SAS Catching the Criminals S01E14 (2024)
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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.
00:20That's the team thrown into position now.
00:22My name is Billy Billingham, and I spent over 20 years in the SAS.
00:29Now I'm going to show you how SAS tactics are helping to crack down on anti-social crime across Britain.
00:37All teams now in position.
00:39Strike, 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.
00:49Hey, presto.
00:51And 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.
01:02Let's go. You need to move quick. Stand by.
01:04Banged up. Job done.
01:27The police are very different to the SAS in many ways, but they're very similar in others.
01:32Gathering intelligence is crucial for building a criminal case.
01:36It's also vital when planning a military operation.
01:40Everything we do in the SAS is based on intel and planning.
01:48You don't go over a border into enemy lines all through a door until you know the intel.
01:54That's the difference between success and failure.
02:07It's all 500 hours, early morning, and we're just about to pay these people a quick visit.
02:12It's going to be a simultaneous strike, a rude awakening. Stand by.
02:17Here in the Midlands, I'm meeting an enforcement group called the Illegal Money Lending Team.
02:23They're a special squad of elite investigators who work alongside the police.
02:28They're made up of ex-coppers, soldiers and trading standards officers.
02:33This team have had intel that suggests a loan shark is operating in the area.
02:39It's classified intelligence and they have a target address where they believe the suspect lives.
02:45Just like in the SAS, we'd use this classified intel to make an entry and search.
02:50And that's what the team has planned today.
02:53Morning. Early morning call. Morning.
02:56These officers don't want to be identified as they work on covert operations.
03:01Something I also had to get used to in the SAS.
03:05We've got a warrant to execute an address for a potential illegal money lending loan shark.
03:09And I'll be effecting the arrest.
03:11In a cost of living crisis, illegal money lending has become a massive national problem.
03:16The team here plan to find out if the loan shark intel is correct.
03:20The plan today is we're going to go to the address.
03:22If I can have a couple of officers with me to the address please.
03:24If we get any resistance for entry, if you've got MOE equipment to enter the premises with force.
03:29Once we gain entry into the premises, we'll identify the subject and I'll speak with the subject.
03:34The team need to use military precision to enter quickly because evidence in the suspect's home is crucial.
03:41If the intel is correct, there should be loan books or spreadsheets showing how much money the suspect has lent and who he lent it to.
03:49Do you take the hard drives?
03:50It depends what there is really. We'll take all documentation, cash, electronic devices.
03:56Phones, USBs?
03:57Everything linked to potentially what we believe to be an illegal money lending business.
04:01It's the only thing that's capable of retaining evidence, storage devices.
04:06Experts believe that loan sharks operate in all of Britain's major cities.
04:11As many as a million of us could have borrowed from sharks.
04:15Three grand is the average people borrow according to one survey.
04:19But they'll pay back at least four and a half to the loan shark.
04:23I remember working with someone who borrowed a very small amount of money and ended up paying back £90,000.
04:28He borrowed £500 originally.
04:31I think loan sharks are amongst the worst types of criminals, to be honest.
04:35In terms of the impact on people, I think we've seen people in a really bad state because of loan sharks and sometimes you can't see it until afterwards.
04:44I speak from experience.
04:46Mates, ex-soldiers have used loan sharks and got into big financial issues.
04:51So I want to find out what similar tactics they use to the SAS.
04:56What's your timeline between quiet entry to noisy entry?
05:00How much time do you actually give them to answer the door?
05:03Well, obviously we need to make sure there's somebody present in the premises.
05:06We're trying to identify and get entry with consent.
05:08If they're obviously there and they're telling us that they're not going to open the door or they're deliberately just trying to stall us.
05:14And obviously we need to get in and secure and preserve any evidence as quick as we can.
05:17So obviously from that point of view, we would then go to forced entry.
05:21Okay, let's go.
05:23This is going to be all about timing.
05:25Just like in the SAS, the element of surprise is a powerful way to subdue the enemy.
05:31Let's do it.
05:36After weeks of gathering evidence, it's time to go and make first contact.
05:41Okay, here we are, pulling up on target.
05:43Brings back a few good memories, mate, of surprise.
05:47All right, go, go, go now.
05:56Okay, so that's the team now in position at the front door.
05:59Covering the front door, front windows and the rear.
06:03So there's no way of escape now.
06:05Any runners, they'll be caught straight away.
06:13Grab the door, please, please.
06:15Going for a peaceful entry.
06:17They've now made communication with the people in the house.
06:2030 seconds.
06:22Hello, it's police.
06:24Hello, good morning, sir.
06:25What's your name, please?
06:27Okay, so I've got a warrant.
06:28Can I come in, please?
06:29We'll have a chat.
06:30Okay, thank you.
06:32Entry's been made.
06:33That's the team going in now to start collecting the evidence and detain the suspects.
06:38It's all about the timing.
06:40They're given a set amount of time to go in,
06:42so there's no evidence that can be destroyed.
06:44And it looks like they're playing ball at the moment.
06:47Full team's there.
06:48It's all about the timing.
06:49They're given a set amount of time to go in,
06:50so there's no evidence that can be destroyed.
06:52And it looks like they're playing ball at the moment.
06:54Full team's now inside and the suspect has been detained.
07:08Breaching into a stronghold to take down the enemy
07:11or to stop criminality is something that I do all the time.
07:15It's a story.
07:16Hearts and minds is something massive in the regiment.
07:18In every situation or crime that we're going to,
07:22there is always a victim.
07:24And their stories are always shocking and heartbreaking.
07:30We spoke to one man who borrowed from a loan shark.
07:34He doesn't want to be identified because of fear and shame,
07:37all too common with loan shark victims.
07:41I moved back to my area
07:43and myself and my partner decided we wanted to get married
07:47and there was a gentleman who I thought was a friend of the family
07:51at the time who my mother-in-law had dealings with over two decades.
07:55He said he would lend us some money with an interest rate on top
07:59and I was like, yeah, sound.
08:02It was nice and simple.
08:04Didn't have to worry about credit checks or anything like that.
08:07Wrote it down on a bit of paper,
08:09said here's £500.
08:11He literally said pay back that every month.
08:13Paid that back in five months, I think,
08:15and then Christmas came about.
08:17I wasn't in a well-paying job
08:19and then so I borrowed more money, then I paid that off.
08:22And then so I borrowed more money, then I paid that off.
08:26Looking back now, it was simple at the time
08:28and it made life easier for us,
08:30but it was just a never-ending cycle of debt
08:33that I wasn't getting out of.
08:35So every £100 I borrowed, he wanted £60 on top.
08:39Over the years, obviously, it got a bit higher,
08:42so it went up to £70.
08:44So if I borrowed £100, I had to pay it back at £170.
08:48It's a scenario that Cath Wallers at the illegal money lending team
08:52in Birmingham has seen often.
08:54They're not nice people.
08:56Loan sharks are pernicious criminals who exploit vulnerable people
08:59and they do it for their own greed.
09:01They do it for money and they do it because they can.
09:03And they don't stop.
09:04It's not like they reach an optimum amount of money
09:06and then they stop being a loan shark because they're happy now.
09:09They keep going and they keep expanding their business
09:11to try and prey on more people to keep the money coming in.
09:16And that was exactly what was happening to the man we spoke to.
09:20He didn't pay any tax on it. It was cash every single time.
09:24There was a few times where I turned around and said to him,
09:27oh, can I transfer it to your bank?
09:29No, no, no, no, I'll just come back.
09:31Just go to the cash point for us.
09:33At the time, you think nothing of it.
09:35He just nonchalantly said, I'll come next time.
09:38I'll come Tuesday or something like that.
09:40Loan sharking is a cash business, no question about it.
09:44This footage was filmed by the illegal money lending team
09:47as they were searching the homes of loan sharks.
09:50They sometimes find tens of thousands of pounds stashed away
09:54and all of this has come from people who can barely afford to pay them.
09:59People like the victim we spoke to,
10:01whose life was about to be turned upside down by worldwide events.
10:06And it wasn't until COVID hit,
10:08and obviously everybody locked down and never saw him for months,
10:12my wife's health took a turn.
10:14Had to give up work because of looking after the kids
10:17because she wasn't fit.
10:21And then money-wise, what was coming in wasn't as much
10:24as we were getting when I was working full-time.
10:27We had to miss a few payments to start off with and stuff like that.
10:32And then he started turning up and he started getting really aggressive.
10:37The pressure of paying back the interest
10:39threw them into a terrible situation.
10:43We did prioritise paying him over putting food on the table.
10:46Like, you feel bad, like you're failing as a parent.
10:50And as they struggled to pay,
10:52the sunny friendship with the loan shark took a different turn.
10:57He started being really rude.
10:59It ended up being really confrontational.
11:03Sadly, this sort of thing is not uncommon.
11:06But you can be wise to loan sharks.
11:09It's not the end if you're trapped in a loan shark debt.
11:11The first thing to do is acknowledge that this is happening to you.
11:14So, you know, loans should have paperwork.
11:16If your loan hasn't got paperwork,
11:18that's a big red flag for this being an illegal lender.
11:20And there should never be threats or coercive control
11:23employed in getting money back out of people.
11:25So if any of those things are happening to you,
11:27it's about checking if this lender is authorised
11:30and then letting us help you if they're not.
11:32Our victim protected his family from assault
11:35but thought he would still have to pay back thousands of pounds
11:38to the man that was tormenting him.
11:41When you find out that you've just been mugged off
11:43and, like, knowing that he lived in a really posh part of town,
11:47he had about four different cars,
11:49it was just... It's soul-destroying.
11:52The family didn't realise that there was help available
11:55until it walked up the driveway in the shape of Kav's colleagues
11:59at the illegal money lending team.
12:01I had a knock on the door.
12:03It was two guys and they says,
12:05oh, we're such and such from the illegal money lending team.
12:09And he says, Person X has been illegally lending money to people
12:13and we believe you're one of the victims.
12:15And I was like, you'd better come in.
12:19The team followed up on information given by a number of witnesses.
12:23Then they put the loan shark in the dock.
12:26He was convicted and sentenced as a result of good people speaking out.
12:33The illegal money lending team were great.
12:35They took statements, they made us feel better about what had happened
12:39and the fact that we weren't the only victims.
12:41There was a lot of other people.
12:45Most people would tell us that they wished they'd report the loan shark sooner.
12:48Doesn't matter if they give us a statement and go on the record or not,
12:51we will give them support.
12:52And you can see people become lighter and you can see them look younger
12:55because they haven't got that worry of the next text message,
12:58the next bang on the door, the person following them to school
13:01and what that might do to them and their family.
13:05Anyone offering to lend money should be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
13:10If they aren't, there's a good chance you could be borrowing from a loan shark.
13:16Back in the Midlands, we are now two hours into the operation.
13:20I can't enter the house as I don't have clearance,
13:23but I've got a direct line of comms with the team.
13:27So what's going on right now in there is the suspect is detained
13:30in an isolated room from the rest of the family.
13:33The rest of the family are now put in a back room
13:35and overwatched while the search takes place.
13:38The search team comms continue to filter back to Dave
13:42and something has attracted their attention.
13:45There has been some attempts to try and secrete some evidence in the property.
13:50But when we've gone in and the police have gone through the rooms
13:55and flushed the rooms out, that's been prevented.
13:57It appears that some of the individuals may or may not be privy to what's been going on
14:04because of the reactions of what we had when we went in there.
14:09We've got people, not the main subject,
14:11but other people that were in the address trying to hide evidence,
14:14but that's all been secured.
14:16It remains to be seen if that's the case,
14:19but it demonstrates the need for that rapid entry.
14:23But you don't always have to go like Fonda if you've got a plan.
14:28I spent over 27 years in the military
14:31and conflict and confrontation was my everyday life,
14:34dealing with hostilities.
14:36In the civil world, people see things differently,
14:39they're less aggressive and they have their own way of dealing with things.
14:45Not every crime fighter has a badge or a uniform.
14:49And just like these people,
14:51there are people who don't have a badge or a uniform.
14:54And just like the SAS, they find a more cunning way to fight battles
14:59than a full frontal assault.
15:03Oxford, in south-east England, is home to Fiona Bateman and her family,
15:08including her young son, Graham.
15:11I'm Fiona from Oxford.
15:13I've got a husband and two children.
15:16They were all sitting happily at home one day
15:18when crime came riding up their driveway.
15:21We were just at home, you know, doing normal day-to-day things.
15:25My husband had gone out the front to sweep some leaves up.
15:31Next thing I know, he's coming in asking where Graham's bike was.
15:35He had seen somebody cycle into our carport
15:40and then come back out riding a bike
15:43and holding another bike that looked like Graham's.
15:46This video clip captures what just happened at the back of Fiona's house.
15:50Her husband went to investigate.
15:53CCTV had captured this disturbing footage.
15:57Graham's bike had been nicked whilst the family sat at home.
16:01So this is our carport. The bikes are on the back there.
16:05So he put his bike down and proceeded to cut the lock of Graham's bike.
16:11It was something like half past one in the afternoon.
16:14He knew exactly where he was going, so he'd obviously had a look beforehand.
16:18Straight over to the bikes, in full view of another CCTV camera.
16:23Took everything away with him. He took the lock as well.
16:27It is terrible. You don't expect it in broad daylight.
16:31Brazen, but not unfamiliar to a lot of people.
16:35In one year alone, there were over 70,000 bike thefts like this in the UK.
16:42And 90% go unsolved.
16:45It's a problem. It is a problem. Bike crime in the city is high.
16:49It is distressing for people when their bike is stolen.
16:52It's never nice having something that you own taken from you.
16:55But people rely on their bikes in Oxford to travel.
16:58It's taken from you. You can't go about your day.
17:01They normally then invest in a better lock.
17:03So I think that's the strong message there.
17:05With a better lock, you're going to slow someone down or put someone off.
17:08You can register your bike. There's a national cycle bike register.
17:12Put your bike on there.
17:14And if the bike is recovered through a police operation,
17:17they'll check the database and hopefully reunite with your bike.
17:2190% of people, I don't think, do it.
17:23I would guess maybe 15%, 20% of people get their bikes back if they're stolen.
17:27That I've heard of. And it can be years later as well.
17:31That's a lot of thefts.
17:33But Fiona's was different. She had the crook's face on camera.
17:37It wasn't a new bike by any means, but it's his only form of transport.
17:41It was just annoying that he no longer had that.
17:44Fiona put on her SAS tactics hat.
17:47By using surveillance, stealth and reconnaissance,
17:50she decided that she would find the man who stole her son's bike.
17:55I was definitely a mum on a mission.
17:58Once we had the CCTV images, I posted them on my Facebook page
18:05and almost straight away we were having people contacting us,
18:09telling us who he was, saying,
18:11well, that's Dave, that's Dave the bike thief.
18:14So he obviously had a name for it.
18:16Fiona's scouting mission had uncovered that this guy was notorious.
18:21Tracking him down was really easy using social media.
18:25The amount of people that were messaging me,
18:28and they actually knew where he lived.
18:30So it was really easy to find out his name and address
18:33and then realised it was so close to us.
18:36I'm a former soldier, but I've heard the pen is mightier than the sword.
18:41Certainly is if Fiona from Oxford is doing the writing.
18:44Everybody knew who he was, where he lived,
18:48and yet there was just nothing happening.
18:51And I overnight decided to stand up for myself and the family.
18:57And, yeah, we always tell the kids not to be bullied or intimidated.
19:02So I decided to do something about it.
19:06In the morning, I grabbed some sign-writing equipment,
19:11made a sign, where's my bike, Dave?
19:17And said to my husband,
19:19if you want me, I'm going to be outside Dave's house with my sign.
19:23Fiona did exactly what we do in the SES.
19:27She used overt tactics to directly confront the enemy,
19:30but in a clever and cunning way.
19:32I was just so frustrated that I just went and sat outside his house
19:37for three days with my sign,
19:41just showing him that I wasn't scared of him,
19:44that I was going to show him up to be the bike thief he was.
19:48Fiona's secret weapon was shame.
19:50With advice from the police, she was outside with the sign,
19:54whenever it came in or out, reminding him of what he'd done.
19:59By the time I got there, he then turned up
20:02and then the police followed shortly after
20:05to let me know what I was allowed to do and what I wasn't.
20:09So it had to be a silent protest.
20:11I couldn't obstruct Dave if I saw him.
20:15Yeah, I wasn't allowed to speak to him, basically.
20:18I just had to be totally silent.
20:21Chatting to people that came past about why I was there
20:25and just getting the word out that he lived there and what he was doing.
20:30Embarrassing as hell for Dave, but Fiona played by the rules
20:35and the general public were right behind her.
20:38And I was talking to people, they were coming down,
20:41giving me cups of coffee and croissants and whatever else.
20:45They were just coming out and giving me some support.
20:48I did see Dave. He did come over and speak to me.
20:53I was nervous at the time because Dave isn't a small fella.
20:58He is over six foot.
21:01Her approach needed to be quiet and confident
21:04and she showed a soldier's courage.
21:07I suppose it just snowballed.
21:09Fiona went on a mission to bravely highlight
21:12that there was a bike thief living near her.
21:15And it was a complete success as this particular guy, at his face,
21:20splashed all over local and national newspapers.
21:24The key is working within the law and following police advice.
21:28The suspect here was arrested for a series of bike thefts
21:32and found guilty of taking eight bikes.
21:37He received a two-year suspended sentence.
21:40Fiona was glad he was caught,
21:42but was sadly unable to get her son's bike back.
21:47It's really good to be able to use social media
21:50to shine a light on Dave's habits, Dave's bike thefts,
21:55to get him caught, basically, to stop him from stealing other bikes.
22:00There is only a minor percentage that can actually stop bike thefts,
22:04bike crime, and if I'm in that percentage, that's brilliant.
22:13It's now four hours into the search in the Midlands.
22:16I'm waiting for what forensic teams can find.
22:19Classified intel gathered says there may be illegal lending going on.
22:24And one investigator has an update,
22:26but it's just speculation at this stage.
22:29These have been seized as soon as we've gone into the property.
22:32Electronic devices, we're going to take these away to be examined
22:35as soon as we can to get the information from them.
22:37What would you get from that, or what are you looking for?
22:39We're looking for any kind of evidence that shows illegal lending activity,
22:43any kind of information that will be saved on the device.
22:46Fantastic. Great stuff.
22:48Digital forensics is vital.
22:50Just like in the SES, we've built entire operations
22:54based on intel gathered from devices captured behind enemy lines.
22:58So Dave and the team are still on target now.
23:01The primary evidence is already gone,
23:03so what they're doing now is digging in,
23:05finding the rest of the evidence and bringing it out bit by bit.
23:08They'll go into a deeper search that will take a lot more time.
23:11So that's Dave now just coming out with the second lot of evidence
23:14that's going to be required for this target.
23:16We're still at the initial stages of going through the property,
23:20but it's become apparent initially that there's some further key exhibits
23:25that may be of interest to us in terms of evidence.
23:29So we're seizing these straight away.
23:31We've got some documentation that appears that it may be loan-related.
23:36So we'll be seizing that,
23:38and we'll go through all the documentary evidence
23:40to see if we can identify any victims from those,
23:43and obviously that will form part of the bigger picture of the overall investigation.
23:47What sort of money do you think we're looking at?
23:49Is it hundreds or thousands? What is it?
23:51Each case is on its own merits,
23:53and it's difficult to ascertain at this stage
23:57just the amount of loans and victims and figures that we've got.
24:01But certainly in terms of other warrants that we've executed,
24:06we've had loan sharks that are lending to literally hundreds of people
24:10and earning tens, hundreds of thousands of pounds
24:14in some of the more severe cases.
24:17Other ones can be quite small amounts,
24:19so it might only be 10, 20 people within a local community,
24:22and they're only paying £10, £20 back,
24:25but it's a constant £10, £20 every week, every day.
24:28Yeah, but I guess somebody who's got no money,
24:30£20 is as much as £200,000 to somebody else.
24:34It's just the pressure that people are under, that these people are putting them under.
24:38Good effort. Let's see what we can unravel from all this.
24:43And after intelligence, weeks of preparation and a search,
24:47the team decide there might be items of interest in one of the vehicles.
24:58So the search continues. There will be no stone left unturned.
25:02The can of worms is open.
25:04Everything will now be stripped, searched, every bit of evidence gathered.
25:08If there's something in there, they will find it.
25:12The team are after logbooks or electronic records
25:15that might detail amounts of money or names of people who may have borrowed.
25:21And Dave has got another update for me.
25:24Right, so we're still in the process of systematically going through the property and searching.
25:29We've also secured some evidence in terms of documents
25:32that would indicate that other individuals within the house
25:36are perhaps involved with illegal money-lending activities.
25:43So the search has come up trumps. That's a good win.
25:46The team are now looking at two suspects in the house
25:49and have seized a number of items of evidence.
25:52They want to ask more questions, so they've decided to make arrests.
25:57That's task complete and the suspect is now coming out the door.
26:08It's banged up. Job done.
26:10But after digging through the evidence meticulously,
26:13Dave thinks a second person in the house has questions to answer.
26:18Basically where we stand right now is we've already arrested one,
26:22taken away plus evidence, the search continues
26:25and now most likely there's going to be a second arrest.
26:27Absolutely.
26:30This morning's operation, first light attack, delivered with military precision.
26:34The principles are exactly the same as any SAS-style attack that you do.
26:38Straight in there, pincer movement around the building, locked it down.
26:41It's all about timing.
26:43Well done, the boys in blue and the IMLT. Nailed it.
26:52Second one banged up.
26:56At the end of the day, it was all about the evidence.
27:01Job done. Great job, Dave.
27:14Ultimately, this was about command and control right from the start.
27:18Seizing the stronghold, making entry, detaining the suspect
27:22and gathering crucial evidence to build a case.
27:52For more information, visit www.fema.gov