars operate,

and in return, the man could get a reduced sentence.

Andrei's just guiding us to the first offence location.

Why was that premise targeted?

I think my friend knows it's expensive houses.

Have expensive cars in the front of the house.

And that's why he took me here.

That gives us a very good indication of how long he's been doing it,

what times of the day he offends, what kinds of promises he goes for,

the property he goes for.

We then feed that into our analysts who paint a bigger picture

of Andrei and look at the areas that he's targeting.

What steps would you take, Andrei, in order not to get caught?

-For example, would you wear gloves?

-Yeah, wear gloves, hoodies

and when the house have CCTV,

we have a thingy...scarf,

to hide the face.

What kind of items would you target when you went into a premises?

-Gold and cash, that's the first thing you look for.

-Mm-hmm.

Gold and cash.

If there's not...nothing, we'll take some electronics.

-When you say a electronics, you mean...

-Laptop, iPad.

Although it's a routine for the thieves,

it was a shock for one of Andrei's victims.

This is the 999 call she made.

-I was just parked here.

-Where that Mercedes is?

-Yeah.

-OK.

I think that's the house here.

-Yep.

-Let's just establish the number.

-This is the house.

But Andrei and his friend were being watched.

There's a witness several doors up from the burgled premise.

Their house is fitted with CCTV.

And subsequently when this offence happened on the day it happened,

the occupant of that address was looking out the window

and saw a vehicle pull up.

They've got this CCTV as they were previous victims of burglary

themselves so it's obviously made them more alert

with regards to who is out and about, really.

She wasn't generally happy about the two occupants

and how they looked in the vehicle so made a note of the registration.

Following checks on that registration,

that came back as someone who wasn't a local keeper. Further checks showed

only one person's insured to drive that vehicle.

-Was that your vehicle you parked up?

-Yeah.

-That was my vehicle.

-And you were the driver?

-I was the driver.

She also noticed that the driver was smoking a cigarette

and discarded that cigarette.

You were mentioning that he was smoking. What do you smoke?

Kent HD, it's a Romanian made cigarette.

Police attended the scene, found that cigarette

which wasn't a usual brand, it was like an Eastern European brand.

That cigarette butt that has been recovered

has been sent for forensic analysis.

The DNA on that, the profile will be obtained

and we'll see if that comes back as our defendant.

This CCTV and the cigarette butt would give Jim

the breakthrough he needed.

Your friend left the vehicle initially to go to the premise.

How did he get into that premise?

Well, he had a kind of chisel from carpentry.

Jumped the gate.

When I seen the marks on the door, it was looking pretty ugly.

So if you clock the time there, 0258.

The next time we see him is 0309.

They're in that address for just over 10 minutes

when they then returned to the vehicle.

We found an iPad,

and then we found some gold jewelleries, silver jewelleries.

We took all of those stuff and then we got in the car and we drove off.

Two days after the first burglary,

Jim and his team carried out two raids,

arresting Andrei and his accomplice and finding stolen property.

Jim is keen to learn from Andrei how thieves target homes.

Invaluable information to pass on to his Crime Prevention Officers

and to the victims.

Based on the victim, we want to give the best possible service we can.

For Andrei to take us to the scene of his crimes and tell us

exactly how he's done it, what role he's played,

what he's got out of it and why he did it

are all important factors that we can then go and relay to the victim.

A lot of property was recovered from your place of arrest.

Is some of that property going to belong to this burglary?

Just a little property, not too much.

Some silver jewellery, couple of rings, couple of earrings, maybe.

So you said that your friend sold the gold,

-you kept some of the silver and you sold the electronics?

-Yeah.

I'm not happy with what I've done.

I'm showing remorse, I'm admitting to all the stuff

and I'll be showing you all the stuff that I've been doing.

And I'm really sorry I've done this

because not to get rich or anything, just to survive.

The average insurance claim for a burglary is around £1,400,

but as anyone who's been burgled will know,

it's the sentimental value of the lost treasures that hurt the most.

Some things just can't be replaced.

And that's the case in our next story,

about the Leeds Symphony Orchestra.

APPLAUSE

Founded in 1890, it's one of the oldest in the UK.

Back in December 2011,

the orchestra were busy rehearsing for a concert.

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Conductor Martin Binks and his orchestra had been rehearsing hard

for over a month to get the repertoire ready

for one of the ten performances they do every year.

We were going to play the Berlioz overture, Les francs-juges,

the Hungarian Rhapsody Number Two by Liszt,

and the big work was the Beethoven Emperor Concerto

with Duncan Glenday as soloist.

As one of the best amateur orchestras in the country,

they don't get paid and do the concerts for the love of performing.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

It's getting the chance to play wonderful music

and having an audience to appreciate it,

and having to really do your best on the night so it's a challenge.

You don't get a second chance in a performance.

It does raise your game to perform like that.

I've played in the orchestra for just over 30 years

and it's a great antidote to a man's working life.

It's a great, friendly thing, isn't it?

And the orchestra's man with a van, Ian Ward,

had been looking forward to the concert, too.

He'd been booked to deliver the instruments

a couple of hours before the curtain was due to go up.

The night before the big concert, Ian packed his van

and locked it up securely in his yard.

Generally what we pick up is kettle drums, the music,

music stands, the stuff that's too heavy for people to take home

in their car, basically

and the stuff that is, sort of, just general use.

But the following evening, when Ian came to collect

the precious cargo, he made a devastating discovery.

On the Saturday we turned up at about 5:30

ready to just go through to Knaresborough for six o'clock

and no truck.

You just think, "I didn't park it in here for some reason."

But then you think, "Well, of course you packed it in here. It's gone."

You just don't want to believe that it's been stolen.

Ian's first thought was to break the news to conductor Martin.

Of course, he didn't answer his phone.

So I had to drive over to Knaresborough to the concert venue,

found him there and said to him,

"I'm really sorry, the van's been stolen."

"Oh yeah, right!"

"No, honest, Martin, the van's been stolen."

Of course, I thought he was joking, having me on.

He said, "No, I wish I wasn't joking but it was."

I just felt gutted about it.

I thought, well, I've let him down. I've let him down badly.

It's not a feeling I like, at all.

By this time in the evening, just an hour before the audience were

due to arrive, some of the orchestra were beginning to show up for duty.

But 12 of them wouldn't have an instrument to play.

Myself and Catherine who plays oboe, we always travel together in the car

and try and get there early to help set up and we didn't know anything.

We just got to the school in good time

and saw people walking away and we thought,

"What's happened? Maybe we got the time wrong. Whatever is happening?"

People were saying, "It's off, the concert's off."

Then there was all this milling about going on, people saying

the instruments had been stolen and it was just a complete shock.

I said, "what's going on?"

And they said, "The concert's been cancelled, the van's been stolen."

So we were all incredulous, really.

Hard to believe that the van could be stolen.

So we stood around speculating as to how this could've happened

and in fact why.

Martin didn't have the answers and had no choice

but to cancel the long-anticipated concert.

It wasn't a decision he took lightly.

It's the first concert I've had to cancel with the orchestra

since 1971,

when we had to cancel one through the miners' strikes

so I've run 40 years before this happened.

Everybody had travelled there

and disappointed not to be able to give the concert, you know.

We just had to turn around and go home.

It's like having the rug pulled from under your feet. It was dreadful.

You always get hyped up a little bit before a concert

and so all that was taken away.

So a huge sense of anti-climax and it felt like, well,

how are we ever going to sort out getting our stuff back?

It was dreadful and people were very, very disappointed

but...I mean, what else could you do, actually?

We couldn't do the concert because our instruments were in the van,

al the music and all the stands, the lot.

To me, it was a responsibility, you know.

I have lost the instruments and there's nothing I can do about it.

It just felt... I don't know, just terrible.

People were very genuinely upset, yes. Upset, but most of all, annoyed

at the sheer effrontery of it, really. That's what got us.

Because that time, we didn't know what had happened to the instruments.

We were all convinced we would never see them again.

With very few clues, would the members of Leeds Symphony Orchestra

ever be reunited with their instruments?

During a burglary, thieves often target small, valuable property

such as jewellery or electrical items

that are easy to carry and sell on.

Now, for a worrying and growing trend.

Burglaries that target small businesses and leave them crippled.

There are over seven million incidents of crimes

against businesses in England and Wales each year,

and the rate is rising. In Hertfordshire,

it's newly-qualified Intervention Officer PC Jodie Coyle's job

to investigate these often lucrative crimes.

It's still very exciting, still very new in my career,

still learning stuff all the time.

Laws are always changing, there's lots and lots of laws to learn

and know about. So, yeah.

Always learning from my more experienced colleagues.

For her, one part of the battle is keeping up to date with

the latest methods the criminals use to break into properties.

As crime prevention ups its game, so do offenders

and we're always having to think of new ways to prevent

and deter offenders which means that we're always adapting as well.

Today, Jodie's been called to a burglary

at a family landscaping business in Wymondley.

Like many other local firms in this area,

they store their work equipment in a metal shipping container.

Hello, sir. You've arrived this morning

-and you've got a big hole in your...

-Yeah.

The guys turned up this morning, it was quite dark

so they let themselves in through the gates which were all locked,

nothing had been disturbed there.

-Didn't notice this because it was so dark.

-Oh, right.

As he's come back with his torch, he's thought,

"What's that sticking out?" And realised that we've had a break-in.

The thieves used a saw to cut through the metal container

and helped themselves to the gardening equipment inside.

It's a devastating loss for Sean and his colleagues.

What sort of amount of property has been taken?

It's all petrol-operated machinery.

They've taken four or five hedge cutters, three strimmers,

-four blowers. Decent bit of kit they've taken.

-Yeah.

Is any of it marked at all?

It will have ID on, we always put an identification number,

we burn it onto it, make sure we've got all the serial numbers, etc.

The company have taken all the right measures by labelling

their work equipment clearly. It hasn't stopped them being burgled

but if their machinery is ever found,

they'll have no problem identifying it.

But, as Jodie takes some details about the missing machinery,

an interesting discovery is made.

It now seems that the burglars came prepared

with some pretty impressive equipment of their own.

Initially when we've arrived,, everything's been locked up.

It seems that they've come in over the fence.

However, it's just been noticed

that one of the panels on the fence has also been cut.

It would've taken a good piece of machinery to cut that

and obviously the same with the hole in the container as well.

The rising trend in small companies being burgled

may stem from the culprits falsely believing

that their victims aren't personally harmed.

This simply isn't true.

The company will be affected in a large way

because it affects our insurance premium.

The company isn't a huge company and obviously now,

machines down, we've got five guys working out of this yard.

As of tomorrow, they're going to need new tools.

Straight away, it'll cost us before we can put in an insurance claim.

-It's costing us now, isn't it? Two of us.

-Yes.

The two of us and the time we've spent this morning

-dealing with it and then repairing.

-It's a family-run business, really.

Yeah. Up to...I think 30, 40 employees at the minute

but we're still having to cut our cloth and make sure that

we've got no seepage and spillage.

Something like this has a knock-on effect to everything.

I don't know if there's anything you can do about it because it's all...

you know, people go around, they look, they know there's nobody here

and they come in the evening, whatever.

And in fact, this isn't the first time the landscaping company

has been targeted.

We've had a break-in here before and the last time, they pulled up,

they'd actually winched to the bottom of the door

and pulled it with a van so that the door curled up

and they crawled underneath and took the tools out that way.

-How long ago were you targeted?

-I think it was about a year ago.

Do you know if they got any of your property back,

anybody into custody for it?

-No.

-No?

-No. We weren't made aware of that.

Because of the burglary,

the owners will have to find £5,500 to buy new equipment.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of their work,

they will have to replace them and offenders...

Unfortunately, it makes them an easy target again

because they know they'll be in there.

Scenes of crime officers have been here, hasn't been able to

gather any evidence. What the analysts will do is take this crime

into consideration along other similar ones.

The way that the offenders have got in, they'll look to see

if offenders have used that in similar crimes in the area

or even outside the area and see if there's a pattern starting to emerge.

Unfortunately, the only thing businesses like this can do

to protect themselves is upgrade their security.

It's not long before Jodie is called to her second break-in

of the day, just a few miles away in Letchworth.

Again, it's a small business that's been hit.

And, tellingly, these criminals have used exactly the same method

of entry as the last ones.

They've attempted to get through a panel round the fencing with no luck.

Nothing's been taken,

however there has been CCTV footage, I believe, taken.

Like the last company, this firm have also been targeted before.

Just one month ago, they had another unwelcome visit.

They always come in through this fence here.

-You can see there, we've had it welded up.

-Is that from last time?

-No, that's this time.

-This time?

We had to have it welded up for security reasons.

But it's the same place they came through last time.

On that occasion, they've seen something worth stealing

and then, from that point, they've cut the locks off with a saw

or an angle grinder or something like that,

then loaded up a truck with probably about £25,000 worth of cable

and driven off with it.

Luckily, this time, the thieves were scared off.

This company have upped their security

and really think about what they store and where.

They also have CCTV cameras in the right places.

-That's the fence at the back, is it?

-Yeah, so there's the container,

there's the skip. OK. There we go.

-Oh, yeah, so 0415.

-They've obviously come up...

-Yep.

-..from the fence.

OK. They mess around for a little while with whatever they're doing.

They must have some sort of cutting tools.

They appear to have a toolbox or something to get through the fence.

He's carrying a tool, they've got a toolbox with them.

They've obviously come prepared, so they know what they're doing.

The thieves had broken into the grounds

and now seemed to be deciding which container to burgle.

They climb up onto their toolbox

because they can pull the doors slightly if they unlock the hinges

-cos there's a bit of give when the padlock's on.

-Mmm.

Gone into the top, get the torch out,

see if they can see anything inside the container.

Then, they see the cameras.

-They were only on our premises for about five minutes.

-Right.

Yeah, they spotted the cameras

-and the minute they spotted the cameras, they bolt.

-Yeah.

-OK.

As soon as they've spotted cameras up on the walls,

they've done a runner. So a good deterrent, really

and hopefully prevent those chaps from coming back

and other offenders from targeting the property.

There is a possibility that it could be the same offenders

as the job we've just been to, same method of entry.

Most likely the same machinery used also to cut open

the container on the previous job that we went to.

So there's no conclusive proof, but from what she's seen,

Jodie now has some good evidence to go on

when she starts looking for the culprits.

Having CCTV cameras in the right positions

has meant that this company, at least this time, haven't lost out.

From the CCTV, we can pinpoint when the offenders have actually

been in that area. We will be conducting further CCTV enquiries,

hopefully linking a vehicle to that through ANPR camera work as well.

Automated Number Plate Recognition, or ANPR, will be useful

if the burglars' car shows up in footage

near the scenes of both crimes.

It just goes to show that having good crime prevention tools in place

like CCTV does prevent and deter offenders from targeting properties.

And for this firm, the cameras were an excellent investment.

This time they've obviously seen the CCTV cameras up on the wall.

As soon as they saw that, they turned round and legged it

back the way they came.

So, on this occasion, the cameras have paid for themselves.

Now, back to Yorkshire, where some selfish thieves hit a real bum note

by stealing a van full of instruments and music

belonging to members of the Leeds Symphony Orchestra.

The culprits would've spent little time

thinking about the consequences of stealing the van.

To Ian, the removals business he began with his late father

38 years ago was now in serious jeopardy.

To me, they stole my livelihood.

They didn't just steal my truck, they stole my livelihood.

It's everything that goes with that.

Putting a roof over your head, feeding yourself and your family.

That's what they stole. I was really down about it.

And to be honest, I could've just walked away and packed in.

I just did not feel like doing it any more.

Almost two weeks after the theft,

conductor Martin Binks was fearing the worst,

that the precious instruments would never be returned.

With another scheduled concert coming up,

the future of the whole orchestra looked uncertain.

But then the police made a breakthrough.

The stolen van was captured on camera

just eight miles from the yard where it was taken.

It then mysteriously slipped off the radar,

but there was news of its contents.

It was a Sunday morning.

The police rang up and they said, "This is Lancashire Police.

"Are you the conductor of Leeds Symphony Orchestra?"

Immediately, I thought, yes, I knew what he was ringing about.

They said they had found our instruments.

"We've got your stuff, we found it dumped in a yard in Morecambe."

And my heart fell. I thought they've literally taken

these lovely kettledrums,

these £15,000 kettledrums and just thrown them off.

The musical instruments had been found on an industrial estate

90 miles away.

The thieves were looking for an empty van

to use it for another crime.

To steal copper piping that they could sell on.

Luckily, they'd unloaded the instruments without too much damage.

There was not a scratch on anything.

They must have unloaded the van very carefully.

It was amazing that there was no damage.

The next day at rehearsals,

Martin broke the good news to the rest of the orchestra.

It was like a little miracle. It was just amazing.

Everybody was just, like, laughing with disbelief.

I'm very fond of the drums - obviously and I've been playing them

for quite some time and it was like the return of old friends.

OK, one, two...

'It was lovely to have them back again.'

TIMPANI ROLL

But the thieves had really missed a trick. They emptied the van

so they could pack it with stolen copper piping.

But what they tossed aside, fully intact,

was a very valuable set of timpani drums - made of copper.

There would've been raised eyebrows perhaps, in any scrapyard.

"Where have these come from?"

But nonetheless they'd be valuable, you see.

So we were very fortunate in that way.

Ian wasn't so lucky.

His van was still missing, and he had no choice but to rent a new one.

It's hard to take. I've been in business for so long,

it's all I've done, basically, all my life.

And then for somebody to come along and just take it away like that,

um...it's hard to take.

But at least the precious instruments he'd been entrusted with

had now been returned to their rightful owners.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Delighted to be reunited with their instruments,

and in full working order,

the orchestra could make their next concert on time.

It just felt like, "Oh, the world's right now."

'We're doing what we do with the instrument's that we play.'

Yeah, it felt nice. Really nice.

'We all like performing.'

If we hadn't got those instruments back,

we wouldn't have had a concert, would we?

MUSIC STOPS

APPLAUSE

There's just time for an update on today's cases.

In Leeds, removal man Ian Ward never had his van returned.

But he has now got a new vehicle and has stepped up his security.

Musical instruments are now never left in his van

at the yard overnight.

Unfortunately, no-one has been arrested yet

for the break-ins at two businesses in Hertfordshire.

But the landscaping firm that had £5,500 worth

of gardening equipment stolen have now improved their security.

The business have several CCTV cameras in operation.

And Andrei, the man who helped the police by taking them

round the houses he'd burgled, was sentenced to two years in prison.

His accomplice was given three.

That's all from us today. We'll see you next time.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd