Dirty Little Secrets: Four spy stories from the business world
1 February 2008
The Money Programme
on BBC2
The temptation to gain an illegal advantage on your business competitors has never been higher. Companies now routinely employ private detectives to find out just what their competitors are up to.
In the first programme of a new series, the Money Programme’s Max Flint lifts the lid on a murky world of phone taps, secret filming, break-ins and deception – all in search of a profit.
Last year Formula 1 team, McLaren, was fined £50 million after it received details of a rival car’s design.
But The Money Programme discovers that far from the glamour of F1, many other businesses are also relying on dirty tricks to give them that extra advantage. The programme investigates competitive spying in businesses as mundane as the conservatory industry. And it explores in-depth how a waste tycoon Adrian Kirby ordered corrupt London-based private detective firm Active Investigation Service (AIS) to bug the phones and hack into the emails of opponents. And reveals the methods of blaggers such as Sharon Anderson who use ‘social engineering’ techniques to access commercially sensitive information.
Dirty Little Secrets is an Old Street Films production for BBC2 Money Programme. Read about the programme here.
Producer: Adrian Gatton
Director: Rob Lemkin
Executive Editor: Clive Edwards
Adrian Gatton 