27/02/2012 Inside Out West

Hello, from Wellington in Somerset. In tonight's programme... Do you

know who is emptying your bins? With the so-called Casanova Conman

awaiting sentencing, we investigate the devastating effects of identity

theft on its victims - and I find out that my own identity has been

stolen. You think you are here today to make a film about identity

theft but actually you have become the latest victim. Narraser Gordon

from Bristol hit the national headlines when she addressed the

Labour party conference last year. In my own area of Bristol, ate up

by family members have been murdered. -- eight of my family

members. But when we looked deeper into Narraser's story, we uncover a

different and astonishing version of her account. What he said was

not true? And less than two weeks ago, Reverend John Suddards was

stabbed to death. We investigate how risky it can be for the clergy

to open to operate an open door policy. With surprising stories

from close to home, I'm Alastair Every year, tens of thousands of

people have their identity stolen by conmen looking to run up debt in

their name. More often than not, the victim is the last to know

they've been targeted - and it seems absolutely no-one's safe, as

I found out when Polly Parsons from The Real Hustle made me the latest

ID theft. It's one of the fastest So far, more than four million

people in Britain have had their identities stolen. It is what is

often seen as a high-tech online crime. ID theft doesn't just happen

on the internet, it happens out in the real world too - and it's

scarily simple to pull off. And no- one knows that better than this

man... Kevin Castle, one of Britain's most notorious conmen. He

made a fortune stealing people's identities across the south west.

Identity theft is sometimes regarded as a victimless crime but

that's not actually the case. A lot of these victims have actually been

very, very traumatised. So just how easy is it to cash in on someone

else's identity? Well, I'm going to find out and I think I've already

got myself a likely victim... Alastair McKee and this is Inside

I'm back in my hometown in Bristol to set about stealing Alastair's

identity. Exposing scams like this is what I do for a living. This is

The Real Hustle. New recruits. This time they have brought in two new

faces. I As part of the team for BBC3's The Real Hustle, I thought

I'd seen it all. But even I'm amazed by just how easy stealing

someone's identity can be. Today, I'm meeting former Scotland Yard

detective, Alan Evans. He now tackles fraud across the west - and

that includes identity theft. a massive problem in this country

it accounts for billions of pounds a year. �2.7 billion. Most people

see it as an online crime but what are the thieves' tricks in the real

world? Forget about that and look at the real world. Letters, bills,

anything that comes through your doors. We are told, we cycled but

we forget that this bit of paper actually contains a lot of

information. Name, address, from the bank. They can take numbers,

they can go forward with that number and assume your identity.

It's so easy you can do it tomorrow. And that's why tens of thousands of

people fall victim to identity theft every year. And one of the

worst perpetrators was Kevin Castle. A command that stole the identities

of people in Somerset has admitted fraud today... Last month, Castle

pleaded guilty to 27 fraud charges and one of money laundering. He

spent tens of thousands of pounds in just ten months using credit

cards in other people's names. And he had previous form - he was known

as the Casanova Conman for the way he scammed women. For years, he

lived the high life thanks to a shoplifting scam targeting DIY

stores. He has been placed on the most wanted list... In 2010, he

turned up in Somerset, at this country hideaway, living on credit

raised using other people's personal details. One of those

victims was John Scantlebury. He only found out his identity had

been stolen when he checked with an online credit rating company.

latest rating is 288. That's poor to very poor. It was through them

that I found out there was a problem. I had not seen any

paperwork and haven't had a letter, nothing. But there is actually for

credit cards that had been applied for in my name. -- four credit

cards. Already, a few thousand pounds had been spent. All that

debt is in John's name - and he's still trying to clean up his credit

history. I can't tell your number, you have said. What are you saying

I have got to do? He said I cannot tell you anything over the

telephone because I do not know a few you are. I have got to go to a

branch and prove who I am. consequences of ID theft may be

complicated for the victim but for the criminal it can be all too

simple to pull off. It's late and I'm about to steal Alastair's

identity. Like most of us, Alastair has left his bin out overnight. To

All I need to do is get my hands on a bag. The recycling. And it's as

Now an ID thief isn't expecting to get it all in one swoop. But every

little bit of personal information has its use. An average week's

rubbish for Alastair's household and this is what can get thrown

away unnoticed... Credit card receipts and even mail just chucked

in the recycling - exactly the sort of thing an identity thief is

looking for. Alastair's actually pretty good with what he throws

away. And rummaging through bins can be disgusting work but there is

an even easier and much cleaner way of going about things. Stealing

mail before the victim has even seen it is one the most common

methods used by crooks. And for conman Kevin Castle, living in

rural Somerset made that a lot easier. Here, it's not unusual to

see external, unsecured letterboxes. Castle was only stopped when one of

his victims eventually caught him Back in Bristol, I've managed to

get enough information from Alastair's personal documents to

start getting to work. Just a few bits of personal information left

in a bin, a little bit of know-how and a spot of blagging and

Alastair's life can become an open wallet. With enough bin raids or

just some plain good luck, the ID thief can set about rebuilding

anyone's life for their benefit. And once you establish an approved

line of credit, it's easy to start racking up the goodies. This is

just some of the stuff Kevin Castle managed to pay for using other

people's details... So this is all the stuff he bought with other

people's money? Yes and as you can see, quite a lot. He's got the best

of everything, hasn't he? How did he get away with it for so long?

Well, a lot of the people didn't know there was a credit card in

their name because sometimes he was stealing the bills as well, so it

was quite simple really, an easy thing to do. Now this tin, what's

inside? It was found buried in the back garden. Inside were all these

documents and this is probably the best example of what he was doing.

It has got a record of identity numbers and withdrawals from cash

machines, dates and days and records of names, addresses, dates

of birth. They have got names of children living in the house.

Everybody in the house. You have got the maiden names of ladies.

Often a maiden name is used. It's shocking to see just how far Castle

was prepared to go in invading other people's lives. He's now due

to be sentenced for his crimes in April. As far as Alastair's

concerned, I think it's time to come clean. How easy is it to steal

somebody's identity? Alastair's inside. He thinks he's doing an

interview with an expert on identity fraud. He's not. I've got

Helena. Hi, Alastair, I'm Polly Parsons, from BBC3's The Real

Hustle. Now, you think you're making a film about identity theft,

but actually you've just become its latest victim. Right? You have

become the latest victim. We have been told you are pretty good at

keeping your details private, right? I think I am. You might

recognise some of these. Bank account details, credit card

receipts. Store accounts. Look at that. You have been going through

my rubbish bins? They have been left outside for anybody to take.

How interesting! Go for it. We will go to the laptop. I have been

filling out a credit card application form. Everything is in

your name. We have got an advance of �10,000 in cash coming straight

to me but the debt is in your name and is your problem. Because you

have got all that information? You have got my address. I cannot

believe this was in my recycling but it must have got out. All I

have to give his press sub-let and that money will come to me. Do not

do it! But one simple mistake and I could have had a massive shopping

spree on a you up because I am a nice person I have bought you a

present. I have brought you a shredder. You need to start

shredding all of your forms. I had better get started. Definitely.

always think of myself as being absolutely meticulous with all my

financial things. So I am amazed that I was that careless and that

it is that easy to steal my identity. I will be a lot more

careful in future. Alastair is lucky that he did not lose out,

this time. But remember, one simple mistake and anyone can fall victim

If there is something you would like us to investigate, you can

send us an e-mail. Coming up - a following the killing of the Vicar

of Thornbury, we look at the dangers of the clergy's open-door

At last year's Labour Party conference, a young woman from

Bristol gave a moving and personal account of losing eight members of

her family to knife and gun crime. But when Kirsty Hemming took a

closer look, she discovered a very different story.

Now is the time for us to unite... Court is 24 years old. She leads an

anti- gun and knife crime in Bristol. She ran in the local

election last year, up unsuccessfully. I am here to talk

about why young people are dying before they see their age of 21.

This is not an issue happening in one place as some people would like

to think. This issue is causing a problem in all the cities in the UK,

including London, Liverpool, Nottingham, Birmingham and in my

own area of Bristol, with eight of my family members been murdered

here. After a standing ovation from a senior politicians at a

conference, local newspapers picked up on Naressa's speech. Around the

same time, the focus on the city's youth crime intensified. Some

members of the St Pauls Blood Gang were jailed for firearm offences.

According to the Home Office, incidents of knife crime are

decreasing, so I was keen to meet the woman who claimed to have had

eight family members murdered here. I arranged to interview her about

her experiences. A after I finished my speech, everyone stood up and

started clapping. I could not believe that had just happened.

claimed receiving applause from a high-ranking politicians is a far

cry from her previous lifestyle. When it came to school, I used to

fight and I used to argue. If you annoyed me, I wanted to hurt you.

When I was at college, there was a girl and she really hacked me off.

I rang her up saying, say goodbye to your family because tomorrow in

college I am going to kill you. What progress have you seen since

you started campaigning in Bristol? Naressa says she has turned her

life around and is working to help others to do the same. She is

regularly invited into schools to help young people with anti-

violence Project. I have lost friends. One after another after

another. I thought, enough is enough. She said she knew Leon

Plummer, who was stabbed and died in Bristol in 2002, but I wanted to

know more about Naressa's tragic story and the rest of the family

she told the Labour conference she had lost. She broke down their

names, but a search of the death that history told me the people she

listed were not there. I was becoming more confused about her

story, but she continued to emphasise to me how dangerous a

place Bristol is a young people. live in a society where we hear or

read about young people being murdered every day. Having lived in

the region for more than 20 years and worked as a journalist here for

half of that, Naressa's description of the area is not one I recognise.

Violent crime does happen here, but not as a daily occurrence. And when

it does, lives are torn apart. Friends of Lloyd Fouracre were

trying to come to terms with his death. Adam Fouracre's brother was

beaten to death by a gang of youths in Taunton. He died the day before

his 18th birthday in 2005. Adam set up a charity to help young people

of boy violent crime. He has made a film about his brother to show to

school children. It certainly can happen to anybody. It didn't even

happen in the town centre. It happened in a residential area. It

was such a needless loss of life, but it was also so devastating to

so many people. Hello, everyone. Today is about violence and its

consequences. The charity set up in Lloyd's memory has had a cinema

campaign across the south-west. After hearing about Lloyd, I wanted

to find out more about the family members that Naressa said she had

lost to Ireland crime. I found something strange. Naressa was

talking to some of the people she said she had lost on Facebook. She

did not lose eight members of her family to violent crime. Statistics

show at that violent crimes are actually going down. The fear of

crime is greater than the reality. One of our main aims is not only to

make people be saved, but to make them feel safe. There is a

perception gap across crime, but particularly in the area of violent

crime. People think the city is a more dangerous place than it is.

the days after filming, I asked her again about the people who she

claimed had died. In an e-mail, she admitted that the majority of the

people on the list she had given me had not been murdered. Nevertheless,

Naressa's new-found influence within knife crime charities has

got her a long way. She has organised a gig for either 1,000

young people with the support of 02. Welcome. We have just started

letting people in. It is crazy and mad right now. She is just the best.

Naressa Gordon! We are here at the Indigo O2 where we have Chipmunk.

We have Wretch 32... She has got some big names involved. Naressa

Gordon is doing a lot to get the anti-violence message out to young

people. She has the support of over two, the Labour Party and numerous

international youth organisations. But her speech at the Labour Party

conference in September simply wasn't true, so I want to find out

why she felt she needed to create such a tragic story to get

attention for her campaign, and why the Labour Party in Bristol West

have promoted it ever since. Up until 10 days ago, the speech

was still featured on the Bristol West Labour Party website. Since I

got in touch with them about it, they have removed the video, but

they did not wish to speak to us. Naressa is still a Labour Party

Youth Officer for them. I asked her to meet me again for an interview,

but instead she sent a statement. She said I have lost three family

members and five close friends who I consider as family. I realise I

may have used words that might have been misleading and I regret this.

But this contradicts what she has already told me, that she has not

lost eight front of family members to violence. I really need to get

to the bottom of this. Hello it. It is Kirsty Hemming from

the BBC. It is clear you did not tell the truth at the party

conference and we need to get to the bottom of that. Remember you

gave me a list of names and said those were the people you work

referring to at the party conference. Is that correct. You

don't remember? You just want us to use the statement you have given us

as fact, but even though you have already told me it is not true? So

you have given me a false statement. But when you said that at the party

conference, you maintain that was the truth. So what she said at a

party conference was untrue? She has hung up the phone on me.

Naressa admits that a people she spoke about at the Labour Party

conference are not all family members, but maintains that they

were murdered. She gave me the names of the people she was talking

about in her speech. Now I have found that they are alive, she

claims they are a different set of victims. She is now working on a

campaign calling for the Government to give more money to community

activists like her who tackle gun and knife crime and she is aiming

high. We need to try and get me to talk to one of those political

leaders. David Cameron would be perfect, but any of them body. --

of them will do. I don't want their minions, I want them.

Two weeks ago it, Reverend John Suddards was stabbed to death in

Thornbury. Tonight, we investigate clergy who run an open-door policy.

The brutal killing of the Vicar of Thornbury has left this community

shocked. Reverend John Suddards was found with multiple stab wounds in

the hallway of the vicarage. A man has been charged with his murder.

Church leaders immediately spoke of the dangers because our expose too.

Sadly, this exposes the vulnerable nature of parish ministry in some

of our communities today. We will, of course, in the coming months,

continued to bring our care and support in every way we can to the

people of Thornbury. It has now emerged that Reverend John Suddards

had spoken at one of his churches about the dangers presented to the

clergy. Meg Adnams is a parish councillor at St Arilda's at

Oldbury-on-Severn where John Suddards was also parish priest.

She remembers a sermon he gave last October. He described how he had

invited someone into his home that week. He was a travelling vagrant

really. He had given him a meal and let him talk, listen to hit and

then the man had gone on his way. But John said I live alone in the

vicarage and being a vicar anyway is a risky and these people are

very vulnerable and that is how I remember it, and I had put it at

the back of my head and will be awful events of this week. John

Suddards, a filmed here at one of his former parishes, had continued

an open-door policy. It was something he spoke about on his

local community radio station. is very important. The Church has

been there for the people of Thornbury for hundreds of years and

I know few people who don't go in there and find something that helps

them, lists them. It is a place where people go and encounter God.

There are risks, but we are called upon to take them. This parish

priest is all too aware of the situation. I am very wary. If there

is someone outside I do not recognise, I have to weigh that up

and think about who it might be, whether I open the door properly or

open it on the chain because at the end of the day, I am responsible

for my own safety and when my children were living at home, for

their safety, to. Now she is calling on all clergy in the

Bristol diocese to look at their own safety procedures. I think it

has always been a priority, but when incidents in the community

occur, it brings the importance of good self awareness and well-being

to the forefront, and so it has brought that item again to the top

of our agenda. At the forefront of training clergy in personal safety

is national church watch. This former policeman gives seminars on

personal protection to clergy and church workers. I had been told by

clergy up incidents of violence. They had been punched in the face,

threatened with knives, been harassed by members of the

congregation. These are all common events that happen all over the

country, but this area is not immune from it. One of the methods

of catching a criminal is to offer a walk, isn't it?

It is thought a mandatory system should be available for incidents

to be reported. As far as I am aware, there is no method of

reporting incidents across the country. It is therefore hard to

prove what is going on because of the lack of evidence. Whatever

increases there may be insecurity, church leaders are adamant that the

open-door policy will remain. expect to be on the front line and

we do expect things to happen, but that will not undermine hour

passion and having the door open is That is all we have time for, but