Daily Express - 30.07.2019

16 Daily Express Tuesday, July 30, 2019

DX1ST

Ex-Scotland Yard detective whose private

squad has made 500 successful

prosecutions on how cuts and poor

leadership are letting us down

WHY BRITAIN’S

POLICE FORCES

ARE FAILING

CRIME VICTIMS

THEY used to be unshakeable

pillars of the community, solid

buildings at the heart of our towns

and cities, drawing respect from

law-abiding residents and

criminals alike. Now huge

numbers of police stations have

vanished from the areas they used

to protect - to the delight of petty

crooks and gangsters.

More than 600 police stations

have closed since 2010, slicing

the thin blue line protecting

Britain into ribbons. And the

closures have fed the perception

that creeping lawlessness is

destroying the fabric of society.

What greater symbol could

there be for that than the

cannabis farm found at an old

police station in Oldham Road,

Failsworth, Greater Manchester?

The building was auctioned off

six years ago because of police

budget cuts. And surprise,

surprise, no one has yet been

arrested for turning it into a drugs

factory. Hundreds more former

police stations sold off to make a

quick buck are being converted

into legitimate businesses.

Guests at the Courthouse Hotel

in London’s trendy Shoreditch

pay handsomely to stay in the

Grade II-listed baroque building

where the likes of Ronnie and

Reggie Kray once cooled their

heels for free.

Old Street police station and

courthouse now offers tourists

afternoon tea in its jailhouse bar,

but residents worried by rising

crime would probably prefer to

have their cop shop back. At the

Chief Justice of the Common

Pleas, Wetherspoon customers

now enjoy their pints in what was

the local court and police station,

in use until 2000.

A cell has become a snug for

six drinkers and people can even

stand in the dock to sup their

favourite drinks.

Locals fought a determined

campaign to try to stop the

closure. Former Keswick

magistrate Martin Jordan said at

the time: “The closure of this

court will not save money, nor will

it improve efficiency.” Yet another

case of justice not being served.

In Avon and Somerset, the

police force has been hit hard by

a spate of cost-cutting measures.

No wonder a prime property like

Manvers Street Police Station in

the beautiful, and very expensive,

city of Bath was sold off. It went

for £7 million in 2014 and shut the

following year.

Meanwhile, Bath police admit

gangs of organised drug dealers

are moving in on parts of the city.

N

EW Prime Minister Boris

Johnson has acknowl-

edged that British policing

is in trouble by making the

recruitment of 20,000 new

officers one of his first pol-

icy announcements. But it’s not just

a numbers game, says former

Scotland Yard detective David

McKelvey. There is no hunger to

catch and prosecute criminals.

And he should know, because he

has built from scratch the most

successful private police force in

Britain, targeting crooks in a way

he says is no longer a priority for

publicly-funded forces.

“I get completely and utterly

frustrated by modern policing,”

says Mr McKelvey, who started his

company TM Eye in 2008. “There

have always been vocational police

officers and canteen cowboys but

it’s worse now.

“The emphasis seems to be on

disruption. The authorities want to

disrupt, rather than prosecute.

“My personal view is that is a

waste of time. We want to get the

evidence, all on video, and look to

prosecute. The Criminal

Investigation Department of the

Metropolitan Police was world

renowned as the greatest detective

department in the world.

“Not any more, it’s embarrassing.

They have destroyed the CID.”

His approach has proved a huge

success. TM Eye, which is led and

manned by experienced former

police officers, has more than 100

active investigations nationwide.

M

R MCKELVEY set up the

company in Waltham

Abbey, Essex, but it is

now a national opera-

tion. Some of his customers are

groups of residents, keen to have

the reassuring uniformed presence

of his “My Local Bobby’ teams in

their area. Others are groups of

shopkeepers, happy to chip in for a

private police force that catches

pickpockets and muggers and

deters street crime.

But that is just the on-the-ground

part of this burgeoning operation.

From its Essex HQ, TM Eye also

runs investigations into cigarette

smuggling and counterfeit

consumer goods and prescription

drugs.

Mr McKelvey, 58, explains: “We

have carried out some 500 investi-

gations now which have resulted in

successful private prosecutions for

a wide variety of crimes, but there

is so much more to do.

“When we started, we put

together investigations and gave

the evidence to Trading Standards

or the police to prosecute people

selling counterfeit

goods at markets

or wherever.

“But auster-

ity and police

cuts meant

police and

Trading

Standards

weren’t

prepared to

take the

cases to

court, so we

started bring-

ing private prose-

cutions using evi-

dence we gathered.”

One crook they recently

put out of action was Jacqueline

Davies, from Barry, Vale of

Glamorgan, Wales, who was selling

fake Pandora jewellery on eBay on

an industrial scale.

Davies, 49, was making around

£50,000 a year while paying no

tax, spending much of

her illicit earnings on

luxury holidays.

Mr McKelvey

says: “She was

selling these

goods as genu-

ine to decent,

law abiding

customers. It

is good for

society that we

stopped her. If

she re-offends

she will go to

prison.”

Davies was given a

suspended sentence and

was ordered to pay prosecution

costs approaching £2,000, which

should cover the cost of TM Eye’s

investigation, along with a

contribution from the genuine

Pandora company.

Like mainstream police forces,

TM Eye give its investigations

names. Operation Mordor was set

up three years ago to focus on an

area of Manchester where gangs

fence millions of pounds-worth of

luxury counterfeit goods smuggled

in from abroad.

Using hidden cameras, surveil-

lance teams hidden in vans, and

old-fashioned leg work, the com-

pany has had 100 successful prose-

cutions on that operation alone.

“In a fairly small area there were

about 800 premises selling or dis-

tributing counterfeit goods, mostly

luxury leather goods. Now there

are around 30, which shows what

an impact you can have when you

concentrate,” says Mr McKelvey.

On some operations, those foot-

ing the bill for TM Eye’s services

are reluctant to be named, but he

added: “We work closely with

Greater Manchester Police and the

city council and we’ve been very

successful. We do all the evidence

gathering and fronting work and

the police help us to identify

individuals.

“When we get a prosecution, the

council can issue a closure notice

on the premises.

“We hear on the grapevine that

the villains think they only have a

year of business left but the hard-

ened criminals will go on, they’ll

just move somewhere else. There’s

too much money involved. Some of

these places can make

£15,000-a-week selling fake

designer brands.”

Mr McKelvey is particularly

proud of his firm’s operation to

bring down global counterfeit drug

operations, which works out of a

dedicated area in his HQ.

“On our pharma unit we have a

team leader and four detectives

and we’ll go anywhere in the

world,” he says.

On the team’s computer screens

information was pouring in on five

people under investigation in

By James Murray

AS 600 ARE SOLD OFF, THE COP SHOPS WHERE PINTS ARE SERVED, NOT JUSTICE

CRIME

BUSTER:

David

McKelvey

in the HQ

of his

private

police force

ANSWERS: Les

Balkwell at his

son Lee’s grave

By James Murray