29/10/2012 Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Good evening. Here is what is on the show

tonight: the Yorkshire businessman convicted or his role in the

illegal arms trade. In British terms, if not the

merchant of death he was Yorkshire's merchant of death.

expose the mail-order company failing to deliver its promises.

heart. But on the other hand, I was relieved that I was not going to

get away any more money for nothing. I'm going up this road because it

is here where the battle lines have been drawn. An investigating

whether an incinerator in North Yorkshire is worth its 1.4 or

billion pounds a east mac. -- �1.4 Almost the international arms trade

is at 30 police worlds away from North Yorkshire. But the conviction

of one York gun dealer shows it could flourish anywhere. A cold

case has led to new questions on this deadly business.

To those who knew him, Gary Hyde was the epitome of the respectable

local entrepeneur. He was the classic upstanding member of the

community - a successful businessman and former police

special constable who had even received a bravery award by North

Yorkshire Police for foiling a robbery.

So just how did gary Hyde become an international arms dealer, a man

wanted on two continents, whose stock in trade was the world's

favourite killing machine. He is an unscrupulous businessman

who deals in death. He deals in tens of thousands of

assault rifles which he sells to security forces and armed groups

all over the world. He is a major arms dealer, he is not just a gun

shop owner. Gary Hyde's business empire was

rooted in Yorkshire. He served the hunting and shooting set as

managing director of York Guns. But he also had his own companies

chasing legitimate government arms contracts across the globe...and

Now this, it is the AK-47 or kalishnikov - cheap to produce,

highly reliable and a favourite of third world armies and child

soldiers across the globe. Sell these in high volume, and you can

After the Balkan wars of the early 1990s, there were huge stockpiles

of old Soviet-style weaponry in eastern Europe, including hundreds

of thousands of AK-47s. The guns were surplus, but far from useless.

The weapons were urgently needed to arm security forces fighting

insurgencies. As the call went out to arm Iraqi

and Afghan troops, private gun dealers across the globe were put

on alert. And Gary Hyde sniffed an Gary Hyde was buying AKs for $12-13

- no way the real value - he was selling them on for $150-300.

But before the guns went to Afghanistan, they came to this

sleepy corner of Lincolnshire. In 2009, Inside Out revealed that with

British government approval Gary Hyde brought 70,000 AK-47s to this

secretive former Cold War storage depot at Faldingworth. A

significant number were moved on to Afghanistan and MPs and human

rights groups in the UK were concerned.

A government inquiry in the US revealed several hundred thousand

of the very same weapons that the likes of Gary and others were

supplying had gone missing - ended up in the arms of an insurgent, or

were simply not accounted for, serial numbers not recorded, no

accurate track on where the weapons But the government approved deals

continued. Ammunition was moved to Iraq from South Africa and Serbia,

tens of thousands of magazines were sent to Afghanistan, and he

fulfilled an MoD contract for 6,500 pistols and up to 300 machine guns

from China to Basra. The shipment arrived as the Iraqi police force

in the city was being infiltrated by Shia militiamen. And still the

deals kept coming. These are the Wikileak cables

revealed at the beginning of 2011 and amongst all the detail and

allegations is this one - confidential plans to sell 130,000

Romanian AK-47s to Colonel Gadaffi's regime in Libya.

The document revealed a contract between a Ukranian arms

manufacturer and Libya's equivalent of the Ministry of Defence. But it

was to be facilitated by York Guns - the company which Gary Hyde was

managing director of. Licences were The reason why it was turned down

was quite obvious - only 76,000 troops in libyan army, double the

amount of kalishnikovs necessary for the armed forces and the

likelihood was that a number of those weapons were not intended for

Libya but for neighbouring armed York Guns has distanced itself from

Gary hyde and say no allegations have been directed at the company

and that they were not involved in his activities, which continued to

grow. By now Gary Hyde was building a

reputation as a keen businessman who would go that extra mile to

clinch the deal. So when he was arrested by US

Marshalls in Las Vegas at America's biggest gathering of gun dealers,

more than a few eyebrows were raised.

Gary Hyde had fallen foul of US trade regulations with China, and

the import/export of 5,000 Chinese- made AK-47 magazine barrels had

aroused the suspicion of government agents. Gary Hyde denies any wrong

doing and the charges still have to be dealt with. But when he returned

to Britain, the authorities were British customs were interested in

a deal in 2007 to provide 80,000 guns plus 32 million rounds of

ammunition to the Nigerian security forces. It was weaponry that the

Nigerians urgently needed, but the country was not going to war, it

I found there was all sorts of weapons heading into Nigeria to

kind of bolster what is called their gunpowder politics - weapons

given to youths to brandish to If you are supplying AK-47s to

police officers that is highly questionable because they are used

to shoot people, they do not have the capacity to fire rubber bullets

The weapons had come from China in a $10 million deal brokered by Gary

Hyde. Under UK legislation any arms deal arranged here needs to be

licenced and the crucial piece of paper was not applied for. Gary

Hyde claimed he had done the business away from the UK and that

a licence was not necessary. Customs officers seized computers

at Hyde's home in Newton on Derwent near York, their investigation

revealed a commission of $1.3 million dollars had been paid,

money that was hidden in a bank account in the tax haven of

Litchenstein. Gary Hyde has since been sacked by

York Guns. One industry insider admits that the case will be used

as further ammunition against the British gun trade.

Certainly this is of grave concern to everyone in the gun trade, any

laws broken should be slapped down and punished accordingly. We are

concerned, this is our livelihood and it is important that we are

seen to operate in a legal manner. We operate in a tightly regulated

Gary hyde was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of flouting

arms brokering laws and concealing the profits of the deal. He will be

sentenced next month. You could say he was Britain's most

significant kalishnikov dealer, so in British terms, if he was not the

merchant of death, he was certainly Gary Hyde is paying a heavy price

for his part in the global gun trade but for those working in the

field of arms control, he is not a one-off.

If you take someone like Gary Hyde out of the equation, won't someone

else just pop up in his place? Oh, yes, that is it. Gary Hyde is

one of many entrepeneurs involved in the arms business, but there is

always a market for weapons and there is a grey market for weapons

and ammunition for sure, and that is the sort of world that Gary Hyde

He is almost the Arthur Daley of the UK arms trade. He is dealing in

large quantities of second-hand old equipment from the former Soviet

Union, the only people who deal in this kind of kit are the kind of

people who are wheeling and dealing on the fringes of the acceptable

Still to come: will it be good value for money to get an

incinerator coming from here in this castle?

If you get a letter saying you have one huge cash prize, all due to do

his reply and sent a photo for publicity and buy something from

the mail-order catalogue. It sounds too good to be true, it is. But

that is who count as vulnerable and elderly people been targeted by one

John Chappell from West Yorkshire is disabled and cares for his 88

year old blind mother. Day after day letters arrive telling him he

is the winner of huge cheque. To get the money fast, he needs to

order some goods. Not that you may win it, you may Exley when it. You

have to send in your order so they can send the cheque. They've ended

up with drawers full of products they don't need - many from a

company called Vital Nature. That is extra strength lutein. Pills and

potions aimed at the frail and elderly are stacked into boxes in

every room. John is a retired West Yorkshire policeman, but he still

sent off dangerous personal details to confirm his win. They insist on

some form of identification. There we have a copy of the passport

which has been sent to them. Also, they require a photograph to be

used on the publication. It is a bit like when you're a drug addict,

they feed you with so much that you have won it. There is only one more

step. You do that one more step and you do it again. And then at one

point my mother said, let's knock it on the head. They also require a

smaller version to make sure it is the same person. Not only has it

cost us in money, it has also cost of sue macro -- Awesome Mack and

stamps. It is all over and above. I would do anything for a, you see.

John sent his photographs and prize claim forms to addresses in

Scotland and Hampshire. He never received a reply - just more post

requesting more orders and promising prizes. We've uncovered

evidence showing that while cheques are cashed and orders processed,

letters from confused pensioners asking what's happened to their

promised prizes are thrown away unread. People from all over the

country have fallen for this con and in every case it can be traced

back to one address. The UK nerve centre for a huge mail order scam -

Emery LTD In Hampshire. They are clearly not reading their letters.

Time to give them a voice. Glenn Close My order cheque and forms. I

and 90 years old, in a wheelchair, cannot walk, had two heart attacks,

got angina... Our loud hailer is going down a storm. Neighbouring

businesses are more than happy to listen to letters from confused

customers, which is more than can be said for the company that throws

them away. One employee whose job it was to bin the customers'

letters, was so appalled at the part a UK business plays in this

deception, she went undercover with a camera to show what happens. The

mail handling company works for a Frenchman who runs a number of

businesses in Europe, promising prizes in return for orders Time to

go and see some of the people It had me convinced. The more

letters I opened, the more I thought, this cannot be right. It

People confused, generally asking about their prize, why they haven't

got it. A lot of people needing Many of the mail order companies

are owned by the same person, a wealthy Frenchman Anita UK postal

address -- who needs. While their customers may be left all at sea,

the Gebbetts appear to be riding high on a wave of success. His son

Nick lives in Norfolk. Nothing on Twitter about running a company

involved in a mass marketing scam. Here's dad David, who often pops in

for a chat at the company. And here's his son Nick, who appears to

be in charge. While they throw away most letters they receive, Nick

Gebbett did read the one we sent him. He replied they'd only answer

our questions with a statement if we used it in full and unedited.

Obviously we want to hear their side of the story - but we can't go

giving promises like that to anyone. But I still needed to know why they

thought it was OK to do the dirty work for a French scammer. I am a

from BBC Inside Out. Can I ask why your company continues to chat --

cash cheques of vulnerable people. We have sent a statement to you and

that all -- that is all there is to it. Your staff as being instructed

to shred their letters. I cannot comment. Why do you continue to

have dealings with the company? cannot comment on that. I'm sorry.

I have to go. What you say to people who think they had been

taken for a ride by this company? Your company could stop it

happening. If we did, some other company would do it. That does not

make it right. You have got nothing to say to these people. Surely you

all them something? His reply, no comment. If they did not do it,

someone else would. Does that make My message to companies working as

a third party to a criminal enterprise is that yes, you are on

borrowed time. My job is to close in as quickly as we can to stop you

operating, to bring you to justice and to make sure that you are seen

as part of that criminal conspiracy. We are closing in on you whether

you are in the UK or you're operating for somebody outside the

UK. We're bringing it together on behalf of the nation. We're there

to make sure that people in our society, people in the UK, are less

susceptible to a criminal methods. Our job is to make sure that we

protect the people of this country. At this moment in time, I am living

on hope. I think our work here is done. We have truly given them a

voice. In the next 24 hours decisions will be made over plans

to build a controversial new waste incinerator. It is a public-private

partnership and it will cost �1.4 billion. It will last of the next

25 years. Will this be worth the Everyone agrees that recycling is a

good thing - but the question of what we do with the waste that's

left behind is the subject of heated debate. I'm on my way up the

A1, because it's there that the battles lines have been drawn in a

protracted war about the rights and wrongs of building a huge waste

incineration plant that some fear will be too big, too expensive and

be one incinerator too many. The row centres on this site at

Allerton Park near Knaresborough, where a large incinerator and waste

processing plant will be built, using controversial PFI money.

Critics say this method of funding, where the private sector build

facilities and then charges the public sector to use them, can tie

taxpayers to expensive commitments for decades to come. And it's to

this former quarry that all of North Yorkshire's household black

bin bags will be sent. There'll be extra recycling on site, and power

created from waste - the rest will be burnt. And the size of such a

plant has raised obvious concerns Now if you're after a building that

dominates the landscape, look no further than Allerton Castle. But

this Grade One-listed mansion will be dwarfed by the incinerator which

would be built just a mile away. Millionaire American philanthropist

Gerald Rolph is a trustee of the foundation that owns the castle.

How big is this proposed incinerator? Probably larger than

this in many ways. And of course up to me, to have that happen, which

is a detriment to your heritage, I am concerned and I am against it.

solution to North Yorkshire's waste problem has been ten years in the

offing. Landfill was increasingly seen as unsustainable and expensive.

The local authority's answer was an incinerator plant. Almost �6

million in consultancy fees later, its future is about to be decided.

On the one side there's big business and two large local

authorities. The incinerator will be built by waste management multi-

national Ameycespa, who'll then charge North Yorkshire County

Council and the City of York Council to burn their domestic

waste. They say it'll actually save money. North Yorkshire and York are

facing a bill to deal with their waste. If we carry on dealing with

it as we are, in today's fashion. The project proposed should reduce

that by 1.4 billion. At this point in time those costs continue to

change. This is not and was never meant to be the cheapest solution.

This was about finding the best solution for the disposal of waste.

But the protestors argue there are cheaper alternatives than spending

�1.4 billion - and 10,000 signatures have been gathered and

local MPs brought on side. And in the evenings, there's fighting talk.

That is a critical point. This facility is far too big. They say

being tied to a 25-year deal doesn't make sense. There are other

options they could do over a shorter time periods where they

could make more appropriate decisions than track and they could

say a lot of money. The protestors believe now's not the time to press

ahead, but to re-examine other options.. They say that the

proposed project is not the right solution to North Yorkshire's waste

problem. And rather than one big incinerator, they want smaller

energy from waste centres, closer to the communities that create the

rubbish in the first place. What to do with domestic waste has been an

issue ever since the Victorians latched onto the idea of burning it.

Over on the continent they've been building incinerators close to

urban centres so that schools, hospitals and residents can benefit

from the heat that's produced. But with its countryside location, the

heat from Allerton Park will be wasted - further proof, say the

protestors, that it's being built in the wrong place And what's

fanning the flames is that Allerton Park isn't the only waste plant in

the pipeline. There's talk of incinerators for Teesside,

Ferrybridge and Kellingley - and some are wondering whether the

Allerton Park scheme will be one chimney too many. The protestors

have commissioned their own report on the proposal. One of Britain's

leading waste consultancies have examined the figures for the

Allerton Park incinerator, and say there's a problem. We are seemed

less material being thrown away and yet we are seen more facilities

being either built or going through the planning process to be built.

We are concerned that in a few years we will have more capacity to

deal with this refused and we will have refuse. The councils deny

there'll be problems, and say that even if there are fluctuations in

domestic waste, commercial waste will fill the gap. And that's

opened up another accusation that there could be a two-tier pricing

structure - a high one for the local authorities, and a cheaper

one to attract other waste companies. We try as the commercial

operators Les? It is not fixed. It will not be cheaper. It is a

commercial decision. Will the council's beyond that flexible

rate? And no, they are, fixed rate for 25 years. The Council could

find themselves snooping. If the cost for getting rid of waste goes

down, they could find themselves tied into a rate where they are

paying double the rate? It is extremely unlikely the cost will go

down. At one of North Yorkshire's largest private trade waste

companies, they're watching developments closely, especially as

more and more British firms are producing waste that can only be

recycled. The drive in the commercial world now is a zero

waste. That is through a combination of working with them to

reduce waste, and giving all the priority to recycling, innovator of

recycling processes. Do you ever see a wagon pulling up at Allerton

Park? I would be very surprised unless their model changes

significantly. Back near Allerton Park the residents remain worried

about what the future might bring. The incinerator might be a bit too

close for comfort for the locals - but they deny a 'not in my back

yard' attitude. I'd turn the NIMBY argument on its head - it's York

that's being the ultimate NIMBY by not having incineration within its

boundaries. The city of York are one of the sponsors. They will not

permit incineration. So are there other waste solutions on the

horizon? On the outskirts of Swindon, Advanced Plasma Power has

developed an energy form called gasplasma - turning municipal waste

into an energy rich gas which can be used in turbines, gas engines

and fuel cells. They're also planning to return to landfill

sites to reclaim the metals and plastics that we threw away decades

ago, thinking they were worthless. Local authorities could be sitting

on gold mines, and rather than burning waste, they could be

digging it up.. I think we are in the process of their paradigm shift

from seeing waste has rubbish that we throw away, to actually a

valuable resource in its own right. The reserves of gold, for example,

he landfills. Whether its gold or rubbish, North Yorkshire

councillors have a big decision to make tomorrow - one that many

believe could have consequences beyond the next 25 years. That is

it. If there is anything you have missed, you can get it on the

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