Tony Sales was one of the UK’s most wanted criminals. On the run for over six years, he stole an estimated £30m from retailers in online and in store scams, as well as running an organised fraud operation that ruthlessly and systematically exploited the weaknesses of its retail targets.

These activities led him to be branded “Britain’s Greatest Fraudster” by The Sun. He originally started running small scams like going door-to-door to collect sponsorship money for fake charity events when he was 13 to get money to impress girls and to "buy nice trainers."

Part 1 of a 3 part look at fraud in the UK by Vice (explicit language)

But soon things got out of control: "The addiction comes later - you kind of - because you are living that lifestyle, all of a sudden you're like an overnight millionaire. You can have whatever you want when ever you want it."

He made big money running card-skimming scams, and soon had 50 people working with him  - "it was like being a CEO of a top corporate company," he laughs now.

"I remember there were instances when I had shoe boxes full of money under my bed and my mom found them, and was like, 'what's going on here?' I just said, look mom, I'm trying to buy you a car - I've been saving all my pocket money. My mom just scratched her head."

After serving spells in prison, Tony is now working for the other side - helping companies to avoid fraudsters.

He has found that online trading has brought twice as many opportunities for the fraudster, and made it easier to commit fraud today than ever before.

"The biggest problem for every country in the world at the moment is data. Not many companies know what data is, or what to do with it or how to protect it."

He warns that data is "just left lying around" with back doors left "wide-open" for criminals to steal people's information.