Episode 10 X-Ray

You're watching X ray, the show that fights for your rights. If you've

been ripped off, or that deal turns out to be dodgy. We'll battle it out

on your behalf. Get out please. Don't man handle me. You never

checked those vehicles when you sold them.

We're here to fight your corner. Tonight, the dangerous fake goods

flooding into Wales. We're on a night raid to catch the counterfeit

gangs. It was like an Aladdin's cave. Michael Kors watches, GHD

straighteners and Apple chargers. Sian and Jeff wanted to watch Wales

play in the Six Nations. Their dreams of getting tickets have been

kicked into touch. I feel awful, because it's our national game. It's

something we dearly love. Imagine how much warmer your home could

be... With new windows. They're one of the UK's best known double

glazing firms, but Alison's not impressed with Anglian. Oh, my gosh,

that's a massive gap. Yes, good job you kept your coat on.

Welcome to a brarned new series of X ray. It is great to be back. This

weekend the Six Nations kicks off and thousands of fans will be

flocking here to the principality stadium. Later we'll be finding out

why some disabled supporters aren't happy about changes this the way

they apply to tickets. Plus top tips on how to avoid buying fake ones and

talking about fakes, we've been on the trail of the counterfeiting

criminals who could be putting your life at risk. Rachel has the story.

When it comes to shopping, we love our big name brands. But we're not

always so keen on their big prices. That's meant big opportunities for

crooks to cash in by selling cheap copies. Copies like these fake Nike

trainers, Chanel Trinidad and Tobago rans and Beats head phones may seem

a bargain. But they are usually shooedily made -- shodily made or

worse. Much worse. This is a fake Nutri Bullet blender exploding

seconds after its blade got stuck. Counterfeit phone chargers and hair

straighteners are often missing the safety components found in the real

thing. When they overheat horror stories of injuries and house fires

hit the headlines. It's a big problem. One recent surface

estimated that nearly 100,000 people in Wales bought a fake electrical

product like this one last year. So where are all these fakes coming

from? Three years ago, I went under cover at a Sunday market in Bristol.

I saw stall holders openly selling counterfits. I discovered many

buyers from Wales come here to stock up on cheap fakes. Like GHD hair

straighteners real ones cost ?100, fakes are sold here for just ?20.

They're then resold online to unsuspecting customers for a huge

profit. Three years on, the problem's getting worse and Trading

Standards Officers are determined to stamp it out. We're having problems

in Swansea with people advertising counterfeit goods on social media.

Every time we investigated those, we were finding all the products were

coming from Bristol fruit market. So on a Sunday morning, just before

Christmas, Swansea Trading Standards led an operation to target the

criminal gangs behind this lucrative trade. They gave X-Ray exclusive

access as they joined forces with police and Trading Standards teams.

Morning guys, thank you for all turning up. It's 3am. At a motorway

service station on the M5 near Worcester, the team is briefed on

their mission, to stop a convoy of counterfeit goods making its way

from the Midlands to Bristol's fruit market. We've identified a lot of

vehicles all of which are on intelligence linked to stores. On

the motorway police are lying in wait for dos bes of -- dozens of

suspect vans. It's not long before the first one is pulled over.

Trading Standards move in to search it. It's jam packed full of footwear

and they're counterfeit. Just to let you know, we found a load of

counterfeit merchandise in the back of the van. It's a criminal offence.

Where's the van heading? Bristol. Bristol fruit market? Yeah. Yes? I'm

going to be seizing this. Minutes later, another hit. This time the

van's piled high with dodgy sports gear. The rear of the vehicle is

full of counterfeit trainers, floor to ceiling. There's probably

hundreds, if not thousands, of trainers there. The The moteway is

quiet and police soon spot their next target. This time officers from

Caerphilly Trading Standards lead the search. It's like an Aladdin's

cave - Michael Kors watches, GHD straighteners and a lot of Apple

chargers. Big concern really is far as the safety is concerned. It's

really good to get it off the market In total, five vans packed with fake

goods are seized and taken back to Swansea. The people in them will be

questioned and their mobile phones are confiscated in the hope they'll

contain evidence to help track down the ring leaders. It's been a long

night, long morning. But well worth. It I'm very pleased with what we've

been able to take off the road today. The operation was a massive

success, but prosecuting those responsible will take time. Officers

are working their way through more than a million pounds worth of

fakes, Rhys is going to show me some of their haul. Whoa! This is a lot

of stuff. Yeah, pretty full. So, what have you got here? Shoes.

Trainers, Ugg boots Timberlands. Probably ?1500. After that,

clothing, hats, jackets, we've got perfume, watches, jewellery. There's

over 65 different brands and thousands upon thousands of products

in here. Trainers? Yes. Nike. They've been branded on the side.

Looks OK from a distance. . Then you realise you can pull the Nike tick

off. Then Adidas. These glow and you stamp your feet then bright lights.

I don't know how to charge them. Our concern is how safe are these? Then

interesting Ugg slippers. Which have the badge. They have. Now they

haven't. It's not just shoddy goods. Some of these fakes could be really

dangerous and Rhys has set his sights on the culprits. We seized

some GHDs and Apple chargers. We have some real concerns over the

safety of this product. They're actually rusty. GHDs, your hair

straighteners. There's two concerns with this, whether it's electrically

safe and secondly, is it going to burn the person using it. We've got

make up, urban decay. Very popular. Yes, it is. Our concerns are more of

the safety of this. What's in it. Are there heavy metals like arsenic

and lead in there. Who is it that's making money out of this then? It

all comes back to organised crime and the people at the top who are

importing this product for a cheap price, putting a brand on it, and

making a huge profit on it. There's only one winner then really. They

don't care. They don't care. About the safety of the consumer at the

other end, it's all about money to them. No, it's all about money.

Really good to know all that's been taken off the streets. We'll let you

know what happens with that investigation. Later, we're talking

fake rugby tickets and how to avoid being stung. Remember, if there's

anything you want us to look into, please do get in touch. The number

to call is: Or send us a tweet. We'd love to

hear from you. Still to come. There's nearly 5 years expertise...

Sounds -- 50 years expertise. Sounds great, but for some the reality is

very different. If you were doing it yourself, if we were like yeah, we

could put a window in, I would expect this to be the result. Next,

I've been finding out why some customers are feeling less than

dazzled by their dealings with an exclusive jewellery store. It's

always nice to mark a special occasion with a special present.

There's one sparkly little something which seems to have charmed many of

us. This is a Pandora bracelet. It's a really simple idea. You buy a

bracelet, like this one, or a bangle, then over time, you add

charms that mean something special to you. So you can see why they're

so popular. With more than 300 shops in the UK, people are going crazy

for Pandora. There are loads of charms to choose from, silver, gold,

sparkles, even injury afters, ranging from -- giraffes, ranging

from ?15 to ?600. Kerry is a huge fan. I love telling the story of

where each one came from. One of my favourites the rugby ball, anyone

who knows me knows I love my rugby. In the last four years, Kerry's

collected so many charms she ran out of room on her bracement. --

bracelet. So for her 40th birthday, her partner bought her a Moments

bangle. I put all my lovey-dovey charms on the solid bangle and the

family oriented ones on the chain bangle. A few weeks later, there was

a problem. I came home just sat down and I noticed one of my charms on

the floor. The clasp had come undone and Kerry was distraught to find two

of her valuable charms were missing. She went back to the Pandora shop at

Friars Walk in Newport where staff agreed to replace the faulty bangle,

but not the charms. Then a few weeks later, the clasp on the new bangle

broke too. I was having a good clean. I noticed one of the charms

was on the floor. I checked my bracelet again and was just

horrified that another two of my more treasured charms were gone. So

it was back to the Pandora shop, where Kerry says staff were less

than charming. They were most unhelpful. They acknowledged that

the clasp was faulty again. They offered to replace the bangle again.

But again, insisted that it was Pandora's policy that they couldn't

take any responsibility for the charms. Kerry was furious and she

wasn't alone. Other friends started posting online that their bangles

had broken in exactly the same way. Kerry took her evidence to Pandora.

She wasn't impressed by their reply. "I understand it may seem like a lot

of incidents when you read the unlucky stories, but compared to the

number of bracelets being produced, it is, in fact, only a very small

number of bracelets that have issues. " Pandora insisted their

warranty didn't cover lost or stolen items. They told Kerry that safety

chains would have stopped the charms falling off, which didn't go down

too well. When my partner bought the bangle he specifically asked whether

we needed a safety chain for the bangle. The advisor said no, on this

particular bangle you don't need a safety chain. Kerry's now more than

?200 out of pocket and it's really taken the shine off Pandora's

appeal. I've lost four charms in total now. They have a lot of money,

but it's the sentimental value. My partner has vowed he will never buy

me anything from Pandora again. I'm gutted on that one.

Pandora have told us that they're sorry about the problems that Kerry

and her friends have been having. They say their return rate is very

low. They say with any hand-made product faults can occur and if that

happens they will replace the item. But they insist there isn't a design

flaw with the Moments bangle. Now, while they're sticking to their

official policy not to replace lost charms, as a gesture of goodwill,

they've offered Kerry a gift voucher to cover the cost of the ones she's

lost. So Kerry is over the moon. Next, it is time for a news update.

You may soon be paying to take out your own cash thanks to a row

between banks and the Link network. One in seven cash machines could

charge a fee or be removed altogether and West Wales and

Cardiff are likely to be hit hard. We will keep you posted. Tax returns

are due in by tomorrow but don't be fooled by a fake e-mail which seems

to be from the majesties Revenue and Customs saying the tax man owes you

money but sadly it is not true. Scammers are just after your

personal details. And justice has finally caught up with Paula Lloyd,

the camper van con man behind Llanelli -based companies. Two years

ago we told you he had been promising or some conversions but

somewhat dangerous, didn't have the correct paperwork, or didn't even

exist. Since then, other victims have come forward and last month, he

was jailed for eight months. Fantastic news.

Next, Omar's been finding out why a well known window company has been

causing a lot of 'pane' for some of its customers!

For many of us, our homes sum up a lifetime's hard work.

Alison Jones from Bridgend has lived in her house for almost 30 years

and as she approaches retirement, there's one last job on her 'to do

I wanted a sash window and I went online and saw that Anglian

could provide this and arranged then for them to come out

and give me a price and measure up and everything.

There's nearly 50 years expertise built into every

They are a reputable firm, they've been around for many years,

lot of experience and I wanted somebody that I felt I could trust.

Anglian Home Improvements where nearly 50 years expertise

But Alison's going to show me what 50 years

They've literally ruined your front room.

I've got holes where they cut the window sill either side

of the window, which I'm really upset about because it's

The windows have been like this for more than four months and now

in the depths of winter, it's a bit nippy in here!

Like if you were doing it yourself, I'd expect this to be

If we were like yeah, we can put a window in,

The fitters admitted the windows were too small.

But they had an ingenious solution, holding them permanently in place

My husband did ask each of the fitters if they would accept

that in their own homes and they all said no.

In Swansea, paramedic Emma Nurse trusted Anglian

But when the fitters turned up they weren't there long.

They literally took every new window out of the house and put back

within four and a half hours which I did think was a bit quick

given the surveyor had come and given them two days to put them

The next morning, Emma and her partner had a closer look

at their brand new windows and it wasn't a pretty sight.

The problem that we have is the window in here is that it's

been dropped and there's a huge chunk that's been taken

out of the right hand side of the window.

The fitters also took pieces of wood from the garden

And they created a pretty unusual feature!

If you look down through the gaps you can see my neighbours

Anglian's shoddy work has had a serious impact

My stepdaughter has got asthma she spends most of the time sleeping

at my mother-in-law's house because the house is too cold.

The room is too cold and she can't sleep in her own bed.

Imagine how much warmer your home could be with new windows.

Not quite what the adverts promise then.

Back in Bridgend, we've called in surveyor Tim Davies

to cast his expert eye over Alison's botched bay windows.

Tim, you've had a bit of an investigation.

The windows are clearly undersized for the structural opening.

It's a fundamental, it's the first thing you do when you come out

to replace a window is measure the openings and get them clearly

and accurately dimensioned so the factory can produce

the correct sized window for the opening.

It defies belief really that they've got it so wrong.

They're about two inches short or 50 mm short either side of the opening.

Something needs to be done about it and done soon.

What would you do if someone at your surveying firm did

I'd get them a new tape measure and get them some re-training.

I think we've got the prescription there.

Emma and Alison say they're fed up of complaining to Anglian

and their draughty nightmare shows no sign of ending.

This experience has been absolutely dreadful.

Every time I think we're ringing Anglian you know I get anxiety.

This is like a new start in our life, sorting our house out,

making our family home and Anglian are just absolutely

Well, Anglian have held their hands up on this one.

They say they're extremely sorry that they've fallen short

of their usual high standards of customer satisfaction

And since we contacted them, they've sent out teams of fitters,

surveyors and managers to sort out this mess.

Alison and Emma are delighted, but they also want compensation.

And when we asked Anglian about that, they wouldn't comment.

Next, the Six Nations is almost here - but I've been to meet one

unhappy couple from Bargoed who won't be coming here

Sharn and Jeff Gibbs have been married for 31 years and both love

nothing more than watching Wales play rugby.

I became disabled when I was 11 and then, the more I lost

the use of my legs fully, the more I enjoyed rugby-

It just gets your heart pumping and it feels fantastic.

And there's one match they'll never forget -

seeing Wales beat Ireland to win the Grand Slam.

'We done it, we done it' and then it was like human fireworks.

If the roof had been on that day I think we'd have taken it off.

In the years since then, the couple have bought tickets

for other Six Nations games, directly from the Welsh Rugby Union.

As a wheelchair user, Sharn would apply in writing

If her name was picked in a ballot, she'd pay for one ticket and get

Money's tight for Sharn and Jeff though, so they've always opted

for the cheapest tickets in the draw and saved hard to afford them.

?40 for a ticket, it's more than a week s worth of shopping,

so the amount you have to save up for that is hard to

So, tell me how you used to buy tickets for the games?

You'd get a letter and it was like an application form,

and then you'd have two columns stating the lower price,

which was usually around ?40 and the upper price which was around

about ?100, but you could choose which price band

You knew what you were expecting to receive.

Then, a few months ago the Welsh Rugby Union launched

Sharn and Jeff tried to apply for tickets, but, just

as they about to enter their bank details, they made

You can apply for the match you want to go to, but you got no

say on the price bracket that you are put into.

So, Jeff complained to the WRU and told them he wanted

to specify a ticket price, which he knew he could afford.

It means I can't apply cos if I if get...

If I'm successful in the ballot and they decide in the higher price

bracket there won't be enough money in the bank to cover it.

I feel awful because we're missing our national game

Moving the ballot online has frustrated other rugby fans too.

Simon Green from Bridgend is a Wales supporter

I went onto the form online, tried to fill it I, didn't really

know what I was doing, got rejected two or three

times so then I phoned up the Welsh Rugby Union,

and a very nice lady talked me through the system

A lot of the disabled people aren't online,

a lot find using the computer difficult and the system now

is quite complicated so somebody that's not very computer savvy might

struggle and might miss out on tickets for that reason.

I want more disabled people to go and enjoy rugby week in week out.

I want more disabled people to watch, to watch

Wales play so come on, make it, make it easier.

For this year at least, Sharn and Jeff will be watching

Wales on the telly and not on the terraces.

Well, Sharn and Jeff clearly aren't happy -

Craig Maxwell from the Welsh Rugby Union is here.

Craig, this is one of the areas where disabled fans would sit -

great view - but why has the WRU moved the ticket

The old paper form was not efficient, we worked

with Ticketmaster to make sure there was a system in place that had

worked with many other disabled supporter ballots previously.

Also the new system has encrypted credit card details to make sure

they are safer and securer for disabled supporters.

With the previous process, Sharn and Jeff felt that they could

specify a cheaper ticket - now they're worried they could get

charged ?100 a ticket and its stopped them applying

We don't want to stop anyone applying for tickets,

The paper system previously had a tick box preference,

there are two price bands, so for Wales England

the top price was ?100, and the second price band was ?40,

previously on the paper forms if you'd have ticked the box,

the likelihood is you would have got the ?40 ticket because it's

There was never a guarantee, the system and process hasn't

changed but the tick box has been removed because the software we're

currently using didn't have that preference or that availability

Could disabled fans still apply in writing?

Yes, there are some disabled supporters that wanted to stay

in writing and they will continue to do so until they choose to move

onto the online system, and if someone wants to revert back

from online system to paper system, contact our customer services team

Do you admit the process is flawed and is it

in the autumn series, it has been in SIx Nations,

we'll get back to Jeff and Sharn about any changes we're

Now, the first game here is a week on Saturday.

Earlier we were talking about counterfeit items,

but fake tickets are a problem for you, aren't they?

There are two parts to that, there's fake and invalid tickets

and they can be sourced through various different outlets

and that's unofficial hospitality, secondary ticket sites or touts,

if a ticket is cancelled because its lost or stolen it can be

put onto one of these marketplaces and not be valid.

So the message we really want to give supporters is make sure

you buy official ? it s still worth trying all 300 member clubs to see

if there are any tickets available, if you go through the Welsh rugby

union website online it clearly outlines all the official sources

through secondary sites, you can still get tickets

But if you need our help with anything, however big

Next week: another double glazing firm and this one just won t

It's'making me angry now that they re still calling me.

We just keep them on the phone basically until they