From the Cradle to the Grave; 2 examples from over 600 courts cases and 250 films.
1. Derrick James Davies:
Christmas time 1998, I take a telephone call from Leyton Police CID. They have information that a local warehouse is holding counterfeit products like videos. It was new ground to them and the DC wanted to know what I, as Team Leader in Trading Standards could do. The first thing I did was to discretely drive around the address a unit in a large industrial estate, and I did not wear a suit.
I then applied for a search warrant at the local magistrates court with reason to believe offences were being committed . In other instances further surveillance is possible, but there is always the danger of spooking the target or being spotted by friendly neighbours. So surveillance has to be timed for maximum impact minimal use. Even so with the best intelligence gathering, it is more or less impossible to know what is behind that door, if the public at large do not have access and one cannot pose as a mystery shopper agent provocateur to see the lay out.
Every raid is mounted at dawn or a time when the target will be busy. There can be no guarantees the target will be there. Vehicles can be identified parked outside , but if luck is not on the side of law enforcement, the target could be having a cup of tea round the corner or going to the dentist etc etc. The best laid plans………….
Also these raids are multi-agency. Police and Trading Standards combined. Police have the power to arrest, Trading Standards the expertise in this instance. So field teams have to be briefed as to the building, their stations, individual responsibilities and what we anticipate. Also there is a question of logistics and manpower.
At 11 am 8th December 1998, two teams approached the warehouse, one to the back door down an alleyway and one to the front entrance. I led the front door charge with a video camera recording and holding the warrant. I had 3 officers, the Police had 5 plain clothes detectives.
As I opened the front door there were the inevitable shouts from the occupants, as I announced our identities and our mission. The scene we met were we totally unprepared for. We had stumbled on the biggest production of counterfeit designer wear this country had known. There were computerised sewing machines embroidering 52 brands onto garments. Any name you could imagine, Addidas, Nike, Versace, Hugo Boss, the list was endless. So was the stock. Hundreds of thousands of garments in production and in store. Downstairs was the showroom, shelves bedecked with counterfeit goods, even perfume and champagne. Upstairs were the women at the machines and conveyor belts. Who was in charge, well no body of course. All the staff remained silent. All were arrested and taken to Leyton Police Station in a conveyor belt of white Transit vans. That occupied all the cells at that Police Station. Most importantly Derrick was arrested running out the back door as we came in the front. Derrick was the most aggressive swearing individual I have ever met. Subsequent enquiries revealed his family were connected to the Kray Twins. Derrick professed to being just the delivery driver he delivered boxes , just boxes. But in his haste Derrick left vital clues. An address book full of contacts for “badges”, “tshirts”, “booze”, “buttons”. He also left handwriting, notes, calculations, an iou book. This was to prove his downfall later in court as forensic hand writing analysis proved that his documents in his name, were written by the same person as these business documents.
Derrick when interviewed would have none of it. All the official records of renting the warehouse were in false names and addresses, as was the telephone. 150,000 garments and 10 machines were confiscated and vans had to be hired and another warehouse to store and sort this vast amount of stock for analysis by the true brand owners. Derrick was also a cash merchant, so he left no trace there either. Any credit cards he took out, he would use for short periods either to withdraw cash balances and then not repay , or on trips to Las Vegas or Harrods on Valentines Day.
The Crown Court Case lasted 2 weeks. Derrick was charged with the Common Law offence of conspiracy, to defraud brand owners. I spent 4 days in the witness box, 3 of them under cross examination. However that was not until Derrick had skipped bail from the first court date and took the first Easy Jet flight from Luton Airport to his Villa in Majorca. I then had to liaise with Interpol to ask the Spanish Police to extradite him. But Derrick was on the run and 2 years after his initial arrest he was arrested again by Regional Crime Squad in a sting operation for importation of drugs. So Derrick was now in custody. Interestingly enough he got off the drugs case, saying he was just the driver !
In 2003 he was given the longest sentence for any brand counterfeiter 5 years. Though Derrick spent his money on a champagne life style, he lost his Mansion in Essex, cars & vans and aVilla in Spain, as assets in proceeds of crime. They were sold for the benefit of the State. Derrick also got divorced to try to keep his bricks and mortar and put everything in the wife’s name, but that was not accepted by the court.
The happy ending to this story is that there are charities that take these seized garments and machinery after the court case. They de logo the offending marks and are able to clothe the needy.
2. Johnny Morris:
In 1991 Thermastor, was Britain’s’ 2nd largest double glazing company. Margaret Thatcher was on TV being shown the Peterborough factory by one of her captain’s of industry Johnny Morris. Then in the late spring at my BBCTV Watchdog desk I read a small paragraph in the financial pages stating they had gone bust for £21m. It smelt dodgy to me, and I started making telephone calls. I met the receivers, who chose to come clean and announce their concerns.
I also chatted to the 2 ex members of staff who were left manning the telephone at the old factory. They gave me the keys to Johnny Morris’s office. His filing cabinet was like an Aladdin’s cave full of incriminating evidence.
Morris had written to all his customers asking for the balances on installation to be paid up front even up to and including the day he went into liquidation. That’s is fraudulent trading. He also had no hope of making the windows as his suppliers had not been paid and had foreclosed on delivering materials. He had also used company funds to add to the splendour of his Oxshott mansion. He also had paperwork for a phoenix company to arise from the ashes of Thermastor to carry on, even a cold calling telephone script to contact potential customers in the new business name. .
It was easy to find and film interview countless customers who had lost their life savings, double glazing does not come cheap. There were also a queue of supplier creditors including the printing firm that had worked on the new phoenix company paperwork. These unpaid suppliers were now in danger of going to the wall too, after the collapse of Thermastor for £21m.
Morris was doorstepped by me and a film crew, with a group of his customers as he arrived for the creditor’s meeting. In the interests of balance, he was given ample opportunity to state his case, and he did try to bluff his way out of it on camera.
After the half hour expose, on peak time BBC1, the files were handed over to the Serious Fraud Office, for his conviction. However the money had all gone.
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