Episode 15 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

We're on the case of a crime that affects 1.5 million of us every year. Burglary.

Coming up:

Absolute rage. Fuming.

Totally fuming. It's not fair. She's five years old, you know.

She doesn't need to have people rummaging through her stuff, does she?

We're with the police as they hunt down the criminals.

Six police forces across the country.

It resulted in the dismantling of a very, very organised crime group.

And we'll show you how much it means

when stolen goods are reunited with their rightful owners.

I had the biggest smile on my face that day, knowing that, you know,

these people weren't going to beat me, you know,

and I will be back out there, no matter what.

First today, the story of how police foiled one of Britain's

biggest and most organised criminal gangs

who for 18 months had been targeting luxury family cars

and stealing them to order.

Barbara Bramhill and her husband Paul were victims of the gang.

They had exactly the type of car the criminals wanted

and police believe Paul had been spotted in their car

by the thieves, targeted and followed home.

I was disturbed around 4:45am when I heard a car driving off

and it was very close and I thought, "That's a bit strange."

But I didn't get up to look out of the window.

And I went back to sleep but I couldn't sleep very well

so I was up at 5:45am.

Came downstairs and came through this door

and I found it was really cold in the living room

and then I got to the dining room door

and I realised it was wide open

and we always have this door closed so I came into the kitchen

and I found all the drawers were open, all the cupboard doors

were wide open and the one I was most upset about was the fact

that this one was wide open

cos that's where I did keep my car keys.

And that's when I looked outside

and found that my car had also gone missing.

So I was really upset about that.

The gang had struck.

Barbara was the latest in a long line of victims.

Felt absolutely devastated. I felt sick and I was shaking.

I just got on to the police.

They calmed me down, which... Cos I was really uptight

and I don't know, it was a horrible experience.

A really horrible feeling.

And I hope I never feel like that again

and the house just has never felt the same since then.

These were no opportunist thieves but part of a hardened,

nationwide ring of criminals stealing cars to order.

And this is the man charged with hunting them down.

DS Gavin Orsborne from Humberside Police had been investigating

a spate of car thefts since 2009.

He was coming to the end of a distinguished 30-year career

and was determined to crack this last big case.

He was the one who had to break the news to Barbara and her husband

that they were just the latest in a long line of victims.

I said, "Do you have any links with West Yorkshire?"

He went, "Yeah. I do some delivering over there or some work over there."

I said, "I think you may have been followed."

These criminals would stop at nothing to get the keys.

Her house had been entered while her and her husband were asleep upstairs.

That did quite clearly have a massive impact on her.

Somehow they had managed to open the door

and to this day I don't know how they actually did it.

Since then, with me not being able to sleep very well at all,

I'm usually awake at four o'clock

and any little sound will disturb me.

Even with my husband, if he's away on a night-time,

I'm constantly prowling the house and double-checking all the doors.

Thank goodness they didn't come upstairs

because we'd have both been petrified.

I dread to think what would have happened.

Later, a dramatic series of raids across the whole country

brings incredible results.

87% of people who've been burgled

say they've been emotionally affected by what happened.

It's common to feel angry and shocked

and to be left feeling vulnerable in your own home.

Humberside Police Civilian Investigating Officer Stephen Powell

has been called out to many burglaries

and sees the trauma caused first hand.

Stephen's been with the police for three years,

after 23 years in the motor trade.

He joined up because he loves the challenge of tracking down

thieves and helping the victims of crime.

We've got a burglary that has just been reported to us.

Looking at the log, they've left for work this morning

at around 8:30am and the house has been secure.

And they have just arrived home literally half an hour ago

and the rear window to the property has been broken into and obviously,

they've gone in there and there has been an untidy search,

that means objects and items have been moved around in the house

and no great care taken, basically.

The burglars have taken some jewellery, electrical gadgets

and a children's computer bought for the couple's five-year-old daughter.

Absolute rage. Fuming. Totally fuming. I hate the thought that...

Just makes you feel sick that someone has been in...

-I feel sick someone's been in my girl's bedroom.

-It's horrible.

Anywhere else in the house but not the girl's bedroom. No.

-Through her stuff. It's just sick.

-It's not fair. She's five years old, you know.

She doesn't need to have people rummaging through her stuff, does she?

Homeowner Andrew gives Stephen an update on exactly what's missing.

His wife has been badly shaken up by the burglary

and is still too upset to be on camera.

A Dell laptop, a Nintendo DSi, is it?

Some of my wife's jewellery, diamond necklace.

The burglars have broken through a double glazed window at the back of the house. But...

I don't know how they've done it.

-I'm sure there wasn't a key in the handle.

-Was it locked?

-There's the key, in that handle.

-Great.

-But do you normally lock them when they are down?

-Yeah. Yeah.

-It has been locked.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Whichever way they managed to get in,

the culprits have been careless.

-There are some footprint marks there.

-A footprint here.

-Right. OK.

That's good.

The muddy footprint is a promising start to the investigation.

But Stephen wants to see if the burglars tried any other way to get into the house.

I'm just looking to see if anybody's been jamming on the windows or anything like that.

Looking at the back garden, it looks quite secluded.

There's not many properties overlooking it

so it looks to me like they've had a bit of free time

to play around there and get through that window.

As you say, a lot of people at work, especially nice areas like this.

People at work all day don't hear a window being smashed.

Contrary to popular belief, many burglaries happen in the daytime

and 57% happen whilst people are at home.

This is what I'm thinking.

The little gate at the side of my shed,

behind that there is no fence to separate next-door's garden and my garden

so I don't know if they have got in through that way or, or what.

-But then they've got to get in your neighbour's garden, obviously.

-Yeah.

-So does he have a gate on that side?

-Yeah, he has got a gate.

-Has he?

-And behind their garage.

So I don't know if they have come in that way or what, I don't know.

The burglars definitely came in through the smashed window at the back of the house

but Stephen thinks they must've come through a neighbour's garden first.

Been in the woodshed as well, I think.

Because they've used one of my hammers, one of my spades...

-Woodshed? Which one's that?

-Right at the bottom, sorry.

Because you've gone out to get wood for the log burner tonight

and realised the bolt was off. Was like, "I forgot to put it on."

-Has that been forced, then?

-No.

What it is, is we don't always lock the woodshed cos there's nothing of value in there.

You know, we're out there constantly for the log burner and things.

We put the latch on it. We put it on but you know, it isn't clicked.

And it was on the floor when I got there and I thought that was

a bit weird cos I didn't hear it drop last night.

It's looking like the thieves used a spade from Andrew's shed

to break the back window.

Stephen tries both next-door neighbours

to see if they spotted anything but they're not in.

Then he notices something across the street.

What we've discovered through a quick walk up and down the street, really,

was that property over there's got CCTV

that's actually pointing away from their property

and onto that side of the path.

There is nobody in at the moment but I've got a name

and I know the number and the street so I'll do some research

when I get back to the station and hopefully get a phone number

and give them a call to see if I can see the CCTV.

Stephen heads back inside and discovers something else

of interest in the master bedroom.

As you can see, we've got, obviously,

handprints or a smudge of some sort which the victims said to us

wasn't there when they left the property this morning

so that's potentially an excellent opportunity for identification.

It's part of Stephen's job to look for potential forensic evidence

which the Scenes of Crime officer can then examine in more detail.

I see some handprints on there.

See there, look? If I was going to come in here,

I'd be like that.

And you'd be holding this and touching that

and leaning forward to see what's what.

I can see a handprint there so again,

I will point out to the SOC officer when he comes round.

The Scenes of Crime officer, Stephen Meredith, has been working

with Humberside Police for 20 years.

Burgled houses are a grimly familiar sight to him.

He needs to be very thorough and starts by looking

at the palm and footprints upstairs.

It is quite a streak, isn't it?

Clearly, what looks like fingers at this end.

Damp at the time it was done and probably done by...

There are small streaks in it that are more consistent

-with glove marks than fingerprints.

-Glove marks. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think they have been wearing gloves throughout.

Unfortunately, Stephen discovers that the prints on the bedroom window are also glove marks.

It's disappointing news.

But there is a glimmer of hope, the footprint left on the floor.

That certainly is good enough.

I'm surprised, if that's the way they've gone out,

that there is so much detail left in them.

That's fine. I'm happy with that.

The print will go onto the force's database.

It might give Stephen the breakthrough he needs.

It's been a disturbing experience for Andrew and his wife

but they are grateful to the police.

The police lady was here within an hour, which is good, I think.

-Yeah.

-I don't think you can argue about that.

You've been in here within two or three hours.

She was here before that, I had only just walked through the door

-and I only work up the road. 15, 20 minutes.

-You can't argue with that.

Burglaries, that's something that really impacts on people's lives

so to us it's a priority and we like to get here, obviously,

especially with uniform, within the first hour, two hours at the most.

And whilst the forensic evidence is being gathered,

Stephen's been busy trying to find the neighbours with the CCTV camera.

The system is working.

Her husband, who is unfortunately away at the moment,

he can use the system and hopefully he's going to download that material

so we can possibly use it as evidence.

It's potentially promising news and Stephen can leave the couple,

knowing that he's done all he can to catch the culprits.

The neighbours are all aware of what has gone on.

If nothing else, it makes them more vigilant as to what goes on during

the day because this obviously happened during daylight hours.

We've got a description of the property that was stolen.

That's very good because we are always doing searches

on people's houses that have been arrested for these similar offences

so we may recover the property and if we do,

hopefully the people that we've seen today may recognise that

if it matches anything like they've had stolen.

We've also got other lines of enquiry.

We are gathering the scene of crime evidence that we've retrieved today.

We have some promising footprints.

There's a lot of intelligence that can go along with that.

But at the moment... It never usually happens same-day,

these things take time sometimes and slowly, slowly, catchy monkey is the general term that we use.

Now, back to the car stealing gang.

Their method of operation was beginning to attract attention

as police forces up and down the country pooled their intelligence,

and soon a pattern emerged, showing exactly how the thieves worked.

They'd spot a luxury car, follow the owner home,

break into their house for the keys and take the vehicle.

They'd then produce fake documents

and false number plates to sell the car on at cut-down prices.

One of the key breakthroughs that we got

early on in the investigation was some CCTV footage

from a bank in Wales where we identified a purchaser

of a vehicle withdrawing £17,000 from his bank account.

He went on to buy a vehicle that had been stolen

in one of our offences from the East Riding.

But not only did we capture him on the CCTV,

we also captured the person who he handed the money to.

With this breakthrough, Gavin and his colleagues soon realised

that there were over 30 members in the gang and they were responsible

for over £6 million worth of vehicles going missing.

It was a highly profitable and highly organized criminal ring.

Humberside Police joined five other forces

in setting up Operation Yankee to make sure they would catch

all the members of the gang...and it paid off.

Six police forces across the country in the early hours of an April morning.

Open the door!

It resulted in the dismantling of a very, very organised crime group

and the arrest of 26 offenders, identified,

and not only took out those at the lower level of the pay scale

but it also took out those that we believe were the main instigators of this organised crime.

It was a major success. 26 gang members were convicted.

What was significant was the recognition

of the severity of this offending by the courts,

when the total years in prison for this group amounted to 84 years.

I just think they're the dregs of the Earth to actually do that.

I mean, it's fine. You think, "Yes, you can claim on your insurance."

It's not the fact you can claim on your insurance, it's the fact

that they've been in and...

It's quite decimating, is the experience.

It really is.

In some ways, Barbara was one of the lucky victims.

After the raids she had her car returned,

but it wasn't going to be a happy ending.

I got in it thinking, "It's an old friend. It has come back."

But it didn't feel like an old friend any more.

It just felt like someone else's car and though it was nice and clean, it felt dirty.

And it just wasn't my car.

It looked like my car but it didn't feel like my car.

The driver's seat felt different.

Though there was nothing wrong with it.

I didn't want to keep it any longer, so as soon as we were able to do so

we started looking round to find a replacement car.

For her peace of mind, Barbara made a quick sale

and sold their £20,000 car for £12,000.

I don't think they have any thought for the person at all.

All they're thinking about is themselves and what they can get out of it.

So they just want the money from the proceeds

and as long as they are happy, that's it.

The police were absolutely marvellous.

I cannot complain about them at all.

They kept me informed of what was going on at every given point.

Gavin, the detective who was looking after my case,

he kept me informed as much as possible

and he's really been involved in organising

all the police forces to come together on one database

so if a car is stolen in one county, at least then

the other counties are aware of it and they can follow through.

I get a lot of satisfaction from putting people away in prison

and this operation just highlights why I do this job.

And now to Basildon, Essex, where a vehicle of a completely different kind has been stolen.

Mum-of-three Sarah Gleeson was delighted to have saved enough money

to start her own mobile catering business.

She'd worked as a chef for many years but with three children at home,

the unsociable hours just didn't fit in with family life.

She wanted to find a way of combining her love of cooking

with being around more for the children

so she took the plunge to go self-employed.

My passion for cooking, and just fed up with being employed, really.

You know, same old hours, weekends, nights, all that sort of stuff.

Really big step. Thought about it for a little while and thought, "Do I take the plunge?"

And then I just took the plunge and went.

It was my partner that talked me into going self-employed

and doing what I do best, which is cooking.

He financially supported it in the beginning. He put up the deposit.

It was £1,650 just for the trailer.

Then it cost me a further £500 for the stock

and, you know, chopping boards and just bits and pieces, really, that I needed.

Sarah put down a deposit and signed up for a three-year payment plan

to pay off the remaining £28,000 she owed for the trailer.

I don't look back now because I do get weekends,

it's just Monday to Friday and I finish at three o'clock

in the afternoon and I'm there for the children.

With her new van, Sarah began to build up a business

selling food at a nearby industrial estate.

Getting the new van was, you know,

it's the first thing that I've ever done and it was a massive

moment in my life, to have a brand-new trailer and it was mine.

The business went really well for eight months.

It gave Sarah the opportunity to get her work/life balance right

and she loved being her own boss.

-Hi, there.

-You all right, there?

Can I have a sausage and egg sandwich, please?

-Any sauce in that?

-Yes, please. Tomato, please.

The new van was perfect and Sarah kitted it out in her own style.

Security was important as she knew her livelihood depended on the van,

so she found a safe place to leave it overnight in a local car park

and also had a state-of-the-art tracker fitted.

But then one July evening, disaster struck.

The trailer was stolen.

Just a normal day.

Me and my friend's husband put the trailer away.

Clamped it all up, put the hitch lock on and just left

and that was around 6:30pm that night.

I got a phone call at six o'clock in the morning asking me

where the trailer was and I said,

"It's in the car park where I left it last night," and he said, "No, it isn't."

So I got in my friend's car,

come down where the trailer should have been.

Found it wasn't there. I was just, my stomach just...

I felt sick.

With her only income gone,

Sarah began to panic about the van loan.

The first thing that went through my head was,

"If I don't get my trailer back, I'm £50,000 in debt with no business."

My heart just fell out of my body.

Knowing somebody had stolen my business.

I don't think words can describe that.

You know, I was... I wasn't angry at the time,

I just felt physically sick.

Sarah rang the police and the loan company.

It was hard, but she had to find a way to carry on with work.

I had a funeral buffet to do that day so I had to go home.

There was nothing I could do. I had to go home and do the buffet.

As Sarah got on with her order,

her van company contacted the firm who had fitted the tracking device.

They activated it straightaway.

It works in a similar way to a mobile phone, so the unit

will wake up once every five hours, it will check for messages

and report in a position of where it is and tell us its battery is OK.

If there is a theft, we send the unit a message

and then we will be able to turn the radio beacon on

and go and find it.

So it's designed to be hidden away inside a vehicle.

Even when the thieves scan the vehicle,

which they quite often do after they've stolen it,

to check if a tracking device is fitted, they won't pick anything up.

At that point, although I knew the tracker was there,

all that was running through my mind was,

"We are going to find a little black box and no trailer."

Because if the thieves had found the tracker,

they could have just chucked it anywhere.

But the tracking company had a lot more faith

that if they acted quickly the van itself would be found

with their hidden device still inside.

We will request the unit to alarm and then we will contact you

very shortly to run through what we are going to do next.

We have a network of finders across the UK and Ireland

and when we have a theft reported, we'll look on the map for a location

of where the vehicle currently is, we'll activate the closest finder.

It's their job, basically,

to pick up the radio beacon that the unit is giving off,

find an exact location and then we involve the police

and the customer to organise the recovery of the vehicles.

The time that the tracker was activated

was probably about seven o'clock,

and then about eight, half past eight,

I got a phone call to say that the...

obviously, they'd found the tracker.

The device had worked.

It was now somewhere on an industrial estate

eight miles away in Canvey Island.

Done the buffet, got that delivered and then,

obviously, me and my other half went to Canvey.

As you can imagine, I was really anxious.

We was driving in and out all sorts of places

but couldn't see it anywhere.

After four hours of searching,

the tracking company's finder had a breakthrough.

We found it. It was in an outside... It was a sort of an extension.

I just knew it was my trailer.

I was just jumping up and down for joy, really. It was there.

The trailer had been hidden by the thieves in a car park.

It's often what the culprits do for a few days after the theft

if they suspect a tracker device might be fitted.

Sarah rang the police to come and recover it.

As you can imagine, I was really anxious, you know,

and angry, I think, at the time, as well.

We all went through and the police asked if they could go have a look out the back, gain entry,

which they did, and lo and behold, my trailer was there.

Awful, awful state.

It didn't feel like my trailer.

Obviously, it was really dirty outside as well.

Inside was just a mess, just trashed.

Nicked a lot of stock.

I had about £60 taken out of the till.

All my personal paperwork.

I'd just got my hygiene rating, which was a five.

They stole all them certificates,

all my paperwork that I needed for the van.

They stole a big salt and pepper mill

that I'd bought for the van -

being as it was a new trailer, I just wanted new stuff -

and just trashed it, really.

That was more upsetting to me, cos when I went back into my trailer,

it didn't feel like mine.

Once the forensic had done what they needed to do with my trailer,

we could hook it up and take it home.

But, whatever the damage, at least Sarah had her precious van back.

The tracker had done its job.

I thought it was an extra bit of equipment

that cost you a lot of money.

I didn't have any idea

of what it actually done

and how rewarding it is.

If that wasn't there, I'd have never got my trailer back.

And without her trailer van, Sarah's

life would have been very tough.

I would be back working nights

and working weekends.

Wouldn't see my children.

It would have messed my life up.

My partner said, "Come on,

"you got to go out tomorrow,

"show them that it hasn't hurt you."

And that's exactly what she did.

The next morning she was back in her spot,

serving food to all her loyal customers.

I had the biggest smile on my face that day,

knowing that these people weren't going to beat me

and I will be back out there, no matter what.

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

In Bridlington, a neighbour's CCTV camera proved useful.

The police are hopeful that this evidence,

along with the footprint and any

forensic matches, will lead them to the culprits if they offend again.

And in Basildon, Sarah Gleeson is back on her pitch,

happily serving customers from her van.

The police haven't yet found the thieves who took her trailer,

but she's happy that her security measures are in place

and the tracking device saved her business.

I'm not into £28,000-worth of debt and I have got my business.

So, yeah, overwhelming

that I'm still there, with my trailer.

And in the case of the car-stealing gang, we now know that

in their 18 months of operation, they made up to 867 false number plates.

26 gang members received a total of 84 years in prison

for stealing over £2 million worth of luxury cars.

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

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