:00:15. > :00:18.Targeting the old and vulnerable. When the victim starts to say,
:00:18. > :00:21."Well, actually, I haven't got any money," that's when they will start
:00:21. > :00:25.to get more aggressive. That's when they'll start saying, "We'll take
:00:25. > :00:27.you down to the cash line, we will get the money out for you, we will
:00:27. > :00:30.take you to the bank." A radical treatment for heroin
:00:30. > :00:33.addicts. I'm just scared... course you are. ..that in the next
:00:33. > :00:37.four days, I'm going to feel worse than I am now.
:00:37. > :00:40.And we are back at the big cat sanctuary to see how the tiger cubs
:00:40. > :00:43.are doing in the snow. Yeah, getting on great. They are six
:00:43. > :00:46.months old now. When they are playing - and we see it as playing,
:00:46. > :00:50.but tigers only know two games, that is hunting and practising. So
:00:50. > :00:52.when they are chasing and stalking, one is the predator and one is the
:00:52. > :00:54.prey and they are practising to hunt.
:00:54. > :01:04.I'm Natalie Graham with untold stories, closer to home. From all
:01:04. > :01:14.
:01:14. > :01:17.around the south and south-east, Hello, this week, I'm deep in the
:01:17. > :01:22.Kent countryside, and pretty deep in the snow, near the village of
:01:23. > :01:25.Smarden. I'll be back later, but first up:
:01:25. > :01:30.Preying on the vulnerable. How organised criminal groups are
:01:31. > :01:40.exploiting the old and afraid. Emma Thomas has been finding out what's
:01:41. > :01:41.
:01:41. > :01:47.They travel up and down the country, targeting the elderly and
:01:47. > :01:50.vulnerable. Ruining lives. Robbing life-savings.
:01:50. > :01:54.Many people who become a victim of doorstep crime think it won't
:01:54. > :01:58.happen to them. But here in Kent and Sussex, people are being
:01:58. > :02:02.tricked out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
:02:03. > :02:07.Good afternoon, sir. How are you? We have done some work for a
:02:07. > :02:11.neighbour and we have some stuff left over from doing their roof.
:02:11. > :02:15.The tactics conmen use are well practiced - offering to carry out
:02:15. > :02:19.work that's unneccessary and charging extortionate rates. Cheap,
:02:19. > :02:23.honest, reliable work. But it's how they choose their victims that most
:02:23. > :02:29.of us would find disturbing. type of victim that they will go
:02:29. > :02:32.for will be people that are within a community but on their own. Maybe
:02:32. > :02:36.their relatives have died, their partners have died, their friends
:02:36. > :02:42.have moved away. They are not particularly friendly with the
:02:42. > :02:48.neighbours. So they will be in a community, but in a way, isolated.
:02:48. > :02:54.We went all the way up to Tunisia... Gerald Griffiths is 90. He fought
:02:54. > :03:03.in five different countries during the Second World War. That's the
:03:03. > :03:06.Italians. -- Italian staff. That's the France and Germany one.
:03:06. > :03:15.But a few years ago, living alone and recovering from cancer, he was
:03:15. > :03:22.targeted by conmen. They came in a proper signed the vehicle, well-
:03:22. > :03:26.dressed. -- proper signed. They even had identity tags up on their
:03:26. > :03:29.chest. They wanted to clean the roof of moss and paint the roof. I
:03:29. > :03:34.agreed. But cleaning moss was just the
:03:34. > :03:36.beginning. It was the first of many visits. Over a period of around
:03:36. > :03:44.three years, different criminal gangs kept coming back - offering
:03:44. > :03:53.to do work that was unnecessary. He was conned out of �80,000. I felt a
:03:53. > :03:56.bit angry, because it seemed As a Trading Standards officer,
:03:56. > :04:03.Jason Reilly visits areas that conmen target and says it's easy to
:04:03. > :04:09.pick out potential victims. They will drive around an estate like
:04:09. > :04:12.this and they will be looking at properties that they can target.
:04:12. > :04:16.And once a gang has identified someone as vulnerable, they can be
:04:16. > :04:19.repeatedly targeted. Trading Standards officers and
:04:19. > :04:21.intelligence sources told us that they believe the gangs have
:04:21. > :04:30."suckers list" - details of vulnerable people they share and
:04:30. > :04:34.sell to other criminals. Police officer Ben Turner says
:04:34. > :04:39.there are criminal patterns. He's investigated many cases involving
:04:39. > :04:43.elderly people in Kent. From investigations that I have carried
:04:43. > :04:44.out, I have been able to show that groups of people that we have
:04:44. > :04:54.investigated have shared information about possible targets,
:04:54. > :04:58.
:04:58. > :05:05.if you like. Sometimes, a person will be visited more than once over
:05:05. > :05:09.a period of time. And the timescale can vary from a month, six months...
:05:09. > :05:15.It can go up two years. But unfortunately, if they are seen as
:05:15. > :05:18.an easy touch, they may be returning to that same person.
:05:18. > :05:22.And it's not just people who are completely alone who are preyed
:05:22. > :05:25.upon. Parents can be conned behind their children's backs - as Cate
:05:25. > :05:35.Partridge knows. Her mother was suffering from Alzheimers when she
:05:35. > :05:37.
:05:37. > :05:40.was tricked. It is shocking and it is upsetting. And I think it's
:05:40. > :05:44.really the emotional impact that it had on us, because we realised how
:05:44. > :05:47.vulnerable my mum had become. The conmen started out by offering
:05:47. > :05:56.repair work, but were soon taking Cate's mother to the bank up to ten
:05:56. > :05:59.times a day. Making her withdraw large sum of cash. -- large sums.
:05:59. > :06:03.She didn't think there was anything odd about the fact that she had
:06:03. > :06:07.been handing over large sums of money to total strangers. She just
:06:07. > :06:10.said some nice men came to the door and they asked me for money and I
:06:10. > :06:17.gave it to them. So obviously my brother and I were very concerned.
:06:17. > :06:20.Who were these men? What had happened? How much money? And we
:06:20. > :06:30.looked at her bank book and realised that actually, over the
:06:30. > :06:31.
:06:31. > :06:34.course of two weeks, it added up �30,000.
:06:34. > :06:38.Cate feels her mum was deliberately targeted because she had dementia.
:06:38. > :06:41.She died a year later. The people who did this to my mum are
:06:41. > :06:44.disgusting really, I think that to make your living stealing money
:06:44. > :06:50.from old vulnerable people, who've worked hard all their lives to earn
:06:50. > :06:53.it, is revolting. It is going to be �2,000. You said it wouldn't be
:06:53. > :06:56.more than 500. The conmen might start by giving a
:06:56. > :07:03.reasonable quote, but once the so- called jobs been done, the bill can
:07:03. > :07:09.run into thousands of pounds. That's when things can turn nasty.
:07:09. > :07:12.I haven't got that sort of money in When the victim starts to say,
:07:12. > :07:19."Well, actually, I haven't got any money," that's when they will start
:07:19. > :07:22.to get more aggressive. That when they say, we will get the money at,
:07:22. > :07:32.we will take you to the bank. We know you have money, because you
:07:32. > :07:39.have jury, you modernise television. -- jury. -- jewellery. Police have
:07:39. > :07:44.set up a unit to gain information on conmen who evade detection by
:07:44. > :07:46.moving around the country. The criminals are hard to catch.
:07:46. > :07:53.They have multiple identities and addresses and can change company
:07:53. > :07:56.names just like that. The conmen who targeted Mr Griffiths have
:07:56. > :08:00.never been caught. He feels there should be a law to stop people
:08:00. > :08:08.cold-calling. I think they shouldn't be allowed to sell at the
:08:08. > :08:13.door. If you have a sticker in the window, they shouldn't waste their
:08:13. > :08:17.time coming up to the door. I would like to see the law changed, I
:08:17. > :08:21.would like to see specifically in areas where people have gone to the
:08:21. > :08:24.effort of creating controlled zones, no court -- cold-calling, where
:08:25. > :08:30.they make it very clear that they don't want people knocking on their
:08:30. > :08:33.door trying to sell them things. If people go to the effort of creating
:08:33. > :08:38.these zones, I think they should have the weight of the law, and it
:08:38. > :08:41.should be illegal to actually knock on the door and try and sell
:08:41. > :08:44.services such as building and things associated with it.
:08:44. > :08:51.It's difficult to say how widespread this type of crime is as
:08:52. > :08:54.it can be counted as fraud, or even theft. We're doing all we can.
:08:55. > :08:57.There are certain methods and techniques that we can use and put
:08:57. > :09:00.into practice to minimise people becoming a victim or a further
:09:00. > :09:08.victim of crime, but we can't fortune-tell where people are going
:09:08. > :09:11.to go and what they are going to do. But there are steps people can take
:09:11. > :09:17.to protect themselves from criminals. A lot of Trading
:09:17. > :09:22.Standards' work is based on prevention.
:09:22. > :09:26.So where does this come into it? does seem a bit bizarre, doesn't
:09:26. > :09:34.it? The situation is if you have things like bicycles, children's
:09:34. > :09:37.toys, may be a poster of a football team of in the window, dead it is
:09:37. > :09:40.all signs of activity, people coming and going and movement --
:09:40. > :09:46.then it is. It can help deter somebody cold-calling.
:09:46. > :09:53.And Trading Standards say the best advice is don't buy at the doorstep.
:09:53. > :10:03.To keep conmen out of your home, out of our neighbourhoods and off
:10:03. > :10:10.
:10:10. > :10:14.Emma Thomas reporting. Coming up: a controversial scheme for drug
:10:14. > :10:24.addicts. I would drive home and I would score again but I know I
:10:24. > :10:31.
:10:32. > :10:34.can't do that and I have to change Now, last year we told you about a
:10:35. > :10:40.sanctuary in Kent on a mission to save critically endangered big cats
:10:40. > :10:49.from extinction. Well, we're back to find out just how they are
:10:49. > :10:52.They're magnificent, They're majestic, They're mischievous. But
:10:52. > :10:57.they might not be around for much longer.
:10:57. > :10:59.These big cats are some of the rarest in the world.
:10:59. > :11:06.They're a long way from their natural habitat, but they're here
:11:06. > :11:08.in Kent for a very good reason. To keep their species alive.
:11:08. > :11:13.This is the Wildlife Heritage Foundation's Big Cat Sanctuary just
:11:13. > :11:16.outside Smarden Village, near Ashford. The sanctuary works with
:11:16. > :11:24.zoos all over the world, pairing up big cats, and doing everything that
:11:24. > :11:27.they can to help them produce cubs. bloodlines and keeping endangered
:11:27. > :11:34.species from extinction. It's like a dating agency for big
:11:34. > :11:38.cats. Last summer, we were given access
:11:38. > :11:44.to film some incredible moments in the history of the sanctuary.
:11:44. > :11:47.From the birth of two Sumatran Tiger cubs, Kubu and Toba...
:11:47. > :11:57.Here is the first one. To the arrival of precious Amur
:11:57. > :12:07.leopard, Hogar. Now we're back. It's the middle of
:12:07. > :12:08.
:12:09. > :12:17.winter and we are back to see how It is early February. After snow,
:12:17. > :12:24.Brian Badger is making sure the big cats are coping. Do they like the
:12:24. > :12:30.snow? They seem to. It is nature's way of changing the cambers. Some
:12:31. > :12:36.of them come from places where there is a lot of snow around.
:12:36. > :12:41.Animals are used to extremes. If you think about Siberia, summer
:12:41. > :12:49.temperatures of 35 and winter temperatures are minus 50. Unlike
:12:49. > :12:54.humans, we are not used to small changes, they are incredibly hardy.
:12:54. > :13:02.Just like children, Sumatran tiger cubs Kubu and Toba love snowball
:13:02. > :13:12.fights. And I thought I would join in, although my aim is not quite as
:13:12. > :13:16.
:13:16. > :13:21.good as it should be. Right on the I! The Sumatran tiger is one of
:13:21. > :13:28.only five species of Tiger living in the world today. Critically
:13:28. > :13:34.endangered, 200 remain in the wild on their native Indonesian island.
:13:34. > :13:39.These cards are a crucial part of the breeding programme. -- cubs.
:13:39. > :13:48.Last time we saw them they were five weeks old. How are they doing
:13:48. > :13:52.now? They are six months old now. They are growing at a great rate.
:13:52. > :13:59.They are everything they should be at this stage. They have been
:13:59. > :14:05.playing a lot. Is that what they would do in the wild? When they are
:14:05. > :14:12.playing, we see it as playing, but Tigers only no hunting and
:14:12. > :14:22.practising. As they are chasing, one is the hunter and one is the
:14:22. > :14:30.
:14:30. > :14:40.prey. In the wild they can eat up to 40 macro -- 40 Powersong -- �40
:14:40. > :14:43.
:14:43. > :14:48.of pay. -- of hay. They tend to enjoy it. They eat it. Within the
:14:48. > :14:53.next day or two they will be entered on to the stud book. We
:14:53. > :15:00.have a book-keeper who controls the breeding for the animals throughout
:15:00. > :15:05.Europe and beyond and they will try to do and match. Probably in around
:15:05. > :15:11.12 months, they will go off to their respective partners. Arranged
:15:11. > :15:18.marriages already. At silly Eve. Arranged marriages are better than
:15:18. > :15:25.blind dates! It was the studbook that brought Hogar the Amur leopard
:15:26. > :15:34.from a zoo in the Czech Republic to Kent. He is to mate with Xizi who
:15:34. > :15:43.lives here. They are called Amur leopards because they live in this
:15:43. > :15:48.place on the border. The Amur leopard is the most endangered big
:15:48. > :15:54.cat on the planet. It is thought there are as few as 30 in the wild.
:15:54. > :15:58.They plan has been drawn up to breed them in captivity and take
:15:58. > :16:04.them back to the Valley where they will live in a protected reserve.
:16:04. > :16:10.They would get used to Russian conditions, learn to hunt, and any
:16:10. > :16:17.cubs they have would be released, populating the area. But it is not
:16:17. > :16:27.just a case of putting two Leopards together. A female will not mate
:16:27. > :16:27.
:16:27. > :16:34.with any male that comes along. She will come into a fix season, giving
:16:34. > :16:41.off the hormones that tell him she is in season -- it will be a fake
:16:41. > :16:46.season. She can reject him. In the wild, the animals only come
:16:46. > :16:52.together to make. For this reason, Hogar and Xizi have been kept
:16:52. > :16:59.separate, but in adjoining sections for months. If the timing is not
:16:59. > :17:04.kill each other. We had come back hoping they would be put together,
:17:04. > :17:10.but we had to leave not knowing if this would happen. Then we had a
:17:10. > :17:16.telephone call from the sanctuary. Xizi was in season. Hogar was
:17:16. > :17:22.showing interest. We have come back to see them. Six months ago they
:17:22. > :17:28.were not making. Last week, they were still not making. But there
:17:28. > :17:35.has been good news. I am here to see what has happened. We are about
:17:35. > :17:40.to open the division. It is one of these things where you do not want
:17:40. > :17:46.them to totally ignored each other. You want a level of aggression
:17:46. > :17:54.shown by the male, because he has to prove himself. She will tease
:17:54. > :18:04.him a little bit, and ultimately, we want to start the mating process.
:18:04. > :18:29.
:18:29. > :18:37.Come on, Xizi. Xizi! We might have There we go. She did not hesitate
:18:37. > :18:47.much about coming in. No. She is playing. She just presented herself
:18:47. > :18:49.
:18:49. > :18:58.to him. Now they are making. That was no time at all. She knew what
:18:58. > :19:04.she wanted. Absolutely. The what is happening now? She is rolling
:19:04. > :19:13.around. What that does is increase the chance of conception. This is
:19:13. > :19:17.good. Yes, it is absolutely positive. Yes. Time is running out
:19:17. > :19:23.for the Amur leopard and so a lot is investing on these two
:19:23. > :19:26.extraordinary creatures. If they become parents of healthy cubs,
:19:26. > :19:36.perhaps they will make the journey back from Kent to the forests of
:19:36. > :19:46.
:19:46. > :19:51.Russia, to begin a new life on a There is a big debate at the moment
:19:51. > :19:57.about how to help heroin addicts. Methadone is widely used, but not
:19:57. > :20:06.everybody agrees it is the best. A charity is helping to send addicts
:20:06. > :20:12.abroad for a radical treatment. Reed Kathy, she is 29 and from
:20:12. > :20:22.Surrey and she is an addict. For the last three years she has been
:20:22. > :20:26.
:20:26. > :20:31.addicted to heroin and prescription drugs. With the help of Reading
:20:31. > :20:40.based charity East West Detox, she has come to Thailand in a bid to
:20:40. > :20:46.get clean. But this is a detox like no other. You do not think it will
:20:46. > :20:51.happen to you. You get in with the wrong crowd. You try things and do
:20:51. > :20:58.things and it gets out of control. Cocaine, ecstasy, recreational, it
:20:58. > :21:04.went on from about the age of 18. My best friend, I said I wanted to
:21:04. > :21:09.try heroin. She said, if you are going to, I will not mind. I said,
:21:09. > :21:19.we will get some. On the Friday I tried it and it went for mayor.
:21:19. > :21:22.
:21:22. > :21:30.That decision would have a devastating effect -- one Kathy on
:21:30. > :21:36.her family. I used to think, that will be it. Thamkrabok monastery
:21:36. > :21:46.takes people from around the world with many forms of addiction. It's
:21:46. > :21:50.
:21:50. > :21:54.detox centre it is run by monks. Addicted tos -- addicts have to
:21:54. > :22:02.take responsibility for themselves. They have to say it was me and I
:22:02. > :22:06.have to change. Men in workers here are former addicts. -- many workers.
:22:06. > :22:15.I think many people who knew me laughed when they thought I would
:22:15. > :22:23.be here as a monk, teaching these ideas. But, Buddhism, religion,
:22:23. > :22:29.these ideas of faith in yourself are working and the world is accept
:22:29. > :22:34.-- accepting them. Stripped of money and her passport, Kathy must
:22:34. > :22:44.take a holy vow before treatment can begin. A it is making a
:22:44. > :22:51.
:22:51. > :22:58.commitment not to use drugs ever again. The next four weeks will be
:22:58. > :23:03.governed by the bell. A strict daily regime of steam baths,
:23:03. > :23:13.teachings and, in the first week, induced sick nurse. Reality is
:23:13. > :23:19.
:23:19. > :23:24.starting to bite. -- sick -- vomiting. If I said a plane ticket
:23:24. > :23:29.home now? I would be out the door. That is the honest truth, I would
:23:29. > :23:39.go home and score again. I know I cannot do that. I want to change my
:23:39. > :23:42.
:23:42. > :23:48.life. I am feeling now, it is so... The monks believe that induced
:23:48. > :23:55.vomiting purges the body of toxins. For the first five days they are
:23:55. > :23:59.given a vomiting medicine. It is time for Kathy's first ceremony.
:23:59. > :24:09.would rather be in prison in England right now, to be honest! I
:24:09. > :24:10.
:24:10. > :24:20.have to get over this next five days. You have to lifted up like
:24:20. > :24:36.
:24:36. > :24:43.this. Take it out and put it back If you get up and walk around you
:24:43. > :24:52.will feel much better about it. You can. We have people here were lot
:24:52. > :24:59.worse than you, Kathy. We hear excuses all the time. Cathy has
:24:59. > :25:03.refused a steam bath. It is part of the treatment. He is trying to see
:25:03. > :25:13.if he can get her in there. It is the second day and she is feeling
:25:13. > :25:14.
:25:14. > :25:21.rough. I want to sleep. His it is the little things that seem
:25:21. > :25:27.important. Be yes. As well as treating addicts, Thamkrabok serves
:25:27. > :25:36.as a warning to others. Today they are preparing for a public display.
:25:36. > :25:41.This is what they call a show vomit. It is an event they put on three or
:25:41. > :25:51.four times a week. They get the local children out as part of their
:25:51. > :26:00.
:26:00. > :26:07.It is the sweating I cannot handle. I am freezing cold, believe it or
:26:07. > :26:13.not. It is just coming out. Physically and also mentally.
:26:13. > :26:19.it is a bigger battle in your head. It is really hard. I will have to
:26:19. > :26:24.get through today. It is the vomiting, it is awful. Thamkrabok
:26:25. > :26:28.does not know how many patients state clean after they leave, but a
:26:28. > :26:36.report commissioned by eight East West Detox claims their success
:26:36. > :26:41.rate was almost double here in the UK. As the days go on, Kathy is
:26:41. > :26:47.struggling with the stark reality of the situation. I am not going to
:26:47. > :26:52.fell. I am never going to put myself in this again above. This is
:26:52. > :27:02.how Kathy will celebrate her 30th birthday. Will she last of the four
:27:02. > :27:07.
:27:07. > :27:17.weeks? Two-and-a-half weeks later, Kathy has come home, early. Hello.
:27:17. > :27:20.
:27:20. > :27:30.I am completely clean. My body is cleansed. It is great. Hello. Are
:27:30. > :27:34.
:27:34. > :27:38.you all right? My real daughter. Not the zombie. Eight months on,
:27:38. > :27:43.and Kathy is still clean. She is getting her life back on track and
:27:43. > :27:51.hopes to start work soon. temptation has been there. After
:27:51. > :27:56.what I went through, strength inside me said, no, because I -- if
:27:56. > :28:06.I did it once, there is no going back on it at all. It is getting
:28:06. > :28:07.
:28:07. > :28:12.back to normal. It has totally changed my life.
:28:13. > :28:22.If you want more information about the show, you can visit the website.
:28:23. > :28:26.
:28:26. > :28:30.You can also watch the show again. Next week, it is a holiday rip-off.
:28:30. > :28:37.The website scam that trekked hundreds. Can peak devastation. A
:28:37. > :28:43.humiliating, as well. -- complete devastation. They steal your money
:28:43. > :28:52.with no intentions of a holiday. Plus we meet the leaders of the