Lens stolen from Provision / ITV
- Canon EOS 16-35mm L Series MKII Lens
- EF Mount
- S/N – 4303980
- Provision Barcode – 308836
If you are offered this item for sale, or otherwise come across it, please contact mark.wallace@itv.com.
Category: Uncategorized
Film Street Productions
There has been a fraudulent attempt to hire by somebody using the name of Salvatore Sparace of Film Street Productions.
Mr Sparace is a real person, whose identity and company name has been hijacked.
One company was contacted for Master Primes, on the understanding that there was a hire placed elsewhere for an Alexa.
On checking up on the Alexa hire, it turned out to be imaginary.
Subsequent to this, checks on the insurance provided, also revealed it to be fraudulent.
The domain in use was only registered on the 2nd October – just days before the attempted hire.
Mr Sparace has ben contacted via a company he is genuinely involved with, to alert him to the fact that his name is being used and is reporting the matter to the authorities.
He is no longer living at the address being used, which has been sold and is now a rental property.
Should you be contacted by anybody from Film Street Productions, please proceed with caution and report it to Xhire.
Kit stolen from freelance cameraman – Belgium
It seems that freelance cameramen are particularly vulnerable to theft. The web form submission below is a very good example of the methods crooks use to steal kit, and destroy the livelihoods of freelancers.
If you have any information regarding this theft, or are offered any of the kit for sale, please contact Xhire, the Belgian police, or Sven Joukes directly.
Your Name : Sven Joukes
Your organisation : Freelance Cameraman
Telephone : +32 478 275 014
E-mail Address : sven@superacht.be
Name(s) of fraudulent hirer.: Shawn Lacy shawnlacy@universalmusicgroup.com Name of fraudulent organisation, address and website if available: Don’t know, but probably not Universal Music Group.
List the main items of kit stolen.: Sony PMW-F5 s/n 0120126 OLED VF for F5 s/n 0102095 ZEISS CP.2 LENSES PL 15MM s/n 50001397 25MM s/n 50007026 35MM s/n 50034633 50MM s/n 50027835 85MM s/n 50030029 Canon 5D mkIII body Canon EF 16-35 mkII Canon EF 24-70
How was the fraud carried out? Please supply as much detail as possible.: Belgian prod. was contacted by British ‘prod’ to provide gear for shoot in Brussels. Upon arrival they get the gear, create chaos re: location etc., then take off with the gear
Police details and crime number: Brussels Police: +32 2 2797979 Crime nr: BR.20.LL.107306/2014 (date 24/09/2014
Update: Thanks to this listing, the stolen lenses were recovered, having been found for sale in London on Gumtree. A member of the public who realised the price they were selling for was a little too good to be true, took a note of one of the serial numbers and googled it.
Kit stolen from BBC crew at gun point by Ukrainian rebel separatists
5 August 2014: Rebel Separatists in Shakhtersk, Ukraine have stolen equipment at gunpoint from a BBC news crew. The town was being shelled by the Ukrainian Army. The rebels accused the crew of being spies, despite having credential passes, and stole their kit.
Main items stolen:
Sony PMW-400 Camera serial 140188 Canon HJ17x7.6 Lens Serial 1315801 Sony Radio Mic PAG L96e battery
3 Sony SxS Memory Cards
Update: Kit was recovered using a local fixer.
Fraud alert: Sapient.com
It has come to our notice that certain frauds are being committed by individuals / companies who have been posing as procurement personnel from Sapient and have been placing fake orders using our UK and Houston addresses as the billing address with delivery address as places other than the billing address. To view an example of a fraudulent order, click HERE
They have been sending out credit references to create accounts that might appear trustworthy to you but please DO NOT entertain such requests as they are not coming from Sapient.
If you get an email from suekerr@sapientltd.com or suekerr@sapientltd.net or any email address carrying @sapientltd.com or @sapientltd.net as domain, please consider the same as fraudulent and bring it to our notice. All our email addresses bear the domain @sapient.com
Theft of lenses from Lites Belgium
ATTENTION
following equipment was not returned to LITES after rental :
Camera Arri Alexa plus serial nr 4485
Zeiss Ultra Prime lenses : with following serial numbers :
UP 20mm : 8942677
UP 28mm : 8937213
UP 40mm : 8942226
UP 65mm : 8940668
UP 100mm: 8940130
UP 135mm: 8942168
This was the man who rented the equipment :
Benjamin Heiwegen
His company :
BIMM Lifestyle Holding BV
Schrijverspark 112 / 02
3901Veenendaal
Dutch valid VAT nr : NL818464859B01
The following individuals and vehicle were involved:
If you are offered any of the items for sale, or encounter any of the individuals depicted here, please contact Lites Belgium through their website: http://lites.be , and email us.
Click on the thumbnails below to view full sized image.
Alex Levi and Maurice Duchamp: Theft from freelance cameraman
The following theft was reported by the Xhire web form.
Submission Time : 26-Mar-14 03:08
Your Name : Simon Shen
Your organisation : Freelance Cameraman based in London
Telephone : 07447922235
E-mail Address : simonshen87@hotmail.com
Name(s) of fraudulent hirer.: Alex Levi from Maurice Dumchamp
Name of fraudulent organisation, address and website if available: Alex Levi on behave of Maurice Duchamp production of Maurice News Production
Fake insurance policy registered under ‘Zurich’ Group
They posted an online ad on production base and FTP
List the main items of kit stolen.: Canon 5D mark 2 with Full rig Zeiss ZF Prime lens set Cineroid EVF Formatt Matt box Lee ND Filter set Vinten Avocet 90 tripod & fluid head Sachtler Tripod DA100 Short Leg all the accessories etc.
How was the fraud carried out? Please supply as much detail as possible.: A fake production company called Maurice Duchamp hired my camera equipment kit.They provided a fake insurance document.
I delivered the equipment to a man named Alex Levi outside the Mayfair hotel in London.
They’ve now disappeared with my kit.
Police details and crime number: Action Fraud Ref: NFRC140300574788 Police Ref:CHS10958 Any other information you wish to share with the broadcast hire community: Alex Levi, male, late 20s or eariler 30s, approx 6′ height, facial bread, mediterranean or turkish, barely speak english, worn a black jumper with baseball cap.
His personal number which is permanently switched off: 07823918873
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Additional details received by email:
Thank you very much for your reply, I’m really appreciate for the help in regarding to my case. Just to giving you more information about the case.
So basically, The Maurice Duchamp production company advertised a production assistant job on production base websites (the ads are still live).
They obviously found what they were looking for because their new production assistant contacted me about hiring my equipment. I was sent an insurance document and told to meet a man named Alex Levi outside the Mayfair hotel. And they were willing to pay me 200 pound for the first install payment as deposit. (300 quid in total for two days rental in the weekend.)
I delivered the equipment to him, received a cash payment and thought everything was fine. The following day I had a worried call from the production assistant who told me his phone was switched off. She sensed it was a scam so we done some digging. The insurance document is fake and we tried to call and contact Maurice Duchamp, but unfortunately there weren’t any response at all, also Alex Levi has disappeared.
I now realise they have scammed people before, but they always leave a trail. They paid for job ads on two websites and hired a room in the Mayfair hotel which they cancelled later.
It’s very unfortunate, this disaster happened on me, I reported to London metropolitan police right immediately, but it’s really sad, that the police didn’t do any helps at all, they kept me running around, waited and kicking me back and forth in between different department. In the end, they referred my case to a private company called ‘Action Fraud’ which also seems careless about my lost. There weren’t any execution or future progress from them at all since my last report. As there are many ways to track and chase them, through CCTV tape, their Mini Cab registration plate, hotel reservation etc, but no action preceded so far by ‘Action Fraud’. So right now I feel hopeless.
It’s a shame, that the total value of my kit is approx around 12000 pound, and I didn’t have any serial numbers for my camera and lens, as the lenses have all been rehoused and converted into cine-mode, However I’ve learnt my lesson in a hard way… I really hope the authorities could carry out some real action to resolve this case, as this ‘Maurice Duchamp’ guy still activating out there.
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