We present a detailed mm-wave and optical study of the gravitational lens s
ystem B 1933+503, discovered by Sykes et al. (1998) in the radio. This obje
ct is probably the most complex lens system known, with 10 lensed component
s within a radius of one arcsecond. It is potentially important as a probe
of the Hubble constant, although no optical counterpart has thus far been o
bserved down to I = 24.2. We have obtained new sub-millimetre detections at
450 mu m, 850 mu m and 1350 mu m. We have also constrained the possible du
st emission from the proposed foreground lensing galaxy using a K-band adap
tive optics image and CO(5-4) measurements. A lensing model is constructed,
taking the foreground elliptical galaxy at z = 0.755 as the lensing mass.
From this we derive a scenario from which to model the sub-millimetre emiss
ion. Several arguments then point to the source in the B 1933+503 system ly
ing above a redshift of 2. We speculate that unlensed relatives of this sou
rce may constitute a sizable fraction of the 850 mu m source counts.