I used face recognition app to hunt man behind whisky fraud | UK News

It was the last thing I was expecting as I sat in my office late one evening.

I had been using some new facial recognition software, seeing how well it worked.

I put a photo of Craig Arch – the CEO of Cask Whisky Ltd, the multi-million-pound international award-wining cask whisky business – into the software.

I wasn’t expecting to get much but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

There, in front of me, was a police mugshot.

The articles linked to the image told of a £6.2m fraud with hundreds of victims.

And the man behind it was the one staring back at me.

I have spent years investigating serious criminals. From human traffickers and gunrunners to contract killers and cocaine smugglers. One thing I never thought I’d end up investigating was whisky.

Producer Liam McDougall told me of a source he had – a whistleblower – who said that organised crime had infiltrated the whisky industry, that he had compiled a hitlist of suspect whisky investment companies, and would we be interested in looking into it?

One of those on the list was a company called Cask Whisky Ltd.

It was set up in 2021 and, in its first year of trading, it reported a multi-million-pound turnover.

It boasted of operations in Hong Kong, and it was winning awards.

The CEO was a man called Craig Arch.

In interviews, he spoke of opening brand new headquarters and doubling their staff in the first twelve months.

He also told of their ambitions for the future, and said he was “excited for what the next few years will bring”.

It was only when I put his photo into the face recognition software, that I discovered the shocking truth behind the man.

His real name is Craig Brooks. He was jailed in 2019 for his part in a £6.2m investment scam. The 350 victims were mainly elderly.

He had come out of prison, changed his appearance, changed his name to Arch, and set up Cask Whisky Ltd.

Disqualified from being a director, he put his fiancé – an eyebrow technician from Essex – down on the paperwork as the boss.

I spoke to investors who had handed over tens of thousands to Craig Arch and his gang, believing they were buying the best of whisky, in casks, which would give them returns of 13% or more.

Yet the investors discovered that many of the casks they had bought, had either been heavily overpriced – up to five times in some cases – or didn’t exist at all.

Little did they know that they had, in fact, been handing over their money to a convicted fraudster.

A man disqualified from being a director. A man who was lying as to who he was.

I wanted to catch Craig Brooks in the act, but no sooner had I started looking into Cask Whisky Ltd, than the company disappeared.

It was under investigation by the City of London Police for alleged fraud.

I had missed my chance.

And yet, it seemed, no-one knew that Craig Arch wasn’t Craig Arch. That he was really Craig Brooks, a convicted fraudster.

My chance to expose this came when I noticed a new whisky company coming to the fore – Cask Spirits Global.

Immediately the red flags went up.

The branding looked similar. The social media images I’d seen before.

When I checked the history of the company name on Facebook, it was there in black and white. It was Cask Whisky Ltd.

Had Brooks simply set up yet another company? Was he already back on the hunt for potential investors?

Seeing this as my chance, I sent Cask Spirits Global an email, pretending to be an asset management consultant who was representing a wealthy client keen to invest in whisky.

Within minutes of sending it, I got a reply. From a man called Hutchins. Craig Hutchins. It was too much of a coincidence.

Although I believed this to be Craig Brooks, I had to prove it.

No investor I spoke to had ever met the man in person.

All the financials were done by email.

But with the lure of a potential big-money deal, it wasn’t long before a meeting was arranged.

A few weeks later and I arrived at the Westminster office of Cask Spirits Global.

Walking into the room, I came face-to-face with a man I had come to know well.

I had been looking at his image for months now, had been investigating his tactics which had cost investors millions, and had been tracking his every move.

It was Craig Brooks.

And here he was, now pretending to be the managing director of yet another company. Under yet another name.

Alongside him were two members of his gang, both of whom had worked for Cask Whisky Ltd – the company under investigation by the police.

And both of them were now also using false names.

During the secret meeting, Brooks told me he had 11,000 clients all over Europe, built up over a seven-year whisky career.

“The youngest is 19,” he told me. “The oldest is about 92.”

As for the size of his business, he said: “I’ve got contracts with all the warehouses in Scotland.

“The majority of clients, they start small and so, anywhere between £3,000 and £50,000.

“So, I think my largest trade is £1.4m. We can receive any amount up to £4m without notifying the bank.”

He told me there was no mark-up on the casks they bought for investors, and they only made money down the line from the sale of those casks.

Brooks then proceeded to give me a list of casks for my client to buy – totalling almost £1.5m.

I showed the list to several industry experts, who said they were heavily overpriced – in some cases, up to ten times the real value.

As for the company, he ran it, he said, and all financial decisions were made by him.

“We’re in safe hands?” I asked him.

“Yeah. 100%.” he said.

When I confronted him a few weeks later, he admitted his real name was Brooks, but said all the whisky he had previously sold existed, and that he hadn’t been jailed for fraud, but for unfair business practices.

The two colleagues who were also using false names, said they had simply been using names given to them when they joined the new company.

During my eight-month investigation into the whisky trade, I met so many investors with heart-breaking stories of losing all they had.

And I discovered the callous tactics that criminals were using to take it from them.

If there was one lesson I took away from it, it was this: if you are thinking of investing in cask whisky, do your homework – because not everybody is who they say they are.

Police are investigating three Scotch whisky companies over fraud allegations, with investments running into the millions.