Return of the Prodigal - S5-E1
Plot hole: Mickey Bricks returns to England by stealing the uniform of a Commander Cardwell, an officer in the Royal Navy, and taking his place on board an aircraft carrier that is sailing from Australia to the UK, leaving that day, a voyage that would take three to four weeks. During that time, Cardwell does not report his uniform stolen, nor does he report to the aircraft carrier to take up his duties, and since there was a car waiting to take him to the ship he is obviously supposed to be there. Theft of a military uniform is taken extremely seriously and once reported it would take no time at all to establish that "Cardwell" appears to be on board his ship! On top of that, during his entire time at sea nobody on board calls upon Mickey to perform any sort of military duties (of which he would have absolutely no knowledge), he doesn't run into anyone who knows Cardwell, and nobody asks to see his orders, military identification or travel warrant.
Return of the Prodigal - S5-E1
Plot hole: Emma Kennedy gets into the morgue and coroner's office when she is wheeled in on a gurney sealed in a body bag. Mickey distracts the morgue attendant so she can get out of the bag and go to the coroner's filing room. All well and good, but what happens when the attendant goes back into the morgue after Mickey leaves and sees the empty body bag on the gurney? There is no indication that Emma gets back into the body bag and there is no reason for her to do so.
Return of the Prodigal - S5-E1
Factual error: There is absolutely no way prison visitors would be allowed into the cell of the prisoner they are visiting - they would not even be allowed into any part of the prison except for the visiting room. This is nothing to do with the guards going easy on Albert - they would be sacked on the spot for such a blatant and highly visible breach of prison rules.
New Recruits - S5-E2
Other mistake: When Mickey first opens the newspaper to show the article on Fielding and Wood, in fact the article just repeats the same first three paragraphs of text again and again. (00:01:51)
New Recruits - S5-E2
Factual error: The contract Stone and his team force Carlton Wood and Harry Fielding to sign guaranteeing Fowler's widow the royalties from his invention for life is signed under duress and is therefore invalid. It is hard to believe that none of Stone's team know this, but it is impossible to believe that Carlton Wood wouldn't.
New Recruits - S5-E2
Factual error: Knocking out fit, healthy adults by pumping an anaesthetic gas into a large, open room in which they are sitting is an incredibly stupid and dangerous thing to do. In order to do so, you'd have to know everything about them - age, weight, medical history, and so on. Killing them? Easy. Use cyanide gas. Knocking them out for a few hours? Impossible. Incidentally, why is it that the next morning when the grifters reveal their plan, nobody talks to the guards about what happened?
Other mistake: Mickey and Ash tell Sean and Emma all about the Fortnuss gold robbery, "the third largest bullion robbery in British criminal history." Emma tells them that they know absolutely nothing about it - they have never even heard of it. She goes on to explain that they don't know anything about the robbery because "We weren't exactly up on our current affairs in 1996." If neither she nor Sean knew anything about the raid, how would she know it took place in 1996? (00:06:29)
Factual error: As someone with a criminal record Mickey Bricks would not be allowed an "open" visit with Albert Stroller while he was in prison. Their visit would be "closed" - Stroller would be in a small booth, separated from Mickey by a Perspex screen.
Factual error: Emma gives their mark, Judge Anthony Stone, the name and address of Albert Stroller - Faverton Open Prison. Throughout the episode we see Stroller inside the prison, and we see what it looks like from outside when he is released. It is absolutely not an open prison, which would not have cell blocks and would not be enclosed in huge brick walls. The prison they show looks more like a medium or even high security inner city prison.
Factual error: Their mark, Judge Anthony Kent, presides over his courtroom using a gavel. British judges have never used gavels.
Factual error: Albert Stroller goes before the parole board, is approved, and released on the same day. That is impossible. The parole board will meet, interview the prisoner, then take depositions from other interested parties. If they approve parole, they will then pass their recommendation on to the Home Office who will approve or decline it. All this takes three or four days at least, so there is no way for Stroller to be out on the street to meet the bent judge right away.
Other mistake: The end credits for this episode are actually a repeat of the credits for the previous episode Lest Ye Be Judged. (00:51:10)
Factual error: Ash tells the gang that corrupt politician Rhona Christie "took a marginal seat", which we know includes the youth club in Poplar, Greater London. In fact Poplar and Limehouse is an ultra safe Labour constituency. The sitting member has a majority of over 20,000. It has never been even close to marginal, and a meticulous researcher like Three Socks Morgan wouldn't make a mistake like that.
Factual error: Albert and Emma pose for phony wedding photographs in front of a green chromakey screen in order to have a new background created on computer. However, Emma is holding a garland of flowers surrounded by green foliage. You can't have anything green in the foreground when using green chromakey as it will drop out too and become part of the superimposed background.
Plot hole: When Albert, Mickey and Emma are trying to decide which nationality of millionaire Albert will pose as, they decide not to go with an English millionaire, since Albert at this point tries and fails to do a remotely convincing upper-class English accent. However, in many earlier episodes (such as "Gold Mine") he has no problems at all in putting on a convincing upper-class English accent.
The Road Less Travelled - S5-E6
Plot hole: The only people who respond to Harry Fielding's classified ad seeking victims of the gang are three people who, it turns out, are actually working with Mickey Bricks. Considering how prolific the grifters are I rather think Fielding would be inundated with genuine people seeking revenge, but not one shows up. Not one? Simply unbelievable.
The Road Less Travelled - S5-E6
Character mistake: The plan hatched by Carlton Wood and Harry Fielding makes no sense at all. They recruit three people who they think were victims of Micky Bricks' crew, asking them each to deposit a cheque for £1,000,000 into an account that their accomplice Alfie will show to Albert Stroller to "prove" his wealth. They are on a hiding to nothing. A bank statement will always show a ledger balance - all funds including uncleared cheques - and an available balance, the amount of money in the account that can be withdrawn at any one time. Alfie's account will show an available balance of nil and will convince nobody of anything. A city wideboy like Wood would know this and would ask for the deposits to be made by account transfer or even in cash, or he could even cut out of the middle men and prepare a fake bank statement. A ruthless businessman like him would have no trouble at all arranging a simple thing like that. The way he does things is uncharacteristically clumsy and includes nothing but loose ends.
Suggested correction: There are a number of prisons in the UK that house both category C and D prisoners. This would mean it operates as an "open prison" to some prisoners, but still requires the security precautions of a higher security facility.
Rubbish. Stroller is under secure lockup - treated leniently by the guards perhaps but if the prison we see does have an 'open' section he most definitely is not in it.