Brown Bob Productions commissioned by BBC Daytime to produce third season of ‘Fraud Squad’
Hard-hitting series returns to follow investigations into frauds committed across Britain’s local councils
(24th November 2020 – London) Brown Bob Productions, the specialist producer of high volume, returnable rig shows, has been commissioned by BBC Daytime in the UK to produce a third season of ‘Fraud Squad’, the ratings-winning series that follows investigations tracking down criminals who steal from the public purse.
‘Fraud Squad: Inside the Council’ (working title) follows real-life stories of frauds across dozens of UK local councils, as told by investigators who caught the criminals.
Presented by Michelle Ackerley, this 10 x 45’ series looks at frauds ranging from council officers flogging blue badges for disabled drivers on the black market or putting family holidays on the council credit card, all the way up to entire councils being infiltrated by organised crime groups.
Other frauds investigated include a town clerk who stole a whopping £200,000 from the council she worked for, and spent the money on equipment for her horse; and an inside job involving 7 corrupt benefit assessors working across three different councils who stole over £1million pounds of public money over 6 years.
This is the latest instalment of Brown Bob’s BBC1 ‘Fraud Squad’ series, following ‘Fraud Squad: The Hunt’ (season two), and ‘Fraud Squad: NHS’ (season one). The show’s Executive Producer is Brown Bob Productions’ Jacqueline Hewer while the BBC Commissioning Editor is Lindsay Bradbury. Blue Ant International handles distribution for all three seasons globally.
“We’re delighted to be producing another series of ‘Fraud Squad’ for BBC Daytime,” said Jacqueline Hewer, CEO and Co-Founder, Brown Bob Productions.
“This year the UK Government revealed the true scale of fraud in Britain’s local councils could be as much as £2.75bn. Our latest series unveils this hidden world of frauds, tracks how the crimes were uncovered and how the fraudsters were brought to justice.”
Brown Bob Productions is one of the UK’s leading ‘true independent’ production companies. Founded by Nicki Gottlieb and Jacqueline Hewer in 2014, the company specialises in high volume, returnable factual series such as ‘Inside the Ambulance’, ‘Inside the Vets’ and ‘Inside the Operating Theatre’ for UKTV’s W channel. The company also produces ‘History Hunters’ and ‘The Architecture the Railways Built’ for UKTV’s Yesterday channel and ‘Paul Merton’s Secret Stations’ and ‘Great Rail Restorations with Peter Snow’ for Channel 4.
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About Brown Bob Productions
Based in London, Brown Bob Productions is an independent television production company owned and run by experienced producers Nicki Gottlieb and Jacqueline Hewer since 2014. Brown Bob Productions specialises in high volume, high rating factual series.
The company has a particular expertise in designing bespoke rigs in order to film people and places in a new and different way. Brown Bob has produced a number of different series for UKTV under the Inside the… brand, including ‘Inside the Operating Theatre’ and ‘Inside the Vets’. It’s also behind the ratings-winner ‘Fraud Squad: The Hunt’ for BBC One.
In March 2020, Brown Bob Productions launched Brown Bob US, its new US office based in New York City. https://www.brownbob.com/
