:00:14. > :00:17.They were about 4 ft wide and six or seven feet wrong -- long, and
:00:17. > :00:21.they rolled them up and took them away.
:00:21. > :00:25.If it is not locked down it just disappears.
:00:25. > :00:35.What squatters left behind in Sussex.
:00:35. > :00:35.
:00:35. > :00:39.The there is dead tea-towels, food left half-eaten, empty bottles...
:00:39. > :00:43.And what you donate your kidney to a complete stranger? I have never
:00:43. > :00:49.thought I could do a marathon or anything, but this I feel I can do
:00:49. > :00:54.and what to do. By Natalie Graham with untold
:00:54. > :01:04.stories closer to home. From all around Kent and Sussex, this is
:01:04. > :01:12.
:01:12. > :01:15.Inside Out. Hello, tonight we are in these
:01:15. > :01:21.glorious Organic Gardens just outside Yalding in deepest Kent.
:01:21. > :01:26.First stop... The crime that is dangerous, cost
:01:26. > :01:35.millions and affects us all. In a BT yard a bunch of thieves
:01:35. > :01:40.make off with two huge reels of cable. And in an electricity sub-
:01:40. > :01:44.station in Chatham, two robbers risk death to steal metal. They
:01:44. > :01:49.cost the country a fortune every year, and the South East is being
:01:49. > :01:59.hit hard by metal thieves. They risk death and serious injury
:01:59. > :02:00.
:02:00. > :02:04.just for a fast buck, and they do not care about the consequences.
:02:04. > :02:09.This is what they are after a dash to you and me it looks like a bit
:02:09. > :02:15.of copper wire ring, but to the fees it is a waiter quick cash.
:02:15. > :02:21.-- copper wiring. Somewhere in Kent, the police are
:02:21. > :02:25.making spot checks on scrapyards looking for stolen metal. We find a
:02:25. > :02:29.buyer in sight, which is typical of burning cable - you burn the
:02:29. > :02:33.sheathing and you are left with the copper. A evidence of burning metal,
:02:33. > :02:36.burning cable, exactly the sort of thing we would expect to see where
:02:36. > :02:40.they are receiving the stolen property, stripping it as quickly
:02:40. > :02:46.as they can to get it back into market at the best price they can.
:02:46. > :02:50.Two men are arrested, but later released without charge.
:02:50. > :02:52.Police deal with 300 incidents each month, and the crime is
:02:52. > :02:59.particularly increasing in rural areas.
:02:59. > :03:02.More and more farms are coming under attack for easy pickings.
:03:02. > :03:07.You can't leave anything outside now without it being locked up or
:03:07. > :03:11.being watched. It seems the society we are moving into now, and it is
:03:11. > :03:15.not a nice place to live, adding to watch your back all the time.
:03:15. > :03:21.Steve Glover is a farmer in Longfield in west Kent. He says
:03:21. > :03:27.metal theft is getting worse. started with just a bit of hosepipe
:03:27. > :03:32.or the odd trough, perhaps the odd gate, but now it is -- if it is not
:03:32. > :03:36.lockdown it just disappears. Electric fences is one - if you
:03:36. > :03:40.have got a fence, if they see a fence they will have it. They will
:03:40. > :03:46.walk half a mile to go and get it. Nearby Steven Jones has metal
:03:46. > :03:50.nicked all the time. We haven't we haven't had the combine stolen, but
:03:50. > :03:56.we have had little box go of it and the battery go off it.
:03:56. > :04:00.It is not just the stuff going, but the problems caused when it goes.
:04:00. > :04:04.When they steal gates, livestock get out and wander around.
:04:04. > :04:12.In an attempt to tackle the problem, police are making spot checks in
:04:12. > :04:17.roads around scrapyards. Where are you on your way to? Home? Is your
:04:17. > :04:21.ignition broken. There are value of metal is increasing, and there is
:04:21. > :04:25.demand from overseas, places like China and India.
:04:25. > :04:30.And then there is that old favourite - the lead on the church
:04:30. > :04:34.roof. Like this one at Woodchurch near Ashford. But it is a problem
:04:34. > :04:38.that is on the increase, metal thieves have struck here are ten
:04:39. > :04:43.times in as many months. One was taken was the just sheets
:04:43. > :04:47.of lead that covered this roof. They were about 4 ft wide and six
:04:47. > :04:53.or seven feet long. They can and rolled them up and took them away.
:04:53. > :04:56.For thefts from church roofs cost around �26 million last year, and
:04:56. > :05:00.the thieves apparently had no qualms about taking bronze plaques
:05:00. > :05:04.from crematoria all war memorials. The worst occasion was Remembrance
:05:04. > :05:07.Sunday last year, when we had over 300 people in charge here to
:05:08. > :05:11.remember the war dead, and as veterans had to come through the
:05:11. > :05:16.church doors literally with a curtain shower of water coming
:05:16. > :05:19.through which they had to walk. For them it was a huge tragedy and a
:05:19. > :05:23.terrible way to celebrate Remembrance Sunday.
:05:23. > :05:27.When we repair the roof we will use stainless-steel rather than lead,
:05:28. > :05:32.in the future, and when the steel is in place will cover the roof
:05:32. > :05:36.with CCTV cameras, although I have heard of churches who have
:05:36. > :05:44.installed cameras and the thieves have stolen those as well as the
:05:44. > :05:48.metal. So there are no guarantees! In Chatham, these thieves have
:05:48. > :05:54.broken into an electricity sub- station. They are pulling up paving
:05:54. > :05:57.stones and stealing the metal piping beneath. We are entering the
:05:57. > :06:01.area where earlier in the year the thieves broke in and removed the
:06:01. > :06:10.pipework, lifted up a long piece of metal and nearly stuck it into the
:06:10. > :06:14.bars above. And those buyers carry 132,000 volts. -- those bars. They
:06:14. > :06:20.were lucky not to be killed. But they were caught and sent to prison.
:06:20. > :06:24.It is an enormous praise -- problem for us, particularly in Kent at the
:06:24. > :06:27.moment. Although the past year we have had over 700 incidents of
:06:27. > :06:31.people accessing sub-stations like this, interfering with equipment,
:06:31. > :06:36.putting themselves at risk, our guys at risk and members of the
:06:36. > :06:39.public at risk. What is the cost to you as a company? The cost of the
:06:39. > :06:45.metal that has been stolen in terms of the actual value itself is
:06:45. > :06:49.extremely low, but the cost of replacing it, the time the effort,
:06:49. > :06:53.the security systems we have to put into place, runs into millions. At
:06:53. > :06:58.the end of the day that cost has to come from somewhere. So it will
:06:58. > :07:03.filter down to the customer? Yes, ultimately. The police have a riot
:07:03. > :07:07.at another scrapyard in Sussex. We do not have nicked stuff here.
:07:07. > :07:13.The have brought along Lee Durham from the Open reached metal theft
:07:13. > :07:23.tusk Force. We have found a lot of cable up there in a bag there,
:07:23. > :07:31.
:07:31. > :07:32.clearly marked Property of BT. This isn't going to be one of these
:07:32. > :07:36.things where I am here for hours and hours, is it?
:07:36. > :07:38.When that cable is stolen, sometimes it can knock a call
:07:38. > :07:44.community down for three to four days.
:07:44. > :07:51.This man was later released without charge.
:07:51. > :07:58.And these ones, to put their... you need to stop wandering. If you
:07:58. > :08:01.can give him those as well... Chief Superintendent Steve
:08:02. > :08:05.Corbishley would like to see changes in the way scrap metal is
:08:05. > :08:08.traded. One of the solutions we have got to
:08:08. > :08:13.work out his great and legislation for local scrap-metal dealers to
:08:13. > :08:17.take details and perhaps even look at a cashless system. Cash in hand
:08:17. > :08:21.allows criminals to present metal, get an easy price and take money
:08:21. > :08:24.away very quickly. And Colin Barden from UK Power
:08:25. > :08:29.Networks points out this is already happening across the Channel.
:08:29. > :08:33.Europe there is a cashless system, so if you take scrap metal to a
:08:33. > :08:37.dealer, he will not give you cash. It has to be paid into your account,
:08:37. > :08:42.so it is difficult to sell something you do not own.
:08:42. > :08:45.Metal theft is a crime that affects most of us either directly or
:08:45. > :08:49.indirectly, but it sounds as though unless there is a change in the law
:08:49. > :08:54.it is just something the police, the energy companies, the role
:08:54. > :09:04.communities and us, the consumer, and are going to have to deal with.
:09:04. > :09:05.
:09:05. > :09:10.-- the rural communities. Coming up later.
:09:10. > :09:15.How far would you go to stave a life? Nothing is ever easy, but I
:09:15. > :09:23.have been given that chance. And for that I am grateful.
:09:23. > :09:29.And now, here is Jane Goddard. This has belongs to Joy McCabe, her
:09:29. > :09:35.brother and her sister, left to them when her mother died. My mum
:09:35. > :09:39.was in there for 50 years, and we grew up there. All our memories are
:09:40. > :09:44.there. And now, like, we cannot even get into it.
:09:44. > :09:49.While the family was deciding what to do with their mother's old home,
:09:49. > :09:56.for unwanted squatters moved in. cannot get into our own property
:09:56. > :09:59.now. They have changed the locks. They have stolen it.
:09:59. > :10:03.The police were called, but the family was told it was a civil
:10:03. > :10:08.matter, and that they could not throw the squatters out.
:10:08. > :10:12.How surprised I knew that there it -- This is not a criminal... I did
:10:12. > :10:17.not know it was not a criminal offence. How can you move into a
:10:17. > :10:23.property that was my mother's has, but I will always think of as my
:10:23. > :10:31.mother's house. Was she a has pride person? She was indeed, she loved
:10:31. > :10:35.that house. Time to pay a visit to the fore
:10:35. > :10:39.live the women's quarters. They claim they pay rent not to Joy, but
:10:39. > :10:44.to someone on the internet. They even claim they have a contract and
:10:44. > :10:50.that they are the victims of a scam. When are you going to move out?
:10:50. > :10:56.soon as our contract finishes. you show me the contract? Know.
:10:56. > :11:02.there really a contract, or is this... Of course.
:11:02. > :11:07.I am barely sleeping. Because I keep thinking, what if we cannot
:11:07. > :11:10.get them at? So now we have got to go to court and hopefully we will
:11:10. > :11:16.get an order to get them out and then we will have to get bailiffs
:11:16. > :11:20.to have them removed. In Brighton, the sporting capital
:11:21. > :11:24.of the South, there is always someone on the lookout for an
:11:24. > :11:29.unused building. This Regency property was snapped up by
:11:29. > :11:35.squatters just days ago. We just noticed that this place was
:11:35. > :11:39.not being used, we looked inside, it looked as it it had not been
:11:39. > :11:45.used for quite some time, so we acquired entry into the building.
:11:45. > :11:54.A I did you get in? There was an open window.
:11:54. > :12:01.Is that true? Yes. The local MPC's this lot as
:12:01. > :12:05.criminals and wants the law changed so they can be put behind bars.
:12:05. > :12:08.He it is a lifestyle choice for some people, and we call them
:12:08. > :12:12.serial squatters. There is no retribution for the damage they
:12:12. > :12:17.cause. As soon as you leave one property you can move into another
:12:17. > :12:20.without any Kosti whatsoever. If we made it a criminal act where people
:12:20. > :12:30.have to pay for the damages or get locked up, they would get the
:12:30. > :12:35.
:12:35. > :12:43.message that it is legal for -- He has got those ideas because he
:12:43. > :12:47.is on the side of which people. This privately owned house had
:12:47. > :12:55.stood empty for five years. It is now home to a varied community.
:12:55. > :13:03.Some jobless, some homeless and some students. This is my run-our
:13:03. > :13:07.studio. It is good having a lot of space where I can work. If it was
:13:07. > :13:13.standard accommodation, there would not be enough room. Do you think
:13:13. > :13:17.people would sympathise with that or they would say tough? Maybe.
:13:17. > :13:21.is a nice community and you are not on the streets. It is a welcoming
:13:22. > :13:26.place and it is not a scary homeless centre where sometimes
:13:26. > :13:31.people can be a lot more intimidating I find. This alters
:13:31. > :13:38.believe it a property is neglected and anti-, the responsible thing is
:13:38. > :13:43.to take it over. If you owned a property and someone squatted in it,
:13:43. > :13:51.how would you feel? I would never own a property I was not living in.
:13:51. > :13:55.There is no way that is going to happen. Meanwhile, Joy and her
:13:55. > :13:58.brother are at court for a hearing which will hopefully lead to the
:13:58. > :14:05.squat has been thrown out of their mother's old house. The have had to
:14:05. > :14:09.come to court to get a possession order to get a property back. -- we
:14:09. > :14:14.have. We have turned up at 9 o'clock and they haven't. We have
:14:14. > :14:20.had to sit in front of a judge to get away property back. I cannot
:14:20. > :14:26.believe it. It is awful. It seen staggering the police could not say,
:14:26. > :14:31.get out. Absolutely. I was told by people that they are breaking the
:14:31. > :14:37.law by breaking in, but the police did not investigate that. They said
:14:37. > :14:43.it was a civil matter and it was up to us to sort it out. I want to get
:14:43. > :14:47.to a stage where, as we are having this interview now, if we go back
:14:47. > :14:54.to our property and it is been squatted in, I want them to be
:14:54. > :14:58.prosecuted. It is not fair for people. Hopefully we will soon have
:14:58. > :15:01.a lot that will change that. By the Brighton squatters field that
:15:01. > :15:06.rather than being attacked by the government they should be embraced
:15:06. > :15:13.as they are providing for themselves without handouts. If you
:15:13. > :15:23.look at Cameron's be society idea, he wants people to take initiative
:15:23. > :15:26.
:15:26. > :15:30.to take control of their lives. It is important, like, it is the
:15:30. > :15:34.reason why some people enjoy his boxing because they are not
:15:34. > :15:40.dependent on the state. They are saving the stake money and do not
:15:40. > :15:45.have to go to the state to leave. That is an important aspect of
:15:45. > :15:55.squatting. -- state money. Me in well, there has been a development.
:15:55. > :15:55.
:15:55. > :16:01.Nine weeks after the squatters took over her mother's home, bailiffs
:16:01. > :16:06.have allowed her to we enter the property. There are dirty town
:16:06. > :16:13.walls, food left half eaten, be left half-cooked. NT bottles. I
:16:13. > :16:17.cannot believe it. It has cost Joy �2,000 in court fees to reclaim
:16:17. > :16:21.what is hers. They are criminals and they had just lived here
:16:21. > :16:27.thinking, we can live here for nothing and we can do what we like,
:16:27. > :16:35.create as much mess as we want, foul of the place. They may as well
:16:35. > :16:40.be on the street if they are living like that in a house. Joy hopes
:16:41. > :16:45.that in the future of the laws that will tighten the rules on squatting
:16:45. > :16:51.will prevent others going what sheep has gone through. Up the
:16:51. > :16:55.Brighton's got as all carry on, come what may. There are plans to
:16:55. > :17:03.criminalise squatting. What will it mean to you? It will make it more
:17:03. > :17:13.difficult, but it will not change anything. You would be a criminal
:17:13. > :17:17.now? Yes. It is whether it you choose to accept their law or not.
:17:17. > :17:26.There isn't spotters writes really. There is no law that says squatters
:17:26. > :17:36.have got a rights. There is just no law to get them out properly. --
:17:36. > :17:36.
:17:36. > :17:40.have got rights. In the last series we met Helen Marston from
:17:40. > :17:44.Broadstairs he was preparing to donate one of her kidneys to a
:17:44. > :17:49.total stranger. After much delay the operation was given the go-
:17:49. > :17:59.ahead. It was the news Helen had been waiting for, but it was a
:17:59. > :18:16.
:18:16. > :18:20.It is the morning of 4th May 1920 11 and Gordon Marston is nervous.
:18:20. > :18:24.Here on the six fall of this building his wife Helen is about to
:18:24. > :18:28.undergo a kidney transplant voluntarily. And after nearly two
:18:28. > :18:37.years of waiting, the reality of what is happening has finally hit
:18:37. > :18:43.him. A healthy person is putting herself at risk and it is natural
:18:43. > :18:48.for me to feel like she should not have done it. Are you go to share
:18:48. > :18:52.this with her? A absolutely not! Over the past 19 months, Gordon has
:18:52. > :18:57.watched as his wife underwent tests after test, physical and
:18:57. > :19:01.psychological. He has seen her spirits rise and fall as the
:19:01. > :19:06.operation near the happened and then was delayed. He has watched
:19:06. > :19:11.her or remain convinced that this bold decision is the right one. But
:19:11. > :19:19.how she feeling today, just an hour away from the operation? Nice to
:19:19. > :19:22.see you! Helen is in a positive mood and is convinced she is doing
:19:22. > :19:31.the right thing, but she is feeling the tension. What are you nervous
:19:31. > :19:37.about? I know that in half-an-hour something big is going to happen
:19:37. > :19:42.and I had been waiting 19 months. I have undergone a lot to get to this
:19:42. > :19:47.point. It is a dramatic charitable act. Some people run a marathon or
:19:47. > :19:52.give blood. Why didn't you just do something like that? Sadly, I
:19:52. > :19:59.cannot give blood because I am such a cow would, so it is impossible
:19:59. > :20:03.for me and I have never thought I could do a marathon, but this I
:20:03. > :20:09.feel I can do and want to do. operation Helen is about to undergo
:20:09. > :20:15.is serious and requires a team of highly trained specialists here at
:20:15. > :20:21.Guy's Hospital in London. The anaesthetist has a right for the
:20:21. > :20:30.Prix briefing. We will put a needle in the back of your hand and that
:20:30. > :20:37.war trip the medicine in. -- and about will drip do medicine in. You
:20:37. > :20:43.should be pain-free, but if you have pain, we can give you main
:20:43. > :20:53.relief - that more relief. Thank you. That was my main concern.
:20:53. > :20:54.
:20:54. > :21:00.operation is not without risk. Patients should not be in pain
:21:00. > :21:10.after the operation. If they are, it could mean that there are
:21:10. > :21:18.
:21:18. > :21:23.Helen will be only the 67th person in Britain to become an altruistic
:21:23. > :21:27.donor. She will not know who received her kidney or if the
:21:27. > :21:37.transplant is successful. But this is about her doing what she can to
:21:37. > :21:57.
:21:57. > :22:07.help another person and there is I will see you very soon. Somewhere
:22:07. > :22:11.
:22:11. > :22:17.in the UK the recipient is waiting for a kidney. It is as strange
:22:17. > :22:23.feeling, as Andrew Cumberbach knows because he received a new kidney
:22:23. > :22:28.eight years ago. Having kidney failure and been on a dialysis
:22:28. > :22:36.machine for a few years is not an easy thing. To get her transplant,
:22:36. > :22:44.to be given an order to we stick one from a live donor is amazing. I
:22:44. > :22:51.now have the chance to get myself back on track. -- altruistic one. I
:22:51. > :22:55.am grateful. Andrew's life might have been transformed by it, but
:22:55. > :22:58.altruistic donation has had its critics. People could not
:22:58. > :23:04.understand why anyone would want to do it and there was this idea that
:23:04. > :23:09.you have to be either a lunatic or a saint. You have to be at a real
:23:09. > :23:15.extreme of humanity before you were considerate. Lunatics All Saints,
:23:15. > :23:20.the it NHS needs more people like Helen. It is costing the health
:23:20. > :23:26.service �600 million a year to provide dialysis for patients with
:23:26. > :23:31.40 Kidneys. But there are major reasons why you would not choose to
:23:31. > :23:36.be an altruistic donor. But if a family member needed your kidney
:23:36. > :23:43.and you had given it away? What if you are that Fumni fails?
:23:43. > :23:47.someone has kidneys that are not perfectly healthy, so there is a
:23:47. > :23:55.possibility that they could become ill, they would not pass the
:23:55. > :23:59.screening. But you cannot know for sure. If you are in a situation
:23:59. > :24:04.where one gets damaged in an accident, then it is better to have
:24:04. > :24:10.to. But for most of the things we do in our ordinary lives, we do not
:24:10. > :24:19.need to. We can be perfectly healthy but only one kidney. --
:24:19. > :24:24.need two. How did it go? operation went smoothly. It is a
:24:24. > :24:30.lovely Keatley which we will be able to give to someone else. The
:24:30. > :24:35.patient is fine. -- lovely Keatley. The kidney is packed in ice and
:24:36. > :24:41.rushed away to another hospital where the recipient is being
:24:41. > :24:48.prepared for surgery. Upstairs, or at Tense Gordon is waiting for news.
:24:48. > :24:55.We had been told it went well. And you feel? It is great news. It is a
:24:55. > :25:03.great feeling. I cannot wait to see her. It's is another few hours
:25:03. > :25:10.before Helen returns from the recovery room. She is awake and she
:25:10. > :25:16.seems happy to have become the 67th altruistic donor in Britain. How
:25:16. > :25:23.are you feeling? I feel absolutely marvellous, Thank you. How do you
:25:23. > :25:31.feel about what you have done? delighted that I have done it. I am
:25:31. > :25:39.just so pleased I have done it. So glad that it got to the ambulance.
:25:39. > :25:45.I feel really good. And no regrets? Never. Helen will need painkillers
:25:45. > :25:49.for some weeks to come because this is such a major operation, but Dr
:25:49. > :25:53.Mackenzie says in the long term, Helen might find there is an
:25:53. > :25:57.unexpected benefit from what she has done. If you look at the
:25:57. > :26:02.research on how people feel after they have done it, Germany speaking,
:26:02. > :26:11.their health is enhance, they have no regrets and they feel they have
:26:11. > :26:20.done a good thing. -- is enhanced. They have done something that has
:26:20. > :26:25.worked for another person. It will make their health better ultimately.
:26:25. > :26:30.We wanted to know if that was due for Helen, so a month later we went
:26:30. > :26:36.to visit her and Gordon in their hometown of Broadstairs. Have you
:26:36. > :26:40.felt healthier since you had the operation? Funnily enough, yes, I
:26:40. > :26:46.have. I can't quite explain that, but I think it is a sort of lifting
:26:46. > :26:56.of the spirits Revie and, you know, that always makes you feel good in
:26:56. > :26:57.
:26:57. > :27:01.yourself. So I I definitely feel good. Gordon, you have seen how
:27:02. > :27:08.well Helen has recovered. Would you ever consider it being an
:27:08. > :27:12.altruistic don't you? I can hardly imagine I am saying this, but yes.
:27:12. > :27:17.Six months ago I would have said it was unthinkable, but now I have
:27:17. > :27:22.moved on and it is possible. What Helen has done has given a stranger
:27:22. > :27:25.a new chance, but it has given her and her husband and new
:27:25. > :27:35.perspectives on their own lives, not that Gordon would expect
:27:35. > :27:45.anything less. Can you believe the journey you have gone on together?
:27:45. > :27:48.
:27:48. > :27:53.I... I think you are used to it, living with me! That sums it up!
:27:53. > :27:58.Now, if you want any more information about tonight's show,
:27:58. > :28:08.you can visit our local website. You can also watch the whole show
:28:08. > :28:09.
:28:09. > :28:14.again it by clicking on the iPlayer. -- again. Coming up next week - is
:28:14. > :28:21.it possible to avoid paying care home fees? Why are you selling a
:28:21. > :28:27.product called How To avoid care fees when marketing it like that,
:28:27. > :28:34.you could be rendering it useless? Why is the South East shaped like
:28:34. > :28:40.the South East? Here you have been revealed in a piece of cake.
:28:40. > :28:45.Delicious. My whole life has been ruined, that is what has happened.