06/02/2012 Inside Out South

Hello from Salisbury, and welcome to Inside Out. He is what is coming

up tonight. Counting the costs of precious

metals - Wiltshire Police take action against cable stealing

crooks. Metal theft is not a victimless

crime. It is a crime that we need to eradicate.

I am riding scared, online conmen stealing our identities. If I

wanted to break into your house, I would know when you were away and

how long you were gone for. They are beyond the law, it is

cross-border, no one can do anything about it.

And the secret weapons of war. The fire three torpedoes, two hit.

30 years after the Falklands war, we reveal the abandoned base with

an explosive past. You would never guess this derelict

site was once the secret source of the British Navy's firepower.

am Jon Cuthill and this is Inside It is putting lives at risk, it is

costing millions of pounds and it is a growing problem in the south.

Metal theft is a modern-day menace, and some experts think it is

costing �770 million per year. Here in Wiltshire, the fightback has

begun. Heroes Nick Wallace. The early morning in Wiltshire, and

Operation Herald at his starting. This is one of the scores of rates

happening up and down the country to crush a multi-million pound

It may look like a load of old junk, but with metal prices soaring, all

this is worth a small fortune. No wonder stealing it has become big

business for criminals. Metal theft is said to cost the UK

economy �770 million, but what is the cost to you and me?

It is not a victimless crime. It is a crime that affects all sectors of

community and it is a crime we need to eradicate.

The sheer scale of this crime wave is sending public services into

meltdown. How long do you think it will be

before a cable theft create a civil emergency?

I think it is inevitable there is certain to be a significant loss of

supply duty this activity. The gangs are becoming more

determined to get what they want. Metal theft of electrical cabling

spark this. It became clear it is a potentially lethal crime.

So what could be left without a family member or somebody seriously

injured for the sake of a few Pounds.

They assist Avonmouth docks scrapyard near Bristol.

The metal is recycled and exported. Here, they stick to the rules, but

to make sure the metal the bike is legitimate, they are always on

guard. How do you know this metal is not

stolen? Were have many cheques that we

carry out. If we cannot find out any reason for it to be legitimate

any reason for it to be legitimate or we are suspicious, we will turn

it away. How difficult is it to weed out the

dodgy people? You are dealing with criminal gangs in some cases.

Yes, it is arranged from people who do very little to disguise stolen

mental, to people very professional at disguising stolen metal.

And thieves are stealing everything from dreams, war memorials to

manhole covers. The facts -- thefts cost taxpayers up to �40,000, but

once: manhole cover can have serious costs to road users.

People could be killed, would represent a death threat. It is not

worth the money. This is a crime also hitting the

heart of there vital services. The and many times has the side

been targeted? Two months running up to Christmas.

When the thieves get onside, what do they do?

And this cable pit, they remove the covers, thrown into the ground then

cut the cables live to pull the cables out. They cut through a live

electricity cable to do this? They did. A really foolish activity,

very dangerous for those undertaking it and any staff

arriving to deal with the situation. How many customers could be

affected? About 6,000 homes.

Be people would have turned on the taps and got nothing?

The ETA is a real possibility. Fifth like this have cost Wessex

Water �1 million in the past two years. The gangs are looking for

one thing - copper. They this is what thereafter?

They say is that, for core copper cable, high-voltage, heavy PVC

sheeting and insulation was stripped off one side. It has

higher value for them and is completely untreatable. Worth about

�1,000 over the counter and a scrapyard as a coiled like this.

have 70 metres of cable that can be pulled out of the ground in an hour,

then all you need is a no questions asked scrap metal dealer who will

take it off your hands. Absolutely right. It is an easy way

of making a living. Seen as a high yield, low-risk

crime, cable theft has become a national epidemic. There are said

to be up to eight thefts every day when the railways, causing

disruption to 3.8 million passengers last year. British

Transport police see it is their second highest priority, just

behind terrorism. The gangs are getting more

organised and confident. They will go to any lengths to get to what

they want. We have seen examples of roadworks

set up, cloned BT vehicles, people operating in high-visibility

jackets with high -- hard-hat on, so that members of the public or

police driving past think they look like bona fide BT engineers.

Thieves used vehicles to simply do like 2,000 metres of cable and of

the roadside, cutting off hundreds of homes for days. The company has

set up its own task force to tackle these thefts.

It can impact essential services, ambulances, fire brigade, police.

But it can isolate local communities, it is a serious crime.

We have 40 people dedicated to combating metal thefts, working

with law-enforcement agencies. That work has seen that raids like

this won't take place at scrapyards across the country.

We are trying to send a message to the owners of scrap metal that they

should run their business appropriately, and today this will

send a message added. The operation has resulted in a

number of arrests at other scrapyards, but those who work in

the scrap-metal industry say often the wrong companies are being

targeted in the wrong way. It will always be the case that the

regulated, legal operator is borne down on by regulators and law

enforcement, because they are more visible and it is easier for the

authorities to target. We want to see better intelligence,

more co-ordinated police activity, and not the local, well-meaning,

fragmented local police activity, which frequently does nothing but

drive the illegal trade into the next county or town.

All sides agree there needs to be some change in the law governing of

the scrap-metal industry. It dates back to the 60s. The age of the

rag-and-bone men and these guys. You're scrap-metal merchants.

Yes, if we can get any. I have some come under here.

A Government intends to increase fines and a total cash payment for

scrap metal. Some believe a ban on cash payments is not the way to go.

If the Government introduced a ban on cash transactions for scrap

metal, it would drive the trade underground, the legitimate trade,

into the hands of the illegal and unregulated dealer.

Meanwhile, public services have had to come up with more ways of

beating the thieves. These are you third set of

replacement cables, how will you make sure you don't lose these? You

have put concrete over them. The also have a lacquered on the

cables. What we have sprayed the lacquer on, we can identify the

likeable and the cable, it goes red. If you shine a torch on a piece of

cable that a scrapyard, you would see it had the slacken attached to

it, then you could identify it. If I wait my finger on it, it will

shore up and identify me as being on this site?

Yes. The forensic tagging may give the

authorities one more weapon in their war on metal theft, but

without a draw ask -- drastic change in the law, no one thinks

this crime wave will ever be completely crushed, and that could

have major consequences for all of Any one of these events of cable

theft can turn into a civil emergency. We're not talking about

single properties being isolated from water, potentially thousands

Next, from a crime you can see, to a crime you cannot, identity theft.

In this age, how easy is it for someone to pretend to be you? If

someone is masquerading as you, what can they get up to? We spend

our lives dodging the latest scams. Offers too good to be true,

jackpots prizes we are never going to win.

And today the stakes are huge, because criminals are not just

after your pennies - they want your life savings and identity. If, like

me, whose day to day life involves communicating online, then almost

certainly you will have been targeted by the latest con. 80-

year-old Margaret Owen was at her home in Dorset with her family when

she found out she had been scammed. Suddenly, he called downstairs, my

son, he said, mum, you have been hacked! I did not know what he

meant. I realised I could not it into my e-mails.

Someone had hacked into Margaret's email account and sent begging

letters in her name to every person she knew.

Everyone on my e-mail address book caught a message that I had been

badly mugged and robbed in Madrid, I desperately needed money to sort

things out, I would be back the following weekend and pay them back

with interest. I needed around �2,000, can you help? I did not

know what to do, everyone was calling me, where other children

were calling me, people were calling them and asking what has

happened to your mother? All sorts of people believed it, and some of

them had spent four hours in a post office in Bath tried to send me

this money. Do you know how much money they got away with? And I

know three people got done, that was about �6,000.

When it comes to internet security this man is bang on target - unlike

his throwing. He says Margaret was probably a victim of a phishing

scam. This takes place when fraudsters

send out mass e-mails, which seemed to come from one organisation, you

may well have a relationship with it, for instance you high-speed

bank. They ask you to click on a link to verify your details or read

the latest message. The link will take you to a clone of the

organisation's website, very convincing, often. It is easy to

fall for these things, to log on, give them your details and your

personal information, who that -- we can then go to the real site and

clear out your account. I think it is really scary and

terribly upsetting. It was terribly upsetting in every way, to do with

my friends and work, feeling so invaded, still invaded, horrible,

horrible. The statistics suggest that

fraudsters are having a field day online.

The internet is a fantastic fill and make -- fantastic tool, but at

the same time it presents lots of opportunities for fraudsters to

strike. I just got a menial saying there

have been five attempts to get into your e-mail, Philip this form. One

of you said, don't touch it! There are all sorts of extraordinarily

clever ways in which you think it is a real, I do think it is Google

calling you, but it is not. I'm finding this all really scary

but Natasha Malden takes it in her stride. She's a cyber-expert who is

fearless in the online world and feels that we are offering the

The vast majority of people have the same password for most of their

accounts, social networking, shopping, bank accounts online. If

they don't, they will have the same password, and they will put a

number on the end of it, or the first letter will be a capital, but

it is always a variation on that one word.

So it looks like we are making it too easy for criminals to phish.

One bogus email claiming to be from your bank can trick you out of your

password, and open the door to all of your online life. It's not just

your financial passwords that the crooks are interested in. What

would happen if that got into the wrong hands?

Time to throw down a challenge for our cyber expert, Natasha. I don't

believe you can get that much information from me. I think I am

pretty sensible. I will give you one password, don't show the camera

it's back your challenge is to see how much you can get from that one

password. I will do that.

It seems more and more of us are being taken for a ride by cyber

criminals who will do anything to steal our identit. None more so

than in Reading. Although it sees itself as a high tech town, it's a

top target for online thieves. Thieves who have the power to turn

your life and identity on its head. So, you're Kate Liddel.

But there is another one? Yes, there was, and it was even a

Mr Kate Liddell. Yes, they don't even have respect

for your gender. How did you realise your

identification had been stolen? I opened a letter from a bank I had

a savings account with, telling me I had been successful setting up a

new account and would I take some identification in to activate the

account. Once they had hit the mark, they

set up an expensive mobile phone contract to get more money out of

Kate Liddell. The a tempted us with letters from

bailiffs saying they would come round and collect the debt board to

the phone company. That is worrying, to think people may turn up on your

doorstep demanding money or goods from you. I was frightened at that

point might. It must be a huge worry, you don't

know what else they have. I kept thinking something else

would come through the door or, that they would have used that

information to set up another debt somewhere else. Every day I checked

the doorstep, slightly obsessively. I was really worried this was going

to escalate, that we may lose a lot of money.

Fortunately, criminals did not hit the jackpot with Kate, as she she

raised the alarm as soon as she expected foul play. There is a

worry that her personal details are still up there and could be used to

commit crime. From your face because I can track

down your family members, see who you are friends with, I can see

when you have been on holiday... With just one password and Mike e-

mail, Natasha has discovered everything there is to know about

Jon Cuthill. Almost all that is useful. If I

wanted to break into your house, I would know how long you wear away.

I tried a couple of others. I went into your Amazon account. I then

tried your online banking, and I was able to get on there, as well.

I was able to see credit cards, are you billing address and delivery

address. You could use that information, and

then tricked me further to give more information?

Definitely come and give you can construct an official-looking e-

mail that says, we know you have lived here since the state and you

have bought this, this, and this, this is your date of birth, we need

you to fill in your credit card number to make sure that credit

card is still valid, and people won't think much of it and send

back at those details. Then they have out -- access to everything

you need. How do you best protect yourself?

The key is to be aware of common scams and problems and to take

sensible precautions. Fraudsters will often go for the lowest

hanging fruit, so you need to reduce the risk of details falling

into the wrong hands. If you're online, using the computer or

smartphone, you have to make sure it has up-to-date security software,

but you only use sites from genuine organisations, you make sure if you

are entering your credit card information, for instance, that it

is a secure website. It is estimated that over 4 million

people have been victims of anti- fraud in the UK. Next time you

enter your personal details online, be careful.

You believe it happens to other people who must be careless or have

not paid attention, and when it happens and you believe you have

been very careful, it is a horrible feeling.

None of us of my generation are but happy with the Internet, because we

thought it was quite a good idea and all this information, but it

has all these negative side, and I If you think you have a story for

me, why not got was an e-mail... And the I am Jon Cuthill!

Finally, it was the Secret Navy base for 200 years. Priddy's Hard

You'd never guess that this derelict site was once the secret

source of the British navy's firepower. The storage, development

and testing of lethal weapons all happened here. You can see that it

has been abandoned for decades, but From the days of Trafalgar through

two world wars, Priddy's Hard supplied the warships with their

Where are we? You were standing looking across the harbour at

Portsmouth naval base, which has been the home of the Royal Navy for

hundreds of years. When the side, the Gosport side, was the home of

the Navy's ammunition supply. Why were they in two different

places? Originally, the gunpowder was

stored in Plymouth at -- Portsmouth City, but as the City got bigger

and more populated, they started to get nervous about having the powder

in the middle of people, so they built their new powder magazine and

all the gunpowder was transferred. The powder comes out of the

magazine, balls into this harbour, it goes into special ships and they

take it to the fleet. Which must have been a bristling

sea of masts. Absolutely, the Navy had hundreds

of ships that would have filled the harbour.

This is the lethal headquarters of the British Navy, the British

Empire, effectively. Yes, and it then goes all round-

the-world enabling the Navy could do its job.

Priddy's Hard armed the Royal Navy allowing it to dominate the

greatest empire the world had ever known. At its peak the fleet ran to

over 900 major warships, served by over three quarters of a million

This is the Grand magazine built in 1777. This is the historic heart of

Priddy's Hard. This is an amazing run.

You have to imagine it piled high with barrels of gunpowder, because

all this structure is about containing the possible damage you

could have. So, if there is a big explosion

these walls are not going anywhere. The roof of the ceiling is slightly

thinner so if there's any problem it all goes up.

The pivotal role that this top secret facility played in defending

Britain continued throughout the Second World War, expanding to

cover over 100 acres of land, Priddy's Hard was the biggest

employer in Gosport, with local people joining as soon as they

When you came into work, you came through the tunnel, a dirty area,

into the store, and across the middle of the room was a barrier

about one foot high painted red. You step over that barrier, then

you were in the clean it area. There was no dirt or anything

officially allowed. Do stop contamination?

Yes, of the explosives. This was known as the Proof House.

When the shells and cartridges and fuses were worked on in the

laboratory, a certain amount of them were taken as proof. They were

fired to make sure it worked. All day long there was an enormous bang,

bang, bang. In those days, sometimes you went in a room and

you were there almost for your life, and there were a lot of people who

worked in the Proof House, who went home stone deaf. In those days you

did not wear ear protection or anything, it was one of the risks

of the job. Another risk was working with

explosives. Brothers surprising, then, that it was done in the

wooden huts. If there was a lot of stone or

brick, they would for a few milliseconds hold of the explosion

in and make it worse. So would almost protected it?

Yes. For Bill, Priddy's Hard was

something of a family business. Your father worked here?

My grandfather did, as well. Three generations all making,

testing, developing munitions. And my son did after me.

No Mike! Really. The name is well known here.

At the other end of the supply chain was Vice Admiral Sir Tim

McClement who received the weapons that were stored at Priddy's Hard.

In 1982 he was an acting Lieutenant Commander and 2nd in command of HMS

Conqueror the ship that sank the Belgrano in the Falklands Conflict.

One 2nd May, when the captain went to action stations, he fired three

of the mark eighth second-world-war torpedoes against the Belgrano. We

decided the best weapon to use of the two types of torpedo we had was

the mark the eighth, a Second World War weapon. The modern weapon is

designed to go one beneath the surface target, explode when it is

directly underneath, and it forms a gas bubble that rises quickly under

the ship, raises the ship out of the water and breaks its back. We

were not sure this a new weapon would half the size of bobble

required to lift a cruiser with eight inches of armour-plating, so

we decided to use the Second World War designed torpedo defined

against a Second World War are designed warship. The car --

captain carried out a classic attack from 1,400 yards. But of

three torpedoes, two hit, the first one blue of the boat, the second of

the stern. The captain came up to have a look shortly afterwards, or

he planned to, but as he was coming up we received the first of what we

considered to be depth charges, but we thought the escorts were looking

for us. There was a second pattern of debt charges, so the captain

took the submarine much deeper and clear de area.

The Falklands Conflict was the last time Priddy's Hard was operational.

The MoD relocated in 1989 and they left behind one of the largest

collections of military naval weaponry in Britain that now makes

up the Explosion Museum. This is our big gun store. The

whole story of the development of technology is about cause and

effect, one side producing something and that the other side

producing something to counter it. The ultimate development of an arms

race is the nuclear arms race. This is a Polaris nuclear missile.

I am touching a nuclear weapon? Yes, obviously this one has been

completely demilitarised, but it is pretty sinister.

It really makes you think the number of times the world has

teetered on the brink of catastrophe.

There was always a submarine at any given time loaded with these

missiles and pointing them somewhere.

With only a twentieth of its surface ships still in operation,

the Navy no longer needed Priddy's Hard, but its memory lives on.

We can that it might if you had a red badge on, you were working on

gunpowder. With traditional explosives like

TNT, it was a black badge. By the Red?

Because gunpowder emit dust. T N T under cordite were solid. It was

not so potentially flammable. Does it make you quite sad to come

here? It does, really.

It really is a bygone era, isn't Yes, I remember all the people I

worked with for all those years. It was not just a job, it was a way of

That is just about it for now, Jon Cuthill, a Bible see you next

Monday. -- I will see you next Monday.

Next Week, it is High Noon for our High Streets. But have the Olympics