Episode 1 Filthy Rotten Scoundrels

Welcome to the fight to clean up our streets and put the Great back into Great Britain.

Our job is to find out who put this here and to prosecute them.

Every 30 seconds, rubbish is illegally dumped across the UK.

It's filthy, it's hazardous and it's wrecking our cities and countryside.

They think they've got away with it, but they've not.

From the tonnes of cigarette butts and dogs' mess that hits our streets daily to the mountains of tyres and

illegally dumped waste, no-one and nowhere is safe from the horrific things dumped on our doorsteps.

We're with the officers determined to catch the crooks in the most shocking cases ever seen.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence...

And we follow the battle to clean up the devastating mess left behind.

A fly-tip of this size would cost thousands to clear it.

Join us in the fight against Britain's Filthy Rotten Scoundrels.

Today on Filthy Rotten Scoundrels, one man's shocking 15-year fly-tipping spree...

He was turning south Bristol into an environmentally littered, fly-tipped swamp.

..and one of the most bizarre and filthy cases of environmental crime.

A dog walker is throwing poo all over the Leicestershire countryside.

I make it 28 bags in one tree.

Look at that. That is disgusting.

I mean, really disgusting.

The hunt is on to confront the person responsible.

I've got him going down that far footpath with the bags and coming out with no bags.

But first, Hillingdon, north-west London,

and an undercover sting operation is being planned.

Fly-posters are a massive problem across the borough,

and they're continually slapped up on lampposts, traffic lights and derelict shop fronts.

Local residents have had enough and want it dealt with once and for all.

Cue the council's environmental crime team.

This is a serious matter. We take down 170 per week in Hillingdon alone.

Multiply that by 32 other London boroughs, multiply that by who knows how many

metropolitan authorities, you're talking about thousands and thousands

of these per day around the country.

Today, they're dealing with a deluge of fly-posters like this.

Up to 500 have been put up all over the borough.

Each poster can carry a fine of £100, and they're after one man who,

if he put them all up, could be facing a whopping £50,000 fine.

Former policeman John Davies is the environmental officer

heading up the operation, with the help of the police.

But little do they know the drama that's about to unfold.

These postings have been all over Hillingdon.

There's just another one here. It's exactly the same poster. And we find them everywhere, major junctions,

and they're just a blight on the environment.

Obviously, the objectives of the exercise are to identify who's putting these up,

the organisation that are doing it, whether it's a one-man band

or working from a yard or whoever he is, really.

We'll only know when we stop him.

We have done checks on the telephone numbers,

and they're all pay as you go, not registered.

You've phoned them up? And what did they say?

As soon as you identify yourself, they just put the phone down.

So they are aware that it's illegal to do it.

And the overall objective is to stop this from happening again,

because we're trying to stamp out environmental crime in Hillingdon.

The fly-posters advertise all sorts, from music to people offering to get rid of your rubbish.

While some adverts are for legitimate businesses,

others will just collect your waste and fly-tip it.

That means they're stealing work from genuine businesses like Dean's local waste-collection service.

I think a lot of people aren't aware that you have to have a licence and

at all times I should be able to produce my certificate to any potential customer.

People's attitudes are literally they want to get rid of the rubbish the cheapest way possible,

and at the back of their mind they may think that this person

looks a bit dodgy but, "Why am I paying this company £200 when I can get rid of it for £100?"

When they're phoning up for quotations from companies,

they should say, "Can we see your licence?"

If they can't produce a licence, then you've got to have second thoughts

about whether you should be giving them the work.

And the shocking truth is that if you employ an unscrupulous trader

who fly-tips your waste, you are still accountable for its disposal.

So it's YOU that could end up carrying the can.

But it's not only waste disposal these fly-posters are advertising.

The man that John and his crew are after is offering to buy

and take away un-roadworthy vehicles to sell on at a profit at a breaker's yard.

The going rate is around £50 a vehicle, and they'll end up pocketing three or four times that.

Whilst this isn't illegal, scrap dealers

do need to declare their earnings for tax and carry the right paperwork.

But the crime team reckons the fly-posting metal-scrap dealer

might be dodgy, so it's essential they meet him face to face and check his licences.

But before they can challenge him in person, they need to catch him first.

So they've set up an elaborate and ambitious sting operation.

They've called him and arranged for him to pick up a car they've planted,

and then they'll make their move.

What will happen is that vehicle was in a scrap yard yesterday.

It's now been placed

in the location and it's been sat on by a colleague

of mine, and it's now waiting for me to take over from him.

My colleague then will join Alan and the police.

This chap is going to give me some cash for the car, and then they'll stop him.

It's time for the honey trap.

But even with five years in police intelligence under his belt, John knows he can't control everything.

The only thing that can go wrong now is if he fails to appear,

which is the only thing now which is out of our hands.

Still to come, find out later what happens when the target turns up.

Game on, boys.

And as the moment of truth draws closer, the plot thickens.

OK, he's moving.

But will they be able to stop the man

who's come to pick up the decoy car?

Next, some of the most serious fly-tipping crimes ever witnessed in the UK.

Bristol is renowned for being one of the most beautiful cities

in the West and of course its famous Clifton Suspension Bridge,

but for 15 years, one man was turning these historic streets

into a sea of rubbish.

Paul Bryant was single-handedly responsible for a third of the city's fly-tipping.

He'd been dumping thousands of tonnes of rubbish.

He was a thorn in the side of Bristol's enviro crime team

and was at the centre of a four-year covert operation.

Carole Donovan led the investigation.

You have the small handful of the builder types,

the contractor type - they're just going to take their chance.

Bryant was very unusual in that he did it day in, day out for years.

As a former police officer, it was easy for Carole to work out Bryant's tactics.

He would scour residents' homes, see if they

had waste in the garden, and he would bang on the door and say, "I'll take that away for you, love.

"Fifty quid." That's how he operated. It was very much opportunist.

And he had a particular favourite spot - under the M32 flyover.

Bryant chose this location because he worked it out.

He worked it out there's fast-moving traffic.

This isn't an area easy

for the public on foot to access.

So he knew nobody's going to be here to stop him or question him as to what he's doing.

Carole was going to have to work hard to nail this scoundrel.

She knows just how big a problem fly-tipping is right across the UK.

Thousands of tonnes of waste are scattered in our streets and countryside every day,

and it's costing us - that's you and me - £55 million a year to clean it up.

And it was one of the locals from Bristol who wasn't going to let

Paul Bryant get away with his brazen criminal acts.

John here is an eagle-eyed resident whose home overlooks the site, and he was at

his wits' end with the disgusting view outside his bedroom window.

From one end to the other end, that was completely filled,

and it was above the railings,

and this went on for months and months and months and months.

You get to a stage where you've had enough.

And who wants to look at a pile of rubbish?

And just by luck, John spotted the brazen fly-tipper.

It was about five o'clock.

I ran up the stairs,

pulled the curtains to one side, and I just started videoing it.

And I filmed him walking across.

And he came down the road

and he went round, in through the gates, drove up, reversed round,

and as he tipped it, he was driving out.

As you can see, it's a well-rehearsed operation.

Bryant tips his load and, in his rush, leaves the back up while heading straight for the motorway.

Driving up with your tipper up like that has got to be stupidly dangerous.

This man clearly doesn't give a monkey's about his or anyone else's safety, let alone the environment.

I didn't at that particular time think this would be useful,

but I didn't realise the size of the case, I didn't know the extent

that this gentleman was fly-tipping. It was quite big.

Well, according to the Environment Agency, it was one of the biggest that they'd handled.

Carole's investigation was helped along nicely when they found his

business cards advertising "A man with a van".

I rang the mobile number on the card to ask him for an explanation of why he

had tipped rubbish he had been paid for to clear legitimately.

In no uncertain terms - there was certain swear words - he told me not to waste my time trying to catch him.

But Bryant's days were numbered.

When the police caught up with this filthy rotten scoundrel,

his business card with phone number was what finally brought him down.

When the police raided his house, they rang that number, and the telephone was ringing in his bedroom.

Bryant was given a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence and was also slapped with

a ten-year ASBO banning him from transporting any waste.

But as well as the brazen fly-tipper getting his just desserts,

it also means Bristolians can enjoy a cleaner city.

I view it as a victory for Bristol, in that we've taken a serial fly-tipper

and a serious fly-tipper off the streets of Bristol.

He was turning south Bristol into

an environmentally littered, fly-tipped swamp.

So that is very important for Bristol, that he's gone and he's removed.

So fly-tippers be warned - if you're caught, you could

get fined up to £50,000 and even jailed for a maximum of five years.

Still to come on Filthy Rotten Scoundrels,

the undercover sting operation in Hillingdon, north-west London,

is about to kick off.

There he goes.

As officers close in on their target, what will happen when they try to confront him?

SIREN

But first, one of the most bizarre and filthy environmental crimes one enforcement officer has ever seen.

Dogs - they might be man's best friend and arguably the nation's favourite pet,

but our faithful companions produce something that is rated as the UK's most hated environmental crime.

There's just too much dog mess in the streets.

Some people have got no thought for anybody else.

My dog stood in dog poo the other day, treaded it all in my house.

So I've had to clean all my house and all his feet.

Then I had to go out and pick the dog poo up.

It's just laziness. Disgusting, really.

Well, I think you've got to look after your dog from top to tail,

so the food that goes in you're responsible for,

and you've got to be responsible for it coming out again. Simple.

Clearly, we're not all shy about saying what we think of dog mess.

The public lists dog fouling as the worst problem

that they have, that they report to the council.

They want it as the highest priority.

What's more, there's an intriguing change in

the kind of dog-fouling offences that are most common these days.

What we are finding more now is that people are actually picking the dog poo up,

bagging it and dumping the bags,

and the problems now seems to be moving away more from dog fouling on the floor

to bags of dog poo being stuffed in hedges, hanging on trees...

Dog fouling obviously is a criminal offence,

it's illegal and you can get fined for it, anything between £50 to £80.

Failure to pay a fine obviously can lead to court, and you could get up to £2,500 in fines then.

One man who's determined to catch lazy dog owners

is environment officer Chris Carey.

The former police officer is based in the beautiful

district of Charnwood, deep in the Leicestershire countryside.

And he's just picked up a dog-fouling case, but this one seems simply extraordinary.

We've had a report of a man walking five dogs,

and what he's doing is...

every time the dogs are defecating, he's picking it up,

putting it into bags, like he should do, and then allegedly throwing them

into the field and trees, which is quite extraordinary, really.

I've not heard of anything like that before.

But before I make judgment, we'll go and have a look at it, and see exactly what's what.

But I understand from what the gentleman has said that there are

a number of bags high into trees, and also into the field.

So it'll be interesting to see exactly what's gone on.

But yeah, why throw it into trees?

I've heard of money growing on trees,

but not dog poo!

Determined to find the culprit, Chris follows his nose...

..and he's straight out to the popular footpath used by walkers and dog owners alike.

Dog fouling is the biggest source of complaint that we get.

There's supposed to be a lot of it.

It's a disgusting thought that we've got to go and have a rummage through these bags and have a look at it.

Chris has seen some bad sights in his time, but this one could be the worst one ever.

It was described as some large trees, so I don't think it's going to be these.

Oh, there we are.

Two bags of dog poo.

Why would you want to do that? Why?

At first sight, it looks like just a couple of bags, but then...

That's the third bag.

And it's about to get much, much worse.

There's lots...

Oh, it's all over the place.

It's everywhere.

And if people do walk here

on a regular basis and they bring families, then you've

got to watch where the kids stand.

I've got to watch where I stand, let alone the kids!

But then the full scale of this crime becomes very clear.

If you can zoom in onto those trees in the distance, look at that.

That is so disgusting, that is.

Well, just from here,

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine bags hanging from a really tall tree.

Initially, I thought it might be a crow, but they're not.

That is disgusting. I mean really disgusting.

You're not wrong there, Chris.

He decides to take a closer look, and it doesn't make for pleasant viewing.

I didn't get me piece of paper,

but where do you start?

One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight,

nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,

sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three...

Well, I make it - and I might be wrong - twenty-eight bags.

That is in one tree.

And look how

high that is, as well. Without actually chopping the tree down...

There's a lot of bags on the floor. I mean, twenty-eight bags in the tree.

It'll be interesting to see as we go along if there's any...

There's another bag up there in another tree.

That's amazing. One, two, three, four, five...

Seven over there.

There's a lot on the floor.

I mean, I'm certainly going to treat this as fly-tipping just for the sheer amount of it.

Twenty-eight bags there.

I've counted, and approximately twenty bags there.

There's another eight bags in that tree. I mean, that is antisocial.

It's just, well, perverse.

What words do you use to describe it? I mean,

would a normal person do that?

I don't think so.

This is a first for Chris.

He's never seen anything like it, and what he discovers next just tops the lot.

Just here -

I've took a photograph of it, actually - you've got a

piece of dog poo in a bag, and just underneath there's a nest of a...

I should imagine the size of the nest would be some sort of finch.

Isn't that horrible in the environment?

You look at something that's really nice and you want to protect, and you've got that.

It's, er...

Just no excuse for it.

Chris has seen enough.

He's now determined to catch the person responsible for this mess and throw the book at them.

Fixed penalty notice? No.

I mean, that is not a fixed penalty notice. Caution?

We're not always wanting to get people prosecuted, but in the context

of this area, of the amount of bags, there's just no excuse.

And in my opinion, this man should go to court and answer

to the magistrates his actions for doing such a...

disgusting, dirty thing as throwing bags in trees.

Chris is now a man on a mission to nail the person responsible.

Still to come, has a local CCTV operator spotted the man

who Chris believes has been throwing the bags of dog poo?

-I just followed him on one of me cameras and managed to catch him...

-Throwing the bags?

-Yeah.

And as Chris decides to stake out the crime scene, will he catch the

phantom dog-poo-bag thrower in the act and get the evidence he needs to stop them in their tracks?

Back in Hillingdon, officers are all ready for action in their undercover sting operation.

They're hoping that a man is going to collect a car for scrap that they've planted.

They need to check he's legit and whether he's responsible

for the illegal fly-posting around their borough.

John Davies is leading the operation.

That's my colleague.

And I shall take over the reins.

All right, Sid? Oh, that's the keys, yeah? Do you know

where they are? Out here, turn left, yeah?

-Yeah.

-They're in a marked police van.

The police van is parked around the corner and out of sight from the decoy car.

As an ex-copper, John's planned this operation down to a T.

The reason why we chose this location is cos we can control it.

You come into a cul-de-sac, close area.

He's going to come in here,

and obviously, from here then he is completely out of sight from anything that's going on outside.

As soon as he's in, I'll contact my colleague.

They can then get a bit closer than they are, cos they're about two,

three hundred metres away at the moment.

They can actually get to within fifty yards, so

apart from our objectives of finding out who he is

and his waste carrier's licence, we don't want to lose this car, cos it's not ours!

John's in place, but there's no sign of our man.

Could he have smelled a rat and gone underground?

Time to call the suspect to find out where he is.

What's the latest? Well, I've just got here, and I've got to be at the solicitor's for eleven o'clock.

I'm about ten minutes away, so if you can come pretty soon after that?

You'll get your dad to do it, yeah? All right, mate. Cheers now.

OK, whilst I was driving, I've had two missed calls off a number.

It's a different number to the number that's on...

the poster we've got.

The chap wants to put it back an hour or so.

Clearly, I don't. He's in Heathrow, picking up another car, so this

is not a one-off situation.

He's in Heathrow picking up another car, which he's got to deposit, and then he's got to come here.

What he said he's going to do, he's going to get his dad to do it.

So it's not a one-man operation. Maybe the whole family.

He sounded different to the person I spoke to yesterday.

When it comes to these sting operations, time is money, and John can't afford to wait any longer,

so he gets on the blower to the suspect's dad.

It's in Hillingdon, yeah. Do you know Hillingdon at all?

Right. Do you know where Long Lane is?

So see you in about twenty minutes or so, yeah?

All right. Where are you travelling from?

Near West Drayton? All right, boy.

John needs to keep his fellow enviro-crimebusters Alan and Sid in the loop,

because for the sting to be a success, attention to detail is key.

Game on, boys.

-The first guy who phoned me was the son.

-Yeah.

He's in Hounslow -

Heathrow, sorry - picking up another job. He couldn't do it.

So his father's phoned me. His father's the same chap I spoke to yesterday.

He's having his breakfast, then he's going to make his way here from West Drayton.

He said give him a half-hour. That was five minutes ago.

I said, "Can you make it twenty minutes?" He says, "No, I'm having me breakfast."

So yeah, a half-hour.

I'll give you a buzz when he's here.

John heads back to the decoy to wait for our suspect's dad

away from our cameras and the police van, where the tension is mounting for Alan and Sid.

Any minute, I suppose.

I'd be very, very surprised if he has got a waste carrier's licence.

-But I've been surprised before.

-Alan and Sid wait nervously for

the signal in the police van, and finally the man has turned up and loaded the decoy car.

PHONE RINGS

OK, John.

Has he got it on the back, or is it hooked up on a spec frame?

OK, he's moving.

He's on his way out now.

There he goes.

It's all systems go, and the team can't afford to let this man get away.

SIREN STARTS UP

I've met you before!

Later in the programme, officers come face to face with their target.

You got a waste carrier's licence?

-Yeah.

-Have you got it with you?

-They try to get to the bottom of who's

behind Hillingdon's fly-posters and see whether this man is legit.

Back in Charnwood, enviro-enforcer Chris Carey has one of the most

unbelievable cases he's ever dealt with.

Dozens of bags of dog poo have been found hanging from trees.

Would a normal person do that? I don't think so.

And he's determined to catch the dog-poo-bag thrower.

This man should go to court and answer to the magistrates his actions for doing such a...

disgusting, dirty thing as throwing bags in trees.

But this footpath by the A6 isn't the only place that's been hit by this particular type of dog fouling.

In Rothley, for village warden Marion Vincent, it's a very common sight, unfortunately.

I think we've got no bigger problems than a lot of villages, but we certainly do have problems.

I do litter collecting, and I do pick up bags of dog faeces, and we do not like it.

I used to be on the community-college council, and every meeting

the subject of dog fouling on the playing fields came up.

And it was so difficult to do anything about it.

But the problem was children would be playing football and they would be falling in this dog mess.

But we need to do something about it.

It has got to be addressed.

Clearly, it's something she wishes wasn't an ongoing problem.

Until it stops, though, she does everything she can

to help out, which includes patrolling the village every day.

And every day she's got plenty to clean up.

Well, I don't like the look of that, to begin with, hanging up there.

It's quite obvious what's in that bag.

We've got another one down here.

And another one.

This looks as though it's an area where people think they can just put these bags.

And as soon as you get one or two like this, more join them.

Litter attracts litter.

So somebody is obviously using this area, so it does need to be looked at.

Sadly for Marion, it's looking like it's going to be a full-time, unpaid job.

It's utterly disgusting.

Some people just don't seem to care.

This is just what people don't want to see

when they come for a walk.

That's dreadful.

This must be somebody that comes here on a regular basis.

Cans are a favourite, as well.

It's beyond me, at times. I just don't think they care.

I don't think they care about litter in general,

and I think they're just leaving it for somebody else to clean up.

They think, "Oh, I pay my rates.

"Somebody else will do it. They'll look after it for me."

Back at the scene of the phantom dog-poo-bag thrower, enforcement officer Chris is onto a good lead.

A neighbouring factory has CCTV that overlooks the footpath.

Could the person have been caught on film?

What we're going to do now,

we're just examining some CCTV footage that's been taken by this company.

-I've got him going down that far footpath with the bags and coming out with no bags.

-Right.

One night, it was quiet, so I just followed him on one of me cameras, and

-I've managed to catch him...

-Throwing the bags.

-Yeah.

Well, it's come to my notice with these in the last two, three month,

but I think he's been walking down here for the last year.

Right. So you've seen him on a regular basis.

Chris has decided to confront the person he suspects of being

the bag thrower face to face, and he's desperate to get a result.

This case is just one of many across the country, and Chris has got good reason to want to nail this person.

As a nation, we own about seven million dogs, and they produce one thousand tonnes of poo every day.

Councils spend £22 million each year clearing up dog mess.

And if that isn't a big enough reason to make sure you clear

up after yours, it can also be dangerous for us.

If we ingest it, we can catch an infection called toxocariasis.

Children are particularly at risk from this, and symptoms include

abdominal pain, coughs and headaches.

In extreme cases, it can result in permanent loss of sight.

Back with Chris, the day has arrived for him to mount his

sting operation to snare the phantom dog-poo-bag thrower,

and he wants to catch them in the act.

Hopefully, he will turn up.

If not, we'll have to try again.

It's just being patient, really.

Chris waits down the road from the site.

And just in case he needs backup, he's brought along his colleague Kevin, who's parked up behind him.

It's a nail-biting wait.

And then,

just on cue...

Yeah, it's there. It's there.

He's got the bags in his hand.

Chris has got to hang back.

If this person is the bag thrower, he needs to try and catch them in the act.

-He's put the bags down on the side of the path.

-I saw him bending down.

-Yeah.

He's picked it up. It'll be interesting to see whether just to wait for him to come out or...

It doesn't go down far.

The man's put two full bags on the grass verge of the footpath.

He's only just placed them down about 75 yards into the actual

footpath itself, so we'll just see when he comes back.

If he hasn't got the bags, then he's deposited them.

The suspect is now on their way back to the car.

Even for an experienced officer, this is always a nerve-racking moment.

Time to confront the person Chris suspects of being the dog-poo-bag thrower.

Hello there. Can I have a quick chat?

Chris's backup, his colleague Kevin, is keeping an eye on the proceedings from a distance.

I've had a couple of complaints that you've been seen to throw your dog bags into trees.

Basically, you've been seen on CCTV camera on a couple of occasions to throw the bags.

I must tell you that you do not have to say anything.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence...

I want to ask for your name and address - it is an offence not to give it to me, under

the legislation - and just arrange for you to come into Charnwood Borough Council for an interview.

He's refused to give me his name and address, although his wife has given me his name.

I can do further checks from the information that we've

got from the car registration number, and we'll send a letter asking him to come in for an interview.

Chris believes he has strong evidence with the CCTV, but he will need to interview the person

face to face and take his investigation from there.

Vehicle reversing.

While Chris gathers his evidence, he's arranged for the area to be cleaned up.

Stand well clear.

Sadly, it's the experts that have been brought in to do the job, not the person who did it.

A bit unbelievable, really. I've never come across it before.

We usually find the bags on the ground, but we've never had them in a tree before.

Whoever did it must be quite dedicated, because there's quite a few up there.

With more than thirty bags in just one tree alone, it's a delicate and painstaking job to clear the lot.

And of course, someone has to bag it all up.

I thought it was a new form of Christmas decoration. It's ridiculous.

I mean, he goes to all of the effort of getting the dog bags, cleaning up after his dog,

and then he quite happily throws it away in the bushes and trees!

He's got to be crackers!

I've got to say, I don't fancy Christmas dinner round at your house.

Chris has got plenty to do before he's got a watertight case, and only

time will tell whether anyone will be charged for this filthy crime.

-Back in Hillingdon, a decoy car has just been picked up by a man in a van.

-There he goes.

Officers think he might be transporting scrap cars and

disposing of them without a licence and putting up illegal fly-posters all across the borough.

SIREN SOUNDS

As they catch up with him, it looks like the police recognise him.

I've met you before! I met you a couple of weeks ago.

-Yeah.

-Ah! How are you, fella? All right?

-OK.

-Just doing some checks on some vehicles. Erm...

-Pardon?

-Just right here.

All right.

-This is for this, is it?

-Yeah.

The man is being co-operative, but they still need to check whether he's got a licence to remove cars.

OK. Have you got a waste carrier's licence?

-Yeah.

-Have you got it with you?

I have paperwork.

Yeah, yeah.

The document should be there, yeah.

Yeah, can I have a look? Sure, sure.

What about waste transfer notes?

When you pick up, you need to show a

document to say where the waste has come from and where the waste is going to.

Well, I have the thing to say where I sell it. OK, yeah.

Alan is being extremely thorough

and making sure the man can prove he's doing everything by the book.

So you've got 10, 8/12, 6th of the 2nd... There's more here.

8th of the 2nd. 17th of the 2nd.

OK, that's fine.

-I have them all...

-No, that's fine.

Can I just take your details, please?

-Yeah.

-And it looks like our man is legit.

-You're one of the first people I've stopped

that can produce the actual paperwork. Yes.

The man's paperwork is all in order, but there's one key outstanding issue,

the fly-posting. It's serious.

This sting operation was put together after between three and

five hundred of this type of poster were found right across the borough.

If this man is responsible and he can be linked to them, he could be in big trouble.

Each poster carries a potential fine of £100, and if you do the maths,

that could mean a total fine of between £30,000 and £50,000. Ouch!

What's happened, he's a very reasonable chap.

He's got all his waste transfer notes, he's got his waste carrier's licence,

and I've done some checks since I spoke to him when he took the car away.

The place he's taking it to is very respectable and reputable, and they only deal with legitimate companies.

So it appears on this occasion all he's doing wrong is putting the fly-posters up.

Still doesn't answer the question for the signs.

But the man is denying the fly-posters have anything to do with his business.

You had a phone call from the guy that you picked that car up from.

-Yes. Yes.

-He called that number.

But that is not my number.

This is what's happening with them.

They're going up all over the borough.

But that is the phone number.

-So what's the problem?

-It's illegal.

-Yeah?

-It's classified as fly-posting.

-Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Each one of those signs that goes up we can actually issue a fixed penalty notice for of £100 each.

His phone number's not there.

But what he's said is he's going to put the word

around about the signs.

So they're all linked, but the trouble is, we haven't got

the evidence to link this one up to this one, which is a bit frustrating.

-'Ey?

-We'll decide now how to deal with that.

We've got his name and address. He's clearly not a bad lad.

We can see he's perfectly compliant. He's just

got to re-appraise his advertising techniques.

And those advertising techniques are about to be thoroughly investigated back at Hillingdon HQ.

Alan's been checking the cash-for-scrap fly-posters

they've taken down off lampposts, and he's come up with a strong lead.

It's a direct link to our man.

When I come back to the office,

I went through the signs that we've got, and lo and behold, there's this person's phone number,

and that's one of his leaflets he sticks under people's windscreens, giving the same phone number.

This is why we're bringing him in for interview, to try and

find out where these signs are made and who is actually putting them up.

When I've spoken to him on the telephone, he said, "Oh, I've got

"a really good explanation why that number's on that sign."

So I've told him, I said, "Leave it until we come in to interview."

I said, "You can give me the explanation then under caution."

A week after the sting operation, and it's time

for the formal interview, which is not only taken under caution but its also recorded, as well.

The tapes will be unsealed in front of him, put into the machine, the interview will start.

When the interview is over, the tapes will be taken from the machine and one will be there for

the interviewee, if he wants one, and one's

-the working copy.

-The man has turned up with his solicitor and declines

to be filmed, so the interview is held behind closed doors.

Thirty minutes later, it's all over, and his number is up.

Alan briefs his big boss, Bill Hickson, the enviro crime team's manager.

He paid some guy to go round and put them up in

MOT testing stations, garage workshops and places like that inside.

So they were on the inside, complying with the regulations.

He did get very, very upset, because he hadn't realised

they were going up on traffic lights and things like that.

I said, "There's two ways we can deal with it.

I can either prepare a case file and take it to court and actually

prosecute you for it, or I can issue you with a fixed penalty notice now."

He accepted the fixed penalty notice. I said, "You're trying to work within the law.

"The trouble is, by having these signs put up on

"lampposts and traffic lights, you just stepped outside them."

Thanks, Alan.

-OK.

-In the end, the man has put his hands up to it all.

He could have been fined for each poster that the team took down,

but he's got off relatively lightly with a one-off £100 fine.

Nevertheless, it has been a very fair cop.

So, since we stopped the guy that we actually interviewed today,

the amount of signs that are going up have

quite dramatically reduced.

I just hope the word's going

round that we are out there and they have a good chance of getting caught now.

So the man didn't turn out to be a Filthy Rotten Scoundrel, but the amount of fly-posters

being slapped up all over the borough has considerably reduced,

which means it's a job well done for Alan and the Hillingdon team.

In the case of the phantom dog-poo-bag thrower, the investigation is still ongoing.

The council is determined to get to the bottom of who's responsible and make them pay for their crimes.

Join us next time, when we'll be revealing more Filthy Rotten Scoundrels.

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