Episode 14 The Wanted

It's the police! Open the door!

-Steady.

-Yeah.

Morning!

That would help.

Every day in the UK,

the police are on the hunt for known and suspected criminals.

Get back from the door!

They're armed with warrants and big red keys.

The Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire forces have granted

exclusive access to their raids.

Police!

Their officers are wearing special equipment

to give you a cop's-eye view

and bring you closer to the action than ever before.

What's your name?!

INDISTINCT SPEECH

Britain's streets are a battleground.

Stand back! Get out of the way.

On one side are the men and women fighting to keep us safe -

and on the other are the wanted.

Greater Manchester is one of the largest metropolitan cities

in the UK.

With such a big population to police, there's one team whose

sole focus is to investigate serious and organised crime in the region.

He got the sack again, or is that the...?

No, it's a sack, that's when they build the sacks.

-Oh, yeah there's the...

-The third one.

-..third one going out.

You can be dealing with a variety of things.

It's from robbery to firearms offences,

kidnap, extortion, blackmails.

The run-of-the-mill stuff, really.

Just haven't got any regard, have they? For anybody else.

No. No, they just don't care.

This morning, the detectives are responding to their latest case.

A gang of armed robbers have been targeting shop owners

in the Stockport area of the city.

They would vault over the counter,

threaten members of staff within there and then they've taken

a big bag with them that they then load up with cigarettes

and cash, the till contents, and then they'd be back out,

off on their way and then they'd be selling the cigarettes

and making significant amounts of cash from the proceeds.

When they go into these shops with balaclavas and machetes,

they're taking those weapons

cos they're willing to use them. They're selfish.

They don't care, really, about other people's safety.

They don't care that property belongs to other people,

and it's not theirs -

and they just think they've got a right to take it.

These are the sort of people you deal with -

they're cocky, selfish people.

-Same MO every time, isn't it? Over the counter...

-Yeah, yeah.

..open the bag out.

Threatening anybody who comes anywhere near.

Over the course of several months, there have been nearly

30 crimes reported, which appear to be committed by the same gang.

And an operation to track them down has been launched.

During the investigation, the detectives have discovered

the lengths the criminals are willing to go to

to break into premises.

On one occasion, they used a stolen Land Rover.

They reversed it through shutters, late at night, into a shop,

no regard for anybody who could've been in the shop

at the time, stocktaking, or stocking shelves and suchlike.

They caused a lot of extensive damage to the building itself,

just so they could steal some cigarettes.

-The customer who intervenes...

-Yeah.

-You see a customer there?

-Yeah.

So, this occasion, they had the firearm threats,

-there were a firearm.

-Yeah. Look at that, there's a young kiddie there.

That's disgusting, that.

-Just animals, aren't they?

-Yeah.

The levels of violence they were showing to these people

was quite sickening, really.

There was one occasion where one of the girls was threatened by

one of the offenders, who held a brick up as though

he was going to throw a brick into her face, a house brick.

People are generally scarred for life by these experiences.

If somebody in a balaclava is holding a house brick

a few inches from your face, threatening to throw in your face,

or waving a machete at you, or pushing a gun in your face,

it's terrifying.

They were committing robberies at business premises,

really putting members of the public who were working in these

establishments in fear and they were stealing

hundreds and thousands of pounds of cigarettes

and the takings from the tills.

And they were relentless, they didn't stop.

So it was really important that my team

from the serious and organised crime group

got involved and took on the investigation,

together with officers from the Stockport division.

Greater Manchester has a population of 2.7 million

and a police force of over 6,500.

-Yeah...

-INDISTINCT SPEECH

Eight of those officers are in the divisional tasking team in Oldham.

And two are preparing for a shift on the city streets.

We work at Oldham divisional tasking team,

where basically we locate wanted people.

That's our main target, people are wanted for crime,

they're a little bit hard to find, so we have to do a lot of digging.

Go to loads of addresses sometimes to find these people,

lock them up and get them before the courts.

This team specialise in low-level crime, arresting everyone,

from petty one-off offenders to serial lawbreakers.

Somebody get the ladders and the hoolie.

Officers Rawcliffe and Cross

have the means to get into almost any property.

And today, they're on the trail of a man they thought

had turned over a new leaf.

He's been prolific in Oldham for many, many years.

And he's wanted for...offence of burglary. He is very well known.

He has actually been quiet for quite a while, but...

He is a drug user and obviously they just go back to, you know, what

they know best, which is breaking in to places to fund their habit, so...

The Divisional Tasking Team, or DTT,

know where many of their targets live.

Often, it's a case of simply knocking on doors

and rounding them up, but not always.

INDISTINCT RADIO VOICE

It's the police! Open the door!

This wanted man seems reluctant to answer,

although the officers won't give up easily.

PC Cross prepares to tackle the open window upstairs.

But just as he gets ready to climb up, conveniently, the door opens.

-Morning!

-That would help.

-What's going on?

-I'm arresting you, mate.

-What for?

Suspicion of a burglary.

-What?

-Suspicion of a burglary.

Commercial burglary. You don't have to say anything, but it may

harm your defence if you don't mention when questioned

something you later rely on in court.

It's amazing what a little bit of persistence does...

-Have you just got one room here, mate?

-Yeah.

-It's just this one, the communal.

I've got to ask you, mate, is there anything here that's stolen,

prohibited, or anything illegal?

I'm going to have a little search outside, mate. Is there any pins?

-RADIO VOICE:

-2264...

Good.

Can I have a room, please?

For a male adult wanted for burglary, please?

-Right, you OK?

-Mm-hm.

Didn't realise he was in this room. I mean,

you heard me shouting again, like I said, we were going to go in...

And it was when the ladders came out and Phil started going up the ladders.

He obviously realised we aren't going away,

so that's when he's come to the door.

I'll grab this ladder...

PC Rawcliffe's suspicions were correct.

You just realised when we put the ladders up that...?

RAWCLIFFE LAUGHS

Nearly worked, going away!

-RAWCLIFFE LAUGHS

-That's what I thought...

I think he heard the ladders in his room,

which if he'd have stayed in, like I said before, we wouldn't have

been any the wiser, but he heard the ladders and thought...

I think he realised that the game was up and sort of offered

himself up and came to the door.

The suspect was once a regular face for PC Rawcliffe,

but he's been off the scene for a while.

Fair play, if you haven't been done for four years, mate.

After the way you were.

Yeah.

What's important to you now, then?

With him, to be honest, I was almost hoping

he had, you know, turned a corner

and he sounded sort of quite genuine about it.

And he probably... He might have done.

He's certainly not as prolific as he used to be.

With that past experience, the seasoned offender knew

exactly what to expect when the team came knocking.

I thought he was, erm, pinging the door down, you know,

-with the brace and all that.

-Yeah...

-But...

POLICE OFFICER LAUGHS

No, we probably ended up doing the door, I would've thought.

We have a little catch up, I think.

I think he.... He, on this occasion,

was quite pleased with the way he was dealt with, rather than

being, you know, nasty, really, and I think,

depending on how you treat people, if you offer them

a little bit of respect and a bit of banter,

then they'll respond to that.

The man later admitted that he had committed the burglary.

He received a supervision and community order

and had to pay £400 compensation.

However, since then, he's not reoffended.

Ten miles away, the serious organised crime group

are investigating a spate of armed robberies.

And there's been some vital information about

who the perpetrators are.

They left a few clues for us and like these types of investigation,

you follow a number of different strands, you look at intelligence

from the public, which is always really valuable and helpful to us.

The area that they were operating is fairly small area in Stockport

and I'm sure the community were absolutely sick to death of them.

Like I said, they didn't have jobs

and yet they'd always have wads of cash.

These people can't but help themselves,

putting things on Facebook,

showing themselves with wads of cash.

We know they don't work, so where have they got that cash from?

We followed a path and were quickly able to identify

who the main ringleaders were.

There's a lad called Paul Edwards, Jordan Sim-Mutch.

There was a lad called Ben Fredricks.

They were the main, the older ones, really,

and then there was other people that were involved in these offences.

Some were just on the odd one or two jobs, because there was a group

of several of these people and there's only four people in a car.

They can only accommodate four people, so it was varying.

With the gang leaders now revealed and the net closing in,

they are put under surveillance.

The detectives want to intercept them just before

they carry out another crime.

It just so happened that during the course of watching what they

were up to that they went to go and commit

a robbery and I was then able to implement an arrest situation.

-INDISTINCT SPEECH

-Right, let's go get 'em.

We were happy, they were just about to do a robbery at a supermarket and

we're in a position to strike on them and we had sufficient evidence

then to be able to process them with a large number of offences.

The team are heading to the Stockport area of the city.

With the gang parked up and potentially ready to raid a shop,

the plan is for several unmarked police cars to box in

and contain their vehicle.

First thing is to get them safely into custody without jeopardising

their safety, our safety, or the safety of anybody else.

And sometimes the only way to do that is to actually ram them.

It's a bit hairy for the people who are doing it,

because we're ramming vehicles, we don't know whether...

We've got to try and prevent them getting off, because there's going to be a high-speed chase.

They were still trying to evade, escape and tried to reverse off and

dodge the police cars, but they were hit several times by police cars.

The interception is a success and the gang are quickly rounded up.

It is tough decisions and you feel a real responsibility,

because you don't know what's going to happen.

You never know what's going to happen.

Yeah, they're big decisions, but we've got to take them

and we've got to carry on taking the fight to these criminals out there.

And fortunately, they weren't good enough

and the officers arrested them in situ,

just outside a Morrisons store that they were just about to rob.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

They come across as not being bothered, really.

And they like to have the last word and they like to be cocky -

and that's all we expect, really.

But I think deep down they'll be gutted.

Round two when I get out.

That's what I'm going to do, mate. Round two.

Round two, mate.

Definitely. Round two, mate.

They weren't aware that we was watching what they were doing,

so they're shocked, the adrenaline is going and that's when you

get the kind of comments that they came out with.

You see a completely different person an hour or two later

when they're sat in a cell, waiting to be interviewed

and the realisation is there that they've been caught

and they're going to be behind bars for a long time.

In Oldham, the divisional tasking team are back on the road,

arresting some of the area's most wanted.

From our office, bearing in mind there's only eight of us,

we probably average between 70 to 110 prisoners per month.

There's always people wanted, and there will be,

if we arrested everybody today,

tomorrow there'll still be more wanted people.

So, it's a never-ending circle, unfortunately.

Yeah, I've got it, mate. We're just pulling up at the front now.

PC Cross is helping to locate a well-known offender.

The 29-year-old female is wanted for breaching her bail conditions.

There's a very small percentage of criminals

who commit a large percentage of crime in one area.

Very often, the crime will tail off while they're in prison.

And then, as soon as they're back out, it starts again.

So, we're at the same addresses for the same people.

I'm locking people up now, 22 years on,

that I was locking up in my first year of policing.

Unfortunately, they've had children,

and I'm locking them up now.

No doubt, it's just a vicious cycle, unfortunately.

You have to let us know, mate, when you're in position.

'Yeah, good, mate, we're in. We're checking out the back.'

A week ago, while on bail in relation to a burglary charge,

the female missed an appointment at a police station.

-Police. How are you?

-How are you doing? All right?

-She was supposed to attend for charging.

-Charging?

Yeah, for charging down at the police station.

She's not answering her bail, is she?

-She didn't know. Shouldn't know about charging her bail.

-Is it?

We're in, mate.

-She's unwell.

-Is anyone else here with you?

Who are you supposed to...?

She's got all blotches on her face.

-They're here for me?

-Yeah, you're supposed to attend for charging.

-I've already been to Crown Court.

-She's been Crown Court...

You're supposed to attend at court...

the police station for a burglary.

You need to come with me to get charged.

-Will you bring me back?

-You might go straight to court, you never know.

Or straight to prison or something.

-What do you mean, prison?!

-As a result of this,

I'm arresting you for the original offence of burglary.

Once she's arrested, she's nice and tidy. She'll chat away to you.

But she does cause a lot of problems

and she is in court quite regular.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

There's a minority of criminals that get given bail

and they never attend.

Then we spend days and days looking for them, turning houses over,

the end result being we arrest them, they go back before the courts,

and very often, they get bail again.

This time, however, the offender spent six weeks in remand prison

for breaching her bail conditions.

The serious organised crime group

are investigating a large number of armed robberies.

They've intercepted the gang involved

and arrested three of its leaders.

Round two when I get out. That's what I'm going to do. Round two.

-What happens if you don't get out?

-Round two, mate.

OK, on the 'puter, then, we are at file-prep stage now.

Obviously, we've got quite a few on remand,

so we need to make sure we crack on, get the file in.

Just before we crack on with that, where are we up to?

-How many offences have we got now?

-We've got around 50 in total.

Majority being robberies, there's about 30 robberies or so.

And then, there's a couple of burglaries at dwellings.

There's a few burglaries at dwellings

-where cars have been stolen.

-Yeah, they've nicked cars

from some of them and then used the cars in the robberies.

We've got a Land Rover

that's reversed through the shop for cigarettes.

And, the phones, Rick, where are we up to with the phones?

Of interest is some messages on Ben Fredricks' phone

which he seems to have saved in there

and he's discussing the crimes, it appears.

That's just being looked through at this moment in time.

Right, we'll pull them into the sequence of events.

We'll see who we can link to each offence.

There's quite a bit of clothing, isn't there?

Yeah, it's quite distinctive, some of the clothing.

There's a tracksuit in particular that seems to feature

-on every single offence.

-OK. We just have to crack on.

Get everything in as fast as we possibly can.

They're all on remand and we've got the custody timings to think of,

so the sooner we can get it in, the better.

With the evidence gathered,

the detectives start to interview their detainees.

On this occasion, three offenders -

one of them's in possession of a crowbar -

enter the premises, threaten members of staff.

-What can you tell me about that?

-No comment.

-Are you the male with the crowbar?

-No comment.

Stockport, Co-op?

There's two females behind the counter on that job.

-You specifically target premises with females?

-No comment.

On this occasion, in possession of an axe.

-Why are you changing hands at this time?

-No comment.

-Who decided that?

-No comment.

-Who had possession of the axe?

-No comment.

Are they not the brightest, the other two?

-No comment.

-They don't appear to be.

I mean, if I'm going to commit armed robberies,

I'm going to commit crime, the last thing I'm going to do

is put a picture of meself on Facebook

with one of the vehicles that was stolen.

Who's the bloke who's sat in the driver's seat?

For the purpose of the tape, but it's all on camera,

you are being filmed at the moment. You're smiling.

-Is that you in the driver's seat?

-No comment.

Next to be interviewed is the suspect

who was caught boasting about his ill-gotten gains

on social media - Jordan Sim-Mutch.

During this warrant,

£15,000 worth of cigarettes have been recovered

and a fingerprint relating to yourself

has been recovered on those stolen cigarettes.

What can you tell me about why your fingerprint

-is on those stolen cigarettes?

-No comment.

You're being investigated for an offence

of conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to burgle, OK?

Is there any reason why your fingerprints would be

-on stolen cigarettes in the back of that shop?

-No comment.

Now, time for some answers from the man

thought to be the gang's getaway driver, Paul Edwards.

What we're here to do today is to find out

what role you've played in this conspiracy. If any.

All I have to say is that I've not burgled no house

to take no car and I have not committed no robbery.

That is all I've got to say on the matter.

-Was any of that clothing on the CCTV yours?

-No.

I'll point out, though,

in most areas, council estates,

we all wear the same stuff,

so that stuff I looked at then is just what everyone wears every day.

Everyday winter gear, that, to me.

Tracksuit, trainers, hoods. Coats.

-So, do you have similar clothing?

-Dark clothing.

Yeah, possibly, yeah.

Despite their protests of innocence at interview,

at court, 11 men connected to the operation pleaded guilty.

Their total sentencing was 75 years for conspiracy to commit robbery.

Everybody was really pleased with the result,

because they were chaotic, they were a danger to the public

and, ultimately, they've now got the sentences

that are reflected in the criminality

that they were involved in.

The main leaders - Paul Edwards, Jordan Sim-Mutch, Ben Fredricks,

Tyler Quinn and Aaron Bell - were all sent to prison

for sentences ranging between seven and nine and a half years.

They were significant members in that small area of Stockport.

So, hopefully, the message has gone out to that community,

who have been really helpful to us in the past,

that we've responded to the intelligence that they've given us

and they're behind bars for a long time now.

Most criminals' names go on the police wanted list

after an offence has taken place.

But when there's intelligence that one is in progress,

the serious organised crime group move in to catch them in the act.

When you have an update of where they are, can you just let us know?

Because it'll assist us in where we're going to try and like,

getting...our sort of position sorted.

In Greater Manchester, Detective Sergeant Dave Eaves

is on the tail of a car and its driver.

There's a vehicle under surveillance that's come in from the North

and we believe there might be some drugs onboard that vehicle.

Our intention is to try and put a nice stopping on that vehicle.

Yeah, we've no radio, so can you keep us updated where we are?

We'll follow you.

As the sergeant, my role would be to liaise with my DI

that's feeding me some intelligence, and liaise with an officer

that had been left back in the police station

who was then liaising with other units,

our different colleagues in the livered vehicles,

and see if we could effect a safe stop,

you know, without any danger to either ourselves,

the person that we stopped, or members of the public.

Go ahead.

'We've got the vehicle stopped...'

A team in front have managed to contain the target vehicle

by boxing it in.

Right, you've got the prisoner.

That's the prisoner being led off to the van. Yeah, just in time.

Officers at the scene have carried out a preliminary search,

and are able to brief the detective on their findings.

-No problems on the road.

-Yes.

-No issues with the driver.

-He stopped straightaway.

-Yeah.

Five or six phones onboard. Seven boxes.

-Seven boxes and we've only opened one.

-Yeah, one's been opened.

And each package contains four of those bars.

That's... I'd say that's probably about a kilo.

-Right, OK.

-So, you're looking at 100-plus kilos here.

So, the issue that we've got now is to safely remove this vehicle

and get it in a place where we can seize these drugs.

We're going to get this back to the nick

-so that we can get it in the garage.

-And then we can do a SOC over?

And then we can do a proper SOC over.

That's a good idea, because, if we had it recovered by a contractor,

we'd have to send somebody with it, wouldn't we?

Because we'd have to safeguard the drugs.

As well as boxes of drugs,

the team have also uncovered what seems to be

a large quantity of cash.

So, there's two of these bags.

-OK.

-So, I think it's better...

It's safe to say...

-Which police station are you going to go to?

-Stretford.

-Stretford?

-Yeah, there's a garage at Stretford.

-Thanks very much.

Effectively, my scene is that vehicle.

Because all the evidence appertaining to the case

is inside the vehicle. The vehicle, although it was stopped

in a nice place from the point of view of safety to the public,

it was a bad place for me because it's near a junction.

People can see the police there.

So, what I want to do, then,

I want to get that vehicle away from there in a nice controlled manner.

So we decided to take it to a nearby police station

where we knew there was a garage where we could get it under cover,

where it's in our controlled environment

to then search the vehicle

and do whatever forensic tests that we need to do on it.

There are always plenty of suspects still at large

throughout Greater Manchester's ten boroughs.

At the moment, there's 160 wanted people in Oldham. On any given day,

you could have anything up to 20, 30 people

that you can potentially go and find or try to arrest.

And that list basically...

recycles every single week.

The same faces reappear every single week.

Yeah, can do, can't we? Yes, quickly.

Just up and through.

It's a familiar offender that Officers Rawcliffe and Cross

are searching for this morning.

He's wanted for theft from a motor vehicle.

Appears there's a taxi pulled up close to where he lives,

which is through here.

And he's obviously took his opportunity to nick

some property from that taxi.

KNOCKING

It's the police.

Are you all decent?

Who's in? Who's not in?

Eh?

-I'm afraid you're wanted, mate.

-For what?

It's the offence of theft from a motor vehicle.

Oh. You joking me, right?

You're under arrest on suspicion of theft from a motor vehicle.

You don't have to say anything

but it may harm your defence if you don't mention

something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say

-could be given in evidence. Do you understand that?

-Yeah.

-Do you wish to make a reply at the moment?

-No.

Give him a kiss.

The officers let the suspect finish his drink

before handcuffing him.

Is there anything in your pockets that you don't want to take

-to the police station?

-I'll go as I am.

He was having an early breakfast prior to going to work, I think.

You know, we caught him during his corn flake moment.

Or was it Rice Krispies or something like that?

Yeah, sort your cigarettes...

Do you want a jumper or you're all right with that on?

'Every address we go into, we have to assess what we're up against.'

Whether it's alcohol, drugs, number of people,

do we know anything about them, you know, previous history?

Are they normally violent -

if you say the magic words "You're under arrest",

are they compliant, etc?

Is there any medication here that you need to take with you?

-WOMAN:

-No, there's not.

All right, OK, mate.

The prisoner's allowed one last goodbye kiss.

..Aye. They're in the van.

All right? You've definitely got nothing with you?

Have you had some gear, or...?

No.

You look a bit...

-Have you had alcohol, or...

-No, we had half a bottle of brandy between us.

OK, that's all I want to know. It's just so that when we get down there, we know what you've had.

Just watch your head as you're getting in.

Sadly, early morning arrests have become routine for this detainee.

HE WHISTLES NONCHALANTLY

Yeah, we're all...brothers and sisters, aren't we?

Well, I remember you when you about 14 year old.

'He was a tearaway when he was a kid.'

He's been through the system from a very young age.

As he said, you know, I've known him since round about the age of 14,

and I think he's now 39, 40 year old

and he's been regularly in and out of custody,

I've dealt with him a few times over them years

but I've known about him all that time.

And there's never been a great period of time where he's

not done anything.

And he just gets churned up through the system, you know.

'In and out, in and out, in and out. You know.

'And the value of policing him and'

looking after him and, you know, maintaining...

It's mind-boggling how much that'd be if you were to tot it up.

-Right, we're going to have to get you off now, mate.

-All right.

-See you later, then.

-All right, see ya later, pal.

-Ta-ra, mate.

The repeat offender was later found guilty of theft

from a motor vehicle,

and received a 12-month conditional discharge.

Earlier, Greater Manchester's

serious organised crime team

tracked a target vehicle

to the Stretford district.

Acting on intelligence, officers stopped a van,

discovered a large amount of suspected drugs inside,

and took the driver into custody.

Detective Sergeant Dave Eaves

now has to brief the scenes of crime officer,

and gather any further evidence from the impounded vehicle.

Obviously this officer's your arresting officer.

Stopped in a car - in this car

is what we believe is a large quantity of cannabis resin,

and some cash, that's in that plastic bag behind the seat.

So all I want to do is photograph it all...

We want to forensically recover these boxes,

because obviously we believe that's come from a third party.

So at some stage that might become an issue,

as to who's handled the cash, and the boxes.

'They can photograph everything that's seized,

'so that there can be no element of doubt at a later date

'as to whether the search has been conducted correctly.'

That then adds further evidence by documenting that process

and then, if there's going to be some issue

as to who any of that property belongs to,

we can seize the items during the search in such a manner

'that they can be forensically analysed at a later date.'

As well as the large quantity of drugs recovered from the car,

there's also the matter of the cash.

Again it's Scottish AND English notes...

'It's difficult to say how much cash is there,'

but looking at it, it's tens of thousands of pounds -

I wouldn't say it's a hundred thousand pounds,

I would say maybe £30,000, £40,000, something like that.

In total, there were seven large boxes of cannabis resin

inside the van.

Each one of those is about a quarter of a kilo,

and it's referred to as a nine-bar because that's about nine ounces.

So it looks like there's four in each of those bags,

so if we count that we've got one, two, three, four, five, six,

-seven, eight, nine, ten...

-There's 14 altogether.

14 in there, in one box.

-So each one of those plastic bags is a kilo.

-Yeah.

So if we're looking at just over ten in each box and there's seven boxes,

we're going to be in excess of 70 kilos, aren't we?

If you take that down to however much it costs for a grand deal,

each kilo would then be worth 5,000 or 6,000.

I reckon about 350,000.

The police have a tradition of overestimating how much they've seized!

-THEY LAUGH

-Don't they?

It always goes up and up and up, you know, with the publicity.

The detective briefs his boss on the findings.

..Searched the vehicle, I found X, Y and Z. I arrested him... Yeah?

Cos as soon as I saw that cash on the street I thought,

"We've got to be careful with this."

OK.

I'll see you in a bit. Bye.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Is he pleased, then?

He's pleased, yeah. The DI's pleased.

DI's always pleased when we've got a prisoner with a car

with a lot of drugs in it, a lot of cash! Isn't he?

HE LAUGHS

This is probably one of the last calls Dave will make back to base.

He's about to retire

after 30 years on the job.

I joined on the 10th of September 1984.

So...what does this job mean to you? It's potentially your last job?

Potentially, unless something happens at the weekend

when I'm covering at the weekend. So it's good, isn't it?

It's a nice little job, and...

'you don't always get these every day, do you?

'And it's nice, I suppose, in a way,

'going out on a bit of a high with all the staff, isn't it? Excellent.'

In Oldham, the Divisional Tasking Team are on a night shift.

-Have we got the van again?

-Yeah...

PC Kev Rawcliffe has an updated wanted list.

As ever, certain names, certain offences,

are all too familiar to the team.

This is the lad who's wanted on warrant for failing to appear

at Oldham Magistrates' Court on the 12th of this month

for offences of theft.

This is the lad who goes in with empty packets of

Benson & Hedges,

asks for the equivalent number of packets,

presents a card which is refused,

he does a quick Paul Daniels with 'em

and takes the real ones with him, leaving the empty ones.

It's an MO he's been using for donkey's years...

..all across the Oldham area -

and, in fact, Manchester area, to be honest.

He must have had over the years thousands and thousands of fags

by this means.

So we're just going to go there now, see if he's in.

-What's he like?

-I think he's 80% deaf,

very meek and mild...

'It's just like a constant visit his address.

'It's almost, like, once a week now.'

Right. We've got proper details of off this lad...

-This door's been put in that many times...

-LOUD BANGING

These are all new replaced doors, but I don't think this one was.

-It's the police, mate!

-It's the police.

-Yeah. Just let me get up, please!

-OK.

-Yeah. All right, then.

-INDISTINCT

-Yeah, it's all right...

Sorry...

-Hiya.

-What's wrong?

-Can I come in and speak to you?

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

-I've not been out - look...

-That's all right.

So it can't be in breach, cos I've not been out.

No, you failed to go to court last Friday.

Yeah, I'm in court tomorrow.

No, you should have gone to court last Friday,

there's a warrant for your arrest.

I'll show you. Come here.

I'm in court on the 17th, which is Wednesday.

You should have gone to Oldham Magistrates' on Friday.

And you didn't go. So they've issued a warrant for failing to go

on Friday, but this is Tameside.

This one that I'm here for's Oldham.

-Do you know what I'm in court for?

-Theft,

it's your cigarette trick.

Nobody's said nothing to me about this.

Well, you'd have had notification, wouldn't you?

-Sorry?

-You would have had notification

that you were at court last time you went to

the police station when you were charged.

So I've got to tell you that you're under arrest for failing to appear at the court, OK?

You don't have to say anything,

but it may harm your defence if you don't mention when questioned

something you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say could be given in evidence.

I thought I was due in court on the 17th.

Right, OK, so your reply is

-"I thought I was due in court on the 17th."

-Yeah.

-OK, mate.

Pass me your lighters. You can't have it in your pocket when you go in, just spark your fag up.

'Got no money, but he smokes like, 100 a day.

'And that's all he steals, is cigarettes.'

As individuals, I mean, I've got nothing against them whatsoever -

we've got a job to do,

and the people of Oldham

NEED us to do that job,

because these people are the ones who are out

'supermarket shoplifting or whatever.

'It's not the pretty sight of crime that you ordinarily see on TV,

'but it's the people that are daily committing crime

'which affects people's lives.'

There's something here...

That's miscellaneous papers.

Miscellaneous? Yeah...?

No, mate... Just watch your head.

Don't bang your head.

-FEMALE OFFICER:

-You all right there?

-SUSPECT COUGHS

'We must have arrested him three or four times this year for the same offence.'

He's proper old-school, he's been round for ages, you know, doing this,

you just do feel sorry for him. And obviously he's in really bad health.

'You know he gets treated well,'

and to be fair

the system normally looks after him.

So... He just needs help.

The man spent 12 weeks in prison for the theft of cigarettes,

and has clocked up ten more similar offences since.

In the Stretford area of Manchester,

the search of the van pulled over by police is now complete.

The serious organised crime team

found seven boxes of cannabis resin inside,

along with a significant amount of cash.

In Pendleton custody suite,

the driver, Mark Corbett,

is waiting to be charged in connection with the drugs seizure.

Hello. Come round here...

-Hello.

-Hiya, mate.

-This is Mark, is it?

-Yeah.

-How are you, Mark?

-All right, thank you.

OK, Mark, you're charged with the following offence.

You had in your possession 89 kilograms of cannabis resin.

-Any reply you wish to make?

-No reply.

Officers interviewed the man in the vehicle, Mr Corbett,

and he's basically...

What he's saying is that he's a courier.

He previously has a conviction -

'as a result of that conviction,

'and being found in possession of drugs previously,'

he's sort of maintaining that he has a debt to other people.

Because obviously those drugs were seized by the police,

so he owes that money for those drugs to other people.

So he's maintaining

that he's in fact, like, under a bit of duress insomuch as he's a courier,

and he's been forced into this position,

that he's got to repay a debt,

'and so this is why he's taking part in this activity.'

Come on, Houdini...

Sign wherever there's a X mark that you made no reply.

'It amounted to about

'a quarter of a million pounds' worth of cannabis resin,'

and there was a large amount of cash - in excess of £30,000 in cash.

'So, for somebody to be entrusted to be in charge of that

'and only paid 500 quid - you know, in my opinion that's his story,

'but it's going to be a matter for the court to decide

'whether they believe that story,

'or whether they believe he's much more involved.'

Mark Corbett later pleaded guilty

to possession with intent to supply

Class B drugs,

and to money laundering.

He was sentenced to four years and two months in prison.

The case DID prove to be the last

for Greater Manchester detective sergeant Dave Eaves.

'I've since retired, and, you know,

'I've been spending a bit of time with my wife and I'll be spending

'a bit of time doing things for myself for once.'

But some days I might wake up half past four in the morning, I'd be thinking,

"I'd be going in here now doing a warrant, or arresting somebody.

"And I don't have to do that today." So that's a relief.

And then there's other days you might be sat there

and you might be thinking, "I wonder what they're all up to today,

"you know, I'm missing it a bit." So it's difficult to explain.