The Crime Agents

In this week's Q&A episode, Andy and Neil answer your questions on why the conviction rate for rape and other violence against women and girls is so low - and give their verdict on whether social media and the 'manosphere' is making it more dangerous than ever to be a woman. Neil also explains why he thinks the way rape is investigated in this country needs to be fundamentally changed. They al...

Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march was supposed to be in the name of free speech. Around 150,000 people attended the protest in central London this weekend. The far right activist said he wanted it to be a family event with no violence or alcohol. Andy and the Crime Agents team went down to find out for themselves. This special report features the voices of the protestors on the march, and t...

In the last year, a child has been arrested almost every week by counter-terrorism police. That's a record - but why is this happening? And who is trying to radicalise these children? In this special episode, Andy speaks exclusively to an undercover intelligence officer to find out more about this shocking rise in minors being held on terror charges. Neil gives his reaction to the revelation that...

If you've ever watched Line of Duty and wondered how realistic AC-12 really is, then this is the episode for you. For the first time, Neil takes us behind the scenes of his four years working in anti-corruption units - and reveals the impact it had on his popularity among his fellow officers. Andy and Neil also examine why there is such a history of corruption within the police, and Neil assesses...

All summer, Britain's police have been kept busy by a range of protests. From demonstrations outside asylum hotels, to marches in support of Palestine Action, thousands of people have taken to the streets to make their voices heard from across the political spectrum. But have the police handled these protests even-handedly? To answer that, Andy and Neil go back to the Black Lives Matter protests o...

Notting Hill Carnival is Europe's biggest street festival. It's been a fixture of London's cultural scene for decades and it's attended by millions every August Bank Holiday. But the event also regularly attracts negative headlines, with several murders and many more violent incidents in the last few years. So should Carnival be allowed to continue in its current form? On the eve of this year's ev...

The Q&A is back! In this week's episode, Andy and Neil answer your questions on one of the major talking points from last week: an announcement of new guidance suggesting police should reveal the ethnicity of suspects in 'high-profile and sensitive' cases. Is greater transparency a step forward? Or could this lead to more racial tensions in the UK? Tune in to hear which way Andy and Neil think...

You've seen The Football Factory and Green Street. You remember the chaotic scenes at Wembley for the Euro 2020 final. And for years you've heard hooliganism described as 'The English Disease'. But what is the reality of football hooliganism in the UK in 2025? This week, Andy tells the story of when he infiltrated one of the country's most notorious football firms, and Neil explains how even exper...

In this week's bonus episode, Andy quizzes Neil on some of the most memorable moments from his 30 year policing career. For example, Neil tells the harrowing story behind his most memorable murder case - the 2003 shooting of drug dealer Tony Byfield and his 7 year old daughter, Toni-Ann - and the unlikely way he and his team eventually cracked the case. Neil also explains why being too outspoken c...

When a criminal goes on the run, what do police do to try and catch them? In this episode, Andy is given exclusive access to a Met Police firearms unit who are on the tail of an armed drug dealer. Listen to find out exactly what happens when a manhunt starts - and whether the police can get their man. Later, Andy and Neil look back on one of the most famous British manhunts of all: when Raoul Moat...

Why are there 5 year backlogs in some of Britain's courts? Why are our prisons so full? And why doesn't any government seem interested in fixing the broken criminal justice system? In this week's episode, Neil and Andy look at who is to blame for breaking the system - and if it's too late for anything to be done to repair it. Andy explains the maddening reality of a day in court - and why Britain'...

Protesters gathered outside the Bell Hotel in Epping for a 5th time this weekend - and there were also demonstrations outside other migrant hotels in several more towns around the UK. Andy went to Epping to see the protest for himself - and to find out if the far-right is trying to exploit the legitimate concerns local people have about these hotels and illegal immigration. Hear what happened when...

Can it be right that the two men who needlessly felled the iconic Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian's Wall were sentenced to four years in prison? After all, that's the same as the minimum sentence for someone convicted of rape. That's one of the questions that Andy and Neil tackle in this week's bonus episode of The Crime Agents - listen to hear whether they think this is an example of a judge bowing...

No one ever forgets a terror attack. But what about the dozens which are foiled at the last minute? Or the threats which are stopped in their tracks months before they can become a reality? In this episode, Neil reveals the most memorable attack he ever thwarted in his time as Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, and the details of how police, MI5 and GCHQ work together to stop terrorists from comm...

Neil and Andy address the controversial issue of Shamima Begum, and whether it's right that she was stripped of her British citizenship, in this week's bonus episode. Neil recalls the moment when the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid interrupted his meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May to announce that he'd made that decision - and the pair discuss whether Begum should be allowed back in the UK n...

Andy is one of only a very small number of journalists to have successfully gone undercover and infiltrated the far-right. In this episode, he reveals for the first time what happened when the group found out his true identity - and why he needed a visit from the bomb squad and around-the-clock police protection. Andy also explains why people are attracted to join these groups for real - and tells...

One year ago, Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies while working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Many believe she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice - and in this week's bonus episode, Neil and Andy answer your questions on the idea that police were briefing against Letby to journalists during her trial. Andy covered that trial - so did that really happen? And...

Police officers are increasingly forced to spend their time doing jobs they were never meant to - and that other public services are simply too stretched to respond to. This week, Neil and Andy discuss the intervention by Britain's top cop, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who's called for police to be allowed to focus on fighting crime rather than social work. Neil and Andy analyse what d...

Palestine Action – the extreme activist group that infiltrates and vandalises military sites and defence firms - is to become a banned terrorist organisation. But very little is known about its members or supporters. The Crime Agents host and LBC crime correspondent Andy Hughes went along to meet them as they protested outside Downing Street on the day MPs voted to proscribe Palestine Action. He s...

In this week’s episode of The Crime Agents, investigative journalist Andy Hughes reveals the inner workings of Britain’s most violent street gangs. He’s joined by his co-host Neil Basu, ex Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police. He describes how it felt to come face to face with the criminal underworld. Andy and Neil explore why the children being recruited by gangs are getting younger,...

In the very first episode of The Crime Agents, investigative journalist Andy Hughes reveals exclusively how hundreds of convicted terrorists have been released from UK jails over the past two decades, and are now living among us, many of whom continue to refuse deradicalisation treatment. His co-host on the Crime Agents is the former Head of Counter Terrorism for the Metropolitan Police, Neil Basu...

Meet Neil Basu and Andy Hughes - aka The Crime Agents . Neil is a former top police officer and Andy is an investigative journalist who's been covering crime for two decades. In this podcast, from the makers of The News Agents , they'll go behind the headlines to uncover the truth about the crime that affects all of our lives. In this trailer, Neil and Andy give you an insight into the frontline e...