21/10/2016 Inside Out London

Hello there.

I'm Matthew Wright, you're watching Inside Out London.

Here's what's coming up on tonight's show.

The union wants guards to be responsible for train doors

but Southern Rail management want this to be the driver's job.

With frustrated commuters caught in the middle we ask - who's right?

No one is more tired of this story than Southern commuters.

Why such chaos over who pushes the button?

We expose the job-seeking scam that's defrauded

hundreds of Londoners.

Do you know how many people I've spoken to who have

been affected by your fraud?

Who have lost thousands and thousands of pounds?

And we pay tribute to Britain's first black publishing house,

still going strong after 50 years.

I do not believe that multicultural education would have

been possible but for the work that this bookshop and others

like it actually did.

For the last six months commuters on Southern Rail

have been enduring strikes, cancelled services and

skeleton timetables.

The key issue at stake, whether drivers or guards are

responsible for closing the train doors.

The RMT union has claimed guards have a vital role to play

with regard to passenger safety.

But in Europe, they already have unmanned fully automatic trains

while British Rail introduced driver-only ones in the 1980s.

How did Southern end up in such a mess?

We sent Mark Jordan to investigate.

Another week of strikes and Southern discomfort.

It's the tale of the sad little green train, loved by no-one.

Managers said it was inefficient, unions warned it would injure people

if the driver closed the doors.

The striking guards said, that was their job.

The commuters were furious.

In all the land no-one had worse punctuality

than the green trains of Southern.

No-one is more tired of this story than Southern commuters

so why such chaos over who pushes the button?

How did a railway grind to a halt over who shuts the doors?

In Europe, I will meet those already running

unmanned automatic trains.

But here on Southern, that's for another generation

because the UK row over guards has been running for half a century.

The first of London Transport's automatically driven trains...

1969 and London Underground opened the Victoria Line -

automatic, no guards.

One man will be in charge of each train.

Today, the entire London Tube network runs without

guards in tighter space, underground and carrying more

passengers every day than the entire UK rail network.

34 years ago, British Rail fought for the same.

These brand-new electric trains sitting idly in the sidings at

Bedford sum up British Rail's problems.

The trains can't be put into service due to a continuing row

over one-man operations...

Sound familiar?

In 1982 British Rail finally won this dispute

on what is now Thameslink.

Here's where things get odd.

This is Brighton, two trains here from London.

This is a Thameslink, it has been running with

driver only since 1982.

This is Southern, they run with a guard.

Let's take Brighton station.

You say keeping the guards is all about safety.

So, are the public risking their safety travelling on

the Tube, London Overground or Thameslink because none of them have

guards?

They don't have guards and we have never accepted that guards should

be removed in any of those situations.

Trap and drag situations, where people are

caught, are becoming more and more prevalent.

What the train companies and the government

want to do is just accept the risk.

We don't accept we need to have a risk.

But Transport for London claim door incidents reduced when they

turned their packed overground trains to driver only.

The industry's rail safety standards board was

set up to prevent accidents.

From the research we have done over the

last 15 years, we are very clear that operating with driver-only is

no more risky than having a guard present.

In many cases it is safer.

He says safer because video in the driver cab gives a good view of

every door and rules out driver guard miscommunication.

The RMT dispute this.

Deadlock.

May I say just how much we support the guards.

But if guards ever accept Southern's no redundancies offer and become

customer supervisors without door responsibilities, any of their

future strikes would no longer stop trains.

Most of the arrangements where drivers are operating trains

on their own at the moment are actually agreements that

were reached by British Rail before privatisation occurred.

But weren't we told privatisation would speed us to a

modern, efficient railway?

Not it seems if strikes risk ticket revenue and profit.

There was no incentive to lose the guard.

But then the government gave Southern a unique fixed fee

contract, with no loss of revenue for strikes.

Your contract means when there is a strike you still get paid.

The lost ticket revenue is picked up by the taxpayer, the government.

Is that correct?

We have a very unique franchise in the way this one is

operated and all fares and revenue does go to the government.

There is then a cost to us reputationally

when we have strikes.

Southern claims the deal was to cover uncertainty over the London

Bridge re-development.

Overcrowded.

Delayed and cancelled trains...

But these angry commuters believe the

government and Southern are in a pact.

We are not able to even start to demystify the cosy

relationship between Govia and the Department of Transport.

They are secretly backing them because that

is their agenda.

When they deliver new rolling stock, or when they procure

new rolling stock, that is the Trojan horse.

They put it on the back of it destaff the trains and

destaff the stations.

They call that modernisation.

What I am saying to the government, you should be

stripping this private company of this franchise.

Talk to us, we are willing to take over suburban trains.

It can't be right that the government and ministers have their

head in the sand.

I've met so many commuters who actually hate your company.

That is a terrible position to be in.

I totally sympathise with our customers.

This is why we need to make these changes very quickly now

so we can bring everything to an end.

If Southern win future government franchises

could insist lines like South West Trains also

eliminate their guards.

If I open this cabinet.

In London this summer, something much more radical was attempted

on the Jubilee Line.

TFL ran a test on a driverless tube in a depot.

It's an early precursor to some of the agenda that the employers

and the government has got about dehumanising the railway.

We are on the alert to that and trying to be vigilant about it.

Tube drivers earn around ?50,000 a year, that is ?8,000

more than some second officer piloting easyJet flights.

As TFL prepares to spend 16 billion on

trains capable of full automation, the RMT say their drivers are

going nowhere.

Automation is OK but there's got to be a human overseer, as

there is on DLR which is always quoted, there is always a train

captain on-board DLR services.

We would expect that from any automatic

trains operated services that come up.

Here in Paris, they are hardly immune to the odd industrial dispute

but on their busiest commuter line they have done something that leaves

TFL and Southern in the dark ages of railway technology.

This is line one on the Paris Metro.

It carries more people every day than the

entire Southern Rail franchise.

The trains have no guards, no drivers

and they are totally automatic with 100% punctuality.

People know that it is very safe and comfortable for them.

It wasn't a big issue.

While Southern battle over who pushes the door button, this

entire line is driven from here.

What happened to the drivers?

The drivers had a choice.

They can either go to another line or they can stay on the

line and become supervisors on the line.

Any big event means more trains at the click of a mouse.

It's quite amazing to think up to 750,000 people a day

are speeded to wherever they are going from this one

control room.

In Paris, they are already automating the next line.

Hear in Haywards Heath, the chaos of Southern

railway has forced Claire to move out.

The fourth day of the week and it's taken you three hours a night

to get home.

You are ready to burst into tears.

I would have been at risk of losing my job.

And six months on, perhaps the greatest insult is both

sides still claim the fight is for the passenger.

We actually don't care whose fault it is any more.

We kind of want trains to run on time and we want our lives back.

Michael Jordan reporting.

Now then, still to come on tonight's show.

It was actually in the Black Panthers where I discovered black

literature, and may interest developed and I found a

New Beacon.

Not only did I discover a whole range of books about history,

slavery, poetry from Africa, the Caribbean, it just opened up a

whole new world for me.

When you are hunting for a job it can be a great

feeling being called up and offered a position with a decent

salary attached.

Sometimes it pays to be on your guard.

An undercover investigation for Inside Out London

has exposed a sophisticated employment scam where candidates are

offered positions in nonexistent companies.

A scam that has, in all likelihood, fooled

hundreds of job seekers out of thousands of pounds.

Guy Lynn has this special report.

These men and women have all been taken in by one man.

I want to welcome you, I'm John Phillips.

He oversees a job scam and sophisticated fraud.

You are very well aware of what your employment life can be.

We know it sucked in hundreds of people who have paid thousands of

pounds.

These are just a few of them.

I've rarely come across someone whose scam was so realistic and had

such a huge impact on his victims.

What we're going to do is give you a front row seat on how that

scam works.

Some highly qualified, some just starting,

all were desperate to work in HR and progress their career.

They placed their CV on job websites which can be openly

accessed by employers.

Later they got contacted by John Phillips in

charge of a large HR company offering them what they thought was

their dream job.

The job was an admin assistant role which was supposed

to be based in London Bridge.

I was going to be paid 24,750.

I couldn't be happier, my family was happy for me

and me personally, I felt, well, finally I've made it.

To understand the scam we're going to apply.

Our undercover reporter, we call her Jane Smith,

prepares a realistic CV and posts it online

on the kind of sites our victims have used.

A few days later a job description and an e-mail from one company,

Premier Employment.

And then a call confirming this to a man called John Phillips.

And then a call confirming this to a man called John Phillips.

We find a website and see it's registered on Companies House.

All the job seekers are told to come for a final interview before signing

a contract and commencing work.

Our reporter is on her way to an office in the heart of the city.

But no sign of John at all.

We are met by someone else.

Tiffany.

Who tells us how working for Premier Employment

comes with huge perks.

Next is the crux of how Phillips makes his money.

All were asked by different assistants to pay for accreditation

to work at the company.

Experts say that is a warning.

In my eyes that is exploitation of vulnerable job-seekers.

Nobody should be paying to find, to start a new job

with a genuine employer.

We hand over our accreditation fee but are told it will be refunded.

She said I'll have to pay ?480.

And you need to bring the cash in order for you to start employment.

You have to pay upfront before you start the job.

But what about John?

So, as the meeting with the undercover reporter was

taking place inside this building I was waiting outside.

We have heard from other victims that when it comes to actually

receiving the money, John is nowhere to be seen.

What I happened to record with my phone while waiting outside

is very interesting indeed.

I spot John Phillips seemingly running operations from outside.

If that's in any doubt look who comes in.

Tiffany.

Whom we've given the money for so-called accreditation.

She gives it to John.

Initially, we thought she might have been part of it but later

we discover that Tiffany herself was being conned with a fake

job and is just as much a victim as everyone else.

This lady, Lucille, not her real name,

was exactly like Tiffany.

A senior manager.

John persuaded her to pay for premises from her own funds to

interview candidates.

Her task?

To get the accreditation money off them.

And then devastating when the whole thing turned out to

be a lie.

You lost confidence.

We receive a detailed list of instructions to start work.

Our job, to find other candidates.

We are sent a set of e-mails and numbers to call.

There are 30 numbers and e-mails here.

What's clever, so to speak, about this is were we to do

our job and invite all of these people for interview it'd mean

about ?7,000 for Mr Phillips.

He is aware of the cash value of our calls

and gets jumpy when we don't make progress.

I didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing.

Yes, I am.

I read it but something's are missing.

We investigate Mr Phillips.

He's from St Lucia originally and uses several aliases.

John Phillips.

Nathan Phillips too.

When I pose as a client...

Can I just check what your name is?

Bill Barnett.

Pardon?

Bill Barnett, Bill.

The firms he set up have professional looking websites.

We find more than ten, some using fake company directors.

We speak to numerous job-seekers who have never been paid.

With reports online suggesting this scam has been going on for years

with possibly hundreds of victims.

For these men and women it wasn't just the money,

it was staking everything on a full-time job

and all but involved.

I wouldn't say it was exactly depression but I was completely

stressed financially.

Hard to cope with life in general.

It's quite embarrassing as well.

Especially being the age that you are, you want to be helping and

supporting your family and yourself and being able

to do things, but when you come across somebody like this

it does take you low, very low.

There is no company, there is no office,

there is nothing behind.

How can you possibly do that?

Where is your humanity?

There is no humanity.

Young people like me just got in this country.

You are just stealing for the poorest.

It is ridiculous.

John Phillips still thinks we're going to arrange him people

to be included.

Unusually, he agrees to meet us in person.

To push us to do the course, to get him the candidates.

All money spinners for him.

He says goodbye but now we seize the moment to

ask him some questions of our own.

Guy Lynn from the BBC.

Just wondered if you could tell us all about the

high levels of fraud you've been committing against many, many people

by lying about those jobs.

I don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know what we're talking about?

We have been recording you over the last few months

offering people jobs at fictitious companies.

I don't know what you are talking about.

Are you aware that what you are doing is incredibly serious

fraud, Mr Phillips?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Do you know how many people I've spoken to who have been

affected by your fraud?

Who have lost thousands and thousands of pounds?

What you have to say to them, Mr Phillips?

No answer.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I have never seen a more pernicious kind of fraud as that which you are

perpetuating.

I don't wish to talk to the BBC.

I think he's scum.

I can't believe he's getting away with it.

I can't imagine how he can sleep at night.

I don't know if he hates people.

He is a horrible human being.

Since our investigation, John Phillips has gone underground

leaving behind a trail of damage for his victims.

October is Black History Month which, amongst other things,

offers the chance to celebrate the way black people have

shaped our capital's culture.

Up in North London there is a small but

very special shop that started life as the UK's first black publishing

house and is now celebrating its 50th anniversary.

It sits just across the road from the ubiquitous

Piri Piri Chicken and next door to the dry cleaners

and you'd easily walk past without noticing it.

But here in Finsbury Park, this tiny book shop

is of huge significance.

New Beacon Books has, since 1966, quietly

gone about its business of pushing black culture into the mainstream.

Not only was it the first black publishing house and book-sellers in

this country, but it started at the time when there was a very

real need for what it did.

It was radical cultural material.

If you look at the first few books we published

they were political or radical in the sense they were coming

from a Caribbean aesthetic.

It was quite simply an oasis in a desert of

knowledge about black history and culture.

New Beacon was the brainchild of the late John La Rose,

a poet, trade unionists and activist.

It's published and sold books written from black communities

all over the world ever since.

John's partner, Sarah White, started the shop with him

and still runs it now.

It started in our bed sitting room.

We had a book service, you could say.

We wouldn't call it a book shop.

It was a row of books on a shelf in our bed sitting room.

We gradually built up a collection of

books, you could say, of black interest books.

We used to take them around.

We had a motorbike and we used to take them around on the

motorbike.

We didn't get a shop front or anything like that for a very

long time.

By 1973, they had managed to buy the property they are still in

and open a proper shop.

It meant for the first time, Londoners could browse and buy

books they otherwise might never have got the chance to read.

It wasn't fashionable to carry books by black writers.

The idea of going into a book shop and being readily able to

pick up books about the Caribbean or written by black authors was not

an easy thing to do.

So, this book shop, this publishing house filled a

massive gap where that was concerned.

As well as showcasing the works of previously unknown authors, it

became a meeting place where forward-thinking ideas could be

exchanged as author Donald Hinds remembers well.

I didn't go into a library, a public library in Jamaica

until I was 20.

I could come here, and even if you didn't buy a book or

you couldn't afford to buy a book, browsing through some

of the writers that you have heard about and hadn't got around

to reading them and so on.

It did a lot.

Listening to people like you who had written a novel about

poetry and so on.

Listening to people who'd gone through it, talking about

this and that and so on.

It was fantastic.

The book shop also houses the George Padmore Institute,

founded by John La Rose 25 years ago.

It is an archive storing material that tells of the experiences of

Afro-Caribbeans in Britain in Europe.

The documents they hold often relate to radical change and include groups

like the once once vilified Black Panthers.

New Beacon worked closely with the Panthers selling books

at meetings.

I was a Black Panther.

It was actually in the Black Panthers where I discovered black

literature and my interest developed,

and I found New Beacon.

It played a significant part in my life because

not only did I discover a whole range of books about Africa,

history, slavery, I discovered a lot of poetry from

Africa, the Caribbean.

It just opened up a whole new world for me.

# This is the beat of the heart.

# This pulsing of blood that is a bubblin' bass

# A bad, bad beat...#

Linton Kwesi Johnson's ground-breaking reggae poetry

was hugely popular and gave us a greater insight into

the black politics of the time.

Thus creating a greater togetherness and he reckons

that is exactly what this tiny book shop was all about.

Integration as opposed to assimilation where you lose

your identity.

Integration is a two way street.

We, the newcomers, adjust themselves for the way of life of

the country.

The people who were here already get to find out about us.

New Beacon played a significant part in others getting to find out

about us.

The book shop was able to take that idea of integration even further

by taking its books into schools and libraries for the first time.

Our children were not being given access to anything about their

own lives or their own history.

And so, in addition to having the book shop,

one of the things that we did, that New Beacon did, was to make

books available to libraries, make books available particularly

to teacher centres, professional development

centres for teachers.

We were getting quite a lot of orders from the libraries.

When the libraries began buying it was really in the 1980s.

This was part of the government's response to the riots.

It was an attempt to create a West Indian middle class.

You suddenly have actual government money.

The libraries had a pot of money to buy Afro-Caribbean collections.

I do not believe that multicultural education, as it came to be known,

would have been possible but for the work that this book shop and

others later like it actually did.

But it also did something else, it encouraged young people,

British-born, to write.

It encouraged them to see themselves as

capable of becoming authors.

So, from a very modest beginning of a few books in a bedroom we get

inspiration, integration and education.

Not bad things to be remembered for after 50 years.

And still very quietly going about its business.

New Beacon Books, what an amazing little place.

That's it for this week's Inside Out.

Don't forget, if you have missed any tonight's show

and you'd like to catch up on iPlayer, head to our website.

The address is -

bbc.co.uk/insideout and then just click on London.

Thanks very much for watching.

See you again next time.