SAS Catching the Criminals S01E02
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00:00Covert surveillance, reconnaissance, deception, stealth, and disruption.
00:07These are the skills I learned on the military front line,
00:11and they can be used to combat a different enemy.
00:15Britain's criminals.
00:17Police! Police!
00:20That's the team thrown into position now.
00:22My name is Billy Billingham, and I spent over 20 years in the SAS.
00:28Now I'm going to show you how SAS tactics are helping to crack down on anti-social crime across Britain.
00:36All teams now in position.
00:38Strike, strike, strike.
00:40Some enforcement agencies are already using SAS tactics to hunt criminals.
00:45Check this out. This is exactly what they were looking for.
00:48Hey, presto.
00:50And I want to find out how much the police are doing too.
00:54Go, go, go.
00:57She's going to pick up a target right now.
00:59You're lying, aren't you? And you know very well it's illegal.
01:02You need to move quick. Stand by.
01:04Banged up, job done.
01:18In the military, I've worked with guys with multiple skill sets.
01:22Demolitions, communications, medical, mountaineers.
01:26And if one thing I've learnt is knowing when to call in those skill sets at a time when they are required.
01:37I'm about to hit the road with Northampton's road policing unit.
01:41I've spent a lot of time in cars, doing evasive driving, intercept driving and sometimes just trying to stay alive.
01:49Tonight, let's see.
01:53I'm here to meet Bomber Bayliss for a night shift.
01:57In the SAS, we train in tactical driving.
02:00But for the road policing team, it's a way of life.
02:03The shift here starts with an intelligence briefing, given by an officer who is out doing surveillance.
02:09That's why it's happening online.
02:12The things of interest then. So the first one is the Silver Bombs Blaster, which is an incident that affected Range Rovers.
02:17There's no current keeper, but insurers were chatting from ******.
02:21Basically what they've been doing is they've been going out in this loose convoy to the area,
02:25so that the Range Rover take them to locations.
02:28Yesterday went to ******, it was parked up.
02:31They then stole some plates, later on in the evening, about half six-ish at night.
02:35Intelligence has identified a priority for Bomber and the team.
02:40Find the Silver Vauxhall Astra that's being used by a suspected gang of luxury car thieves.
02:46They steal Range Rovers that are popular in Russia, and then they whisk them out of the country.
02:51So that's the night shift briefing taking place right now.
02:54The surveillance teams are still on the ground.
02:56So everything's based on intel and surveillance, just like it would be in the regiment.
03:00Intel comes in, it's all live, it's all being passed on.
03:03As soon as vehicles of interest come into their area of responsibility, just like we would,
03:07they'll intercept it, interdict it, deal with it.
03:12Time to hit the road with Bomber and hunt down the Astra.
03:16We'll be riding Culver in an unmarked car the suspects won't spot.
03:20And the roads team are being kept busy.
03:24So, Bomber, I mean, on your everyday night shift, I know nothing's ever routine,
03:28but if you were to say there's something more routine at the moment, what would that be?
03:32There is a bit of a pattern, but certainly the lorry thefts are a major issue for us.
03:38We have a lot of logistical bases, warehousing units in this county around here,
03:44mainly because we're in the middle of the country.
03:46So a lot of the lorries that are arriving from Europe or even from elsewhere around the country,
03:52they might park up nearby and they effectively become soft targets.
03:58Tonight we're looking for suspected car thieves,
04:01but Bomber wants to show me the theft risk to lorries too.
04:05This is a truck stop that has been targeted before.
04:10I mean, you can just see the number of vehicles that are here.
04:14And that's a really good example.
04:16Plane, trailer, curtain sider, they don't know what's in that.
04:20But a quick cut, a little look.
04:23And effectively what they do is they'll park their lorry into that gap.
04:27So once they've made a little cut, they'll have a little look.
04:30And then when they actually come to the job, they just Stanley knife the whole thing.
04:37Criminals will then steal a lorry's load
04:39and disappear in their own truck to sell off what they've stolen.
04:43But tonight the only vehicle in trouble is a broken-down car nearby.
04:52Are you OK?
04:54Let me turn around, I'll come and help you.
04:56She's broken down.
04:58I'm going to have a chat with her.
05:00We've got a young lady that's got a bit of an issue, broken down,
05:04and showing their hearts and minds they're out there supporting the community.
05:10Turns out it's just a flat.
05:12The hunt for stolen cars and lorry robbers will have to wait.
05:16How long you had the car?
05:19Just stole it.
05:22I was trained as a tactical driver in the SAS,
05:25learning how to respond to threats and escape in a vehicle.
05:29I didn't expect to be changing a tyre outside a lorry park in Northampton.
05:33Improvise, adapt, overcome and all that stuff.
05:36Is that up enough? All in a day's work.
05:39Right, you're all good. No problem.
05:42Maybe tonight is going to be a quiet night.
05:44But whenever I thought that on an army patrol,
05:47things were about to get very busy.
05:50Very busy.
05:57In the SAS, gathering intel can sometimes be a dirty business.
06:01If you're required to go through the enemy's trash and rubbish to get that intel,
06:06that's exactly what we'll do.
06:08But now there's an elite bunch of civilians
06:11who look at everything that we throw away.
06:15Emma Viner is an Enforcement and Investigations Manager
06:19for the Environment Agency.
06:21Waste crime costs the UK nearly a billion pounds a year.
06:26But Emma's work saves the taxpayer millions.
06:29Today she's on her way to Felixstow to look at some recycling.
06:33The container that we're looking at today was destined for India.
06:37It was described as clean paper and cardboard.
06:40It's likely to have gone to a paper mill.
06:42It's likely to have gone to a paper mill in India.
06:45So it's travelling some distance around the world.
06:48The shipment should contain nothing but recyclable paper.
06:52But Emma suspects that's not the case.
06:56So with this particular container today,
06:58they've described it as waste paper being exported.
07:01So we're looking for any contamination in that,
07:03anything that doesn't meet that description of clean paper
07:05that can be recycled abroad.
07:08So today's job, we're going to be evidencing that container over there.
07:12We believe it might have some contaminants in there.
07:14That would be illegal to export where it's going today.
07:17Inside we're looking for any kind of plastic, metals, tin cans,
07:20anything like that, anything that isn't paper and card
07:23we're going to take out and extract.
07:25So the time is now half nine. Are we ready to go and open it?
07:28Yeah. Cool, let's go.
07:32The team here work with intelligence gathering officers.
07:35Just like we do in the military.
07:38So we're going to be taking the bales out, splitting them apart
07:41to see whether there's any contamination inside them.
07:43It's a pretty labour-intensive task,
07:45so each bale will need to be removed from the container
07:48so we know how many bales it contains.
07:50The team then need to break them.
07:52All the material will be laid out on the floor
07:54and they'll be manually picking through it, looking for any contamination.
07:57Looks like the intelligence was correct.
07:59So from our first visual inspection of this bale,
08:02we can see plastic, black bags, fabric-type material.
08:06So even on the surface of this bale, without breaking it open,
08:09we can see that it's not waste paper or cardboard, as it has been described.
08:16The bale has been broken up now,
08:18so we can start working our way through it, see what's inside it.
08:22The bales should be all paper and cardboard,
08:25but the Environment Agency believe misdescription
08:28is one of the most common types of contamination.
08:31It's one of the most common types of waste crime in the UK.
08:35So if you look at the size of this area,
08:37there's a lot of stuff that shouldn't be in that container.
08:40This could be bad news for the UK economy.
08:43So if this material gets to its destination,
08:45if it doesn't meet the standards they're expecting,
08:48there's an expectation on us to bring it back to the UK.
08:51The cost of that can be substantial.
08:53We've had cases in the past where we've had 200 containers returned
08:56from overseas, and that's cost us somewhere in the region
09:00so quite a substantial cost to our UK economy.
09:02Across the UK, illegal exports are believed to cost
09:08so the team will check more bales.
09:11So why might the company in charge of this recycling let this happen?
09:15The amount of money to be made in illegal waste activities
09:19is substantial, really substantial.
09:22That can be comparable to other really serious criminality
09:25such as drugs, offences, firearms offences.
09:28Sorting the bales properly takes time, which costs money,
09:31and anything they pull out also costs to be disposed of.
09:35It's easier and cheaper just to ship it out unsorted.
09:38This is a criminal offence in the same way as the criminal offences
09:42that people do know about, and this is dealt with
09:44as a criminal investigation and will end up in a criminal court.
09:47And Emma and her team have the power to do that.
09:54Emma's team work all across the country
09:57On a different day, they're on a whole new operation
10:00200 miles away in Yorkshire.
10:03They're holding a briefing with police
10:05before heading out to arrest a suspected major fraudster.
10:09We'll do a section 32, say it's ready to be arrested
10:12and then we'll come back and execute the warrant.
10:14Right, let's get going.
10:19We are on our way to a residential property in the Leeds area
10:22and the plan is to effect an arrest of an individual
10:25and search the premises linked to him.
10:27This is in relation to an Environment Agency investigation
10:30and we're being supported today by the police
10:33and by the National Crime Agency.
10:35Recycling firms can claim cash credits from the government
10:39based on how much recycling they've done.
10:42In this particular case, the evidence we've gathered so far
10:45shows that the companies and the individuals involved with this
10:48haven't handled the waste that they say they've handled,
10:51so there's likely to be false documentation
10:54saying that they've handled a huge amount of waste, actually,
10:57and that that's been legitimately processed,
10:59but our evidence shows otherwise.
11:01So they've effectively been claiming these recycling credits
11:04and receiving the financial benefit from that
11:06for work that they've never done.
11:08The investigation as a whole,
11:10we're looking at around an £8 million fraud,
11:12so as you can imagine, that's a huge amount of waste
11:15that would need to be handled to claim that £8 million benefit.
11:2275% of waste crime goes unreported.
11:26But if Emma and her team suspect you've committed fraud,
11:29they'll bring in the police to carry out arrests.
11:34Hello, police!
11:36What's your name?
11:38Stop there!
11:43Striking early is a tactic.
11:46The team hope to catch the suspect asleep.
11:49And it's worked.
11:52So we're in the property, the individual was here
11:55and he's being arrested, so the police are dealing with the arrest.
11:58And now the team start the search for anything that might show a link
12:02to recycling that was never done.
12:05The search teams will remain here to do the search of the property
12:08and another property associated with this individual
12:10whilst the interview is being undertaken by another part of the team.
12:14The suspect is coming in for interrogation.
12:17For the Environment Agency, this is their chance to ask him
12:20the tough questions about fraud.
12:23In my experience, once a suspect is interrogated,
12:27they are more likely to tell what they know.
12:30The arrest was successful.
12:32The police went in, arrested him, seized a mobile phone from him.
12:35The digital devices are particularly helpful to look at
12:38who they've been communicating with,
12:40establishing the different roles within the network.
12:42Laptops may contain things like doctor documents,
12:45which would show us how much waste they've handled
12:48and how much of that waste is fraudulent.
12:50There might be information in there about the finances
12:52and how those finances have been distributed.
12:54These operations are always really well planned.
12:56There's a lot of thought, a lot of planning that goes into them,
12:59so by the time we turn up at the door, we know exactly what's going to happen,
13:02who's doing what, and they run really smoothly.
13:04It's good to know the Environment Agency is working with the police
13:09to crack down on these types of crimes
13:12and they have the right tools to catch the suspects.
13:20I'm out on patrol with Bomber Bayliss of Northampton Police
13:23and we've got a call to attend to.
13:26There's a report of a runaway car up ahead.
13:29And automatic number plate recognition cameras, ANPR, have helped to spot it.
13:34So we've had a report of another failed-to-stop vehicle,
13:38so we're quickly switching and heading towards that direction right now.
13:45It's not the Range Rover car thieves we're after,
13:48but there's a report of a red car being involved in a collision
13:51and then failing to stop.
13:54And a police camera has spotted a similar vehicle.
13:57We know it's a Golf, we know it's red.
14:00The ANPR system, even though it reads number plates,
14:03it'll read everything that goes through it as well.
14:06So there's a car and it's gone through, it's got no number plate on it.
14:10And from the shape of the headlamps,
14:12they've put it down to being a Golf of the right age group.
14:16Right.
14:17So we've got a bit of a target area we're going to go and have a look around there.
14:21Live information and coordination are vital when you're out in the field.
14:26We now know roughly where the red car might be driving around
14:30and there's a surprising update from the team's control room.
14:34In relation to that failed-to-stop Golf,
14:37the driver of said vehicle is now ringing up to report his car stolen.
14:42And apparently he let go for a test drive,
14:45as you would at 10 at night,
14:48he let go for a test drive and has been reserved.
14:52Yeah.
14:53Yeah, sure.
14:54That old chestnut.
14:56We start to search for the allegedly stolen red car.
15:00Then an update comes in.
15:02One of my colleagues has found it.
15:05That's great.
15:06And he's got loads of damage, so we'll go and join him.
15:09Yeah.
15:13This is the car.
15:16Oh, dear.
15:18Yeah.
15:19So he's letting go with all this gear as well in the back of the car
15:22just for a test drive.
15:25He actually does think we're stupid, doesn't he?
15:31Just up the road, police have found the owner himself,
15:34who claims he's out looking for his car.
15:37Police are suspicious of his story,
15:39that someone else was test driving it in the middle of the night,
15:43and my instincts tell me they're right.
15:45What time did this gentleman approach you and where did he approach you?
15:48Did he approach you directly outside your address?
15:50When I was working on the vehicle, yes.
15:52Every CCTV day, you're more than welcome to have a look at that.
15:55You've seen him before? I've seen him before, yes.
15:57You don't have his contact detail? No.
15:59Did you not make a note of his surname?
16:01No, it started with, can you do something like that?
16:04Someone was going to buy your vehicle and potentially take it away.
16:06You told me it's worth £4,000.
16:08Do you not think it'd be sensible to state their details for a month?
16:11He showed me that he's got proof of insurance,
16:13he showed me that he's got funds in the bank,
16:15so I said, OK, yeah, you're more than welcome to take it for a test drive.
16:18I've spoken to you before, he's taken it for a test drive.
16:20It's time to turn up the pressure on this guy.
16:22How did the guy know you were selling the car?
16:26And where was that?
16:31What, he just happened to be walking past and said...
16:36Mate, don't be so stupid.
16:40All right, don't act stupid.
16:45How could you be out walking about when you reported it to us?
16:47Did you not go back and think it'd be a good idea to go back and sort it?
16:50All right.
16:51Why were you walking out of the van?
16:52Trying to look for the car.
16:53I phoned the police and I was on the phone to the police,
16:55I reported the accident, and I said to them,
16:57and I was walking around, reporting an accident.
16:59What accident?
17:00That the vehicle was stolen.
17:02Mate, you said accident, mate.
17:03Yeah, I reported the accident.
17:04It is an accident, isn't it?
17:05No, it's not an accident, mate.
17:06Mate.
17:07It isn't going very well, is it, mate?
17:08Mate, I reported...
17:09What accident?
17:10That the vehicle was stolen.
17:11There's a distinct difference between a car being stolen
17:13and using the word accident.
17:15It's not looking too good, is it?
17:16Honestly...
17:17Reportedly, there's no honest...
17:18Sorry, incident, my bad.
17:19There's nothing honest about this, mate.
17:21In the SAS, I've had to question suspects
17:24in the most serious of circumstances,
17:26and the experience often makes people give the game away.
17:30I think that's what's just happened here.
17:33You've already mentioned accident, mate.
17:35No-one else moved.
17:36It's an incident, not an accident.
17:37No, listen, mate.
17:38It is an incident.
17:39That's what I'm saying.
17:40I reported an incident, not an accident.
17:42The car was...
17:43I would not call and report the car was stolen.
17:47Of course you wouldn't.
17:49I don't believe him, and neither do the police.
17:52I don't believe what you're telling us at the moment.
17:54If it transpires on a later date
17:55there's evidence to suggest your car was stolen,
17:57then, of course, we'll investigate it.
17:58But I don't believe a word that you're telling me.
18:00What we're going to do as well
18:01is we're going to send you a name the driver form,
18:03which is a lawful request for you to name the driver,
18:05the driver details of the person that was driving it at the time.
18:08Failure to produce those details
18:09will render you liable to prosecution.
18:11OK. See you later.
18:13The bloke may just have got himself a six-point penalty.
18:16And a £1,000 fine.
18:18But whilst we're dealing with this guy, a call comes in.
18:21The car we were first looking for, the silver Astra,
18:24robbing high-value cars, has been spotted.
18:34In the SAS, I was taught to spot danger.
18:37In civilian life, that's not so easy.
18:40And let's not forget, there's some dangerous people out there.
18:47This CCTV footage captures the moment
18:50a person in a silver car makes their way to a meeting
18:54to pay for a car they've just bought in an online auction.
18:58The seller has asked to meet them down a quiet side street.
19:03But as the buyer drives past, a white van follows them.
19:07The whole thing is a set-up.
19:09Off camera, several men jumped out of the white van
19:13and robbed the driver of the cash before speeding away.
19:18There never was a real car for sale.
19:24Greater Manchester Police were called in to investigate the robbery
19:28and spotted it was one of several similar offences.
19:31Joe. Hi, Billy. Nice to see you again.
19:33Good to see you again, mate.
19:34I've come to talk to Joe Harrop
19:36of the Sirius Unorganised Crime Group.
19:38I've heard that they used SAS-style tactics
19:41to flush out the bad guys.
19:43So what this group were doing, really sophisticated,
19:45they'd clone the identities of vehicles,
19:48advertise that vehicle for sale, engage members of the public,
19:51arrange for them to come and buy the vehicle,
19:53so the group then knew that the members of the public
19:55had significant quarters of the cash.
19:57I think 28 separate incidents in total, so a lot of victims.
20:00The robbers were armed with machetes.
20:02This CCTV captures them exiting a vehicle
20:05after robbing another member of the public,
20:08who had turned up in a quiet spot to buy a car cheaply for cash.
20:12So somebody thinks of getting a bargain,
20:14a £20,000 car for £15,000,
20:16I'm pretty sure they're going to be saying cash only.
20:18They know somebody's going to turn up, probably on their own,
20:21or in a couple, with a pocket full of cash.
20:24So leading them basically into an ambush site. Yeah.
20:28Police were aware that the gang were using online auction sites
20:31to find targets to rob,
20:33and they decided to use the sort of tactics
20:36a Special Forces soldier would opt for.
20:38We posed online as a member of the public,
20:40instigated some phone contacts,
20:42then we could start to recognise the voices,
20:44get a bit more of a clue as to where they were based,
20:46arrange to meet and then deploy surveillance.
20:50Surveillance ultimately led us to them
20:52in a stolen car they were using to go to the attack site.
20:54This was the car police believe
20:56was being used by the suspects in the robberies.
20:59Through further surveillance, they gained enough intel
21:02to learn the gang were working out of two properties
21:05in the same street.
21:06So evidence from surveillance, the group meeting up,
21:09putting them with stolen cars,
21:11on more than one event, engaging with them online,
21:14so then you're building up the same voice where they've logged in.
21:18Once we're at the point where we think we've got enough
21:21and they've agreed to meet us,
21:23if we've got that evidential tipping point,
21:25that's when we know to strike.
21:27So, still posing as interested buyers,
21:29the police did exactly what I would do.
21:32We arranged to meet them,
21:33or they thought they were going to meet a female victim.
21:36Obviously it was us online engaging with them.
21:38When they turned up to meet the victim,
21:41we then struck with firearms officers
21:43and arrested a number of gang in the vehicle with machetes.
21:46Then we just built up the evidence case.
21:48That is very much like a regiment-type raid.
21:51Find out the evidence, lead them into,
21:54inevitably, what is your ambush.
21:56The hunters become the hunted, basically.
21:58And back at the house the gang worked at,
22:01they were busy finding their next victim
22:03from their most recent fake car adverts.
22:06But the Greater Manchester team launched a fast strike
22:10right at their front door.
22:12They had no idea what was coming.
22:15One gang member made a dash for freedom.
22:18Out the back, but the police caught up with him.
22:23As a result of the investigation,
22:25all the gang had their day in court.
22:29I think, in total, they got over 48 years in prison.
22:32The biggest success was the head of the gangs.
22:34He got 20 years, so, yeah, massive, massive sentence.
22:37A good result for them.
22:38Sentences are big for that sort of crime, aren't they?
22:41Yeah, I think it's because it's so violent and because of the number.
22:44That type of crime, that hasn't happened since in Manchester.
22:47Decoy operations are common in the SES.
22:50But when the time came to make the arrest,
22:52I'm pleased to hear that officers turned out in force
22:55to take out this violent gang.
23:05I'm out with Northampton's Specialist Road Policing Unit.
23:09We've changed the tyre and dealt with a suspected identity fraud.
23:13But the team were looking to hunt down high-value car thieves,
23:17and they've just been spotted.
23:19At the start of the night, we were given a number of vehicles of interest,
23:23and the primary vehicle was a Silver Astra,
23:26which has now just been triggered through a number of cameras,
23:30and that is now mobile, so we're hopefully going to go intercept
23:34and see what's going on with that.
23:36It's going to be good.
23:38Bomber puts his foot down.
23:40This specialised pursuit vehicle can do over 150 miles an hour.
23:45Our tactical plan is to get it stunned,
23:48so, effectively, they lose control of the car
23:52and we can slow it down.
23:54The team want to deploy a Stinger, a spike-tyre bursting device.
23:58But before they can do that, we need to get behind the target vehicle.
24:02This marked police car is following, just behind the suspect's car.
24:06Bomber wants them to tail off now, so as not to give the game away.
24:10Romeo Papa 64, I'm with you, Dom.
24:14Yeah, roger.
24:17Nice.
24:19A marked car peels off, and the suspects probably breathe a sigh of relief.
24:24So this is our target vehicle, we're ahead.
24:27That's us now, closing on the suspect vehicle,
24:30which we're absolutely unaware where he is, it's unmarked.
24:37Vehicle's taking the third off the roundabout, A425,
24:40towards Daventry Centre, really.
24:43BEEPING
24:45Got one, one. Indicated, taking the second.
24:49Still A425.
24:52So what's the plan from now?
24:54So we're going to basically, hopefully, swoop on it without him knowing we're over there.
24:58Just like in the SES, the road's policing team hunt in packs.
25:05So Bomber's location updates are going to another team member
25:09on the road ahead, who's just looking for the right spot to deploy that stinger.
25:14Stand by, you've got a stinger sight on the van to your near side coming up.
25:17So what we've got now is a vehicle in front with a stinger
25:20ready to burst the tyres of the vehicle.
25:22Vehicle's standing, vehicle's standing.
25:24That's the vehicle taking down. Vehicle's stopping. Stop, stop, stop.
25:27I'm just going to take his nose off.
25:29Their car is stopped and Bomber blocks their escape route.
25:32Show me your hands, show me your hands!
25:34Out of the car, now, get out, get out!
25:36Out of the car, out of the car!
25:38Get out, get out, get out!
25:42There's one of the suspects.
25:48And a second, all down to military-style teamwork.
25:52You OK? So listen to what I'm going to say to you.
25:55At this moment in time, you're under arrest on suspicion of a conspiracy to commit theft.
26:00Do you understand that? Yeah. Stand up.
26:04These guys are believed to be smart crooks who steal luxury Range Rovers.
26:09I bet they won't drop themselves in it like the last bloke.
26:12Where have you been?
26:16You been to London?
26:18You come from London tonight? You did?
26:22Silence. But what's in the car?
26:25An amount of cash. Right.
26:27But we seize it, we put an estimate on it,
26:31I reckon it's probably just about a grand, if not a little bit more there.
26:34Yeah. So we'll seize that.
26:37Can this guy explain it?
26:39A lot of money, huh? What?
26:41A lot of money. Money? Money?
26:44A lot of money, huh? Yeah?
26:47Yours? Yeah.
26:49What do you do?
26:51What work?
26:55Amazon? Pay good, huh?
26:57Can I get a job?
26:58Can I get a job? And they pay you all that money?
27:01I think you may lie a little bit, maybe.
27:04Cheeky little lie.
27:06Yeah, I think you do understand.
27:08I think you understand.
27:10With two in custody and cash seized,
27:13police can launch their investigation properly.
27:16Are these two men behind a string of car thefts?
27:20Bomber plans to find out.
27:22Two in custody for high-value burglaries
27:25and recovered a quantity of cash and other items
27:28that link them to this job.
27:30So all in all, it couldn't have gone better, really.
27:33I love that the team took a smart tactical approach
27:36to catching their suspects
27:38and it's bought them the result they wanted.
27:41So there you see, great combination of surveillance,
27:44teamwork, great night and a great result.
27:49Teamwork, check.
27:51Use of technology, check.
27:53Tactical attack, check.
27:55Targets taken down, check.
27:57A perfect military approach to the night shift.
28:18♪♪♪