Defenders: Busting the Bad Guys

An 80-year-old woman is bombarded with scam mail and tricked into handing over an estimated £50,000. Her daughter is so outraged that she starts a campaign to ensure no-one else gets caught by scams like this.

Trading Standards team up with Ed Sheeran's manager to take on the ticket touts making millions of pounds at the expense of ordinary music fans. Their e-crime team discovers one case in which tickets with a face value of £75 are being sold for thousands. In the first prosecution of its kind, two of the most prolific touts are charged with fraudulent trading and end up going to jail. The result is hailed as a victory for ordinary fans.

DVSA inspectors investigate the cause of a horrific crash in which an HGV careered out of control, smashing through a motorway central reservation and killing two people. The HGV is found to have a defective braking system and is one of a fleet of vehicles operated by a company putting profits before safety. The haulage company's boss faces the prospect of jail after the inspectors discover he ignored warnings about the defective brakes.

The Civil Aviation Authority catches a fraudster who lied to get a job as a captain with one of the UK's largest airlines. After looking into his background, they discover his deception when he accidentally plunges an aircraft into darkness.

Hundreds of pensioners are left stranded after booking a five-day holiday in Torquay. They only discover they've been conned when the coaches that are supposed to pick them up don't arrive. Trading standards officers are determined to bring the boss of the bogus coach holiday company to justice.

A seven-year-old boy suffers a fatal electric shock during a family visit to their local pub. Investigators discover a catalogue of electrical faults, including 12 defects that were an immediate danger. In another case, they close in on a fraudster bombarding us with scam text messages claiming to be from well-known organisations including the Royal Mail and HMRC.

An investigation into an £800,000 home improvement scam reveals that fraudsters are using a kitchen extension built by someone else as a fake show home and posting fake reviews on their website to help persuade customers to hand over large deposits. The fraudsters pocket the money, but no work is ever carried out.

A secret surveillance operation uncovers a shocking case of human trafficking and modern slavery. Scores of young men and women are being kept as prisoners and forced into unpaid labour, working for nothing at a car wash in Bristol.

Enforcement officers investigate the death of a worker at one of the UK's largest recycling plants. They seize more than 300 hours' worth of CCTV footage that shows dangerous work practices and breaches of health and safety rules in the days running up to the tragedy.

Investigators crack down on companies deliberately bombarding the elderly with marketing phone calls and pressuring them into taking out insurance policies and setting up direct debits. It's a lucrative business, but they are determined to put a stop to it.