22/09/2014 Inside Out North West

Hello, and welcome to Inside Out North West with me, Dianne Oxberry.

Tonight, we investigate how elderly and vulnerable people are being

conned out of their life savings by postal scams.

Look at this, this is the volume of mail

one person received in just six months.

As England calls for more powers after the Scottish

referendum, we ask how we can rebalance inequality between the

Spending on public transport in London amounts to ?5,000 per head.

And the families who've been celebrating

I have always heard about Southport,

I'm absolutely staggered at the numbers.

They've been described as the invisible criminals, and

every year they con thousands of elderly and vulnerable people here

in the North West out of their life savings by offering large prizes

Those involved hide behind postal scams very cleverly

disguised as competitions or investment schemes and they usually

As I've been finding out, the only guarantee for those who fall for

This is fraud and it's done in such a sneaky manner, you know,

Scams can take on many different forms, ranging

from telephone and e-mail deception to mail order and postal fraud.

I think most of us are familiar with that begging

e-mail from overseas promising you your share in a large fortune in

Well, ones like that are pretty obvious but they're not all that

easy to spot, and the scammers are very good at getting people

David Kenny has been the victim of scammers for five years.

He lost more than ?36,000 on an investment scam in 2009.

In an attempt to recoup his losses, he responded to a different scam

You get a catalogue you can buy things out of.

You have got to buy something out of it and you go into a competition

There are lots and lots of letters here - winning documentation,

your status as winner is confirmed, confirmation of a prize win...

How much have you managed to win over the years?

According to Citizens Advice, the number of fraud offences

reported in England and Wales increased by 25% last year.

Over 200,000 cases were reported by the victims of scams to

But this number is thought to be just the tip of the iceberg.

It's believed only 5% of victims admit to being caught out

Citizens Advice has calculated that up to 4,000,000 people could be

scammed every year, with many either too embarrassed or

Now, if you're in any doubt as to how prolific these mail

This is the volume of mail one person received in just six months.

Bags and bags and bags, stuffed full of envelopes.

By the time Jessica died in 2007, her life had been taken over

During the space of five years, she received 30,000 letters

promising her large prizes if she sent back claim orders with

Her family estimate she lost more than ?50,000 to the scams.

Five years before she died, she received a letter that told her

she won a competition and all she had to do to claim

My mother did this and as a result her name got put

on what's called a suckers list and circulated to criminals worldwide.

So literally she was bombarded with scam mail

It went from maybe two or three letters a day to, probably, I saw

The house started to fill up, the shed was full, the drawers...

She was hiding it underneath the bed, wherever she could put it

Towards the end, as it were, for my mum, there was one time

I went into the house and she was washing a clairvoyant's

When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was removing a curse,

She was too scared to go upstairs, they'd told her there was

The whole thing was a nightmare, but you've got to remember,

After her death, Marilyn set up the Think Jessica charity

in her mother's name to warn others about scams and to campaign for

The houses that we go to, the victims we get alerted to, we

can go in houses and literally you can't get through the door because

One person we spoke to didn't want to be identified because of the grip

She's sending money away to criminals.

Mum won't see that, Mum doesn't understand that.

She says, "This is not happening to me, these are my friends."

She sends them birthday cards, she sends them thank you cards.

What's she thanking them for, because she is not receiving

They'll send her a letter and they'll say, "We want to send

you some good fortune, and if you purchase this talisman for ?30, I

can almost - almost - guarantee all the wealth in the world for you."

So my mum will send a thank you card thinking, "They'll think this woman

is so sweet, she sends a thank you card, let's give her some money."

And now we're 20 years down the line.

Can you estimate how much money your mum has spent?

A full cheque-book, maybe, per month.

I would estimate maybe more than ?350,000.

Good grief. She can't have that money to burn.

I asked her to surrender her cheque-book and I said, "It's very

hard for me to do this, Mum, but it's the cheque-book or me."

She said, "What sort of question is that?"

What a threat to have to make to your mum.

According to Think Jessica, more than ?10 billion per year is going

to international scammers, much of it from the hands of vulnerable

What about the mail delivery companies themselves?

What responsibility do you think they have in this?

There's been a lot of money made handling and delivering this

stuff and I think it's definitely going to be payback time now.

Take more action to make sure that these people are protected.

So why can't mail delivery companies do this?

Why can't they intercept scam mail and stop it from being delivered

I put this question to the Royal Mail.

We have to hold the view that our customers,

if they are living an independent life, they are essentially able to

There is only so far we can go, but certainly we've always put

people in contact with agencies such as Trading Standards who could take

More recently we've developed systems so we actively identify

people who may be being exploited and we bring those people to

I understand what you're saying, but it seems very frustrating

when I have had in my hands bags and bags and bags

of mail that families have been storing in sheds because they can't

And this mail is franked and labelled and so obvious - you're

No-one's the guaranteed winner of anything.

But that's so obvious, someone is delivering through the door

You're talking about other organisations

The postman and the postwoman is the person who walks up

the drive and puts it through the door, and it's so transparent.

It's not so transparent, that's the whole point.

It is, though, Tony. A lot of it is.

Let me be absolutely clear with you, it really isn't so transparent.

It's interesting when you bring a legal perspective to view on this,

the items that are not considered to be fraudulent and therefore which

we are duty bound and legally bound to deliver, and the differentiation

between those and the items which are clearly exploiting customers...

Hello, National Trading Standards scam line.

Today, the Royal Mail and Trading Standards have announced

details of a joint initiative aimed at targeting scam mail and helping

We're working with them to educate their staff

We are talking about scam victims, because there are tell-tale signs,

like the amount of post a scam victim might receive.

We are asking for postal workers to look out for those signs and report

But Marilyn Baldwin believes that many victims will be reluctant to

cooperate with Trading Standards because they've been brainwashed

by the scammers, a condition the charity has called

What would be the ideal perfect solution that

The solution would be that if victims are recognised as having

this Jessica's Scam Syndrome, once recognised, these people then should

be protected, not just left, for them to decide whether or not this

sort of criminal activity can take place in the UK.

Tracing those responsible is extremely difficult.

Many of the companies involved are based overseas and most use PO Box

One of the most prolific is a French company called AMA.

In 2011, the Office of Fair Trading to joint action with their Belgian

counterparts to obtain a court order stopping them

from sending illegal mailings under the name Vital Beauty.

They've since changed their name to Vital Nature.

And Vital Nature is one of the companies that has enticed David

Over the last two years, David has purchased large amounts

of health and beauty products from them in order to secure the

substantial cash prizes that he has won on three separate occasions.

We asked them what has happened to David's prize-winnings.

Just before broadcast, they told us this:

But not, it would seem, to David Kenny.

Letters like this one informing him that he is the grand winner

of ?228,230 - really not worth the paper they're printed on.

Vital Nature says it was so concerned David Kenny was buying

too much in 2012, it briefly suspended his account and, at that

The family dispute this and he has since received more

letters from Vital Nature declaring him a grand winner.

We are trying to get to the bottom of what goes

We got a statement from one saying that their materials

are promotional in nature, there is no obligation to buy.

How do you feel about something like that?

That's how clever they are and that's how they know they can

hook people and that's how they cover themselves, in my opinion.

Do you think that statement's misleading?

Yeah, I think it is a misleading statement because it's

Dad's not buying them because he wants smelly bits in his house,

he is buying them because he thinks he may be in with a chance to win.

He's a victim, he's not a criminal, he hasn't done anything wrong.

Well, it's been said it will take the creation of a Northern mega city

stretching from Liverpool to Newcastle to re-balance

And bring jobs and prosperity to the North of England. Despite the no

vote, Scotland will get devolved powers and many feel it is time for

the government to stop talking and act to ensure the North of England

does not fall further behind as London continues to boom. London,

it's not just the capital of UK plc, it's a global hub that sucks in the

brightest and best from all over the world as well as the nation. Has it

become too big and powerful, leaving the North no chance of catching up?

Whitehall feels far removed from cities around the country. Is the

stark as the capital accelerates away? Or is there sign of a,

creating the jobs we need to stop our brightest and best heading to

the already overheated capital? It's morning rush hour and I am joining

commuters in Newcastle upon Tyne. I'm about to board a train to make a

journey which for many people is a symbol of the yawning gap between

the North and London. I've joined Maurice Duffy, CEO of

Blackswan, an international business Today, he's off to Manchester

to launch a new book. How long does it take?

Anything between 2:30, to 2:45. That's if it's on time, of course,

and it doesn't get delayed I'm guessing you could get to London

in much the same time. I do Newcastle to London twice

a week and I can do that in 2:45 to three hours and that's

an extra 120 miles longer. So we're chugging along

on our trans-Pennine journey. But many feel transport is just

symbol of what's holding us back. People

across the North were asked whether they agreed that the Government and

parliament were responsive to issues Manchester was most positive

with 21% agreeing. In Sheffield,

that figure dropped to just 7%. Liverpool

and Leeds were only marginally more positive at 8% and in Hull

and Newcastle the number was 14%. That's how little

the North reckons London cares The Centre for Cities is an

influential think tank I've come to meet

its chief executive to find out how you go about bridging the gap

between London and the North. Usually if you have a big capital

city like London, the second-tier cities are a certain size. Our

second-tier cities are not as big as they should be so we want to see

them get bigger. So is enough being done to

rebalance England's economy? Around three quarters of people

in Leeds and Newcastle believe the location of parliament

in Westminster means political decisions are too focussed on London

in comparison to the rest of the UK. We would like to see more

freedom for cities. And if you're looking

for evidence of bias in favour Spending on public transport in

London amounts to ?5000 per head. Which leads many Northerners to

question the sense of spending tens of billions on HS2 only to

get people to London even quicker. Especially when you're stuck

on the slow train. The cities want a 15 year transport

infrastructure plan with It is great that those cities have

come together and that is the sort of northern power hose I was looking

for. -- powerhouse. Cynics might say it's easy to back

such a plan But the Scottish independence vote

has highlighted a disparity that's not

just between London and the rest. Yorkshire and the Humber has a

population equivalent to Scotland's. Greater Manchester has almost

as many as the whole of Wales. And Tyne and Wear is almost

as big as Northern Ireland. Yet none of those English regions

have anywhere near the same level of Many believe it's

about time that changed. Look, this isn't some Northern

whingeathon. Few believe the pavements of London

are actually paved with gold. That's what's happened here

at the Advanced Manufacturing Park on the border between Sheffield

and Rotherham. It's attracted 200 businesses,

some small and some not so small. It is a real innovative environment.

Manufacturing is at the 28 year high.

Performance Engineering Solutions was started up by Mike Maddock, an

ex-Formula 1 racing team engineer and an entrepreneur from the South.

He hopes to expand fivefold in the next few years,

Today, his design team is working on a new hi tech golf putter

and a factory cooling unit as well as gear box for a wheelchair.

We are seeing a massive change and in approaches to innovation. There

is a brain drain out of the UK and south and we need to stop that.

They offer different opportunities and a different lifestyle. London is

very busy and very big. I am from one mile down the road so

it is great that I can be so close to home and develop my skill set. I

like that China and India at one point.

Finally, journey's end and time to say

farewell to Maurice who'll be back on the same slow train very soon.

But it gives me a chance to see an example of how moving out

of London can create thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions

It was such an opportunity they even moved the most famous street in the

What the BBC and ITV have done is helped to bring small and medium

enterprises here and create that harbour. -- hub.

Media City is a 200 acre site which straddles the canal

It's said to be the largest facility of its type in Europe and it came

about through a political decision to move jobs away from London.

But this is just one small part of the jigsaw and it'll take

a lot more political will to move power and money from London to

the North and enable our great cities to compete with the capital

Scotland might have said no to independence

And just south of the border that hasn't gone unnoticed.

When the people of Scotland voted last week to remain in the union,

they were supported by the loyal Orange Lodge which has

a strong presence in England as well as Northern Ireland.

Simon O'Brien went to meet them in Liverpool during

They've been marching on Merseyside for almost 200 years.

Every July 12th, roads are closed as the Orange men

and women walk from the lodges in Liverpool to St George's Hall.

Ready to board buses for their annual parade in Southport.

They are celebrating what they call the Glorious 12th, the anniversary

of the Battle of the Boyne, won in 1690 by the Protestant William of

Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II, ensuring the primacy

Growing up in Liverpool and to a lesser extent today,

the Orange Lodge march was always a very high-profile part of the city

I have come to find out more and where better than at the heart

of the movement in this area, the Liverpool Provincial Orange Hall?

The headquarters is a maze of different rooms, all hosting

large meetings and the all-important band practices, making sure they

As soon as we walk in, you are immediately drawn to the flags.

Billy Owens is the Provincial Grandmaster

He has been part of the Orange Lodge since he was a child.

Basically, it is every boy's dream, a roomful of flags.

But the other thing is that it is quite intimidating as well in some

ways to see so many Jacks and William of Orange astride his horse.

The vast majority of people coming here,

To find out what the Lodge stands for, I go to the top.

Ron Bather is also the Grandmaster of the whole world,

representing lodges as far away as Ghana and Canada.

It?s to promote Protestantism, the Reformation principles,

the monarchy remaining Protestant, civil and religious liberty for all

Some people would think we wouldn't include them but we do.

We look at the individuals to practice whatever faith they want.

We don't agree with the principles of the Roman Catholic Church.

Is that necessarily a good thing to stick to those principles?

Some people would see that as regressive.

I think the fact that we have got a principle, we have got

We don't ram it down people's throats.

We are one of the last walking organisations.

We are not afraid to put our heads above the parapet.

This is the typical setup of a Lodge meeting.

Only members of the Lodge can attend meetings but I managed to sneak a

We have got a crown down there to represent the monarchy and we have a

This is a representation of King William who obviously is

And also there we have got a symbol that

is the five pointed star which is a symbol of the institution.

A lot of people would immediately think that means

We have got people in membership that come from right

across the spectrum, whether it be political beliefs or anything else.

As long as they have got faith in the Holy Bible and support the

monarchy and democratic government, that is all they need to be really.

In recent years, women have been given a more prominent role

in the Lodge and hold their own meetings and headquarters.

Once upon a time we were just regarded as people who fill

It has this kind of secrecy and listening to the band there is

I think a lot of people have that, that we are aggressive.

But you can see you have been welcomed in and that we are not.

We are a Christian organisation and on Sunday we will go to church after

our celebration day on Saturday, we all go to church on Sunday.

The church is absolutely at the heart of this.

In previous years, there have been stand-offs between the marchers

and their Catholic neighbours but these days the march at Southport is

As the parade disperses by the fairground,

You can buy your 12th of July "no surrender" T-shirt.

You have that strange mix of the carnival atmosphere and

slightly intimidatory connotations of "no surrender" everywhere.

I joined the Royal Arch Concertina band for a swift half.

I'm starting to learn about it how and it is a fusion

Religion is very important but the music is equally important.

There's no question that there is an undercurrent here.

When I see banners and headbands with "no surrender"

written on them and the military paraphernalia, it is provocative.

My first Glorious 12th in Southport seems more like a family day out.

People are watching the band gowing past and it brings

Even though I am completely baffled why the Lodge would march

about something that happened hundreds of years ago, it seems that

Hello, I'm Sam Naz with your 90-second update.

14-year-old Alice Gross went missing three weeks ago.

Today, police carried out a finger-tip search of

600 officers, from eight forces, are working on the case.

It has overestimated its profits by a quarter of a billion pounds.