I joined the police a long, long time ago. The world was very different back then. Some police behaviour was frankly shameful, while some was truly heroic. I found myself in the midst of the Brixton riots of 1981. That weekend changed my life forever.
Peter Bleksley
Soon afterwards I was promoted to detective, and soon after that Scotland Yard came calling. At the Yard I embarked on a career working undercover. International drug baron, contract killer, trader in arms, counterfeit currency and handler of high-value stolen goods, I portrayed them all for over a decade. I became the most commended cop of my generation.
Then it all went wrong. The FBI discovered a plot to murder me and I entered the witness protection programme. My police career was coming to an end.
In 2001 my autobiography was published, and I entered the world of the media. I began to commentate on crime, policing and more, and I worked, and still do, as a story consultant to TV and film production companies. My autobiography, The Gangbuster, was published in 2001, and continues to sell. I have written two more books, On The Run and To Catch a Killer which was published in 2018.
In recent years I have written three plays for BBC Radio 4, and in 2015 I became involved in a new programme for Channel 4, entitled Hunted. I left that show in 2018 to pursue other opportunities.
I am now the presenter of New Scotland Yard Files on CBS Reality.
I have made it my life’s work to hunt down Kevin Parle. I shall not rest until he is captured. ‘Manhunt; Finding Kevin Parle’ is an award winning BBC podcast about my hunt for him.
Steven in darer hi Stephen yes I can hear you now what is your situation I tried to sell a car back in uh April of this year uh tried to sell a Range Rover for £10,000 um on auto trader the um uh three people turned up uh they uh came
And looked at the car they distracted me one distracted me around the back walls the two went around the front I then went around the front and somebody else went around the back um they i’ got it all on dash cam um as it as it happened
So uh we took it out for test drive there was smoke coming out of the exhaust never had smoke coming out the exhaust before there was sensors on the dashboard were um uh just yeah just coming there was lights coming off everywhere I was thinking oh my God got
It back home they said they wanted the car the actual shell itself they didn’t want the engine so they offered me £4,000 for it um I spoke to my wife and she was the uh the governing Factor on this one as as usual and she told me not
To say it to them she said don’t sell it uh we’ll we’ll we’ll have somebody else look at it um I looked on the dash cam um straight after they gone because they kept phoning me and texting me and messaging me coming back to me wanting
To uh buy the car um which seemed suspicious in itself um but we looked on the dash cam and there they were they got them banged to right so to speak um it’s clear as daylight I’d got all three of them on camera uh one of them had put
Um oil in the coolant uh one of them had disconnected sensors it l it was so so slick the the outfit was so slick it it literally took them seconds to do the jobs that they’ done um and of course um I contacted the police straight away
After after they they’d gone and um the police didn’t want to know um I I was telling them that that you could come and you can come and collect them I’d phone them up and tell them to come and pick the car up and you can have them uh
But the police didn’t want to know for six weeks eventually they took um a statement from me and they took all the dash cam footage and now we found out that the uh culprits are have gone they they’re not to be found anywhere so
There we go so they left it a little bit too late to follow up yeah the police had just left it way way way too late yeah and and did you event sell the car for what you wanted to sell it for yeah yeah I had to drain everything out I had
To take cost me probably £150 to get it all sorted but uh take your wife words they’re the uh the wise words yes well I would say that’s a good rule to live by quite frankly Stephen yeah I was lucky I was lucky I was very very lucky it would
It could have turned out very very nasty and they’re obviously doing it to everybody um they’re they’re obviously doing it to everybody because that’s how the police know about them um is a Police Issue um I think uh it’s there’s in relation to the police response it depends on what their obviously their
Local priorities are and in a lot of police force areas fraud isn’t necessarily a priority um what we see from a consumer perspective is that victims of fraud are not treated like the victims of other crimes we don’t see the same sort of level of victim support
And services um which is something that we’re pushing for that actually it’s just as detrimental financially and emotionally being a victim of other crimes um so there needs to be more done about that so I’m sorry you didn’t actually get any redress or in relation
To that yeah it was a you you you mentioned this hot State um they definitely worked on that because there was oil and there was um uh lights on the dashboard everywhere um they definitely worked me into that hot State because I I panicked I I very very very
Nearly sold it to them um because I know exactly how much the the problem if it had have been the real problem how much it would have cost me to have had it fixed so I was very very close to taking their offer it was only my wife’s words
Saying no don’t do it we’ve never had any problems with the car before why why now um so it was yeah it it was definitely a hot state but what what we have to remember as well with a lot of this stuff is and I can’t speak to Cas
These people have a lot more resources at their fingertips than we do it’s it’s big money so it’s organized crime groups and they know what they’re and manipulative like you say that sort of hot state that coercing control when that pushing you into making a decision
That now chatting to me because I’m not putting that additional pressure on you which is which is what we have to remember which is why we need to put the attention back on to understand the complexity and the intelligence that these people are using to steal our personal information and our money yeah
The police have said it was an organized crime group um and the guy is well known to them but they just can’t find him and I was there I was ready to hand them hand him to them on a plate but again oh that’s frustrating they said it’s um uh
Oh what’s it can’t think the word entament that’s the word would been entament I’m glad you’ve got the uh you got the sale that you needed and love to Mrs Steven she sound like sounds like an eminently sensible woman yes take care bye has Law and Order broken down to
Such a degree that the public are now in increasingly relying on so-called private police firms The Daily Telegraph reports that a suspected burglar was taken to caught by a private security firm called TMI founded by a former Scotland Yard Chief Inspector this is amid growing concerns that police don’t care about
So-called low-level crime I want to know what you think about this give me a call on 03444 n9100 or send us a text WR talk in your message and send it to 87222 I’m delighted to be joined in the studio by former met police detective Peter Bley thanks for coming in Peter
What’s your view on this I mean to sort of elaborate on what happened uh a guy was caught to nicking stuff in Marks and Spencers uh Marks and Spencers had hired private guards security guards uh they took the C the case to the police uh they had plenty of evidence so they
Called him red-handed the police declined to prosecute so the private police company said damn it we’ll prosecute so they took him to court and successfully prosecuted what are the police playing at here well their action do not match the words of their senior police who have told us recently of
Course that they’re going to investigate every crime well that quite frankly was a promise that just can’t be kept because they claim they’re too busy they don’t have enough offices and there are time and time again repeated instances of people going to the police and getting no service whatsoever this
Company TMI they also have a sister company called my local Bobby and I need to make it crystal clear I have no connection with them whatsoever I know the founder David melie that I former inspector former detective Chief Inspector and he was a vocational cop and he was a very good detective very
Good and he set up these companes and basically they’re doing the police’s work in many many places they work in conjunction with what are called bids BS business Improvement districts a lot of them and they employ not only their uniformed officers that Patrol and detain shoplifters but also they’re
Playing clothes detectives who go out there undercover and arrest shoplifter after shoplifter and also detain people for some other pretty serious crimes and while I you know TMI uh I mean we have to compliment them really don’t we because they didn’t need to do this I
Mean that cost them money to do this to bring this private execution uh they could have just done their job said to uh marks and Spencer right we got there is’s the guy Bam Bam uh and when the police said well we’re not getting involved they could have just dropped
The whole thing and moved on uh carried on uh you know earning their money from marks and Sparks so it’s quite a kind of uh sort of Public Service they’ve done here isn’t it they’re incredibly effective wherever they are employed crime reduces dramatically particularly retail crime and all they’re doing is old school
Police work that we used to do in the 70s the 80s and the 90s they go out there they arrest shoplifters and if need be they prosecute them they have conducted hundreds of private prosecutions they have their own prosecution team they very uh experienced in putting cases together
Getting them to call and getting people convicted as I say they don’t have to do that so all credit to them uh to go back to your original point about police Chiefs never doing anything that they say they’re going to do I mean time and time again we’ve heard various home
Secretaries particularly suel bravman saying to the police look no more of this we’re not going to investigate shoplifting we’re not going to bother with burglary we’re not going to bother with cars being stolen uh she said no more of this start investigating every case and all
The police goes yes yes we will We Will and they just don’t yeah I’m not seeing evidence of it in fact you know I speak to a lot of people I’m a chatty kind of fell and every and and every week I am hearing Tales of people who have not had
An investigation of their crime or they’ve been a victim of crime and because they know they’re not going to get an inves tigation they simply don’t report it there are so many unreported crimes out there now that we just cannot trust the crime statistics that the police or politicians will trumpet and
Say there’s a reduction in crime no there isn’t police just don’t trust the police to give them an effective prompt professional investigation so they don’t bother reporting the crimes yeah I mean come back to a a sort of a cliched point really but uh getting some Bobbies on
The beat I mean if they were walking up and down the High Street that would deter shoplifters at least a little bit we need deterrence against shoplifting because it’s become a national Scourge uh and then you learn that one in every four a quarter of all coppers 25% never
Ever leave the police station yeah uh they’ve been reduced to the level or they are now at the level of just basically being Office Clerks why don’t police Chiefs see the L uny the absurdity of this and say get out from behind your desk and get out on the beat
Why don’t they do that many officers don’t like the Rough and Tumble of the front line so they get themselves a cozy desk to drive instead of a police car let alone walk the beat heaven forbid they’ve told us that they’re going to bring back neighborhood policing I’m not
Seeing a huge upturn in that yet although I did meet my local neighborhood policing team a couple of weeks ago at a meeting and the people seemed fairly committed and were pleasant enough but they didn’t stop my neighbor’s car getting stolen a couple of nights ago you know crime is
Abandoned unfortunately there are too many police officers doing roles in police buildings or stations that could be filled by civilian employees by police staff rather than police officers but there needs to be a a collective will now I don’t detect that many police officers absolutely hate crime like we
Did was a young cop we took it as a real affront to our ability to police our manner if crime was committed on it and we were pass personally we really did and the neighborhood cops the home beat officers when they came in in the morning and looked at the crime report
Book if there was a burglary on their manner they were livid they took such pride in trying to keep crime down and being effective and I don’t see that Collective will and also I’m afraid there is a younger generation now who have become so used to having their
Phones stolen their bikes stolen or their parents’ houses burgled or their parents’ cars nicked off the drive that they’ve become desensitized to crime they almost accept it as a part of everyday life and of course I am hugely irritated by crime whenever it happens wherever it happens and there was a
Survey recently of all police officers and uh the the you know what is it you like best about being a copper and what came in as number one on the list was helping people now I reckon uh because what you just explained I would like to
Say where did those days goone where go where did those coppers who hated crime go I would suggest if they had a similar survey during your days uh number one would be uh that what you like most about being a police officer was catching the bad guys the greatest thing
About policing in my time and I accept it was some time ago but I’ve got many many contemporary police sources that tell me Tales of Woe the greatest thing about having a warrant card in your back pocket about being a cop was being able to utter those two Immortal words
Your yeah but you know as I say to compar what I just said what happened to those days what happened to coppers like you what happened to the culture of policing when you’re a copper I mean and I know you’re not a spring chicken but
It’s not that long ago it seems to have completely disappeared now yes and I think there’s a breakdown between management and the front line I don’t think the front line feel as supported as we were back in our day I think there’s a lot of police officers who are
Fiercely ambitious to climb that greasy pole of promotion so they will throw an officer under the bus at any opportunity they can because it will look good at their next interview selection panel and that kind of thing so I think there’s been a breakdown I don’t think policing
Is as much of a family of a team of a collective that it used to be back in the day and consequently officers are disheartened uh I’ll tell you uh an incident that I think uh contributes to what shall we say the ineffectiveness of policing today only recently the the the
Armed police officer uh who was uh put on a murder charge for uh shooting someone in the line of his duty uh and of course you know so a lot of coppers will think well hang on a second if I go the extra mile and try and catch the bad
Guy uh if I try and do my duty and protect the public uh what happens to me I get charged with murder that’s not going to encourage people coppers to go the extra mile uh in the line of their duty is it we will wait and see what
Happens with that trial of course that that officer is is awaiting trial as we speak what I will say is that officers have stood trial for murder and attempted murder when they fired their guns in the past there was a case in ‘s court when a man called Steven Waldorf
Was shot off he survived officers were charged with attempted murder they were acquitted there was an officer called douy Lovelock who shot Cherry gross dead he was charged with murder he was acquitted another officer in more recent times Tony long was charged with shooting dead AEL Rodney he stood trial
For murder he was acquitted yeah well I I I I just think that officers uh who you know unleash their weapons in the course of their Duty uh should be protected from this I mean you you’re right uh you know often in these cases you get the right verdict and they’re
Acquitted but why should they have to go through this I mean what what if you if you were an armed officer and I was well okay so I’m talking to exactly the right guy and you’re in that split-second situation a lot of us would say well if
I p P this trigger I’m going to end up in court so I know what I’ll do I won’t pull it they won’t have time to consider that you have to make split-second decisions often you know literally in the blink of an eye do you squeeze that
Trigger or don’t you armed officers like all police officers need to be held to account of course get that but any such investigation into the firing of a gun by a cop needs to be prompt they drag on forever a day the independent office of police conduct will launch an
Investigation sometimes when there’s very little kind of information to justify that that’s what the officers are also agreed about the length of time these investigations take they’re very grieved about that and the disruption it can have on an officer’s life sometimes there is a case pending where an officer
Shot a man dead there was no evidence to charge him but years and years later there is still the prospect of a discipline hearing and it is now seven or eight years after that officer pulled the trigger those kind of things are manifestly unacceptable and need to be speeded up
Dramatically armed officers need some protection now to prove that I can change my opinions on a Sixpence uh let’s talk about uh this kid a 14year old kid in Birmingham which this seems kind of wrong to me I know 14y old kid uh cops were called to his home where
There was some sort of family dispute going on uh they Fe feed a violent attack and they ended up tasering this little teenager uh they should be a little bit more careful uh with a taser shouldn’t they then uh sort of electric shoving 50,000 volts through the the
Body of a a young teenager I’ve been I’ve watched a video of it it was only about a minute long what it doesn’t do is tell the story of the events leading up to that officer discharging their taser so that we haven’t seen that we don’t no the police officers were
Wearing body videos of course so they will tell the story of the background towards that officer discharging the taser I will wait to see what the events were before he pulled that trigger before I leap to some kind of judgment over it but there was a bit of a
Ridiculous debate that I took part in yesterday about should police officers taser children a very broad kind of I guess that’s what I’m saying title for it yeah but but we have a tide of teenage blood flying through the streets of our nation particularly in London where teenagers are killing teenagers
When you are in a a situation where you might be confronted by a very violent young person somebody armed with a weapon that could be fatal you are not going to ask them to pull out their birth certificate to check their age before you discharge your taser you
Don’t have the luxury of that kind of time on your hands so ters are important over 110 police officers are assorted every single day of the week they need to be able to protect themselves yeah and of course 14 year olds can be very big we I don’t know the details of this
So we haven’t got that video but uh it’ll probably uh revolve around just how big this kid is interesting stuff though Peter thank you very much Peter bxi there uh now lots of you have been getting in touch you can have your say on all the socials at talk TV and on the
Phones 0344 4991 th000 let’s hear now from a caller David in Wakefield who wants to talk about the police so stick around Peter uh hello David what would you like to say all right Kev hello Peter I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about actually what’s happened with us police
In the last few years uh I’m I’m not young anymore I’m in my 60s and and I’ve been a motorcyclist our roads at the moment are absolutely Lawless where we live and I mean Lawless we’ve got cars driving around without a number plates we’ve got motorcycles with people with
Bav on going in and robbing people robbing shops um I don’t know about having separate t Security to do your your the shops with shoplifting the ones that we’ve seen on TV where there’s gangs going in are these private security going to be armed are they going to be armed private security are
We going to see one of them maybe get killed you know what you’ve just said about weapons and the lawlessness in this country what has happened Peter to our police that we used to respect I used to get pulled up on my motorbike for Noel plates I used to get pulled up
For carrying a passenger and we used to get fined and taken to court what’s happened to it all what’s what’s going what do you think Peter well first of all I must say Dave I’m in my 60s as well and we are mere puppies okay um yes
What has happened to our policing well in the last 20 years or so so many senior police officers have trotted off to University got their themselves degrees so they have letters after their name as well as in front of their name and they’ve come back to policing with
Essentially their heads full of pseudo intellectual clap trap and and degrees in basket weaving and business management community relations that’s what counts Peter things that are not relevant or applicable to policing in my opinion and there has been a slide an inexurable slide towards where we are in
Policing and I just found myself nodding along with everything that they’ve said where are the traffic police anymore they’ve been slashed where are the police officers on the streets as a deterrent patrolling as I just said absolutely abely absolutely Dave thanks for the call let’s hear now from a
Caller Steve in France who also wants to talk about the police so we’ve still got Peter bxy here thank God for that what would you like to say Steve oh yes uh police again basically I was a counselor um in t Bay between the 80s and early
90s and I had two coun very large councelor states in our Ward which were obviously there were problems there but there were obviously some very nice people law-abiding people people and the local Bobby who actually did the beat who saw him on the beat in those days I
Invited him along to the community meetings ini initially everybody was a bit oh wow PC St was here but they got to know him after a while and we had two-way conversations he learned about all their problems that they didn’t bring up to the police because they
Didn’t want to talk about the neighbors too much and it was a two-way thing and it made the um Community more aware and also the policeman knew what was going on and we we’ lost all that yeah that’s that’s community relations copper talking to uh people in in a uh local
Community being a part of that Community not dancing the bloody macarina right neighborhood policing brilliantly summed up in one call to talk TV absolutely spot on that’s what neighborhood policing should be all about and when those police officers the uniform ones who were kind of well-known and
Contactable uh and all those sort of things when they get information what they would do is come back to the police stations and tell the young detectives what that information was and it would be us who smashed the doors in and arrested people and seized the stolen goods and slapped the handcuffs on
Leaving the community police officer to still be that Community Bobby yeah it’s not rocket science is it if you can see the police uh then you’ll know that they are in the neighborhood and you better be careful what you get up to what the these kids or all of these law Breakers
Now that Steve’s talking about uh they never see the police uh they know that everyone who goes shoplifting never gets arrested you break into a house you got no chance of getting arrested Nick a car that’s just fine if there’s no sense that the police are around Law and Order
Will break down that’s what we’re seeing all over the country isn’t it yeah and back in my day we made the streets a hostile environment for criminals that’s what they had to be and there was that concern for criminals that as they legged it around the corner having
Burgled stolen done whatever it was they do they might bump into a police off yes that doesn’t exist these days it’s gone sadly I can remember this I wouldn’t encourage coppers to do this but when I was a kid I can remember uh the local copper in the village that we lived
Clipping me around the ear when he caught me scrumping apples yeah absolutely appr my dad might I went back the copper clip is serves your right yeah you know an officer that you knew you could contact you knew where they were there was a local station so much
Of that just disappeared absolutely a relationship with the local community which isn’t established by dancing the Macarena and wearing rainbow colors
3 Comments
I watch everything from Peter Bleksley. The man is a legend
My word , the bloke from GB news talks to Peter Borenius Channel. I have seen the info underneath. I thought he was all right but i have learnt better today. Thanks for the cast, very good.
I’ve reported 2 crimes to the police, but they haven’t done anything. Didn’t even get back to me. I tried ringing again n again, but they hadn’t even recorded it. They will not even let you speak to the original PC n say they cannot give out their name?!
No wonder, the criminals are getting bolder.