24 Hours in Police Custody (2014) s01e04 Episode Script
The Drug Drop
3rd March 2014 8:23 pm Petrol Station Dunstable Road Once a suspect is in custody, the police have 24 hours to investigate and interview.
After that, it's either charge or release.
'You have been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
' - .
.
on suspicion of stalking.
- on suspicion of GBH.
.
.
possession and making indecent images of children.
- '.
.
on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
' - Start explaining.
It's the police's job to ask what really happened.
- Where were you on 28th March? - It was not me.
I was not there.
That could have been 101 people, but it's nothing do with me.
Police! Open the door now! Who's innocent? Who's guilty? Why would Pete say that you'd assaulted him? - Because he's deluded.
He's a drunk.
- Well, that's nonsense.
- Police! Show me your hands! - From the streets to the interrogation rooms - Where's the knife? - Did you have a knife? He made a specific threat that he is going to kill her.
.
.
from the suspects to the head of CID That's one hell of a shirt, David.
I'm loving it.
SIREN WAILS .
.
these are the men and women who have just 24 hours to find the evidence.
- I'm not letting him get away with it.
- I want him nicked and charged.
I'm a lover, not a fighter.
Will they discover it before time runs out? Good news.
Yeah.
Cocaine worth thousands of pounds has been dropped in a petrol station - and handed in to Luton police.
- Hello, mate.
It's become a job for the Serious Crime team.
I've been told once or twice that I have a miserable face and I'm a bit dour.
There we go.
The dream team is on the way.
But I call it worldly wise.
Can you book us out? Yes.
I don't think I would make a very good victim liaison officer.
But I make a pretty good investigator.
I've always fancied myself as a bit of a Jack Frost, Inspector Morse-type character.
There he is.
Man of the moment.
All right? Don't know.
It's your job.
- Do you want me to run the phone through the NMPR as well? - Yeah, please, yeah.
Just putting it in.
Does this phone hold a PIN, an old one? DC Colin Knight will be assisted by PC Oly Tomlinson.
I think I'm probably Yeah, I'm probably like the young enthusiastic one that actually, you know, is excited still about things that come in, whereas he is a bit more level-headed than me.
Oly, do you want to come and have a look at the CCTV? Yeah, sure.
Do you know the job? No, I don't.
What have you got? This chap here, he's seen coming into the petrol station in Dunstable.
Just watch the passenger.
Just watch him.
See it? He's dropped He's dropped something there.
That package there gets recovered, which ends up being that package there.
Ha! There's quite a lot in here, isn't there? Bloody hell.
It's been tested for cocaine.
Positive? Yeah.
- Ha! - So, he's literally The package has just fell out of his pocket? Embarrassing for him.
You know, you don't go to college to learn to be a criminal.
You know, there's no training in it, I guess.
So they do make mistakes and silly errors.
You can't help but have a little bit of a smile because you think, "Oh, dear.
" You know, imagine I can only imagine when they drove off and thought, "Where's the drugs?" Oops.
We don't always deal with the smartest of criminals, do we? No.
POLICE OFFICER CLEARS THROA Switch your phone off, mate.
Is it off? The suspect has been arrested for shoplifting steak from a high-end supermarket.
He's been observed on CCTV to select a quantity of meats to the value of ?94.
59.
Right.
This is the important one for me.
Have you consumed any alcohol, taken any drugs in the last 24 hours? - Nothing, no? - When was the last time you used? Okey-doke.
Sorry? Probably not, mate.
You might get it in prison.
I very much doubt if you'd get it here! Yeah? There you go.
You actually get people in the custody environment that are actually at rock bottom.
And whether we like it or not, we don't normally see Mr Average come through the doors.
We've got people with mental health issues, we've got people with drug issues.
Custody and the police station is probably the last resort for those people.
If you ill filling any lenght of time, Doc will come and see you.
- But hopefully you won't be here that long.
- All right, thanks.
- All right.
Detectives in CID are struggling dropping the drugs.
But the car has been traced to an address in Houghton Regis.
Who have we got out of these two? Nathan James.
This is his vehicle here, his silver Corsa.
Is that him, the driver? No, it's the passenger.
The other one.
Well, we think it's the passenger at the moment.
Yeah.
Luton has a massive, horrendously massive drug problem, which has got worse over the years that I've seen, that I've been a police officer.
Drugs is just so readily available.
The peer pressure, I think, within youngsters nowadays is massive.
and that's how you've caught him? No, they've done some work on it, the index number.
Everyone is getting their drugs from somewhere.
It's really important to catch the dealers because these are the people that are dishing it out.
It's always a chain.
And if you don't put a stop to that You've got to try and put a small dent in it, at least.
The initial evidence points to one man.
DC Knight must bring his chief suspect in for questioning.
All right, time of arrest? Eight.
Nathan James has been arrested.
His car is the vehicle seen in the CCTV.
What's he been arrested for? What drug has it come back to? OK.
DC Knight suspects Nathan is involved in the supply of cocaine.
Just take a seat on the bench, please, mate.
We'll get the paperwork together, all right? Yeah, I'll go and get the drugs.
They're on my table.
When you've got it on CCTV, it's a good starting point to identify him.
We had the registration of the vehicle.
But just because we've seen the offence occur, there are many doors that are open that need to be shut to prove the offence.
So, he can't say, "I didn't know they were there.
" "They're not my drugs.
Someone put them there.
" We're ready to go into interview.
I've always had a reputation through school of being a drug addict.
It all depends on who you know and where you live.
In this area, it's quite easy to get drugs.
I was just always around them.
When I'm with my mates, we'll go to parties.
That's where they're easy to come by.
I don't know.
TAPE RECORDER BEEPS OK.
Obviously, I've given your solicitor some stills.
There's CCTV.
The passenger gets out and from his left side jacket pocket, a package falls out.
So, the packaging recovered is exhibited JD01.
We can see six bags of, I call them button bags, you know, the bags you get in your suit and they've got buttons on them.
Yeah? OK.
Usually you find buttons in them, suit buttons.
On this occasion, we find white rocks.
And we have these little tubes.
And in them many little tubes inside.
Look to be white powder, stroke and white christal.
They've been tested and they're cocaine.
What can you tell me about that? No comment.
This gentleman, do you recognise him? That's not me.
Who is it? No comment.
Would you not agree with me that that gentleman has got a strikingly similar description to what you have, facially wise? No.
I can tell you now, this chap has a tattoo on the right side of his neck.
Where is your tattoo? Nathan? You know.
Sorry? Right side of my neck.
Right side of your neck.
Because if you recognise this gentleman, and you know who he is, and it's not you and you have nothing to do with this offence, now would be a good time to tell me, so we can maybe go and speak to THIS gentleman regarding the offence that you have been arrested for? So, who is he? No comment.
OK.
Brother? No comment.
Cousin? No comment.
Related to you in any way? OK.
The vehicle is seen to leave the petrol station.
We've run an insurance check on it.
Who did we find was the registered owner to that vehicle? Would you like to tell me? No? You must think ? Who do you think we found was the registered owner? It was Mr Nathan James, Houghton Regis Dunstable.
- Who's that? - No comment.
- It's you, isn't it? OK.
I don't believe you WERE the driver, because I believe you are this person, who clearly you can see on CCTV not driving it, so, why are you not driving your vehicle on that day in question? That's not me.
Who is it then? No comment.
OK.
So, let's look at the facts that we know.
Your vehicle, registered to you, that you have owned since February 2014, pulls into a garage, this gentleman, leaves the passenger's front side, drops this item, comes in, pays, gets into the vehicle, drives off.
Yes? the same place that you have a tattoo on the right side of YOUR neck.
What do you say that that? It's a common place to have a tattoo.
It's a common place, OK.
He's in your vehicle? You're saying it IS me? Yes, I am saying it's you.
Well, it's not.
OK, so who is it then? No comment.
OK.
And you're saying that these items of clothing won't be found at your house address? No.
OK.
I've got no further questions, I'll now conclude this interview.
TAPE RECORDER BEEPS It looks like 2003 was when it all started for you, wasn't? Yeah.
2004, 2005, 2005, 2005, 2006, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and then it all went quiet! Yeah.
That isn't bad though, is it? It's just actually 2010, isn't it? 29/11/2010.
So you've done well.
Yeah, it's been all right.
Just need to keep it up, buddy.
I don't think I'd get pizza! THEY LAUGH A Meatfeast, it's tandoori chicken, spicy beef, pepperoni and lamb doner.
Doesn't mention anything about Lamb doner?! Investigating officer Phil Stanton will interrogate Darren about the stolen meat.
He's not even subtle, this bloke.
He's literally gone in with an empty carrier bag, chucked as much meat in as he can and just run away! HE LAUGHS HE LAUGHS Oh, he's tried to sidestep the big security guard at the end and the guard has just literally thought, I'm not having this.
Bang, just rugby tackled him around the waist.
Oh, sorry, you shouldn't laugh at that sort of thing, but that is funny.
I take it you're just smoking, not injecting or anything like that? No, I've been injecting.
What, recently? Yeah.
How they clean? Yeah.
Yeah? We used to do a needle exchange where they got some really good wipes.
I don't know if there's any in here.
I'm going to put some of these in your property, mate, all right? - Cheers, mate.
- Yeah.
- Nice one, thank you.
The beauty of the custody environment is it stops at the gate.
Once they're there, they're there.
They're in the cell, they are in the custody area, it's a good place to get into people, so to speak.
And if we can give them just that little bit of help, I mean, that's what we join the job for, isn't it? It really is what we join the job for.
How much are you using, bud? Trying to do one a day, one bag a day.
Easy to get in Luton, isn't it? That's the problem.
Yeah.
I get messages off about ten dealers every day.
Yeah.
Like, I'm banging, I've got banging gear, like, come to me, That's the problem, isn't it? You've just got to be strong.
My mum and dad split up when I was a baby.
And my mum, like, had a bit of a nervous breakdown just after that and left me on my nan and granddad's doorstep.
And I didn't have any contact with her until I was about ten or 11.
Let's find you somewhere to sit down for half an hour while the officers sort their bits and pieces out, all right? My nan and grandad, they kept me out of going into care and did the best that they could do for me.
And they probably raised me better than my mum could have done.
They just wanted what's best for me.
They wanted me to live a normal life.
I just feel so sorry for them, the way that I've turned out.
All right, then.
DOOR SLAMS Nathan is waiting to be interviewed for a second time.
Detectives need to positively identify the man seen in possession of the drugs.
And Nathan is refusing to confirm it was him.
Do you think he's the driver now? Look at his build.
He looks a bit shorter.
Is that him? and it came back to the chap's name and the address.
It had to be him.
But why would the owner of the vehicle not be driving? I think that's him.
They're quite distinctive at the back, those trainers.
I mean, those jeans are really distinctive.
All right, we'll do the section 18 and see what we get from there.
Here you are.
I'll drive.
OK Without further evidence, the case against Nathan will collapse.
Right, well, see you when we get back.
Find something, yeah? Make sure you find something.
Don't come back empty-handed, please.
Left here, yeah? KNOCK ON THE DOOR Hello.
Hello, I'm PC Shayne from the police station, does Nathan live here? That's quite a lot of cash there.
I've got it all on there.
I reckon they're the trousers.
Yet, they are.
Have they got black bits at the bottom? Yes.
Has anyone come back while we've been here? It's looking like he's got a younger brother.
He's got the tattoos and the same sort of description and he's smaller.
Where's your other son? Is it Daniel? Or Danny? Hello, mate, have you had a look at the picture of his brother Danny.
Do you know what he looks like? No, Danny's out, he's not here, but we've found a jacket and shoes as soon as Sam was talking and said, oh, And they're Danny's shoes, belongs to Danny, that looks like the jacket.
And the mum said, the mum says he's got tattoos as well on his neck.
When you're interviewing someone and you truly believe that is the person, to then find out that's not the person through mistaken identity WILL weaken the case.
I know the defence will play a big part in that.
We've got piles of evidence for Colin to go through.
The police have found their evidence, but it points to a different man.
So you've picked out Danny and think it's him? It must be now.
And the mum says he's got a rose tattoo with writing.
To be honest, it's the first time ever I've had a case of mistaken identity.
And I would like to think it's a mistake I never repeat.
Well, I'll go down and speak to Sabrina so we can have another interview.
Grab that.
WOMAN LAUGHS - If he's got the guns (!) - I can't believe I've just watched you do that.
I'm the brains, he's the brawn.
I'm like a mini Colin.
COLIN LAUGHS In your dreams.
RECORDING MACHINE BEEPS I am not going to go over old ground.
We've covered a lot of stuff in the first interview, Nathan.
Some which you did, and some which you refused to.
We spoke in the first interview about whether you had brothers.
I think I in fact asked if anyone looked like you or resemble you.
And you decided to go, "No comment.
" And his name is Daniel James.
That's correct, isn't it? Daniel James is your brother.
Do you want to tell me about Daniel? Um, he looks in his late teens, early 20s.
In height I would say he's smaller than you.
And the most distinctive thing is he has a tattoo on his neck.
Cos it's of writing and a rose.
And it's maybe more prominent than what your tattoo is.
In fact, it's a lot more prominent than what your tattoo is.
Is it safe to say, Nathan, that Daniel was that person in your car, 3rd of March, 2014? That's correct, isn't it, Nathan? And you're the driver.
And I get, Nathan, I get why you're not telling me it's your brother.
Cos you don't want to drop him in it.
I totally get that.
Um He's your brother.
And you wouldn't want to be seen grassing your brother up.
Anything you want to say to the policeman? I've got no further questions.
I'm now concluding this interview.
If I found out my sisters were drug dealing that would be so difficult.
So difficult to say would I drop them in it or not? To drop your brother, sister, dad, mum in it, of course it's hard.
That must be a very big moral dilemma they have to live with.
Police have no choice but to release Nathan.
Now they want to speak Um, we're going to bail you out.
Um, has she said anything about your brother? That is my contact number and that is the hours I'm working tomorrow.
It would be nice to sort it out.
Yeah? We're done.
Thank you, Sarge.
I shall see you in May.
If I don't meet you, I will be in touch.
All right? Take it easy.
All right there, Darren? Do you want to come out? We'll have a chat.
Bear with me.
Hang on.
That's a good guess.
I've got a choice of three keys.
Right one first time.
OK, cool.
RECORDING MACHINE BEEPS OK, you've been arrested on suspicion of theft from shop.
And the grounds of that are you were seen to select goods by staff at M & S to a value of just under ?100.
and have detained you when leaving the store.
If you can tell me what happened leading up to your arrest then.
Um I left home knowing that I was going to go to Marks and Spencer's and try and rob it.
I needed some money to get some heroin.
So I went into the store and just .
.
put a load of meat into the bag.
Was caught .
.
on my way out, so Think that's us.
You said you knew you were going to rob M & S.
Yeah.
Tell me why M & S.
Uh Cos M & S do the best food.
HE LAUGHS OK.
It's not any meat, it's M & S meat, isn't it? OK, fair enough.
Tell me a little bit about your heroin addiction.
I first tried heroin .
.
about six years ago when I was in jail.
Tried it and loved it.
Loved it from the off.
I was using it for a couple of years but I gave it up for like, three years.
But I picked up a drinking habit instead.
So I came to Luton to stop my drinking habit.
My family paid for me to go into rehab.
I came out of treatment and decided to stay round here.
And started taking heroin again.
So OK.
Beyond these incidents do you think there are any more you'd like to get off your chest before we find out about them? No.
No.
OK.
Is that because there aren't any or ? You're chancing your arm.
Chancing it.
Fair enough.
The time is now 21:45.
And I'm concluding the interview.
OK.
RECORDING MACHINE BEEPS Are you getting any help for this? No.
I did last year.
I gave up for 90 days.
And .
.
the pain's too much.
It's a horrible life but once I started Yeah.
Stealing again, like It's miserable.
Could you go back to your family or anything? Yeah, I'm thinking about doing it anyway.
Cos Luton's not the greatest place to be if you're on drugs.
If they paid for your rehab for the alcohol stuff, so Please don't do that.
No, I'm joking.
I don't know what I'm going to do.
I'm dreading it.
- What do you mean? To tide yourself over? - Yeah.
I've put my family through all sorts.
'I just want to make my family proud.
I want a job.
' But I've got a criminal history.
And people don't want to give criminals jobs because they think they're going to get ripped off.
INTERVIEWER: Can you blame them? No, I can't blame them at all.
But .
.
anybody deserves a second chance, I think.
He's confirmed it's him on the CCTV.
So what do you want to do? Well, I can't see there's any other option than to charge him.
I did say to him my starting position would be I don't think we necessarily need to keep him.
And then he turned round at the end of the interview and he said, "I don't know what I'm going to do when I get out of here.
" He said, "I've got no drugs.
" - Right, OK.
- Does he want to stay? - No, he doesn't want to stay.
He wants to get out.
And I would have fully supported it had he not told me that.
Now I'm starting to think if we let him out, he then he goes off on a massive spree I'm a bit of a sap but I do feel a bit sorry for the guy.
Danny, Nathan's younger brother, has handed himself in for questioning.
I'll be down in two minutes.
All right, cheers.
Bye.
He's just handed himself in now.
I'm going down to custody, Hannah.
OK, Daniel, empty your pockets up there and then I'll give you a search.
Time of arrest? 4:10.
Had any alcohol in the last 24 hours? Any drugs? No.
Are you an alcoholic or a regular drug user? I need to put yes or no.
It's just so we can look after you.
We're not trying to trip you up in relation to what you've been involved in or not been involved in.
Thank you.
Appreciate that.
We're only going to do the disclosure and show him the video and then I'll be back.
Do you have questions first? Just in terms of volume.
How many's the number of items of white powder? Erm There are very small tubes about that big.
With What do they look like? Like that sort of thing? Yeah, a bit uncanny that you've got that right.
12 of them, with finely crushed powder.
And I would say about nine deal bags of rocks.
This is Dunstable High Street.
This is the vehicle in question.
We do get a good close-up of the number plate.
We're happy it's his brother's vehicle.
You can see on frame by frame that he has a distinctive tattoo on the right side of his neck.
It is thin, isn't it? Let's be honest.
- YOU say that's a tattoo.
- What would you say it is then? Say it's poor quality CCTV.
It's not conclusive CCTV is what I'd say.
Well, he's unblemished on the face, you can clearly see facial hair.
Lighting from above.
Shadows.
OK.
We've clearly gone in section 18 yesterday, and we have recovered a coat, jeans and trainers that all match .
.
the poor quality CCTV you just watched.
And Mum's confirmed they are Daniel's clothes.
Colin Knight's one of the officers that I've that I've seen on a number of occasions, and we get on fairly well.
'We both understand that we're both there doing our jobs 'professionally, and er ' yeah, we can have a bit of a laugh when we're in police custody together, yeah.
OK.
All right.
OK? - Let us know when you're ready.
- He's a bit cocksure of himself.
He wears a nice suit.
He's got his designer stubble.
And his hair's neat and tidy.
And yeah, he's all right, and he's a bit of a wide boy.
When I was doing the risk assessment with him I said, "Are you dependant on drugs?" And he looked at his solicitor.
And he looked at me and didn't say anything and the solicitor said, "He won't be answering that question.
" So he has a coke habit probably.
Yeah.
Pretty large one by the looks of it.
Yeah.
I started smoking weed and little things, but through upper school I started going onto stronger stuff.
INTERVIEWER: What are the main drugs you take? Ketamine, really.
Ketamine and coke.
Well, I've got a problem.
I do do 'em frequently.
How much money do you spend on drugs? I'd like to control my addiction but .
.
I'm just not ready to yet.
You got a set of keys there? Yes.
OK.
What's his name? Darren.
Darren, Darren, Darren.
Hello, Darren.
How are you doing? Darren, I'm the custody officer.
And based on what you tell me it kind of gives me an idea of how we deal with you as far as tonight's concerned, yeah? OK.
So what does life look like for you now, sir, if you get bailed and stuff? Where are you going to go? Are you going to engage? Yeah But seriously You're looking at getting charged or bailed.
But I'll be honest with you, I want to be crystal clear .
.
that you're not going to find yourself in a position where if I bail you that you're straight out there and committing offences again.
All right.
We're just going to sort a few things out, then we'll deal with you.
All right.
Cheers.
- Good grief.
- I wouldn't have thought anything of it had he not made that comment at the end.
But then as soon as he says that, I've got to be fair.
And raise that.
Exactly.
Because if he goes off on a massive spree Oh, don't.
Don't.
Erm, Sergeant ? Is Colin Knight about? We're ready for interview.
I shall get hold of him.
Thank you.
Got quite a few tattoos on you.
Ribs, probably.
The ribs? My nephew's started an apprenticeship doing tattooing, and somebody asked him to do a were-rabbit.
Daniel, If you want to take a seat on the other side, please, mate.
If everyone is good to go, we'll crack on.
We'll go to the item that was dropped on that day in question.
It's a picture of the package that was dropped.
Erm I ain't no drug dealer, but what I would say is it looks like they've been prepared to sell.
Would you agree with me? No comment.
Were you in possession of these drugs on the 3rd of March? No comment.
Erm I think we'll go on to the CCTV.
I think it'd be a good time to show you.
Can you see the screen? I'll get off my chair and come round and explain to you OK.
Says the date and time, and this vehicle has just pulled up.
The passenger front door opens and a male gets out.
And as he turns round, a package has dropped to the floor.
Is that you? No comment.
OK, I'm not expecting you to identify yourself via that footage, cos clearly we don't get a very good view of the gentleman.
What I'm going to do then, Daniel, is show you a second bit of footage.
It's a camera inside the shop.
OK, so if I stop it there, that's a good clear picture of the gentleman.
Who's that? I want you to look very closely at the right side of that gentleman's neck, please, Daniel.
that may be on the side of your neck.
I describe it as a tattoo, that you can distinctively see three lines.
And I would say them three lines pretty much match Daniel, you're clearly under arrest on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug, and in my opinion, and it is only my opinion, quite a large amount of drugs.
If I've got it totally and hopelessly wrong, Daniel, and it's not you, now would be a pretty good time to tell me where you were, give me an alibi, or any information that would take you further away from this incident.
- OK.
- I've got nothing further to add, Daniel.
I'm now concluding this interview.
DISTANT SIREN - There you go, mate.
Stand there a sec.
- Here he is.
Ah.
Hello.
OK.
You know what's going to happen.
Going to be charged with three counts of theft of meat - to the value of ?102,70 belonging to Marks & Spencer's.
- Yeah.
All right, mate.
TEXT ALER All right? I'm all finished with you.
All right? Thank you very much, Sarge.
Take care.
All right.
HE KNOCKS All right? Hello? Can I give you my contract phone and get one of each until tomorrow? Yeah, I'll give you my contract phone till tomorrow.
It's only till tomorrow.
Well, go on the internet.
Ring people.
It's only till tomorrow.
All right, then.
INTERVIEWER: He said no? Yeah, he said no.
He doesn't need another mobile phone, he needs money.
You're going to be bailed out, OK? I've spoken to Matt Lippard, he's fully aware for the date and time.
Copy of your bail sheet.
There's your condition you need to abide by, and the time and date just there, please.
There's always a trigger offence of why something's happened.
I truly believe that a drugs job because people are addicts or they need money.
I don't think that they're a bad person.
You know, not all bad people commit crime.
Are we done, Sarge? Yeah, all done.
Thank you very much.
I believe that everyone on a daily basis has a decision to make, and I think they need to be accountable for their decisions.
After that, it's either charge or release.
'You have been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
' - .
.
on suspicion of stalking.
- on suspicion of GBH.
.
.
possession and making indecent images of children.
- '.
.
on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
' - Start explaining.
It's the police's job to ask what really happened.
- Where were you on 28th March? - It was not me.
I was not there.
That could have been 101 people, but it's nothing do with me.
Police! Open the door now! Who's innocent? Who's guilty? Why would Pete say that you'd assaulted him? - Because he's deluded.
He's a drunk.
- Well, that's nonsense.
- Police! Show me your hands! - From the streets to the interrogation rooms - Where's the knife? - Did you have a knife? He made a specific threat that he is going to kill her.
.
.
from the suspects to the head of CID That's one hell of a shirt, David.
I'm loving it.
SIREN WAILS .
.
these are the men and women who have just 24 hours to find the evidence.
- I'm not letting him get away with it.
- I want him nicked and charged.
I'm a lover, not a fighter.
Will they discover it before time runs out? Good news.
Yeah.
Cocaine worth thousands of pounds has been dropped in a petrol station - and handed in to Luton police.
- Hello, mate.
It's become a job for the Serious Crime team.
I've been told once or twice that I have a miserable face and I'm a bit dour.
There we go.
The dream team is on the way.
But I call it worldly wise.
Can you book us out? Yes.
I don't think I would make a very good victim liaison officer.
But I make a pretty good investigator.
I've always fancied myself as a bit of a Jack Frost, Inspector Morse-type character.
There he is.
Man of the moment.
All right? Don't know.
It's your job.
- Do you want me to run the phone through the NMPR as well? - Yeah, please, yeah.
Just putting it in.
Does this phone hold a PIN, an old one? DC Colin Knight will be assisted by PC Oly Tomlinson.
I think I'm probably Yeah, I'm probably like the young enthusiastic one that actually, you know, is excited still about things that come in, whereas he is a bit more level-headed than me.
Oly, do you want to come and have a look at the CCTV? Yeah, sure.
Do you know the job? No, I don't.
What have you got? This chap here, he's seen coming into the petrol station in Dunstable.
Just watch the passenger.
Just watch him.
See it? He's dropped He's dropped something there.
That package there gets recovered, which ends up being that package there.
Ha! There's quite a lot in here, isn't there? Bloody hell.
It's been tested for cocaine.
Positive? Yeah.
- Ha! - So, he's literally The package has just fell out of his pocket? Embarrassing for him.
You know, you don't go to college to learn to be a criminal.
You know, there's no training in it, I guess.
So they do make mistakes and silly errors.
You can't help but have a little bit of a smile because you think, "Oh, dear.
" You know, imagine I can only imagine when they drove off and thought, "Where's the drugs?" Oops.
We don't always deal with the smartest of criminals, do we? No.
POLICE OFFICER CLEARS THROA Switch your phone off, mate.
Is it off? The suspect has been arrested for shoplifting steak from a high-end supermarket.
He's been observed on CCTV to select a quantity of meats to the value of ?94.
59.
Right.
This is the important one for me.
Have you consumed any alcohol, taken any drugs in the last 24 hours? - Nothing, no? - When was the last time you used? Okey-doke.
Sorry? Probably not, mate.
You might get it in prison.
I very much doubt if you'd get it here! Yeah? There you go.
You actually get people in the custody environment that are actually at rock bottom.
And whether we like it or not, we don't normally see Mr Average come through the doors.
We've got people with mental health issues, we've got people with drug issues.
Custody and the police station is probably the last resort for those people.
If you ill filling any lenght of time, Doc will come and see you.
- But hopefully you won't be here that long.
- All right, thanks.
- All right.
Detectives in CID are struggling dropping the drugs.
But the car has been traced to an address in Houghton Regis.
Who have we got out of these two? Nathan James.
This is his vehicle here, his silver Corsa.
Is that him, the driver? No, it's the passenger.
The other one.
Well, we think it's the passenger at the moment.
Yeah.
Luton has a massive, horrendously massive drug problem, which has got worse over the years that I've seen, that I've been a police officer.
Drugs is just so readily available.
The peer pressure, I think, within youngsters nowadays is massive.
and that's how you've caught him? No, they've done some work on it, the index number.
Everyone is getting their drugs from somewhere.
It's really important to catch the dealers because these are the people that are dishing it out.
It's always a chain.
And if you don't put a stop to that You've got to try and put a small dent in it, at least.
The initial evidence points to one man.
DC Knight must bring his chief suspect in for questioning.
All right, time of arrest? Eight.
Nathan James has been arrested.
His car is the vehicle seen in the CCTV.
What's he been arrested for? What drug has it come back to? OK.
DC Knight suspects Nathan is involved in the supply of cocaine.
Just take a seat on the bench, please, mate.
We'll get the paperwork together, all right? Yeah, I'll go and get the drugs.
They're on my table.
When you've got it on CCTV, it's a good starting point to identify him.
We had the registration of the vehicle.
But just because we've seen the offence occur, there are many doors that are open that need to be shut to prove the offence.
So, he can't say, "I didn't know they were there.
" "They're not my drugs.
Someone put them there.
" We're ready to go into interview.
I've always had a reputation through school of being a drug addict.
It all depends on who you know and where you live.
In this area, it's quite easy to get drugs.
I was just always around them.
When I'm with my mates, we'll go to parties.
That's where they're easy to come by.
I don't know.
TAPE RECORDER BEEPS OK.
Obviously, I've given your solicitor some stills.
There's CCTV.
The passenger gets out and from his left side jacket pocket, a package falls out.
So, the packaging recovered is exhibited JD01.
We can see six bags of, I call them button bags, you know, the bags you get in your suit and they've got buttons on them.
Yeah? OK.
Usually you find buttons in them, suit buttons.
On this occasion, we find white rocks.
And we have these little tubes.
And in them many little tubes inside.
Look to be white powder, stroke and white christal.
They've been tested and they're cocaine.
What can you tell me about that? No comment.
This gentleman, do you recognise him? That's not me.
Who is it? No comment.
Would you not agree with me that that gentleman has got a strikingly similar description to what you have, facially wise? No.
I can tell you now, this chap has a tattoo on the right side of his neck.
Where is your tattoo? Nathan? You know.
Sorry? Right side of my neck.
Right side of your neck.
Because if you recognise this gentleman, and you know who he is, and it's not you and you have nothing to do with this offence, now would be a good time to tell me, so we can maybe go and speak to THIS gentleman regarding the offence that you have been arrested for? So, who is he? No comment.
OK.
Brother? No comment.
Cousin? No comment.
Related to you in any way? OK.
The vehicle is seen to leave the petrol station.
We've run an insurance check on it.
Who did we find was the registered owner to that vehicle? Would you like to tell me? No? You must think ? Who do you think we found was the registered owner? It was Mr Nathan James, Houghton Regis Dunstable.
- Who's that? - No comment.
- It's you, isn't it? OK.
I don't believe you WERE the driver, because I believe you are this person, who clearly you can see on CCTV not driving it, so, why are you not driving your vehicle on that day in question? That's not me.
Who is it then? No comment.
OK.
So, let's look at the facts that we know.
Your vehicle, registered to you, that you have owned since February 2014, pulls into a garage, this gentleman, leaves the passenger's front side, drops this item, comes in, pays, gets into the vehicle, drives off.
Yes? the same place that you have a tattoo on the right side of YOUR neck.
What do you say that that? It's a common place to have a tattoo.
It's a common place, OK.
He's in your vehicle? You're saying it IS me? Yes, I am saying it's you.
Well, it's not.
OK, so who is it then? No comment.
OK.
And you're saying that these items of clothing won't be found at your house address? No.
OK.
I've got no further questions, I'll now conclude this interview.
TAPE RECORDER BEEPS It looks like 2003 was when it all started for you, wasn't? Yeah.
2004, 2005, 2005, 2005, 2006, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and then it all went quiet! Yeah.
That isn't bad though, is it? It's just actually 2010, isn't it? 29/11/2010.
So you've done well.
Yeah, it's been all right.
Just need to keep it up, buddy.
I don't think I'd get pizza! THEY LAUGH A Meatfeast, it's tandoori chicken, spicy beef, pepperoni and lamb doner.
Doesn't mention anything about Lamb doner?! Investigating officer Phil Stanton will interrogate Darren about the stolen meat.
He's not even subtle, this bloke.
He's literally gone in with an empty carrier bag, chucked as much meat in as he can and just run away! HE LAUGHS HE LAUGHS Oh, he's tried to sidestep the big security guard at the end and the guard has just literally thought, I'm not having this.
Bang, just rugby tackled him around the waist.
Oh, sorry, you shouldn't laugh at that sort of thing, but that is funny.
I take it you're just smoking, not injecting or anything like that? No, I've been injecting.
What, recently? Yeah.
How they clean? Yeah.
Yeah? We used to do a needle exchange where they got some really good wipes.
I don't know if there's any in here.
I'm going to put some of these in your property, mate, all right? - Cheers, mate.
- Yeah.
- Nice one, thank you.
The beauty of the custody environment is it stops at the gate.
Once they're there, they're there.
They're in the cell, they are in the custody area, it's a good place to get into people, so to speak.
And if we can give them just that little bit of help, I mean, that's what we join the job for, isn't it? It really is what we join the job for.
How much are you using, bud? Trying to do one a day, one bag a day.
Easy to get in Luton, isn't it? That's the problem.
Yeah.
I get messages off about ten dealers every day.
Yeah.
Like, I'm banging, I've got banging gear, like, come to me, That's the problem, isn't it? You've just got to be strong.
My mum and dad split up when I was a baby.
And my mum, like, had a bit of a nervous breakdown just after that and left me on my nan and granddad's doorstep.
And I didn't have any contact with her until I was about ten or 11.
Let's find you somewhere to sit down for half an hour while the officers sort their bits and pieces out, all right? My nan and grandad, they kept me out of going into care and did the best that they could do for me.
And they probably raised me better than my mum could have done.
They just wanted what's best for me.
They wanted me to live a normal life.
I just feel so sorry for them, the way that I've turned out.
All right, then.
DOOR SLAMS Nathan is waiting to be interviewed for a second time.
Detectives need to positively identify the man seen in possession of the drugs.
And Nathan is refusing to confirm it was him.
Do you think he's the driver now? Look at his build.
He looks a bit shorter.
Is that him? and it came back to the chap's name and the address.
It had to be him.
But why would the owner of the vehicle not be driving? I think that's him.
They're quite distinctive at the back, those trainers.
I mean, those jeans are really distinctive.
All right, we'll do the section 18 and see what we get from there.
Here you are.
I'll drive.
OK Without further evidence, the case against Nathan will collapse.
Right, well, see you when we get back.
Find something, yeah? Make sure you find something.
Don't come back empty-handed, please.
Left here, yeah? KNOCK ON THE DOOR Hello.
Hello, I'm PC Shayne from the police station, does Nathan live here? That's quite a lot of cash there.
I've got it all on there.
I reckon they're the trousers.
Yet, they are.
Have they got black bits at the bottom? Yes.
Has anyone come back while we've been here? It's looking like he's got a younger brother.
He's got the tattoos and the same sort of description and he's smaller.
Where's your other son? Is it Daniel? Or Danny? Hello, mate, have you had a look at the picture of his brother Danny.
Do you know what he looks like? No, Danny's out, he's not here, but we've found a jacket and shoes as soon as Sam was talking and said, oh, And they're Danny's shoes, belongs to Danny, that looks like the jacket.
And the mum said, the mum says he's got tattoos as well on his neck.
When you're interviewing someone and you truly believe that is the person, to then find out that's not the person through mistaken identity WILL weaken the case.
I know the defence will play a big part in that.
We've got piles of evidence for Colin to go through.
The police have found their evidence, but it points to a different man.
So you've picked out Danny and think it's him? It must be now.
And the mum says he's got a rose tattoo with writing.
To be honest, it's the first time ever I've had a case of mistaken identity.
And I would like to think it's a mistake I never repeat.
Well, I'll go down and speak to Sabrina so we can have another interview.
Grab that.
WOMAN LAUGHS - If he's got the guns (!) - I can't believe I've just watched you do that.
I'm the brains, he's the brawn.
I'm like a mini Colin.
COLIN LAUGHS In your dreams.
RECORDING MACHINE BEEPS I am not going to go over old ground.
We've covered a lot of stuff in the first interview, Nathan.
Some which you did, and some which you refused to.
We spoke in the first interview about whether you had brothers.
I think I in fact asked if anyone looked like you or resemble you.
And you decided to go, "No comment.
" And his name is Daniel James.
That's correct, isn't it? Daniel James is your brother.
Do you want to tell me about Daniel? Um, he looks in his late teens, early 20s.
In height I would say he's smaller than you.
And the most distinctive thing is he has a tattoo on his neck.
Cos it's of writing and a rose.
And it's maybe more prominent than what your tattoo is.
In fact, it's a lot more prominent than what your tattoo is.
Is it safe to say, Nathan, that Daniel was that person in your car, 3rd of March, 2014? That's correct, isn't it, Nathan? And you're the driver.
And I get, Nathan, I get why you're not telling me it's your brother.
Cos you don't want to drop him in it.
I totally get that.
Um He's your brother.
And you wouldn't want to be seen grassing your brother up.
Anything you want to say to the policeman? I've got no further questions.
I'm now concluding this interview.
If I found out my sisters were drug dealing that would be so difficult.
So difficult to say would I drop them in it or not? To drop your brother, sister, dad, mum in it, of course it's hard.
That must be a very big moral dilemma they have to live with.
Police have no choice but to release Nathan.
Now they want to speak Um, we're going to bail you out.
Um, has she said anything about your brother? That is my contact number and that is the hours I'm working tomorrow.
It would be nice to sort it out.
Yeah? We're done.
Thank you, Sarge.
I shall see you in May.
If I don't meet you, I will be in touch.
All right? Take it easy.
All right there, Darren? Do you want to come out? We'll have a chat.
Bear with me.
Hang on.
That's a good guess.
I've got a choice of three keys.
Right one first time.
OK, cool.
RECORDING MACHINE BEEPS OK, you've been arrested on suspicion of theft from shop.
And the grounds of that are you were seen to select goods by staff at M & S to a value of just under ?100.
and have detained you when leaving the store.
If you can tell me what happened leading up to your arrest then.
Um I left home knowing that I was going to go to Marks and Spencer's and try and rob it.
I needed some money to get some heroin.
So I went into the store and just .
.
put a load of meat into the bag.
Was caught .
.
on my way out, so Think that's us.
You said you knew you were going to rob M & S.
Yeah.
Tell me why M & S.
Uh Cos M & S do the best food.
HE LAUGHS OK.
It's not any meat, it's M & S meat, isn't it? OK, fair enough.
Tell me a little bit about your heroin addiction.
I first tried heroin .
.
about six years ago when I was in jail.
Tried it and loved it.
Loved it from the off.
I was using it for a couple of years but I gave it up for like, three years.
But I picked up a drinking habit instead.
So I came to Luton to stop my drinking habit.
My family paid for me to go into rehab.
I came out of treatment and decided to stay round here.
And started taking heroin again.
So OK.
Beyond these incidents do you think there are any more you'd like to get off your chest before we find out about them? No.
No.
OK.
Is that because there aren't any or ? You're chancing your arm.
Chancing it.
Fair enough.
The time is now 21:45.
And I'm concluding the interview.
OK.
RECORDING MACHINE BEEPS Are you getting any help for this? No.
I did last year.
I gave up for 90 days.
And .
.
the pain's too much.
It's a horrible life but once I started Yeah.
Stealing again, like It's miserable.
Could you go back to your family or anything? Yeah, I'm thinking about doing it anyway.
Cos Luton's not the greatest place to be if you're on drugs.
If they paid for your rehab for the alcohol stuff, so Please don't do that.
No, I'm joking.
I don't know what I'm going to do.
I'm dreading it.
- What do you mean? To tide yourself over? - Yeah.
I've put my family through all sorts.
'I just want to make my family proud.
I want a job.
' But I've got a criminal history.
And people don't want to give criminals jobs because they think they're going to get ripped off.
INTERVIEWER: Can you blame them? No, I can't blame them at all.
But .
.
anybody deserves a second chance, I think.
He's confirmed it's him on the CCTV.
So what do you want to do? Well, I can't see there's any other option than to charge him.
I did say to him my starting position would be I don't think we necessarily need to keep him.
And then he turned round at the end of the interview and he said, "I don't know what I'm going to do when I get out of here.
" He said, "I've got no drugs.
" - Right, OK.
- Does he want to stay? - No, he doesn't want to stay.
He wants to get out.
And I would have fully supported it had he not told me that.
Now I'm starting to think if we let him out, he then he goes off on a massive spree I'm a bit of a sap but I do feel a bit sorry for the guy.
Danny, Nathan's younger brother, has handed himself in for questioning.
I'll be down in two minutes.
All right, cheers.
Bye.
He's just handed himself in now.
I'm going down to custody, Hannah.
OK, Daniel, empty your pockets up there and then I'll give you a search.
Time of arrest? 4:10.
Had any alcohol in the last 24 hours? Any drugs? No.
Are you an alcoholic or a regular drug user? I need to put yes or no.
It's just so we can look after you.
We're not trying to trip you up in relation to what you've been involved in or not been involved in.
Thank you.
Appreciate that.
We're only going to do the disclosure and show him the video and then I'll be back.
Do you have questions first? Just in terms of volume.
How many's the number of items of white powder? Erm There are very small tubes about that big.
With What do they look like? Like that sort of thing? Yeah, a bit uncanny that you've got that right.
12 of them, with finely crushed powder.
And I would say about nine deal bags of rocks.
This is Dunstable High Street.
This is the vehicle in question.
We do get a good close-up of the number plate.
We're happy it's his brother's vehicle.
You can see on frame by frame that he has a distinctive tattoo on the right side of his neck.
It is thin, isn't it? Let's be honest.
- YOU say that's a tattoo.
- What would you say it is then? Say it's poor quality CCTV.
It's not conclusive CCTV is what I'd say.
Well, he's unblemished on the face, you can clearly see facial hair.
Lighting from above.
Shadows.
OK.
We've clearly gone in section 18 yesterday, and we have recovered a coat, jeans and trainers that all match .
.
the poor quality CCTV you just watched.
And Mum's confirmed they are Daniel's clothes.
Colin Knight's one of the officers that I've that I've seen on a number of occasions, and we get on fairly well.
'We both understand that we're both there doing our jobs 'professionally, and er ' yeah, we can have a bit of a laugh when we're in police custody together, yeah.
OK.
All right.
OK? - Let us know when you're ready.
- He's a bit cocksure of himself.
He wears a nice suit.
He's got his designer stubble.
And his hair's neat and tidy.
And yeah, he's all right, and he's a bit of a wide boy.
When I was doing the risk assessment with him I said, "Are you dependant on drugs?" And he looked at his solicitor.
And he looked at me and didn't say anything and the solicitor said, "He won't be answering that question.
" So he has a coke habit probably.
Yeah.
Pretty large one by the looks of it.
Yeah.
I started smoking weed and little things, but through upper school I started going onto stronger stuff.
INTERVIEWER: What are the main drugs you take? Ketamine, really.
Ketamine and coke.
Well, I've got a problem.
I do do 'em frequently.
How much money do you spend on drugs? I'd like to control my addiction but .
.
I'm just not ready to yet.
You got a set of keys there? Yes.
OK.
What's his name? Darren.
Darren, Darren, Darren.
Hello, Darren.
How are you doing? Darren, I'm the custody officer.
And based on what you tell me it kind of gives me an idea of how we deal with you as far as tonight's concerned, yeah? OK.
So what does life look like for you now, sir, if you get bailed and stuff? Where are you going to go? Are you going to engage? Yeah But seriously You're looking at getting charged or bailed.
But I'll be honest with you, I want to be crystal clear .
.
that you're not going to find yourself in a position where if I bail you that you're straight out there and committing offences again.
All right.
We're just going to sort a few things out, then we'll deal with you.
All right.
Cheers.
- Good grief.
- I wouldn't have thought anything of it had he not made that comment at the end.
But then as soon as he says that, I've got to be fair.
And raise that.
Exactly.
Because if he goes off on a massive spree Oh, don't.
Don't.
Erm, Sergeant ? Is Colin Knight about? We're ready for interview.
I shall get hold of him.
Thank you.
Got quite a few tattoos on you.
Ribs, probably.
The ribs? My nephew's started an apprenticeship doing tattooing, and somebody asked him to do a were-rabbit.
Daniel, If you want to take a seat on the other side, please, mate.
If everyone is good to go, we'll crack on.
We'll go to the item that was dropped on that day in question.
It's a picture of the package that was dropped.
Erm I ain't no drug dealer, but what I would say is it looks like they've been prepared to sell.
Would you agree with me? No comment.
Were you in possession of these drugs on the 3rd of March? No comment.
Erm I think we'll go on to the CCTV.
I think it'd be a good time to show you.
Can you see the screen? I'll get off my chair and come round and explain to you OK.
Says the date and time, and this vehicle has just pulled up.
The passenger front door opens and a male gets out.
And as he turns round, a package has dropped to the floor.
Is that you? No comment.
OK, I'm not expecting you to identify yourself via that footage, cos clearly we don't get a very good view of the gentleman.
What I'm going to do then, Daniel, is show you a second bit of footage.
It's a camera inside the shop.
OK, so if I stop it there, that's a good clear picture of the gentleman.
Who's that? I want you to look very closely at the right side of that gentleman's neck, please, Daniel.
that may be on the side of your neck.
I describe it as a tattoo, that you can distinctively see three lines.
And I would say them three lines pretty much match Daniel, you're clearly under arrest on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug, and in my opinion, and it is only my opinion, quite a large amount of drugs.
If I've got it totally and hopelessly wrong, Daniel, and it's not you, now would be a pretty good time to tell me where you were, give me an alibi, or any information that would take you further away from this incident.
- OK.
- I've got nothing further to add, Daniel.
I'm now concluding this interview.
DISTANT SIREN - There you go, mate.
Stand there a sec.
- Here he is.
Ah.
Hello.
OK.
You know what's going to happen.
Going to be charged with three counts of theft of meat - to the value of ?102,70 belonging to Marks & Spencer's.
- Yeah.
All right, mate.
TEXT ALER All right? I'm all finished with you.
All right? Thank you very much, Sarge.
Take care.
All right.
HE KNOCKS All right? Hello? Can I give you my contract phone and get one of each until tomorrow? Yeah, I'll give you my contract phone till tomorrow.
It's only till tomorrow.
Well, go on the internet.
Ring people.
It's only till tomorrow.
All right, then.
INTERVIEWER: He said no? Yeah, he said no.
He doesn't need another mobile phone, he needs money.
You're going to be bailed out, OK? I've spoken to Matt Lippard, he's fully aware for the date and time.
Copy of your bail sheet.
There's your condition you need to abide by, and the time and date just there, please.
There's always a trigger offence of why something's happened.
I truly believe that a drugs job because people are addicts or they need money.
I don't think that they're a bad person.
You know, not all bad people commit crime.
Are we done, Sarge? Yeah, all done.
Thank you very much.
I believe that everyone on a daily basis has a decision to make, and I think they need to be accountable for their decisions.