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Undercover work catches criminals
Undercover surveillance is being used in and around Leamington by the countys trading standards team to catch criminals in the act.
Based in Warwick, the department has the legal right to film, photograph and track down people through their mobile numbers if they believe they are committing an offence.
This could be anything from carrying out shoddy work to selling illegal goods.
Details about this undercover work are not normally released, but thanks to the Freedom of Information Act the Courier has been able to find out more.
And according to Trading Standards officer Richard Brooks outdoor markets, such as that held at Wellesbourne airfield, are one of the main targets.
He said: “During August and September cameras were used to photograph people and activities linked with the selling of counterfeit goods such as computer games, films and music.
“This is an on-going operation and we are collecting evidence with a view to preventing illegal activities in the future.”
Last year officers used their statutory powers to trace 38 people suspected of trading illegally through their landline and mobile phone numbers .
Mr Brooks said: “When you get a rogue trader doing work for somebody they often only leave a mobile phone number.
“Quite often we need to track down traders who have taken a large amount of money from people - normally the elderly - for little or no work.
“On another occasion we needed to trace a plumbing engineer who we through was not Corgi registered - which they must be to work safely with gas.
“It is vital that we have access to this telecommunications data because a lot of traders use mobile or freephone numbers and there is no other way of locating them.”
Currently, no people or businesses in the area are under surveillance, but Mr Brooks thinks it is essential they can use these tactics when necessary.
He said: “Surveillance is something we use occasio
nally where appropriate, but getting this information about mobile phone numbers is the most significant. It is a very small, but important part of our work. Our main investigations involve looking back through evidence gathered from transactions and victims.”
Another big undercover initiative saw officers install video cameras in a house and then ask different tradesmen in to fix problems they had created.
Mr Brooks said: “We set up a house with problems in the building such as blocked gutters and drains.
“We called different tradesmen out to fix them and they thought it was for real. In one of these cases we used one of our own officers as the householder and another time a lady in her 80s. There were a number of cases where we were overcharged for things that the trader had not actually done, but other traders did the work properly.
“We might do something like that again.”
Sent: 14/03/2008
Email us direct at: repairs@londonheatingservices.co.uk
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