East Midlands

In one case a recently widowed woman spent £21,000 on a poor quality DVD show reel and website.

Broadcast Support

The celebrity culture of programmes like the X Factor which play on the desire for fame has also attracted those who can see the chance to make some money from the hopes and desires of ordinary people.

Drawing people in with roadside banners

Once such organisation is Nottingham based Broadcast Support.

Its banners, illegally placed on busy road junctions, draw people in. So do its adverts in some reputable magazines.

Its website claims that absolutely everyone is suitable for the service it offers. It provides a DVD showreel for aspiring stars. And charges way over the odds.

The man behind the company, Carl Mould says he has many satisfied clients.

Carl Mould... well known to the police

What price fame?

Inside Out has learned that the price varies depending on the individual. It can be hundreds of pounds. It can be thousands.

One man spent £10,000 for a DVD and a website page.

Carl Mould is known to some clients as Carl Nicholas.

When someone took a County Court judgement out against him, it was Nicholas Karl.

Lying to impress

He has a reason for hiding his real name in Nottingham.

Carl Mould is well known to the police because he was jailed for three years in 2001 for deception.

He was a cowboy builder then rather than a cowboy broadcaster. Mould overcharged an elderly lady over £30,000 for some dodgy building work.

He keeps within the law on his website by saying he is not an agent. But he lies and makes up stories to impress people with their credentials.

Mould also carried BBC logos and other industry names on his website without permission from those organisations.

Most of those logos have now been removed after Inside Out alerted companies.

One of the long established companies whose logos was traded off by Broadcast Support without their knowledge was Castcall which keeps actors up to date with available work.

Another company which had its logo used was The Drama House, run by an award winning film producer, Jack Emery. In the programme he confronts Mould about trading on his name.

Until the Inside Out investigation began Mould boasted a list of Corporate Videos he’d made with some top names - Again, all untrue.

Don't be tempted

So what can be done to stop people like Carl Mould ?

Trading Standards say they are investigating.

A new Scambusters unit has just been set up in Nottinghamshire where Broadcast Support is based. But Mr Mould is still in business.

The main message seems to be don’t spend a lot of money on a show reel or be tempted by the promise of high future earnings.

As, agent Anne Sweeting says, "That’s not how the industry works."

There is very little voiceover work out there.

And most TV presenters spend a long time training before getting work. Not just a day at Broadcast Support.

Update

Since the transmission of the Inside Out film Carl Mould has been advertising the same service from the same office under the name Emerald Television.

It's not a registered company like Broadcast Support, but it has a website which was set up by Mr Mould.

It provides DVD show reels and charges several thousand pounds for websites.

The police have launched an investigation into Mr Mould's activities.