05/11/2012 Inside Out East

Would you risk thousands of pounds to be famous? We are on the trail

of the Buckinghamshire conman, who has been posing as a reality TV

producer to trick people up of their life savings. My friends lost

money, my boyfriend lost money, his family lost money.

We are drinking -- digging up treasure from Cambridgeshire's

bronze past. We found a boat. It was incredible.

And why some fishermen have turned down a plan to save the traditional

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 42 seconds

Reality shows and celebrity TV... For those who take part, a quick

step to greater fame and fortune. The perfect hunting ground, then,

for a fraudster on the make. We're on the trail of a serial conman

who's been using reality TV to target the rich and the famous. And

we find out how these Big Brother stars opened their hearts for a

reality show that never even existed. How low can someone go to

get footage to convince people that you've got your TV show? And we

uncover what our fame-loving fraudster was really up to behind

This is Mario Marconi and Lisa Appleton. You may recognise them.

They shot to tabloid fame when they appeared in series 9 of Big Brother.

But as the spotlight fell off them, the couple were left looking for a

new project. That's when self- styled media mogul Silva Michael

walked into their lives, a man who liked to be known as the Silver Fox.

He seemed to have it all and was generous with his wealth, a proud

supporter of celebrity-backed charity the Five Stars Appeal.

Silva through a mutual friend who we was doing some charity work with

at the time and he introduced himself as president, producer,

managing director Silva of World Screen Group. Get a load of that! I

thought I had met the almighty God of the industry. So Mario and Lisa

threw in their lot with the Silver Fox who promised he could relaunch

their careers. His famous signature was "I'm going to catapult you to

another level. You'll have your own reality show." He was working on a

series called Bombay Vice, the equivalent of Miami Vice but an

Asian version. And the Amazon jungle. "Throw you two into the

jungle." With a contract signed, the pair set about filming with

Mario and Lisa spent several months filming with Silva, sharing some of

their most intimate moments. Filming 18 hours a day, 2-3 hours

sleep sometimes, and all this pressure. He was pressurising us

all the time. It was proper hard work. They even recorded a single,

All the hard work seemed to pay off. Silva told them a national TV

broadcaster had agreed to run their show. We were so excited. We cried,

didn't we? We actually cried. We said, "We've finally done it! We've

got our own show!" But there was no deal and the footage ended up as

just an eight-minute trailer, dumped on the internet. Mario and

Lisa were furious. We left him, we actually parted. We gave formal

written notice that we were leaving him and World Screen, nothing more

to do with him. He said, "You will never work in the media again. You

are has-beens," and all this. He was really horrible. Soon after,

the Silver Fox disappeared. So who was Silva Michael and what on earth

did he want with Mario and Lisa? Like many things in television, all

was not how it appeared. This is the Silver Fox ten years ago and

using a different name. Selva Carmichael at court to plead guilty

to what was described as "a large- scale fraud on a large number of

small investors". He ran the Carmichael Corporation from offices

here in Bristol using the latest in a long line of aliases, but his

name wasn't the only fake thing about him. Carmichael was running a

Spanish property scam, taking thousands of pounds from investors

and putting it straight into his pocket. Even then, he was making

friends with celebrities. This is Carmichael with the actress

Stephanie Beacham, who knew nothing about his scam. What he wanted was

the touch of glamour that celebrity could bring to his own carefully-

crafted image. He was very charismatic. He was dressed

impeccably in Armani suits. He had dyed blonde hair and a charming

manner and I just trusted him. Maggie Haines was one of those

investors who fell for his charms back in the late 1990s. She even

ended up working for the Carmichael Corporation, but eventually she

discovered it was all a front. crunch of it all happened when the

police arrived in the office in Bristol and arrested everybody and

I realised then, "Oh my God! This whole thing has been a lie and I am

in deep trouble." Maggie had been duped and left counting the cost of

letting Carmichael into her life. My friends had lost their money, my

boyfriend had lost his money, his family had lost their money, my

best friend lost her money. I was devastated. Carmichael was

eventually sentenced to three-and- a-half years. On release, Selva

Carmichael disappeared... Only for Silva Michael - the Silver Fox - to

pop up last year as Mario and Lisa's TV saviour. We've spoken to

several of his investors. Some of them parted with tens of thousands

of pounds, hoping to appear on one of his shows. They're now too

embarrassed to speak out on camera. And their money? It's simply

disappeared. Documents released to the BBC by the High Court show one

investor is suing Carmichael under his real name for the return of

more than �42,000. Even the celebrity charity, the Five Stars

Appeal, was stung by Carmichael. A �23,000 luxury yacht holiday he

promised for a charity auction failed to materialise, as did a

�10,000 bid he made on the same night. For Mario and Lisa, it's

been tough coming to terms with the fact their names were used to help

scam innocent victims. I can't sleep at the minute at night still.

We row a lot, don't we, about it because it has led to a lot of

problems, and psychologically as well. How much can one take?

it's only now that other people are coming forward and saying, "Well,

he's done this to me and he's done that." And at the time, we didn't

know and they're saying that and I'm thinking, "I feel sorry for

them as well." So where is Carmichael now? He failed to appear

at the High Court in Manchester for a hearing two weeks ago. Carmichael

is bankrupt but his wife owns this �725,000 house in Buckinghamshire.

The car he drives is here, but he's not. Just as we thought the Silver

Fox had gone to ground, we found one man who knows exactly where he

is. So Simon, when was the last time you saw Selva Carmichael?

last time I saw Silva Carmichael was when he was being sentenced to

three-and-half-years imprisonment for his money laundering as part of

a major fraud. It turns out Carmichael is more than just a

fame-hungry conman. He's part of a major criminal network whose

members tried to steal almost �500,000 from the Santander bank.

We've got fraud, money laundering. He's hardly the sort of person you

would trust to make you famous. more likely penniless. From what I

have seen in court and the case I've dealt with, if you have any

dealings with Selva Carmichael, be very, very careful because what

might be a very good and convincing front doesn't bear any examination

in detail. For Mario and Lisa, the news Carmichael is behind bars

comes as a shock. No! Really?! What for? But they hope it at least

marks the end of "Their Journey" with the Silver Fox. Knowing Selva

liar, lives in a deluded land and If there is something you think we

should be investigating, you can send me any e-mail: You do not know

what they will give you from one The Cambridgeshire Fens can appear

to be a flat featureless landscape. But that is deceptive. This is Must

Farm at Whittlesey near Peterborough. Hidden beneath the

ground is a treasure chest of prehistoric items. Some dating back

to the dinosaurs. This site produces 2.5 million bricks a year.

But something else is coming out of the ground. A unique archaeological

landscape. But it was only discovered by accident.

Archaeologists usually work with small trowels, scratching away at

the earth. But here, the discoveries need industrial scale

equipment. We coined a term deep space archaeology. We are digging

landscapes at the scale we have always done. But we are doing it at

depth. That is the combination that brick work brings to our project.

Here is the paradox of preservation. It is perfectly preserved because

it is buried so deep. But it is almost impossible to find. The only

way you can get at it is if you have a brick pit in your landscape.

They are the only people digging big and at a scale enough to

encounter those materials. first discoveries were made in the

19th century. Workers were extracting clay by hand.

A local farmer, Alfred Nicholson Leeds, also happened to be an

amateur palaeontologist. He would collect objects from the buckets.

Eventually, he also realised there were skeletons in the clays being

extracted. And he started asking the workmen if something

interesting was found to send word to him. He would send his sons who

would excavate it. Over the next 20-30 years, he established an

enormous collection of marine reptiles and dinosaurs. His

reference collection is world famous. The Cambridge

Archaeological Unit has been studying the area since 1995.

The discoveries are radically changing the understanding of

prehistoric life in this part of the Fens.

What is in these boxes? These are the bronzes from the quarry.

chance sequence of events preserved the contents of a settlement.

A wooden platform raised on stilts above the marshy ground which

caught fire. If we imagine this pot sat in a raised settlement above a

river channel in the Bronze Age. Someone leaves the toast on. The

platform catches fire. Things start collapsing. These pots go from

being in a fire environment. So it is carbonising the contents of the

pot. It is then hitting the river, so being extinguished. It is then

falling to the bottom of the channel into soft silts. These kept

this object for 3000 years. But equally, it is becoming three

metres below the ground surface. So it is out of the way of any sort of

interest are features of modern life. -- intrusive features. Just

waiting there for us to find. What distinguishes Must Farm from

other archaeological sites? Depth. For example, if we were to go to

Stonehenge, and dig a hole next to one of the Stones, we would be

lucky to get 30 centimetres before we hit bedrock. In that 30

centimetres we are asking for the whole of British history to be

caught. We have to understand that soil has been ploughed and dug and

cultivated since prehistory. everything is jumbled up? In our

landscape and context, we have metres of deposits. So you can

imagine we have the Mesolithic at the bottom, hunter-gatherers. And

ours at the top. Everything has been separated out.

Over time, the Fens have changed from land to sea and back again.

The old Wash estuary gradually filled up with peat and sediment.

That gently covered and preserved everything at the bottom of the

water. Each of these bands is a tide. So you can see the lamination,

and how uniform this is. Daily tides in and out until eventually

the sea cannot get in any more. It has choked its own course. At

this point, we get this break in the sediment sequence. Then we go

to a completely different formation process. Things drifting down to

the bottom of the river. Silt forming. And we see all the plant

life and shells and things. Salt water to fresh water.

The archaeologists depend on the quarry being here. Their work is

paid for by the company that makes the bricks.

What is it about the geology that makes this place ideal for brick-

making? It is the clay. It is a wonderful type. The Victorians

discovered that it made strong durable bricks. But also, because

of its carbon content. When you heat it, it burns itself. So not

only could you make a soft, durable brick, it was also cheap on fuel.

By lighting it, it helped in the firing process. In order to do this,

you would need planning permission? Yes. To dig it out of the ground?

And the reason why the archaeological discoveries have

been made is we have to agree a scheme of conditions with the

county council. They are the planning authority. We work in

partnership with the archaeologists. They can keep a watching brief. But

when we dig certain parts, they can move in. It is expensive. Having

the consultants, the archaeologists. Having to pick around where they

are working is not the most efficient way. But we accept, on

balance, it is worth it. We have to do it for planning reasons. But we

also feel we have a responsibility to do it. Earlier this year, the

archaeologists made one of their most astonishing discoveries.

A Bronze Age boat. We always said how amazing it would be to find a

boat. We had fingers crossed. We found one, which was incredible.

But we never expected to find eight this year. It is unheard of in

prehistoric Britain. I am literally standing almost at

the bottom of the channel as it would have been. This channel has

just silted up and up. It has basically preserved all of the

features and artefacts that have been deposited into this channel

throughout that time. This has come up from a V shape. It is funnelling

the fish straight into traps. The weeds and absolutely spectacular.

Do you think there was a chance that those could have been tied on

to something? It looks like they are made of some thunder, all were

found. Some kind of fascinating? Yes. Needing a structure to be tied

to each end, allowing water to flow through, but not blocking it off

completely. Yes. That is good. most important items are taking

away for conservation. Fish traps have also been preserved. This

complete picture of life is why this is the best landscape in the

world for these archaeologists. Aeroplanes fly over on top of us.

We think of that as colleagues flying off to Borneo or Egypt. We

are shaking up to them to be here. This is where a pristine three-

dimensional landscape is, without any erosion. I do not think I would

want to be anywhere else. This site has only revealed its

history because of the quarry. It is quite possible that, hidden out

there on the Fens, is yet more treasures. We are unlikely to find

them and yes they is yet more work on this scale. -- unless there is

yet more work. Here on Mersea Island, there is a

long tradition of fishing, some family tracing back several

generations. But some are worried that could end unless smaller boats

and allowed to catch more fish. The East of England has a long

heritage of fishing. All along the coast, towns had their own boat

builders, fishermen and fishmongers selling the local fish. They were

an important part of the seaside community. But most of the fish we

eat is caught by big boats on an industrial scale. Those using the

small boats say they are being put out of business because they are

not allowed to catch enough fish. And that matters for us, the fish

and the environment. Fishing is a way of life for father

and son, Andrew and Johnny French, on Mersea Island in Essex. This is

what we do. We do not know anything else. We do not want to know

anything else. Their boat is classified as under 10 metres long.

The under 10 fleet includes the most environmentally friendly

fishing boats in the country. Studies have shown their nets do

less damage to the sea and fish. Legal requirement for Bass is 90 mm.

Ours are all 95 mm. You have made a conscious decision. Why? Because we

do not want to catch the smaller fish. So a lot of the smaller fish

go through and let them grow bigger. It is daft catching small ones and

throwing them back dead. It is daft, really. Every year it gets worse

and worse. Isn't that what fishermen always say? It does get

harder every year with the quota. Because of the restrictions. It is

a very hard job. But we do not know anything else, so it is what we do.

These smaller boats are not given an annual quota by the Government.

Instead they are given a monthly allocation of fish they are allowed

to catch. It is known as the pool. You do not know what they are going

to give you one month to the next. You have to wait until the end of

the month to find out what you are allowed to catch. You cannot run a

business like that. Small-scale fishermen make up 77%

of the fishing industry in the UK. Yet they are allowed to catch just

4% of the entire national quota. The European Common Fisheries

Policy is about to be reformed. Owners of under 10 metre fishing

boats have formed an association, known as NUFTA, to try to save the

fleet. John Nicholls from Ramsgate is a founder member.

The quota does not work and never will work. It was never set up for

multi-species fishery. It was set up for a single species fishery

like in Fraserburgh at the top of Scotland. Large vessels can catch

500-1000 tonnes in one go there. Only one species is target. --

targetted. That is what the quota was set up for. We are a multi-

species fishery down here. We are able to catch 20 different species,

but may only have quota for 4. The Fisheries Minister is trying to

find a way to help the small boats. A pilot scheme has started on the

east coast with more relaxed rules on what can be caught. Part of the

scheme gives the fishermen an annual quota instead of the monthly

allowance. So if they do not catch many fish in one month, they can

make it up later in the year. Chris Redmond, based in Ramsgate, is one

of those taking part. At the time, it seemed like the safe option for

a year. They were guaranteeing me X amount of fish I could catch.

I added it up and thought maybe I could give it a go. Has it worked?

For me, yes. I was laid up for two months earlier on in the year. So

the fishing opportunity I missed I have still got to catch. Whether we

have done the right thing, I do not know. Come back in a year and I

will let you know. At the moment, we are happy with it.

The pilot was intended to run in six places in Kent, Essex and

Suffolk. But all the other groups except one here in Ramsgate pulled

out of the scheme. On Mersea Island in Essex, Johnny French was going

to be part of the pilot. declined it, because they did not

give us quota to live off. We were better off staying in the pool.

as far as you are concerned, there is nothing to make it worthwhile?

No, there was a lot of aggravation. Three months of meetings. Five or

six hours long and every time there was less for us.

So why is the Government pressing ahead with the pilot scheme? There

are many reasons why people would or would not to take part in such a

scheme. We have moved heaven and earth for the scheme. We are

dealing with a broken system at must sit in the context of what we

are trying to achieve nationally, reform the Common Fisheries Policy,

get management Abdul local level. What is right for one, is wrong for

another. -- Get management at a local level. Looking at a unified

industry is just not a feature of Fisheries Management. The under 10s

want a different scheme. They want to be able to catch more of the

fish. But since quotas were introduced in 1983, they have

missed out on the big deals. Most of the quota is currently held by

just 24 fish producers organisation. The larger vessels, the producer

organisations have surplus fish. Fish they cannot catch. They have

that entitlement on log books. They are saying to the smaller, hard-up

vessels. The smallest vessels in the fleet. "We have fish, we have

quota. What we are prepared to do is rent it from us for the year.

"So in other words, they expect us to give them money for paper fish

when we can then go out and catch. But those quotas are handed out by

the Government for free. So is it fair to charge to rent out quota?

One of the things we are trying to do is find out who owns quota in

this country. It seems amazing that we are having to do this. But we

are. It is a determination by this Government that we know who owns it.

And when it has traded, we will be told. We can manage it a lot better

and fairer. More people who are not benefiting can. And they can run

their businesses more effectively as a result. I think there are too

many fishermen chasing too few fish. The opportunity is there if we can

just get through the muddle of a failed system in Brussels. A rather

opaque system of quota management that we have inherited in this

country. The Mersea Island fishermen cannot change the quota

system. But this summer, working together with their families, they

found a way to maximise their return on the fish caught. We came

up with the idea of selling direct to the community, straight from the

fishing boats. Two days a week, we set up a stall. We put the fish out,

the locals purchase it from us, getting a bargain. And the

fishermen get a good deal on the fish. So no one is complaining.

I would suggest it to everybody, because it is what your local

community wants. To buy local fish freshly off the boats.

There is a lot of support for the under 10 metre boats from the

public and the Government. But unless the quota system is changed,

that support will not be enough to save them all.

That is it from Mersea Island in Essex. If you think we should look

at anything, send me an e-mail. I am also on Twitter. Join me next

week when I will have these stories. When an Northamptonshire family was

murdered, he was named Britain's Most Wanted man. We investigated