:00:09. > :00:15.Litter is a big problem. ?2 billion spent on cleaning up litter and
:00:16. > :00:19.waste last year. The public wants to see something done about litter. An
:00:20. > :00:25.increasing number of fines are being issued on behalf of councils. It's
:00:26. > :00:29.causing real anger. All I want to do is pick up the poo that you say I'm
:00:30. > :00:34.responsible for. Look at this poor old man. You all right, mate? And
:00:35. > :00:37.they're abusing him, you scumbag. Many of the fines are being handed
:00:38. > :00:45.out by private companies who often split the takings with the local
:00:46. > :00:49.authority.. There are millions to be made. So is this really about
:00:50. > :00:58.preventing litter or increasing profits? Now we're all one slip away
:00:59. > :01:13.from a criminal record. Amber Langtry, a graphic designer
:01:14. > :01:17.from Brighton, faced a criminal record after a council employee
:01:18. > :01:23.accused her of failing to clear up a dog poo, a poo, she says, her German
:01:24. > :01:27.shepherd Olive never did. Any friend and I decided to take the dogs for a
:01:28. > :01:30.walk in the park. The dogs had run off lead, immediately gone to the
:01:31. > :01:35.toilet. We picked it up, put it in the bins. We were on our way out of
:01:36. > :01:39.the park. I could hear somebody shouting behind me. Turned round and
:01:40. > :01:43.I could see this man in a uniform with high vis jacket. I would like
:01:44. > :01:48.to walk over there, you can come with me. I'll pick up the poo that
:01:49. > :01:52.you say I'm responsible for. The man in the high vis jacket is a local
:01:53. > :01:57.authority litter enforcement officer. He claimed Olive had done a
:01:58. > :02:02.poo but wouldn't tell Amber where it was. I'm actually trying to remove
:02:03. > :02:06.the dog poo that this man won't allow me to. I'll caution you. You
:02:07. > :02:14.do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence, if you
:02:15. > :02:18.(inaudible) later rely on in court. He read me my rights, that was
:02:19. > :02:22.confusing. Because I thought that was a police power. He didn't work
:02:23. > :02:26.for the police, but he was dressed like a police officer. The litter
:02:27. > :02:33.enforcement officer still hadn't shown Amor the alleged poo. -- Amber
:02:34. > :02:39.the alleged poo. I'm going to call the police now. Amber says she found
:02:40. > :02:45.the whole experience intimidating. That's a deliberate ploy to confuse
:02:46. > :02:49.people and scare them into accepting the fine. Where is this phantom poo
:02:50. > :02:54.that my dog is supposedly responsible for? I realised he was
:02:55. > :03:00.basically there to try and extort money from me on behalf of the
:03:01. > :03:03.Council. After a complaint from Amber, Tower Hamlets Council dropped
:03:04. > :03:07.the case. It told us that environmental enforcement officers
:03:08. > :03:11.change people's behaviour by fining irresponsible dog owners. An
:03:12. > :03:15.increasing number of enforcement officers are now provided by private
:03:16. > :03:21.companies. They often share ticket revenue with the local authorities
:03:22. > :03:24.that hire them. The Local Government Association says its members have
:03:25. > :03:28.suffered significant budget reductions. Bringing in fully
:03:29. > :03:34.accountability private companies may be better value. But it's a
:03:35. > :03:39.development that concerns civil liberties group the Manifesto Club.
:03:40. > :03:42.They say look, we'll come in. We'll deliver the service for you. It
:03:43. > :03:45.won't cost you anything. You won't have to do anything. It's a
:03:46. > :03:50.seductive offer to say hand it over to us, sign it over to us, and we
:03:51. > :03:53.will make you a bit of money and you won't lose anything. This was very
:03:54. > :04:00.concerning for us, because essentially what you have here was a
:04:01. > :04:05.fine on behalf of the behalf of a public authority being contracted
:04:06. > :04:09.out to somebody who doesn't have public interest at heart and is
:04:10. > :04:14.seeking to make money. The most widely used company is Kingdom
:04:15. > :04:18.services based near Warrington. It has 28 contracts with local
:04:19. > :04:23.authorities in England and Wales. It made a gross profit of ?9 million
:04:24. > :04:38.last year. Up more than 30% on the year before.
:04:39. > :04:44.Enforcement officers issue fixed penalty notices. One man didn't take
:04:45. > :04:48.his fine lying down. I could have been charged with a criminal record
:04:49. > :04:52.for doing nothing wrong. Luke Gutheridge helps out on his dad's
:04:53. > :04:54.market stall. The company responsible for environmental
:04:55. > :05:00.enforcement here until recently was Kingdom. It was a nice summer's day.
:05:01. > :05:05.I had a bag of fruit in my left hand. I was unpeeling the orange
:05:06. > :05:10.from my right hand. By accident, Luke dropped a small piece of orange
:05:11. > :05:13.peel, which was spotted by an eagle eyed Kingdom officer. It involves
:05:14. > :05:18.the orange peel that you've dropped on the floor. There
:05:19. > :05:22.I put it all in the... There is a peel on the floor there, Sir. I
:05:23. > :05:26.retraced my toot steps and it was the size of a 50 p piece. I picked
:05:27. > :05:31.it up and put it in the bin. He started to issue a fine.
:05:32. > :05:35.Unfortunately, it's an offence contrary to section 87 Environmental
:05:36. > :05:40.Protection Act. Unfortunately, it's still an offence. Even though Luke
:05:41. > :05:44.dropped the peel by accident and picked it up, the Kingdom officer
:05:45. > :05:49.was determined to proceed. I will be issuing a fixed penalty notice for
:05:50. > :05:51.some ?75 payable within 14 days. I was shocked I received a ticket.
:05:52. > :05:55.There was nothing to do once you receive the ticket, you had the
:05:56. > :05:59.ticket. I was going to basically appeal the case, because why should
:06:00. > :06:02.I pay for something I didn't do? Neither Kingdom nor the council had
:06:03. > :06:10.reckoned with Luke's mum, who works for a lawyer. My main concern was
:06:11. > :06:14.trying to find any case law had somebody been prosecuted before? And
:06:15. > :06:18.the cases that I did find were people who actually did litter, but
:06:19. > :06:23.there was nothing like this, nobody had actually challenged. So this was
:06:24. > :06:28.a one off actually. Kingdom's own body camera footage shows that the
:06:29. > :06:32.enforcement officer failed to follow guidelines set out by DEFRA, the
:06:33. > :06:38.Government department responsible for policing litter. The DEFRA
:06:39. > :06:46.guidance says look, in cases such as this, then it's not good to
:06:47. > :06:49.prosecute. So in Luke's case, clearly, had the officer merely
:06:50. > :06:54.wished to carry out the spirit of the act, they would have said OK,
:06:55. > :06:56.not a problem. End of story. In court, magistrates accepted that
:06:57. > :07:01.Luke had dropped the peel accidentally and acquitted him. But
:07:02. > :07:07.his decision to fight wasn't easy. Had he lost he could have been fined
:07:08. > :07:11.?2,500 and got a criminal record. Standing in the box, you know,
:07:12. > :07:16.saying the oath was a bit daunting really. Had we not appealed, or we
:07:17. > :07:20.weren't in the financial position to, he could have ended up with a
:07:21. > :07:23.criminal record for life for dropping a piece of orange peel.
:07:24. > :07:29.It's just nonsense. It's just disgusting to be quite honest.
:07:30. > :07:33.Broxbourne Council told us that the local Government ombudsman found
:07:34. > :07:39.that it had acted without fault when it issued the fixed penalty notice
:07:40. > :07:42.and decided to prosecute Luke. Figures suggest that as more
:07:43. > :07:47.councils use private contractors, the number of fines has soared. To
:07:48. > :07:52.start with the fines were very low level, about 15,000 a year. Now
:07:53. > :07:56.we're seeing really an exponential increase with almost 150,000 fines a
:07:57. > :07:59.year. Really you're seeing, over time, this moving from something
:08:00. > :08:04.that's quite marginal to something that is becoming a real trend. So it
:08:05. > :08:09.seems more and more people are at risk of finding themselves in the
:08:10. > :08:14.frame. One of the companies likely to fine them if they stray -
:08:15. > :08:17.Kingdom. We've heard that officers are incentivised to fine as many
:08:18. > :08:22.people as possible, something the company denies.
:08:23. > :08:29.To find out how Kingdom goes about its business, we've decided to send
:08:30. > :08:34.in an undercover reporter. She gets a job in the London borough of
:08:35. > :08:37.Bexley. Her training starts with a lecture on how a litter-free
:08:38. > :08:56.environment is in the public interest. But the trainer also makes
:08:57. > :08:59.clear that Kingdom is after profits. Our undercover reporter wants to
:09:00. > :09:23.understand exactly how the business works. She probes another manager.
:09:24. > :09:28.Kingdom's website says it doesn't reward staff only for the number of
:09:29. > :09:33.tickets they issue. It says that they do get a competency allowance,
:09:34. > :09:35.which also takes into account attendance, punctuality and positive
:09:36. > :10:03.public and customer feedback. The manager has just described the
:10:04. > :10:05.competency allowance as a bonus and made it clear it's based on the
:10:06. > :10:31.number of tickets issued. There's no mention of attendance,
:10:32. > :10:53.punctuality and positive public and customer feedback.
:10:54. > :10:58.At lunch time, our reporter's fellow trainees are excited about how much
:10:59. > :11:23.money there is to be made. The trainee planning to dish out
:11:24. > :11:27.fines like smarties is going to be based in Ealing, west London. Can I
:11:28. > :11:39.have a coffee please, white, no sugar. It was in Ealing that retired
:11:40. > :11:44.civil servant Sue Peckitt was served with a fixed penalty notice. She'd
:11:45. > :11:47.allegedly polluted the water course. On the day, I bought myself a
:11:48. > :11:52.takeaway cup of coffee. I thought I want rid of this, I was rushing to a
:11:53. > :11:57.meeting. I took the coffee and I put the coffee down the drain in the
:11:58. > :12:01.road. Then I walked towards the waste bin. When the enforcement
:12:02. > :12:07.officer stopped me and told me I was going to be fined and it was illegal
:12:08. > :12:12.to put coffee down a drain in a public place. To avoid the criminal
:12:13. > :12:16.record Sue paid the fine, but then went to a local paper. The Council
:12:17. > :12:20.caved in and handed her money back. Kingdom apologised and sent her a
:12:21. > :12:25.?20 gift voucher. It is pure greed on the part of the enforcement
:12:26. > :12:31.officers, I would say. In no stretch of the imagination could you say
:12:32. > :12:35.that the liquid from the coffee cup is cross-contamination, when it's
:12:36. > :12:41.going in a sewer and she placed the coffee cup in the bin. Ealing
:12:42. > :12:45.Council told us the officers who fined Sue made an error of judgment.
:12:46. > :12:54.But that the vast majority of fines are correctly issued. In Bexley, our
:12:55. > :12:57.undercover reporter is learning the ropes from more experienced
:12:58. > :13:33.officers. This one is scouring the town for litterers.
:13:34. > :13:44.The number one target is smokers. It's not long before they get one.
:13:45. > :13:48.He applies pressure to get the man's details. He needs them in order to
:13:49. > :14:11.issue the ?80 fixed penalty notice. As the man waivers, the officer
:14:12. > :14:25.threatens to call the police. The man is dealt with. The kingdom
:14:26. > :14:26.officer tells our reporter that he routinely pretends to call the
:14:27. > :14:47.police. What our reporter's witnessed isn't
:14:48. > :15:23.a one off. Kingdom's instructor talked about it in training.
:15:24. > :15:30.Over lunch our reporter asks the Kingdom officer how he's paid. He's
:15:31. > :16:26.guarded. So it seems clear, if you work for
:16:27. > :16:31.Kingdom the more you fine, the more you earn. In a statement, the
:16:32. > :16:36.company told us its competency allowance isn't to incentivise
:16:37. > :16:40.officers to issue fines. It says the allowance is discretionary and only
:16:41. > :16:50.paid if officers meet all their basic competencies. In Ealing,
:16:51. > :16:55.Kingdom officers have come up with a new tactic - they ride on council
:16:56. > :17:01.trucks to check on people's rubbish. It's not gone down well.
:17:02. > :17:04.The borough has a very big problem with fly-tipping, I appreciate that.
:17:05. > :17:17.But they're targeting the wrong people.
:17:18. > :17:24.On the 29th December, I put my recycling out two days later than
:17:25. > :17:32.usual. Due to the holiday, Christmas time recycling always changes. So, I
:17:33. > :17:36.put the big blue recycling bin out. Six small extra bags of recycling.
:17:37. > :17:45.And my green food bin. Nothing unusual. Everyone doing the same.
:17:46. > :17:50.About a week later, I received a fixed penalty notice for ?80 for
:17:51. > :17:59.fly-tipping, on to the public highway, outside my own property.
:18:00. > :18:03.The notice felt quite forceful. You have to pay it, or you're going to
:18:04. > :18:07.be taken to court. You're going to be prosecuted. The consequences of
:18:08. > :18:12.losing in court would have been severe. You have to pay court costs
:18:13. > :18:17.and you get a criminal record on top of that. I the esided as soon as I
:18:18. > :18:24.saw that -- decided as soon as I saw that I would not pay it. Liz took
:18:25. > :18:27.the case to her local MP and paper. The council backed down saying the
:18:28. > :18:32.decision to fine Liz was an error of judgment. It told us that it expects
:18:33. > :18:37.the highest standards and a common sense approach from kingdom.
:18:38. > :18:41.I think it is fine if the council get a private company to enforce
:18:42. > :18:46.these fines, but they need to target the right offenders and not people
:18:47. > :18:54.that just want to have their recycling taken away.
:18:55. > :18:59.Even if you do the public spirited thing you could fall foul of these
:19:00. > :19:03.wardens. Essentially they have a different agenda. It is about making
:19:04. > :19:08.a target, which involves a different knowledge, in a way. It involves
:19:09. > :19:12.knowing, for example, this is a really good spot because if you
:19:13. > :19:16.stand here people tend to put out their cigarettes to get on the bus
:19:17. > :19:21.in a rush. They learn the tricks more than they learn the law.
:19:22. > :19:24.Britain's leading antilitter pressure group says it is vital
:19:25. > :19:28.there is public confidence in enforcement. The cost of clean-up,
:19:29. > :19:33.topped over ?1 billion last year. That is the cost of clearing up
:19:34. > :19:37.litter. If you add to that the cost of waste criminal, that is another
:19:38. > :19:40.?1 billion. ?2 billion spent on cleaning up litter and waste.
:19:41. > :19:44.Enforcement is one of the methods we can use to change people's
:19:45. > :19:51.behaviour, but it needs to be fair and have the public on our side.
:19:52. > :19:55.Back in Bexley, our undercover reporter is learning the techniques
:19:56. > :20:01.of the trade. She's learnt how to fake calls to the police to get
:20:02. > :20:11.people to pay up. She's now being shown another rouse
:20:12. > :20:17.And her instructor's got another technique. In court, the prosecution
:20:18. > :20:21.must show the accused intended to leave the litter. On the street, a
:20:22. > :20:24.fine can be issued as soon as the person moves away from it.
:20:25. > :20:43.There is a way of making this happen.
:20:44. > :20:49.In training, a Kingdom manager says the company's only interested in
:20:50. > :21:20.working with councils who want to adopt a hard-line approach.
:21:21. > :21:28.Our undercover reporter and her boss are patrolling. They spot two men,
:21:29. > :21:33.one of them is smoking. The boss decides to follow.
:21:34. > :21:41.We were crossing the road and we saw them pass. My brother asked me, who
:21:42. > :21:46.are they? I thought they were traffic wardens. The officer sees
:21:47. > :21:50.one of the men drop his cigarette butt and follows him into a shop. It
:21:51. > :21:56.should be an open and shut case, but there's a problem. I was trying to
:21:57. > :22:00.put forward to the officer that my brother is not understanding
:22:01. > :22:05.anything and he was not resident in this country. But he wouldn't
:22:06. > :22:10.listen. Kingdom's training manual says its officers shouldn't issue
:22:11. > :22:20.fixed penalty notices to people living outside the UK.
:22:21. > :22:45.Carlos gives the officer some important information.
:22:46. > :22:54.I tried to put forward to the officer about my situation and
:22:55. > :22:59.showed him my dressing. But he wouldn't listen. The officer issues
:23:00. > :23:04.the ticket to a man who lives outside the UK. It is sent to the
:23:05. > :23:08.home of his sick brother. I started to feel really, really
:23:09. > :23:13.anxious that something will happen to me because he was maybe the first
:23:14. > :23:16.time I get so excited after the operation. You don't know how you
:23:17. > :23:23.will react because it is something new. My strategy was let him finish.
:23:24. > :23:27.If he wants an address, I will give him my address. If he wants anything
:23:28. > :23:32.else, I will do anything to get out because I need to go back home
:23:33. > :23:37.because I started to get panicky. Worried about Carlos's health the
:23:38. > :23:43.brothers gave up. They now intend to fight the case. The experience has
:23:44. > :23:49.left Carlos deeply suspicious about the deal between Dinning dom and
:23:50. > :23:52.Bexley Council. I am very untrustful about this relationship between the
:23:53. > :24:00.private companies and councils. They become sticky. The companies weren't
:24:01. > :24:05.put people as the first priority. Kingdom says officers are trained to
:24:06. > :24:09.exercise their individual professional judgment about issuing
:24:10. > :24:15.fines to non-UK residents, who have no immunity from committing
:24:16. > :24:18.environmental offences. Bexley Council says environmental
:24:19. > :24:26.enforcement is reducing littering and that the public have given it
:24:27. > :24:29.positive feedback. Nationally, companies like Kingdom can enforce
:24:30. > :24:35.even more anti-social behaviour laws. The latest, a public spaces
:24:36. > :24:42.protection orders, or PSPOs. These allow councils to ban some actives
:24:43. > :24:46.they consider undesirable. This prohibition which is obviously broad
:24:47. > :24:50.in the extreme is being enforced by private companies on commission
:24:51. > :24:54.basis. So I think you have got a worrying combination of on one hand
:24:55. > :24:57.broad powers given to local authorities to create new crimes and
:24:58. > :25:01.then the right for local authorities to contract out the enforcement of
:25:02. > :25:08.those crimes to private companies on a commission basis. In the Forest of
:25:09. > :25:13.Dean, the council working without an enforcement company tried to use
:25:14. > :25:17.these new powers to overturn a right some local people say has existed
:25:18. > :25:22.since Magna car the. Come -- Magna Carta.
:25:23. > :25:33.Come on then... The right to graze your sheep on any piece of common
:25:34. > :25:44.land. Come on! The council said there'd been
:25:45. > :25:53.complaints. Incident 2280. -- 280. Three lambs and ewes walking around
:25:54. > :26:01.at 3am. Incident, bleating. 297, ewe and lamb, two lambs roomed all day.
:26:02. > :26:08.12 sheep present. Came back at 10. 30, some unmarked. The PSPO would
:26:09. > :26:13.have banned sheep from grazing on common land in the village of Bream.
:26:14. > :26:17.Any shepherd who broke this could have faced a fixed penalty notice.
:26:18. > :26:21.The shepherds say they are worried it would not have stopped there. The
:26:22. > :26:25.problem with this open spaces order is it could be extended to cover the
:26:26. > :26:28.whole or any part of the forest at any given time at the stroke of a
:26:29. > :26:35.pen. We considered that that could well
:26:36. > :26:42.have been the end of commoning and the end of free roaming sheep.
:26:43. > :26:46.For now, the shepherds have seen off the proposal. But they remain
:26:47. > :26:55.worried that it could be reintroduced. And contracted out to
:26:56. > :27:00.a private company, like Kingdom. The Forest of Dean council told us
:27:01. > :27:04.that the planned PSPO was introduced because of irresponsible shepherding
:27:05. > :27:10.and that it couldn't have been extended without public consultation
:27:11. > :27:14.and a vote of the full council. Complaints about enforcement
:27:15. > :27:17.officers have led to pressure for a national training academy.
:27:18. > :27:21.We would like all enforcement officers to be properly trained. We
:27:22. > :27:26.would like them all to understand what needs to be achieved within the
:27:27. > :27:29.guidelines and I think we need to continually check with the public
:27:30. > :27:34.that this is very much done on their behest.
:27:35. > :27:38.Kingdom says it believes its training is extensive and effective.
:27:39. > :27:42.That basic training lasts for at least 12 months and that there are
:27:43. > :27:47.stringent checks of enforcement officers. But there is opposition to
:27:48. > :27:53.companies like Kingdom being involved in policing laws at all.
:27:54. > :27:58.Before the early 1800s we had thief thief catchers. Everybody knew they
:27:59. > :28:02.would catch people who were not thieves because they would get the
:28:03. > :28:07.money. There is the idea this person is not trying to punish you for the
:28:08. > :28:10.sake of it. And I think that is something that should be of concern
:28:11. > :28:14.to all members of the public, whether they find themselves on the
:28:15. > :28:17.receiving end of these fines or not. Private companies are now being paid
:28:18. > :28:24.to enforce the criminal law. The more people they fine, the more
:28:25. > :28:27.they can make. While this continues, and companies like Kingdom keep
:28:28. > :28:29.winning contracts, more and more of us are at risk of being branded
:28:30. > :28:36.criminals.