It's Life as we know it.... Chapter 1 Del Boy

Did you ever read about a frog who dreamed of being a king
And then became one
Well, except for the names and a few other changes
If you talk about me, the story's the same one...............


I am said I, I did it my way, after all I did not get where I am today by not being me.


Me???   Well, the only person in the world to have put con men in the dock and on the TV screen in two successful careers, now at a premature end.


Now that sounds a tall tale. No ..... An Englishman, a Londoner, who when he left school  joined Trading Standards, Government Consumer Law Enforcement. After 4 years of exams qualified, then a decade or so later was politically run out of town and became an investigative journalist, then a TV Producer, and no one else has ever done that. Impressed much huh huh ah huh, you might be, at the age equivalent to the answer to the Universe (42)  I was near the top, only to topple, always 2nd, never quite first, but still survived Ides of March several times to tell this tale.


So this is the unique story of someone who has been there done that. How he did it, why he did what he had to do and what happened to him, when no one wanted him anymore, except probably the public, the community which he served.

"The one and only person  to have put con men in the dock and on the TV screen. I have pioneered new legislation, innovated techniques, worked at home and abroad, and got to the dizzy heights of Deputy Editor of Watchdog BBCTV.

I have obtained hundreds of thousands of pounds back for victims of crime and proceeds of crime for the state. I have taken over 600 court cases at every level of the judiciary and made 250 expose TV films."

One of the  cases made front page News:

Fine for jailed Del Boy

3:25pm Thursday 12th December 2002 i

WALTHAM Forest Trading Standards has won a record payout from a conman who became Britain's biggest counterfeiter.

Derrick 'Del Boy' Davies made millions from a highly sophisticated operation mass producing fake designer clothes, perfume, watches, and champagne.

Police and trading standards officers raided his Leyton warehouse in December 1998 and found 100,000 labels and packaging for 52 different designer brands.

Officers seized goods worth £500,000.

Davies, 39, is already serving a four year jail term for the counterfeiting business. But at a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday, he was ordered by a judge to hand over £91,000 in costs to trading standards the biggest order of its kind.

Davies must also stump up £354,530 proceeds from his life of crime.

If he does not pay, he faces an extra four years in prison.

During the hearing, Davies had claimed the money was all gone on gambling, drinking, and his family's plush lifestyle.

He arranged a hasty sham divorce from his wife Susan Cook before the trial, putting his two homes in her name, in a bid to try and hang on to his cash.

But Judge Inigo Bing ordered him to pay up. He said: "The defendant said he had frittered it (his millions) away. He described it as a champagne lifestyle and I can say it must have been Premier Cru."

Trading standards officer Alan Sharpe, who led the investigation, said after the hearing: "This is the most that anyone has ever lost in a confiscation order for counterfeiting.

"This is the biggest haul that has ever come before the British courts. It was a very slick counterfeiting operation designed to dupe the public.

"He told the court he lived for the day and spent for the day well now he's lost it. He gave us a real run for our money but he didn't get away with it."

He added that his divorce was a "tissue of lies."

Davies fled to Spain after his first court appearance, but he was captured by the National Crime Squad eight months later.

He made £1million profit in the first 18 months of trading, for which he received a four year jail term in January this year.

John Anderson, director general of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, said: "Derrick Davies is typical of many organised criminals who trade illegally in counterfeit goods as a means of funding a lavish lifestyle.

"He thought he was above the law absconding to Spain. However, he now faces four years in prison. The message is clear, counterfeiting crime does not pay."Trading standards officers load some of the counterfeit goods into their van |(c)s=10WALTHAM Forest Trading Standards has won a record payout from a conman who became Britain's biggest counterfeiter.o

Derrick 'Del Boy' Davies made millions from a highly sophisticated operation mass producing fake designer clothes, perfume, watches and champagne.

Police and trading standards officers raided his Leyton warehouse in December 1998 and found 100,000 labels and packaging for 52 different designer brands.

Officers seized goods worth £500,000.

Davies, 39, is already serving a four-year jail term for the counterfeiting business. But at a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday, he was ordered to hand over £91,000 in costs to trading standards the biggest order of its kind.

Davies must also stump up £354,530 proceeds from his life of crime.

If he does not pay, he faces an extra four years in prison.

During the hearing, Davies had claimed the money had all gone on gambling, drinking, and his family's plush lifestyle.

He arranged a hasty sham divorce from his wife Susan Cook before the trial, putting his two homes in her name, in a bid to try and hang on to his cash.

But Judge Inigo Bing ordered him to pay up. He said: "The defendant said he had frittered it (his millions) away. He described it as a champagne lifestyle and I can say it must have been Premier Cru."

Trading standards officer Alan Sharpe, who led the investigation, said after the hearing: "This is the most that anyone has ever lost in a confiscation order for counterfeiting.

"This is the biggest haul that has ever come before the British courts. It was a very slick counterfeiting operation designed to dupe the public.

"He told the court he lived for the day and spent for the day well now he's lost it. He gave us a real run for our money but he didn't get away with it."

He added that his divorce was a "tissue of lies."

Davies fled to Spain after his first court appearance, but he was captured by the National Crime Squad eight months later.

He made £1million profit in the first 18 months of trading, for which he received a four year jail term in January this year.

John Anderson, director general of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, said: "Derrick Davies is typical of many organised criminals who trade illegally in counterfeit goods as a means of funding a lavish lifestyle.

"He thought he was above the law absconding to Spain. However, he now faces four years in prison. The message is clear, counterfeiting crime does not pay."

How that all happened:


Christmas time 1998, I take a telephone call from Leyton Police CID. They have an informant saying  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.

We 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. People like rogues, they don't like officials.  So surveillance has to be timed for maximum impact minimal fuss, minimal intrusion. 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 behind those doors.

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, off for a cup of tea or getting his teeth drilled and filled at the dentist. Vehicles can be identified parked outside , but  luck has to be on the side of law enforcement. 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. We had rendezvoused at Leyton nick, London E10, set off in 2 vans, fingers crossed. We had search gear, paperwork, a video camera, evidence bags, all plain clothes. One team went  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 our purpose, to look for counterfeit goods. 


The scene we met was totally unexpected and 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, Tommy Hilfigger, Ralph Lauren, 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 all pristinely wrapped ready to go, 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 another  conveyor belt, this time  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, his uncle rode shot gun for them. Derrick professed to being just the delivery driver he delivered boxes , just boxes. But in his haste Derrick left vital clues. A brief case, a mobile phone, 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. 500,000 garments and 10 machines were confiscated and vans had to be hired as well as  another warehouse to carry and store  this vast haul of stock for analysis by the true brand owners. Derrick was  a cash merchant, so he left no money trail. Any credit cards he took out, he would use for short periods either to withdraw cash balances and then not repay , on trips to Las Vegas or Harrods on Valentines Day. He never paid anyone.  


Trouble is when the likes of Derrick live a lifestyle like this, they will rub someone up the wrong way, queer his pitch, and then get grassed on, hence the informant.

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 doing verbal battle with his silk. 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 in Essex 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 delivering boxes !

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 a Villa 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 judge.

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.

But these cases cost a fortune. Take many man hours preparing the case. This was the biggest haul of it's kind. I always thought that these crooks were so clever, that if only they put their mind to legal activity, the world would be a better place and the tax payer better off. All Derrick knew was a life of crime, all his family knew was a life of crime. Before Derrick's case, his father got off a Custom and Excise case for money laundering. Every day they would take carrier bags full of ten pound notes to the Bureau de Change in Victoria and change thenm for large denomination Dutch Guildas. The reason. They could get more larger notes in a suitcase to take to their properties in Spain on the plane. Anyway Derrick's dad got off the charge convincing the jury he got lucky on the gee gees - horse racing to you and me. £250,000, well some people have all the luck huh. That's why Derrick was regarded as the black sheep of the family. "Do you know who I am, I am Derrick Davies, you can't get me, your just a f***ing Trading Standards Officer"  I great line from the interview tape played to the court. 


Fact File:
What's the big deal about counterfeiting?

• Counterfeiters buy cheap raw materials, add a famous brand and charge 10 times what they outlayed, so that's why they do it. Black Market , all cash, no taxes, 10 times profit.
• Shoddy cheap goods , damage the reputation of the true brand owners.
• Damaged reputations lead to reductions in genuine sales and consequent real job losses for ordinary workers.
• Meanwhile the crooks profits are ploughed into more crime, drugs and even terrorism. FACT.

I felt sorry for his QC Barrister. We were in early during day 3 of the trial drinking coffee in the canteen. The previous day as case officer and chief witness for the prosecution I had just started to be cross examined and some of the exchanges were priceless, made the silk go purple faced with rage. So I said to the Family silk as he came through the canteen doors, "I bet you wish Customs and Excise were taking this case don't you, much easier", with a rye grin. He passed in complete silence, Our table all smirked. You see, barristers always ask you a line of questions leading you into their trap. They know your answer in advance. So like a chess game, I used to answer what they wanted to hear for say 4 or 5 questions simle yes or no, then when they went for the kill, I would lead off into a long, but reasoned counter answer. Sometimes the judges frowned, but most of the time it saved my barrister recovering the point on re examination. So  my rebuff, my retort and the defence barristers' purple face , with steam coming from his ears and papers being flung on his desk was a great sight. Who won that exchange then huh.

Our Barrister was brilliant. You will read on that it is obvious I don't suffer fools at all yet alone gladly. I don't get impressed much either. But David Groome, our barrister was the most skilled professional I had ever met. His knowledge and reasoning was profound, and, dare I say it we made a good team.

You may think public purse organisations should have layers of man management for these mega cases. You would think wrong. We won this case because of the evidence gathering, made watertight , bomb proof, by the astuteness of our barrister. In law there are many pitfalls along the way to prove beyond all reasonable doubt. All the defence team have to do is prod away at the prosecution, find a weakness, put up a smoke screen. So all the prosecution work has to prove, that a crime in law was committed, committed by the defendant, and that all the evidence procedures were accurate, recorded and accountable for scrutiny. One thing wrong, there is your domino effect...case dismissed.

I only lost 2 cases out of those 600 I took, both on points of law. I loved the job, I served the public who after all paid my wages and asked me for help. But my political masters never liked that. They wanted me to do what they wanted. I just wanted to get on with the job, get results. I did not need their phoney targets. I made headline news, and they got jealous. I used to say I fought management in the office and crooks in the high street, if only management did not try to interfere. Sounds big headed, but true. If a so called senior, superior officer comes out with a plan that will not ever work, makes cuts in vital front line services, all because he sits in front of a computer all day, does not see the outside real world with real people and has no finger on the pulse, then he will be called a "f***ing wan*er" by me in front of the rest of the staff. His face will go purple too with the steam emissions from the ears, literally, much to the delight of the more enlightened team of officers that this incompetent idiot is paid a fortune to manage.


A great opportunity was lost by officers nationwide who did not appreciate the big picture. Derrick had a contacts book of phone numbers, that I traced. The Mr Big in Manchester, or Leeds, or Bristol etc. My team won an award from the Anti Counterfeiting Group set up by manufacturers of brand names. We won the award for our efforts. But there was no one interested in eclipsing these regional Mr Bigs. There was no national unit, national strategy only local. Small teams with their own agendas, their own priorities.  Though I hit a few of these addresses from London, the intelligence fell on stony ground, and a great opportunity to reduce counterfeiting in this country was lost. There were too many blind eyes, even though it was laid on a plate.


Too much hard work for some. There is an easier life, put the kettle on. Trading Standards service was in decline and still is. Mismanaged, poorly funded, always the poor man of any local service. Crooks breath easier, consumers pay more. Successive Politicians able to run rings round heads of service who saw their staff depleted. 


In 6 years between 1998 to  2005  I saw half my team made redundant from the original 12, till they finally got rid of me too.