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Daily Mail
January 9, 2014
Channel 4 was facing a police probe last night over a documentary featuring a thief showing how to shoplift.
Detectives are considering whether to investigate the criminal activities seen in the programme on welfare claimants.
The prolific shoplifter explains how to dodge security alarms and how to remove security tags from designer clothes without causing damage.
More than 200 complaints were made to Channel 4 and the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom after Benefits Street aired on Monday night.
Residents in a deprived Birmingham road were filmed making false welfare claims and growing cannabis in their homes. John O’Shea, a Labour councillor in the city, said: ‘Channel 4 appear to have aided and abetted shoplifting in Birmingham.’
Superintendent Danny Long, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘We have been inundated with comments from members of the public, many of whom are concerned about elements of the show which showed criminal activity.
‘We are assessing whether the content of the programme can assist us as part of any investigations or indeed whether any new inquiries should be launched in light of the material that has been broadcast.’
The programme explores day-to-day life in James Turner Street, Winson Green, where, it is claimed, as many as 90 per cent of people claim benefits.
Shoplifter ‘Danny’ is seen brandishing a cardboard shopping bag which he has lined with a Primark paper bag covered in foil to stop security alarms going off inside stores.
Another resident, called ‘Fungi’, is seen going into a Premier Inn hotel where he picks up four magazines and tries to hawk them for £2.50 each, calling them ‘his Big Issue’.
Cameras follow him making a sale to a woman in a smart black sports car. Evidently fooled, she gives him £3 and tells him to keep the change. He makes £12.
Danny later returns from a shopping centre having apparently stolen five jackets which he claims he can sell for £250. On the bus home, he shows viewers how to remove the security tags without damaging the clothes.
Fungi beams: ‘This guy is one of the best shoplifters I have ever met in my life. This is James Turner street, this is how we’ve got to earn our money.’
After making £200 in an afternoon, Danny then calls a drug dealer to order ‘two bags and a shot’.
Another resident, Dee Roberts, 32, says: ‘If there’s somebody around and they’re going to sell you a £120 pair of jeans for a tenner you aren’t going to say no are you, do you know what I mean, it’s like their way of living.’
