You’ve got to front it out if villains are on to you

GARRY came close to being exposed several times.

After going undercover to nail a Liverpool-based heroin dealer, Garry sat down for a face-to-face meeting, posing as a Salford villain.

The target had a cafe opposite a police station where cops had made a hole in a wall to secretly film.

But a corrupt cop – or member of staff in the police station – tipped off the drugs boss about the camera.

As they sat down in the cafe to do the deal the criminal told him he knew about the filming.

Garry reacted by being furious and accusing the drugs boss of setting him up. His display was so convincing that a deal was done later in the day, and the target was arrested.

“There have been a couple of occasions during operations when ‘l hope you are not a cop’ has been mooted but it’s how you deal with that that matters,” Garry says.

“You have to front it or the game is over, as with the guy in the cafe in Wavertree when he gets the phone call that there is a police camera on his premises from the station over the road.

“With the risk factors involved in what you are dealing with it’s only natural that a villain might ask that question, even just to see how you react.

“On one operation the main target’s henchman had a sawn off shotgun in the office and posed the above question, stating what he would do with it.

“All you could do was front it and hope for the best.

“It’s only when you think these things through later in the cool light of day that you realise the enormity of those situations.

“It’s fight or flight.”