Illegal ivory in carvings sold at Portobello market

Dealers in London are selling objects made from illegal ivory, an undercover operation has found.

The team bought two items from traders in Portobello Market which were found to have been carved recently. In the UK, the law decrees that any ivory must be pre-1947 and in the US, any imported ivory item must be at least 100 years old.

One woman dealer filmed by a secret camera advised a "customer", who said they were travelling home to America, not to declare the ivory item, saying: "I should just keep quiet personally."

Another complained about the inconvenience of having to provide the correct paperwork - in the UK and US any ivory product must be accompanied by a government certificate proving it came from old stockpiles, such as exist in China.

Despite these regulations, an estimated 2,000 elephants are slaughtered each week and two of the three objects bought by investigator Steve Galster during filming for the series Crime Scene Wild were found to be made from modern ivory.

David Battie of the Antiques Roadshow was appalled when given Mr Galster's ivory purchases to examine.

A tiny £15 elephant carving, which the dealer had first said was probably from the Twenties or Thirties and then said was more than 100 years old, had chips of ivory in its mouth, proving how young the ivory really was.

Salad servers described by a female vendor as "having quite a lot of age" were also modern. She had advised Mr Galster to say they were made in 1900 if questioned.

Mr Battie said: "They are too flimsy to be old." An ivory engraving, bought for £18, was deemed antique and was the only item of the three sold with both a government certificate and one from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Mr Galster, a former CIA agent, said: "In the Nineties I was asked to use my skills in uncovering gun and drugs dealers which led to the ivory trade in places like Taiwan, China and Japan. What we didn't look at then was how a lot of that trade comes back here to Britain."

The International Fund for Animal Welfare was involved with much of the investigation for the TV series.

It is working to save elephants from habitat loss and stop poachers. The animals are shot to order in a highly organised and professional business.

Mr Galster said: "The law as it stands poses a big threat to our elephant population. There has to be a total ban."

Crime Scene Wild begins on Animal Planet on Monday at 10pm.