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We're under pressure to make money go further, | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
so what's worse than something wrong with our homes? | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
Last year, we spent a staggering £15 billion on house repairs. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:11 | |
But who can tell for sure that we've not been taken for a ride? | 0:00:11 | 0:00:15 | |
Well, it's 475 in all. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:17 | |
-350 quid? -Yeah. -You're joking, aren't you? | 0:00:17 | 0:00:21 | |
Probably about 7,500. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
Thanks to audacious secret filming, | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
we'll demonstrate how easy it is to be ripped off in your own home. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
-I'm afraid you've been ripped off. He's not a real tradesman. -Really? | 0:00:31 | 0:00:36 | |
It's a lot of money for ten minutes' work. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:39 | |
-Were we set up as well? -No! | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
We show the consequences of some truly shocking tradesmen rip-offs. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:47 | |
There's always cowboys in every business. I was unlucky. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
Having no roof is horrific, really. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
I just couldn't believe it, I was totally devastated. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
Coming up on today's show... | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
Our own dirty rat Roger takes on the rodents of East London. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:04 | |
But will he get away with charging a fortune | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
to clear their non-existent nests? | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
Just close the door slightly in case one runs. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
They might just run in there if they see the door open. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
The shocking story of an elderly Gloucestershire consumer | 0:01:14 | 0:01:18 | |
relentlessly swindled out of thousands of pounds | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
for shoddy guttering work. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:22 | |
I must admit, he seemed such a nice young lad, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
I sort of felt like he could have been a grandson. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:28 | |
And Roger pretends to play almost every trick in the book | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
on an unsuspecting Hertfordshire barmaid, | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
determined to con as much as possible. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
They've got broken slates here and everything. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
These are the dirty tricks of the tradesmen. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
Let's be honest, most of us know very little about the trades - | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
plumbing, electrics, roofing - | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
so we put our trust in tradesmen and expect them to play fair. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
Of course, the vast majority do. It's a small minority who turn rogue | 0:01:56 | 0:02:01 | |
and make life a misery for thousands of us each year. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
Today we're meeting people who've been ripped off by the cowboys. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
What's more, with your help, we'll show you how just easy it is | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
to fall for some of the oldest tricks in the tradesmen's books. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
People have been setting up friends and relatives | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
for a visit from our own tradesman. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:20 | |
Why? To show you how to avoid being taken to the cleaners. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
This is Roger Bisby. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:26 | |
That youthful face belies four decades of hard experience. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:31 | |
In that time, he's grown to detest rogue builders | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
and everything they stand for, the rotters! | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
But we're asking Roger to change tack just for today | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
and go against his deeply-held beliefs. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
He's going to play a dodgy tradesman and show us how not to get conned. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:52 | |
We've arranged some minor household problems. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
Roger will be going in to fix them, | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
as well as playing dirty tricks for our benefit. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
It's all being filmed in secret, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
and he's working with our cameraman, Luke, who's posing as his apprentice. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:06 | |
We'll find out in just a moment | 0:03:06 | 0:03:08 | |
who's on the receiving end of their first scam. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
Limescale is that hard, chalky deposit that turns up in kettles. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
But it also can show up in boilers | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
and in the inside of central-heating systems | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
if they haven't been maintained. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:22 | |
Roger's got access to a bathroom in Hertfordshire, | 0:03:22 | 0:03:26 | |
and he's about to tell some very tall stories about limescale | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
and how to get rid of it. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:30 | |
This Hertfordshire pub is run by Jay Franco, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:35 | |
and he's setting up his lodger and barmaid, Hannah. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
Hannah thinks we're having a local tradesman in | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
to fix some plumbing works in the bathroom. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
The pub's quite old, there's lots that needs doing, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
so it's not too strange for us to have a tradesman in. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
So that's what Jay's told Hannah. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
As for Roger, his aim is to pull off a limescale con, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
but his excuse for gaining entry is to quote for a new bathroom floor | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
as the existing one is in poor shape. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
Of course, once inside, Roger will turn this into a much bigger and costlier job. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:08 | |
The first trick will be to tell Hannah | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
he needs to check all the plumbing so he can create a problem with it, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
probably to do with the limescale, | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
then he'll overcharge her for solving it, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
using whatever tools and gadgets he can find. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
Remember, there's nothing wrong with the bathroom at all! | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
According to Jay, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
Hannah loves playing practical jokes on people at the pub, | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
so I wonder how she'll respond to Roger and Luke's dirty tricks. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
It's around 9:30am when they arrive. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
Shall we try the back? Let's try the back door. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
Back-door man! | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
Hello? Hiya, sorry. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
Sorry if we're late. Are we late? You don't know, you don't care, do you? | 0:04:47 | 0:04:51 | |
You're going to show me... the loo upstairs, I think. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
Hannah's not saying much. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:56 | |
Like many of Roger's clients, | 0:04:56 | 0:04:58 | |
she's quite trusting and hasn't checked his ID. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
-It won't give her much comeback if anything goes wrong later. -Oh! | 0:05:01 | 0:05:05 | |
Do you want the light on, Rog? | 0:05:05 | 0:05:07 | |
-It's a bit up and down, isn't it? Can you see? -Yes. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
It's here, there and everywhere. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
Right, that's... that's interesting. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:17 | |
-Does this work, this loo? -Yeah. -Does it? | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
It defies gravity, it's great. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
Going on a major charm offensive, | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
Roger does all he can to put Hannah at her ease. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
He's probably trying to lull her into a false sense of security. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
I'd have to take all this out to... to do the floor. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
I think I'll leave the bath in | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
and take the basin out, all this out. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
I'll try and level it a bit. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
It's a bumpy old floor, and no mistake. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
Genuinely, as we find quite a lot, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
there is quite a bit of work to do in there, | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
but I'm not going to do it. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
The floor's a bit bouncy, it could do with reinforcing. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
It's also dropped in the middle, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
so if I was to put a new floor in, I would level that through. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
The plumbing is a bit old. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
That could do with renewing before we put the floor down. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
So all in all, what I'm saying there is not exactly a lie, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
but I'm trying to get a deposit out of her. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
I'm trying to get a bit of money for now, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
and I'll probably never come back. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
You'd be surprised how often conmen will play the old deposit trick, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:29 | |
pitching a plausible job, taking a few hundred upfront | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
and then doing a moonlight flit. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
You've been warned, folks. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
Roger soon sets to work | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
on gathering measurements to quote for the new floor. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
Right, what are we going to do this by? What shall we do? | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
-Shall we use a metric system or the... -Metric. -..or the imperial? | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
2,470, as we say in the trade. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
2,470. Let's open that window, give ourselves a bit of... | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
Oh... Oh, dear, sash cords. You need some new sash cords here. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
New sash cords, eh? You don't miss a trick, do you, Roger? | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
Hang on, let's do that, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
otherwise you get the old French Revolution bit. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
Oh, look, they've got broken slates here and everything. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
Looking for opportunities to big up the workload | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
in order to charge more money | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
is another popular trick with con artists. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
Loads of work! | 0:07:20 | 0:07:21 | |
Hmm... | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
Yeah... | 0:07:26 | 0:07:28 | |
Right... OK. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
OK, he's got all the room measured for his floor quote. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
Time to start working around to the dirty tricks. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
The plumbing is a real mess under there. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
If we just put the floor down on top of it, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
which is what I initially thought it was, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
then there's going to be loads of other problems coming up with it. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
So we're going to have to take this out, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
so what I'm going to do is I'm going put in a price | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
for rationalising the plumbing and making it a bit better. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
If you get a problem, you have to get from underneath, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
or you have to take the floor up again. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
What an awful lot of flannel, Roger! Hannah wasn't expecting that before breakfast. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
What concerns me a little bit is this. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
You've got very little pressure on that cold water. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
-This is the hot, is it? -Yeah, that's the hot. -On the left? | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
That one's the hot. Why has that got such a lot of pressure? | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
Do you know where your hot water is? I'm asking like you're a plumber. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
Our barmaid probably knows how to change over a barrel, | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
but I expect the finer points of central heating are beyond her. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:36 | |
They're beyond most of us. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
Let's see what Hannah makes of your dirty tricks, Roger. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
What I was going to say to you, what goes on in that hall out there? | 0:08:41 | 0:08:46 | |
-Which one? -The back hall there. -Oh, it's a function room. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
-Is it? Music? -Music, parties, private parties. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:55 | |
-There's a few slates missing off the roof, did you see that? -No. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
And the gutter's dropped down, so there must be a bit of vibration. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
I think it's having an effect on this plumbing. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
This plumbing...is really in quite a bad state. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:10 | |
It's got...a bit of scale on it. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
So what happens, if you get vibration, | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
like you could get a resonance through the pipes from the music, | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
and it shakes the scale off. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:20 | |
The scale sticks to the inside of the pipe, | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
and then if you get vibrations, traffic noise, music noise, | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
you get clogging up of the thing. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
Oh, please! | 0:09:30 | 0:09:31 | |
You're suggesting that the bands who play in the function room | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
are making the pipes vibrate and clog up with limescale? | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
That is ridiculous! Surely Hannah won't fall for that. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:42 | |
So what I would suggest, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
I put in an electronic scale-management device, which I can put in very quickly, | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
and that will protect against that to a certain extent. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
We're going to have to re-plumb all this, because it's horrible. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
You're the only horrible thing in here, Roger. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
It's your penchant for pulling people's legs. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
Later, Hannah's on the receiving end of yet more fraudulent fast-talking. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
Either one of those for a knockdown price. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
So do you want me to leave you these samples? | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
-You can do. -You couldn't care less, could you, really? | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
How will she react when she realises she's been conned? | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
How do you feel about that? | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
Roger's antics sometimes seem hard to believe, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
but they're not as devious as the tricks played by real rogue tradesmen. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
It's bad enough if a stranger cold-calls at your door | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
and tries to rip you off. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:34 | |
But imagine being ripped off by someone you've known for years. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
But that's just what happened to 83-year-old Christine Roberts. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
The knock on her door came from one of the Evans family. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
She'd known them locally for ten years. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
When they started coming back for more, | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
that's when I really got caught out. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:55 | |
Various members of the Evans family targeted elderly victims | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
all over Gloucestershire with large savings. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
They'd turn up many times in their quest for cash. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
The work that these men would carry out on people's properties | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
tended to be roofing, guttering, or fascia work. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:15 | |
The type of work that would be very difficult to be checked | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
by someone of limited mobility. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:19 | |
When they called at Christine's door in August 2008, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
offering a gutter clear-out, she was delighted. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
They were like old friends. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
I've known these people for quite a few years, | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
in fact must have been ten... Ten years or more. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
And they used to come and do odd jobs and... | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
Well, we got on quite well with them, really, to that extent. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
Over the next two months, the family exploited this shared past | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
as a way of scamming Christine. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:51 | |
When they came, they said would I like the guttering cleaned out? | 0:11:51 | 0:11:55 | |
I said, "Yes, fair enough, that would be a good thing done." | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
I had to take them at their word, | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
cos I didn't know whether there was anything wrong up there or not. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
Cleaning out a blocked gutter shouldn't cost more than £50 to £80. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:10 | |
But the Evans' had far higher sums in mind for the bill. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
Gross overcharging was their first dirty trick. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
To charge Mrs Roberts £1,000 for an hour's work on some guttering | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
clearly isn't a fair price in anyone's eyes. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
Unfortunately Mrs Roberts is a trusting person and she did pay that. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
£1,000 for an hour's work to clean some gutters - that's outrageous! | 0:12:29 | 0:12:35 | |
Unfortunately, for Christine, the rogues were soon back | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
and brought a very different dirty trick with them. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
Well, about a week later, they came back and said they hadn't charged me | 0:12:40 | 0:12:45 | |
for VAT and that I had to pay them a couple of thousand, I think, then. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:53 | |
VAT, my foot! | 0:12:53 | 0:12:54 | |
Claiming not to have charged VAT | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
and then returning to collect it is a classic conman trick. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
The Evans' gang first charged Christine £1,000 for cleaning the gutters. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
Now they were charging her an extra 2,000 on top, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
saying it was all for VAT. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:09 | |
So let's be clear - in their warped world, the rate of VAT is 200%?! | 0:13:09 | 0:13:14 | |
But from now on they used the VAT man in a very different way | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
and took their scam on to a totally different financial level. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
Mrs Roberts was visited several times during a two-month period. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
Each time, Shannon Evans would claim more money was owed for VAT | 0:13:26 | 0:13:31 | |
and that he needed her assistance in order to pay that money off. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
He assured her that he would pay the money back | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
and Mrs Roberts trusted and believed that he would. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
As Christine had known Shannon | 0:13:40 | 0:13:41 | |
since he was ten years old, you can see why she would. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
But each time he visited, the charming Shannon was taking away | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
cheques for hundreds, even thousands of pounds. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
I must admit, he seemed such a nice young lad | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
that you couldn't... In a way, you couldn't doubt him. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
You sort of felt like he could have been like a grandson | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
coming in to see you, that's how I felt at the time. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
But hopefully a grandson wouldn't have done what he was doing. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:09 | |
Shannon Evans was a charming character. He was well-spoken. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
He came across as a likeable person. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
It's understandable that he would ingratiate himself with people. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
But by October 2008, Christine was growing worried about the money | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
she was paying to Evans. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:25 | |
When she told a friend about what was happening, they smelt a rat | 0:14:25 | 0:14:29 | |
and contacted the police. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:30 | |
It's quite usual that these sort of offences | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
are reported by third parties. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
Unfortunately, the victims of this type of crime may be in denial | 0:14:35 | 0:14:40 | |
about what's happening to them, or they may not recognise | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
that they're being victimised in this way. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
Thankfully, the police were able to take swift measures | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
to round up the rogues, using a variety of methods. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
We identified the gang through telephone numbers | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
and other forensic means, fingerprints. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
But identification procedures were also used in Mrs Roberts' case | 0:15:01 | 0:15:06 | |
and she picked out the suspect, Shannon, and Buddy Evans. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
The police now had enough evidence to arrest Shannon Evans | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
in November 2008. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:15 | |
It was only then the shocking scale of the gang's crimes came to light. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
The police linked them to eleven elderly victims, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:23 | |
who had paid for unnecessary, or shoddy, work between 2003 and 2008. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:28 | |
They scammed a 94-year-old widow out of £68,000. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
They defrauded £39,700 from an 88-year-old. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:37 | |
From Christine, they took a total of £25,000. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:42 | |
In the region of around £200,000 was taken from the victims. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
As for where the money went after it was taken, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
I believe it funded a lifestyle for the suspects. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
Rather than doing work, as most people normally would, | 0:15:54 | 0:15:59 | |
this was their livelihood. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
In September 2010, the gang all admitted conspiracy to defraud | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
at Bristol Crown Court and received a total of 19 years in prison. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
The head of the crime family, David Evans, | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
received six years and four months, whilst his son, Shannon, | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
was locked away for three years and seven months. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
Since the sentencing and that, and they've been put in jail, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:23 | |
I sort of feel now that I am more relieved | 0:16:23 | 0:16:28 | |
and I can let things go on now and I must carry on with life. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:33 | |
It's no good keep looking back and saying what I should have done | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
and what I shouldn't have done. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
It's just learning from my mistakes. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
My advice to anyone considering home improvements would be | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
not to deal with anyone calling door-to-door. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
If you need to have work done, | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
there are many accredited, registered tradespeople, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
who can be contacted via Age Concern or through relevant trade bodies. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:59 | |
Shocking stuff. And we've another extraordinary story later, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
as rogues target hundreds of consumers in Yorkshire | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
and leave one retired couple with a collapsing conservatory. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:17 | |
I looked at the conservatory and saw the roof was sliding off. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
Plus, in our quest to show you how NOT to be ripped off, | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
Roger plays more devious tricks on a consumer in East London. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
Honestly, I have been into houses where they've had them | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
come up through the U-bend. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
Hello? | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
But first, time to catch up with Hannah Maloney, | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
a barmaid at a Hertfordshire pub. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
Her landlord, Jay, set her up | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
and Roger came to quote for a new bathroom floor. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
Roger's trying to make her think the bathroom pipes are choked | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
with limescale, shaken loose by vibrations from the function room downstairs. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
Scale sticks to the inside of the pipe | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
and then you get vibrations, traffic noise, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
music noise and it breaks up, so you get clogging up of the thing. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:01 | |
He is telling Hannah he can fix a specialist gadget to clear all | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
the limescale problem. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
In due course, he'll probably charge her way over the odds for it. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
But first thing's first, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
there is the new floor on the uneven boards to consider. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
This floor, when you watch a fat boy walk over it here, look, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
watch him go over there, you can see it move. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
It's bouncing. Don't bounce too much, Luke. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
I don't want the ceiling to come down. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:23 | |
-You can see it flexing there. -I know it moves. -That's over the bump. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:27 | |
Does it move when you walk across it, cos you're very light? | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
I shouldn't imagine it does. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:32 | |
But he is like, he's the equivalent of two people, really, isn't he? | 0:18:32 | 0:18:35 | |
He's a nice person to work for(!) | 0:18:35 | 0:18:37 | |
Yeah, not a lot of bromance going on here! | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
Hannah wants to hear is your quote for the new floorboard, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
so cut to the chase, guys. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
What I have got here is a couple of samples of flooring, yeah? | 0:18:44 | 0:18:50 | |
We can do this either one of those, or that one, for a knockdown price. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:57 | |
So do you want me to leave you these samples? | 0:18:57 | 0:18:59 | |
-You can do. -You don't mind. Couldn't care less, could you, really? | 0:18:59 | 0:19:03 | |
Offering something too good to be true at a knockdown price, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
as long as you agree to get it done today, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
is a classic conman's line. Don't fall for it, Hannah. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
That gadget, I've really got to put that electronic scale device on there now. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:17 | |
If we charge you just to put that scale device on now, | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
250 quid for that, yeah? And we fit that now. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:26 | |
And then we come back and give you a quote to do the bigger job, | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
because it's more than I thought. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
Hannah barely has a chance to get two words out | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
before Roger collects his limescale-busting gadget from the van. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
He must think he can just bulldoze her into accepting it. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
Reincarnation of Oliver Cromwell! | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
Yes, even Luke's shocked by Roger's ruthless behaviour. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
What I'm doing here, eleven times around the pipe, yeah? | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
-Yeah. -That's it, eleven times, OK? No more, no less. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
And what it does, when I plug it in to the electrics, yeah, | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
it sends a signal, a radio signal around the pipes. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:07 | |
Now, there are gadgets on the market to treat limescale. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
The con here is that there is no limescale! | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
Roger's taking the truth about a process | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
and mashing it up with lies about the location. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
You rat-bag! | 0:20:19 | 0:20:20 | |
Right, couple of cable ties, my little friend. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
I call you my little friend, even though you're quite big! | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
I'm not big. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:29 | |
No, you're not. I didn't say you were big, I said you were QUITE big. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
I'm sure Luke doesn't deserve this, Roger. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
He's doing his best. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:36 | |
I hope this isn't the end of a beautiful friendship. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
Isn't it about time you showed Hannah your treatment for fake limescale? | 0:20:39 | 0:20:44 | |
OK, so there it is. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:48 | |
Yeah? Magic device. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
Electronics, going through the mains pipe here, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
and it's got a little wrap around the wire | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
-and that just puts electrical signal through the pipe. -Did he say magic? | 0:20:56 | 0:21:00 | |
I can't tell if Hannah's falling for this or not. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
She just looks stunned. And he's not finished yet. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
There's a really, really tall story heading her way. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
You know when you've got snowflakes, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
if you see a snowflake under a magnifying glass, | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
they're all different shapes, aren't they? | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
What they do, snowflakes, is they all knit together, yeah, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
and that's what 'scale's like. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:23 | |
What this thing does, it puts an electronic signal through them | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
and it makes the snowflakes go like needles. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
Are you keeping up with all this, Hannah(?) | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
They go straight through the system and out. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
And as they go through, they reduce the 'scale on the pipes, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
so in about two or three years' time, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
all the scale on the pipework goes, and also on the boiler, | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
which is important, cos otherwise you might have to have a new boiler. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, | 0:21:50 | 0:21:51 | |
that was from the Bumper Book Of Tradesman's Codswallop. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
Poor Hannah wasn't expecting a fairytale, | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
she was just expecting you to report back on the bathroom floor. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
We'll give you a quote for this. Can I interest you in this flooring? | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
-Erm... -You want a bit of this? -Not my decision. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
All right, I'll leave that with you, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
and we'll just charge you for the scale device today, yeah? | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
Then we'll come back and do the rest of it. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:14 | |
Today, Hannah Maloney's let a fraudulent flooring contractor | 0:22:14 | 0:22:19 | |
into her boss's bathroom. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
Roger has measured up, to deliver a quote, | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
but, having gained access, he's invented unnecessary extra work | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
and installed gadgets to tackle problems which don't exist, | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
all under her very nose. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
So will she pay Roger for his work today? | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
Right, so that's 250 quid, plus the call-out of £75, yeah? All right? | 0:22:36 | 0:22:42 | |
-Can you do that? Can you add that up? You're a barmaid, you must be able to. -Yeah. -Thank you. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
I can tell you what it is, £325 for wrapping some plastic cable | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
around a pipe in the airing cupboard. You must be joking! | 0:22:50 | 0:22:54 | |
No wonder you've got that smile on your face. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
Have you given me that money in a brown envelope? Fantastic. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
I love that. I love the old brown envelope bit. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
Oh, Hannah! £325 handed over without seeing a written quote | 0:23:03 | 0:23:08 | |
or even the tradesman's ID. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
Not that I don't trust you, Hannah, but I'm just going to check it, cos that protects everyone. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:15 | |
Brilliant. That's lovely. Thank you very much indeed. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
I'll leave those samples with you, all right? | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
Roger's now about to disappear with the boss's cash | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
and leave Hannah to face the music. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
With Roger out of sight, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
it's time for our producer to let her know the truth | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
behind his dirty tricks. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:50 | |
Hello, sorry to bother you. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
We're from the BBC. I wondered if I could ask you a couple of questions? | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
It's about builders, plumbers, electricians. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:05 | |
I've had some work done this morning. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:09 | |
This morning? | 0:24:09 | 0:24:10 | |
What did you have done, do you mind telling me? | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
He installed some sort of, I'm not sure exactly what it was. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:18 | |
Um, I think it's to, um... | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
There was, um, limescale in the pipes | 0:24:23 | 0:24:28 | |
and this little electronic device that, sort of, sorts it out. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:33 | |
-Did he charge you for the job he did? -Yeah. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
Do you mind me asking how much? | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
£250 and a £75 call-out fee. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
I'm afraid to tell you that I think you've paid £250 | 0:24:43 | 0:24:48 | |
-and £75 for not much work at all. -OK. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
-How do you feel about that? -Quite annoyed. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
Well, she's taking it very calmly, | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
so it's time for Roger to return the cash with Hannah's boss Jay | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
and his friend Colin on hand to help. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
I'm afraid to tell you you've been set up. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
You've been set up by your boss. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
All right? That bit for Luke. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
Always a little drink for Luke. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
Hang on. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
Hannah was a terrific sport there, but what should she have done | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
and what should you do in a similar situation? | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
First, keep a close eye on any tradesmen who visit your home | 0:25:36 | 0:25:41 | |
or business, so they can't plot any dirty tricks. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
Second, always get three written quotes before accepting any work. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
Don't allow yourself to be talked into jobs on the spot. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
Finally, if you suspect anything fishy, call for help. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
You can also try contacting Trading Standards for advice. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
Sadly, the days when most local authorities provided a rodent control service for free | 0:26:02 | 0:26:06 | |
seem to be a thing of the past, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
so more and more consumers are relying on private pest controllers. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
Of course, most of them are legitimate and hard-working, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
but, as in many trades, there are some dirty tricksters out there - | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
and there's Roger. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:20 | |
Mum-of-two Claire Steele lives in East London. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
Her aunt Doreen is a feisty lady and Claire's asking her to house-sit | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
while our tricky tradesman pays a visit. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
My Auntie Doreen, she's outgoing, she's funny and... | 0:26:31 | 0:26:37 | |
she's just hilarious, she just makes everybody laugh. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
Claire's telling Doreen that there's a rat problem in her flat and garden. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:46 | |
If you and I suspected problem rodents, | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
we could contact our local environmental health team | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
for advice on the best way forward. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
But Doreen's due a visit from rat-catchers Roger and Luke. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
Today is all about Roger Attempting Tricks, or RAT, for short. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:04 | |
First, he'll check for genuine signs of rodents, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
and once he's sure the coast is clear, | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
he'll fake a rats' nest, using twigs. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
Then he'll pretend to get rid of the nest, | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
and to be sure they stay away, he'll sell Doreen a sonic rat repellent. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:18 | |
And, of course, he'll massively overcharge. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
To be honest, the only rat in Doreen's manor today is Roger himself. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:24 | |
Pest controllers can charge £50 to £75 for call-outs, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
but Roger's aiming to pocket at least £200. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
That's a hefty profit on the going rate. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
It's just before 10am when our boys arrive. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:41 | |
Hello. Good morning. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
-You come for the rats? -We've come for the rats! We are the rats! Ha-ha! | 0:27:46 | 0:27:51 | |
-Are we late? -No, you're all right. -I didn't know if we were late. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
-No, you're all right. -It's horrible out there. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:56 | |
Doreen may be expecting them, but they could still be anybody. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
She ought to have rat-ified their identity, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
instead of letting them in unchecked. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
-Can I have a little tour? Is that all right? -Yeah, upstairs. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
-I just want to know my way around. -Go ahead, Roger. Make yourself at home! | 0:28:08 | 0:28:13 | |
-I'm just looking for points of entry, that's my point. Doreen? -Yeah. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
What's going on with this loo at the back? | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
It looks to me like it's been damaged at some point here. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
-It's all got cellophane around it. -Is that where they're coming...? | 0:28:22 | 0:28:27 | |
They will always go for light. They will never swim underwater | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
-unless they can see daylight. -All right. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
If they can see daylight, they'll go underwater. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
Because it's clear, the rats in the drain can see daylight. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:40 | |
Is he making this up, | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
or is he putting the frighteners on poor Aunt Doreen? | 0:28:42 | 0:28:44 | |
-Watch your step, Roger. -Honestly, I've been into houses | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
where they've had them come up through the U-bend. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
Luke, what does that look like to you? | 0:28:51 | 0:28:53 | |
Does that look irregular around there, like a bit of chewing? | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
-Definitely. -Is it? | 0:28:56 | 0:28:57 | |
Hmm, it looks like he's convinced Doreen the downstairs loo may have had a rat visit in the past. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:03 | |
I'm just going to open this lid. Hang on. Let's have a quick look. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
-I've been on the toilet today! -No, we're all right. There's nothing there. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:11 | |
Well, what a jolly lady she is. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
We've had a look round. We've already found some good evidence of rats, | 0:29:20 | 0:29:24 | |
so all we've got to do is plant a few further bits of evidence | 0:29:24 | 0:29:28 | |
and then we can show her, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
and hopefully, she'll believe that there are rats there. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
Roger needs to strengthen his case | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
by planting that fake evidence in the back garden. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
He's got a bag full of paper, twigs and fur, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:41 | |
which will come in very handy. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
Now I've got to carry that in without being seen. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:48 | |
Well done, Roger. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:50 | |
Where's the best place for you to put that fake rats' nest? | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
This is where they love it, through here. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
Look at that. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:01 | |
Looks like he's found the perfect spot. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:03 | |
See down there? | 0:30:03 | 0:30:05 | |
With the location chosen for the fake nest, | 0:30:05 | 0:30:07 | |
the next job is to raid his bag of twigs and newspaper | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
to dress the nest and give it a lived-in look. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
That's the sort of thing you get in rats. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
HE COUGHS It's horrible. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:21 | |
The stench coming from in there. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
So, will Aunt Doreen fall for his first dirty trick? | 0:30:25 | 0:30:29 | |
Do you want to come out and find this big rats' nest that we've found? | 0:30:29 | 0:30:33 | |
Do you want to come out and look at this big rats' nest? | 0:30:33 | 0:30:35 | |
Understandably, Doreen isn't keen to step too far outside. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
Well, would you step into a garden that was supposedly full of rats? | 0:30:38 | 0:30:42 | |
-Come and have a look. Can you see out the back window? -I'm not coming out. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:45 | |
All right. If you can see out the window, | 0:30:45 | 0:30:47 | |
I'll show you where it is. And you can see it. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:50 | |
-All right. -It's actually a big hollow under there, | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
and we've found where they come in and out. | 0:30:52 | 0:30:55 | |
Looks like she might have fallen for the first trick without him even needing to fake the nest. | 0:30:55 | 0:30:59 | |
With so many tricks still to play, | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
will Doreen fall for Roger's outrageous rip-off? | 0:31:01 | 0:31:05 | |
-How much is it? -£215. The meter's ticking. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
And how will she react when finds out she's been conned? | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
Oh, I'm going to kill you! | 0:31:12 | 0:31:13 | |
If there really were dirty rats in that garden, | 0:31:19 | 0:31:22 | |
they'd still look angelic compared to Roger. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
He's doing a great job of showing us how cunning the rogues can be, | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
which is just the word I'd use | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
to describe the tricky pair in our next story. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
But thankfully, they got their just desserts. | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
From afar, this may seem like just another conservatory. But it's not. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:40 | |
Take a closer look. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:42 | |
It was coming away from the walls, | 0:31:42 | 0:31:43 | |
and there was water coming through the conservatory. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:46 | |
What's more, the roof's falling off. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:49 | |
It wasn't worth three halfpence, never mind thousands of pounds. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:53 | |
This shocking work cost £5,700. | 0:31:55 | 0:31:57 | |
This is the story of how this conservatory was built, | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
why it fell apart and the two rogues who were behind it, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
Dennis Price and John Smith. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
In the summer of 2008, | 0:32:09 | 0:32:11 | |
300,000 homes throughout South Yorkshire received leaflets. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:15 | |
Sent by Price and Smith, the leaflets used various company names | 0:32:15 | 0:32:19 | |
and offered a variety of home improvements. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
They promised the Earth, but in the end, they delivered only misery. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
In some cases, they didn't do the work at all. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
In other cases, the work was of poor quality. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
The elderly customers in our story wish to remain anonymous, | 0:32:32 | 0:32:36 | |
so we'll call them Mary and Bill. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
After they received a leaflet, they had some guttering work done. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:42 | |
It's one of the oldest tricks in the book for a rogue | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
to do a small job, gain some trust | 0:32:45 | 0:32:47 | |
and slam you for thousands on the next job. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
This is exactly what happened here. Happy with the guttering, | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
Mary said she'd be interested in a new conservatory. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
It affected their life immensely | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
because the lady was partially blind, she wanted a conservatory | 0:32:59 | 0:33:03 | |
to sit in the garden, to relax with her partner, | 0:33:03 | 0:33:07 | |
and it just didn't happen. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:08 | |
Price and Smith told the couple they'd be eligible for a special | 0:33:08 | 0:33:13 | |
government grant, enabling them to claim back | 0:33:13 | 0:33:16 | |
up to 40% of the build. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:17 | |
It was to draw in consumers into a scam, | 0:33:17 | 0:33:21 | |
and that's exactly what it was - a scam. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
There was no government grants. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:25 | |
Unfortunately for Mary and Bill, they'd been sucked into | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
the rogues' tall tales and agreed to the job they'd been quoted, | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
which would cost £5,700. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
When it was finished, all seemed well, so they paid up | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
and went on holiday. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
But when they returned, they were in for a shock. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:43 | |
They looked at the conservatory and they saw the roof was sliding off. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:48 | |
They were absolutely horrified and contacted Smith and Price, | 0:33:49 | 0:33:54 | |
but they got no response whatsoever. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:55 | |
We all know conmen will go AWOL once they've got your dosh, | 0:33:55 | 0:33:59 | |
and that's what happened here. But Mary wouldn't give up. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:03 | |
She called South Yorkshire Trading Standards, | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
who sent their own surveyor to look at the job. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:07 | |
I was asked to say what was wrong | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
and honestly, it was difficult to find anything that was right. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:13 | |
There were gaps everywhere and the wind was just whistling in. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:17 | |
The work was so poor that the trim was put up with | 0:34:17 | 0:34:20 | |
double-sided Sellotape. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
It was just in poor condition, it was just bad quality workmanship. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:28 | |
My conclusion was it was one of the worst conservatories I'd ever seen. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
It was put up by idiots. It needed pulling down and starting again. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:35 | |
And that's what happened. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:37 | |
A new conservatory cost Bill and Mary another £12,000. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:41 | |
The surveyor's evidence helped build the case against Price and Smith. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:45 | |
More details came from the financial paper trail they left behind. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:50 | |
They used to cash the cheques in the cheque shops | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
around the South Yorkshire area, and in total, they cashed over £100,000. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:58 | |
£100,000! Unbelievable. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
I find it hard to believe how so-called builders can be | 0:35:02 | 0:35:07 | |
so ruthless in taking thousands and thousands of pounds off people | 0:35:07 | 0:35:12 | |
for a job that doesn't cost them | 0:35:12 | 0:35:16 | |
anything except a bit of time and a few quid in materials. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:19 | |
You're not wrong, Keith. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:21 | |
Thankfully, though, Sue's net was closing in on the rogues. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:25 | |
We obtained the cheques from the cheque shops | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
and then we linked them back to Smith and Price. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:30 | |
And they had photographic evidence | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
of Price that confirmed that that was him. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:35 | |
They had identified their men and Price and Smith were arrested. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:40 | |
In September 2010, they pleaded guilty to fraud. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
They were ordered do 150 hours' unpaid work | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
and pay £2,060 in compensation. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
For Mary and Bill, the whole sorry experience | 0:35:50 | 0:35:55 | |
has had repercussions to this very day. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
They've been really affected by it, really distressed, | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
won't open the door to anybody. And not trusting to anyone. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:06 | |
Thankfully, there are easy steps to take | 0:36:06 | 0:36:09 | |
to make sure you don't fall foul of fraudsters. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:13 | |
I would recommend to anybody that's going to install a conservatory | 0:36:14 | 0:36:18 | |
or any other home improvements to get three quotes. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
Also, look to see if those traders are a member of any association | 0:36:22 | 0:36:27 | |
and get three references, and even go and look at their work. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:31 | |
Excellent advice there. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:35 | |
It's also best to use a written contract with tradesmen, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
as it will offer you protection if anything does go wrong | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
and it'll give a paper trail | 0:36:42 | 0:36:43 | |
for organisations like Trading Standards to follow up. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
Now, what about Doreen in East London? | 0:36:46 | 0:36:50 | |
Roger's played one trick already - convincing her she's got rats. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:55 | |
I've been to houses where they've had them come up through the U-bend. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:59 | |
And created a fake nest to prove it. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:00 | |
That's the sort of thing you get in rats. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:04 | |
Now, he's about to rid Doreen of her rodents by destroying the lair. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
And he's got some sonic rat repellents to overcharge for, too. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:13 | |
He is looking to make £300 today, for virtually nothing. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:16 | |
See under there? | 0:37:16 | 0:37:18 | |
That's a big hollow. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:20 | |
That hole at the back there, that's where they come in and out. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
Is it? | 0:37:23 | 0:37:25 | |
All this area under here, if we dug that up, | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
we'd probably unleash loads of them. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:29 | |
Poor Doreen. A conman's tall stories can be very convincing. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:34 | |
Just close the door slightly, to keep... in case one runs. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
They're all going to run | 0:37:38 | 0:37:39 | |
and they might run in there if they see the door open. All right? OK. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:43 | |
By scaring her back into the house where she can't see what he's up to, | 0:37:43 | 0:37:46 | |
he's made it easy to complete trick two. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
Of course, that isn't the right way to get rid of a rat's nest. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
But that doesn't worry this dodgy tradesman. Why? | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
Because there are no rats. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:00 | |
Did you see that? Yeah, there it is. Got it. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
It's a good job she's not watching you, Roger. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
Imaginary rats banished, it's time to sell Doreen | 0:38:07 | 0:38:11 | |
that sonic repellent to keep them away for good. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
What we'll do, all we'll do now is I have an electronic device | 0:38:14 | 0:38:19 | |
and we plug it in inside and what it does | 0:38:19 | 0:38:21 | |
is it sends an ultrasonic signal around the wiring in your house | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
and the rats don't like it. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:26 | |
When they hear that signal, they'll go. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:28 | |
The reason I'll give you that... Well, I'll not GIVE it to you, | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
I'll to sell it to you for a lot of money! | 0:38:31 | 0:38:33 | |
The reason is we've made them homeless... | 0:38:33 | 0:38:35 | |
So they've got to go somewhere. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:37 | |
So what I don't want them to do is go in your house. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:40 | |
God, she'll go mad! | 0:38:40 | 0:38:42 | |
The thoughts of rats running around inside the house | 0:38:42 | 0:38:45 | |
is too much for Doreen. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:46 | |
-So that does what? -That sends out an ultrasonic sound. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:49 | |
It also puts a signal through the wiring, | 0:38:49 | 0:38:53 | |
all the way around the house, all right? | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
So wherever that wiring goes, that's sending a little signal through that wiring. | 0:38:55 | 0:39:00 | |
-It's ultrasonic. -We won't get no rats? -It'll just scare them off. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:04 | |
Roger's playing up these scare tactics | 0:39:04 | 0:39:06 | |
about rats running around the house. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
But it all helps. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:10 | |
We're about to introduce that subject of money. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
I know from experience, this is when it all turns nasty. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:21 | |
Well, Roger, considering you've done nothing | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
but plant some bits of debris into her niece's garden | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
and poke about in a hole, | 0:39:27 | 0:39:28 | |
Doreen shouldn't be charged anything at all. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:31 | |
So we'll flog you that, OK? | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
-Yeah. How much is that? -That's 35 quid for that. -Right. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
But that sonic charger only cost you 13 quid. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
I can't wait to see what Roger charges for clearing the nest. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
£180 for that. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:45 | |
Bringing the total to? | 0:39:45 | 0:39:47 | |
-215. -215. Hold on. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
Good, Doreen, take your time here. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:53 | |
Are you about to question Roger's rampant overcharging? | 0:39:53 | 0:39:57 | |
-How much? -Sorry? -How much is it? | 0:39:57 | 0:39:59 | |
215. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:00 | |
It's going up by the second. The meter's ticking! | 0:40:02 | 0:40:04 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:40:04 | 0:40:06 | |
So, Doreen still let a rapscallion rat-catcher into her niece's home. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:14 | |
Roger planted a fake nest | 0:40:14 | 0:40:15 | |
and is now overcharging four times the going rate for the treatment. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:19 | |
What, er...a rat! | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
So will Doreen pay up or read him the riot act? | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
-You said 215. -I've got 20. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
I'll tell you what I'm going to have to do. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
-I'll have to just take the 200. -Right, so that's 200? | 0:40:30 | 0:40:35 | |
Unbelievable. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:36 | |
Doreen completely fell for Roger's tall stories, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
paying him four times more than she ought to have done. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:42 | |
Nice to meet you. You're a lovely lady. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
Yes, she is, too nice for you. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
It's time for our con artist to leave faster | 0:40:47 | 0:40:49 | |
than you can say "pied piper". | 0:40:49 | 0:40:51 | |
With Roger out of sight up the street, our producer must reveal | 0:40:51 | 0:40:55 | |
the truth about his dirty tricks to Auntie Doreen. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
Hello, there. Hi, we're from the BBC. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
We're doing some investigations into the area | 0:41:03 | 0:41:05 | |
and we're looking at various tradesmen | 0:41:05 | 0:41:08 | |
and asking if anyone's been unhappy with any of the work they've done lately. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
I don't know, I've just had someone in. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:14 | |
I'm in my niece's house. I just had someone in to kill the rats. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
I was just going to follow them cos they didn't give me a receipt. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
-Did you pay a lot of cash? -200. 215 but they took 200. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:26 | |
It's a lot of money for ten minutes' work. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:28 | |
Well, Doreen, it's not your niece, Cathy, who's been done, | 0:41:28 | 0:41:31 | |
but she was the one who set you up. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
-Oh, you -BLEEP! -Oh, I'm going to kill you! | 0:41:33 | 0:41:38 | |
I'm going to kill you! Stay out there! | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
I thought it a bit weird at first. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
I believe she was taken in by Roger, definitely was taken in by him. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:48 | |
They scammed her. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:49 | |
Oh, my God! I'm going to kill you. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:52 | |
I was watching through the blinds, they were in the van, | 0:41:52 | 0:41:55 | |
and I thought, "They're taking a bit of time." | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 | |
Here's your money back. I've got to do this. | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
-You were such good entertainment. -Thank you. Thank you. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:04 | |
Don't be taken in. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:05 | |
Don't - even if they've got smiles and they're nice, blah, blah, blah, | 0:42:05 | 0:42:09 | |
don't get taken in, cos it's a lot of money, £200. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:11 | |
My advice to people would be to know... | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
who it is you're getting in to come and do work in your house | 0:42:15 | 0:42:19 | |
and to preferably get recommendations from someone | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
instead of going online or getting someone out of a newspaper. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:26 | |
And to definitely ask for a receipt. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:28 | |
Doreen, you were an absolute star! | 0:42:28 | 0:42:31 | |
You can rely on the majority of tradesmen being honest | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
and hard-working, it's only a very few who let the side down | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
and play dirty tricks. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:39 | |
Remember, if in doubt, keep them out. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:41 | |
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:43 | |
If you'd like to help us reveal how easy it is to fall for the cons of the rogue tradesmen | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
by sending our trickster to visit your unsuspecting friends or family, | 0:42:49 | 0:42:54 | |
you'll find all the details at... | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:43:14 | 0:43:18 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:43:18 | 0:43:21 |