Episode 4 The Legalizer

I've had an interesting life -

coal miner, fork-lift truck driver...

..bricklayer, factory production line worker,

fireman.

I've lived rough on the streets of London and Paris.

But now I've got a new job.

As a Queen's Counsel barrister,

I know the law inside out.

I've prosecuted and defended some of the UK's most serious criminals.

But the life I've led means I know that the world can be a tough place.

At some point, we've all felt ripped off, cheated or conned.

It's frustrating, costly and stressful.

But I know consumers can fight back and get justice.

I'm not here to represent anyone.

But what I want is to empower you

to use the law to get what you're owed.

Today I'll be helping a couple who can't understand

why the car trader they trusted has taken their car

and won't give it back.

That actually made me realise we are dealing with a dangerous person.

But first I'm coming to the aid of a nurse

whose kitchen is in need of intensive care.

-I think everybody should have one like this.

-Hmm.

I'm going to help these people work out how they've been cheated

and show them how they can use the law to get back what's theirs.

Lincoln - home to mother and intensive care nurse Maggie Hart.

My name's Maggie. I'm a single parent.

I live in Lincoln.

I've got five kids.

They always want feeding.

There's always somebody in this kitchen.

With so many hungry mouths to feed,

Maggie decided it was time she bought

a brand-new fitted kitchen.

I was browsing online at various sites.

She found a kitchen supplier

that was offering deals at the right price.

And it looked really professional and it looked...

Well, it looked fine, so I thought that was just what I'm looking for.

Maggie called the kitchen company

and agreed that a salesman could visit to give her a quote.

When he arrived, Maggie was impressed by his attention to detail

and happier still when he quoted her £2,000 for the kitchen

and £1,160 for the fitting.

I thought, if I'm going to get all that kitchen for that price,

then that's brilliant.

Maggie was asked to pay upfront before the work started.

She paid £2,000 directly into the bank account of the salesman.

I just thought that's what people normally do. I don't know.

On the first day of work, Maggie was surprised when the salesman turned up himself to fit the kitchen.

She was even more surprised with what he turned up in.

Well, he just pulled up in his Jag.

And then proceeded to empty the boot of all the flat-pack units.

I thought, "Why haven't you got a van, like most workmen would have?"

He came for four days.

Then after that, he said, "I won't be here next Monday".

I said, "Well, I'll see you Tuesday, then."

I was hoping I'll have a nice kitchen,

it'll all be finished by then.

But of course, it wasn't.

I never saw him again after that.

Maggie hasn't seen him since.

All he left her with was this.

I've got a load of units that are very, very shoddily put together.

There's no worktops, no doors.

I think I could have probably done better myself.

After ten weeks of trying to persuade the fitter to return,

Maggie offered to finish the kitchen herself.

She told him her sons would come and collect the doors and worktops.

He took this as a threat.

He said, um...

"Oh, if you want to play it like that, I've got a dark side

"and I can sort you out. If you want to cause trouble, then bring it on"

was really what he was saying.

For nearly a year, Maggie has had to cope with a kitchen she can barely use.

And the kitchen fitter has refused to carry out the rest of the work.

I work hard to get the things I get.

As a single parent, I don't have a lot of spare money.

Unless I get my money back off him,

I don't have a lot of chance of now getting this finished.

The name of the guy that came

and did all this to my kitchen is Barrie Parkin.

I'm not sure that kitchen is ever going to make a recovery.

Consumer law is clear - when Barrie Parkin charged Maggie money to fit the kitchen,

he made a contract with her.

And if he leaves or makes a mess of the job,

he's broken the contract,

and she can get her money back.

I'll be seeing Maggie later to help her get it.

This is Blessing and Pascal.

They live in Essex.

They have a car that isn't theirs

and the car that IS theirs is with the trader,

who won't give it back until they give him back a car that isn't his.

Confused? Let me explain.

Blessing, Pascal's wife, wanted to buy a car for her work.

And Pascal found a second-hand blue BMW

on the website of an East London car trader.

We wanted to obviously use a trader because of the reputation

and also, if something goes wrong, we'd be able to go to the trader.

The couple went to see the car and agreed to buy it for £2,000.

But from the very first day she drove it,

Blessing knew there was something wrong.

Sometimes the car would stop in the middle of the road.

Sometimes you could feel heat actually coming from the bonnet side.

It got to the stage I thought, "No, this car is not safe to drive".

Pascal and Blessing took the car back to the dealer,

who said he would fix it.

Blessing needed a car for work,

so he agreed to provide her with a courtesy car, an old Audi.

The first day I drove the so-called courtesy car

was when the accident happened.

The "accident" involved Blessing being trapped in the car

when the electrical system failed

and all the doors and windows locked shut.

The door could not open. The car could not start.

So I started basically crying.

The fear - the psychological fear - "My God, my God, my God!"

Luckily, a passing couple saw what had happened and called the fire brigade.

The whole side had to be cut.

By that time, I just fell on the floor.

So they had to call paramedics immediately.

While Blessing was recovering in hospital,

Pascal called the garage owner and told him what had happened.

To Pascal's amazement,

the trader told him the car wasn't insured.

Worse still, he said that he would have to pay for the repair.

When I spoke to him, he was using the words "in its original standard" -

that the car is damaged, so therefore we should go and buy him a new standard of the Audi

before he can release the BMW.

Things then became even more bizarre.

A woman telephoned Pascal to tell him the Audi was actually hers

and the trader had given it to them without her permission.

That actually kind of made me realise deeply

that we are dealing with a dangerous person.

He lied and told us the car is a courtesy car

and it's insured and it's roadworthy.

All these three things were lies.

For over a year, Blessing and Pascal have been locked in a stalemate

with the car trader, known as Quissanga.

He's refusing to return Blessing's car or her money.

The couple are now left with a total wreck

that doesn't belong to them stuck on their drive.

What we want is our money back.

I nearly lost my life because of two faulty cars

that this Quissanga has given.

He cannot go on. No way!

I've never seen anything quite like this.

Pascal and Blessing were right to think that, if they bought the car from a reputable dealer,

they'd be protected by consumer law.

But as we'll see later, if the dealer ignores that law,

they may have to use the courts to get what they're owed.

Back now to Maggie Hart.

She thought she'd got herself a bargain

when she paid a salesman £2,000 for a brand-new fitted kitchen.

Unfortunately, this is what she got.

Unsurprisingly, Maggie wants her money back.

Maggie thought she was getting a bargain kitchen for £2,000.

Quite frankly, this kitchen wouldn't have been a bargain for £2.

I'd better go and find out from Maggie what she thought she was getting for her money.

On the face of it, Maggie has a very strong case.

With my help, she should be able to stand up to this so-called kitchen fitter.

-Maggie.

-Hello.

-Gary Bell.

-Am I glad to see you!

-That's what they all say!

Welcome to my kitchen.

This is fantastic. Is it finished yet?

Yes. Well, as far as Barrie Parkin's concerned, yes, it is.

It's really handy, actually, because we sometimes lose things

and we have to look through all the cupboards, but you can see where everything is.

'Maggie said she wanted a special kitchen.

'Well, the one she got certainly has some unique features.'

-You can put things in here very easily without the tops.

-Yeah.

This is a great drawer(!)

You can kind of decide which end you want the gap.

-Fantastic tap.

-Very sturdy. Look at that.

It's great, isn't it?

Oh, dear.

How long did it take him to do it - 20 minutes?

Four days.

-I think everybody should have one like this.

-Hmm.

I'm sure Barrie Parkin does as well.

-Right, let's have a look at what paperwork you have got from this charlatan.

-OK.

Alleged charlatan.

Now, before I put my coffee cup down on here,

-Barrie didn't build this table, did he?

-No, you're safe.

-He hasn't touched this table.

-Perfect.

Right, let's see what we've got.

-So you paid out in total £2,000.

-Yeah.

-Any more?

-Plus the 200 of...

-Plus the 200 to have this kitchen designed.

Designed, yeah.

-So £2,200?

-Mm-hm.

To him.

'I'm no expert in the kitchen, but even I can see there's something wrong with this one.

'Maggie wants Barrie Parkin to return the £2,000 she paid him for the kitchen,

'plus £200 she paid him to design this bespoke masterpiece.

'£2,200 in total.

'What I need to work out is whether Barrie Parkin

'is a company or a sole trader.'

So this is what you've got.

"J Parkin, sole proprietor of JBC Marketing."

'So Barrie was acting as a sole trader,

'not a limited company,

'which means he can't hide behind the company name.

'Maggie paid the money directly to him,

'so Maggie will need to ask him personally

'for her money back.'

What are you looking to get out of this?

Well, I want my money back off him.

I don't want him to come and finish it, obviously.

-I don't want him anywhere near here.

-But you've been daft, haven't you?

-Handing over that cash.

-I have.

And now, when I look back, I think how stupid I've been.

But, you know, it's just the way he came in.

-It was very kind of persuasive and very...

-Yeah.

I don't know, believable.

Do you want to try and give him a call now and have one last attempt to make him put this right?

I really don't want to speak to him any more,

because the last time that I spoke to him, he was very threatening on the phone.

'There's no reason Maggie should feel intimidated by Barrie Parkin,

'unless he's going to come over and fit another kitchen for her.

'But if he won't talk civilly on the phone,

'then it's time for a letter before action,

'which tells him if he doesn't pay up, she will sue.'

We know he's Barrie Parkin. We know he's sole proprietor.

And we know the address that he's living at, the Hucknall address.

So let's get that letter drafted.

Mm-hm. Yep.

'In Maggie's letter before action,

'she needs to remind Barrie that he didn't finish the kitchen to the standard they agreed

'and make it clear why she's not happy with it.

'She also needs to give him a deadline of 14 days

'to pay back the £2,200 she gave him.

'Maggie must show she's given Barrie Parkin

'a fair opportunity to pay up.'

So we need to let him know that if he doesn't respond and pay this money back within 14 days

that we'll take him to court.

'Once Barrie Parkin sees this letter,

he'll know that Maggie means business.

'Let's hope he pays up

'and makes amends for the mess' he's left her in.

That kitchen is an absolute disgrace.

£2,200 she's paid for that.

We need to get her money back.

Blessing and Pascal bought a car from an East London car trader that went wrong.

So they took it back and he gave them a courtesy car.

But that also went wrong.

Blessing was trapped inside and the fire brigade

had to rip the doors off to get her out.

The trader now won't return their car

until they pay for this one.

I'm going to have to go to Essex to see this so-called courtesy car for myself.

Pascal and Blessing are very upset about what's happened to them

and I want to help them untangle this mess.

-Hello, Gary.

-Hi, Pascal.

-Hello.

-And that must be Blessing.

-How are you?

Very well, thanks.

-Going to try and sort out this car problem you've got.

-Yes.

-The only car you've got now is the Audi, is that right?

-That's right.

-Can we go and have a look at that?

-It's just there.

Super.

-So this is it, is it?

-Yes, this is the courtesy car.

The courtesy car that didn't belong to him?

That didn't belong to him,

that Quissanga gave to us.

-This car was given you as a loan car while your BMW was being repaired?

-Yes. That's right.

-He said to us that this car was insured for us to drive.

-Yes.

And it was only when this accident happened,

that the car trapped my wife,

that he now says the car was not insured.

-So you'd been driving the car without insurance?

-Without insurance,

-believing the car was insured.

-Through his company insurance.

-Yes.

So you were in this car, then none of the doors would work...

When I started the car, the whole electrical system seized.

The only way to get you out was to cut the door off?

-Yes.

-So they cut this door off completely.

-That's correct.

-Then you still couldn't get out the front door.

-No.

-They had to drag you out between the seats.

-Very much so.

-And take you off to hospital.

-That's right.

-It must have been very shocking for you, the whole thing.

-Shocking.

And then you found out that, not only was this car not insured,

-but it didn't even belong to him.

-Exactly.

We went to the police, Trading Standards. None of them...

-They weren't interested?

-No, they were not interested.

The police, they said they did their investigation,

and then they found out that, basically, it is a civil case.

So, it's been a very, very tough battle with him.

It's like, kind of...you know...

a mouse trying to move a mountain, basically.

Between us and him.

'If the police and Trading Standards aren't interested,

'Blessing and Pascal will have to solve this for themselves.

'And I'm going to help them.'

Well, let's look at what paperwork you've got,

-see what we can do to try and solve this.

-Yeah, OK. That's fine.

'The car trader has refused to return Pascal and Blessing's BMW

'until they return this car to its original state,

'which would clearly cost more than the BMW is worth.

'It's also wrong in law,

'because, although they should have checked it was insured,

'as a trader, he should have told them it wasn't.

'And he shouldn't have loaned it to them without the owner's permission in the first place.

'Pascal and Blessing want either the £2,000

'they originally paid for the BMW,

'or if it's been fully repaired and is now roadworthy, the car itself.

'They've already sent a letter asking for this.'

So you've sent a letter, recorded delivery,

stating that if he doesn't give you your money back or your car back,

-then you'll take him to court.

-That's right.

'If it comes to court, it's important to work out

'who's legally responsible.

'Did they buy the car from a person or a company?'

Now, let me just work this out.

You went originally to his...

-Garage. It was...

-E & Q.

-E & Q.

You went to E & Q Cars and you saw Mr Quissanga.

He has three garages.

One at Enfield and one at Chelmsford.

-Right.

-So they took the car from the one at Leytonstone, the garage at Leytonstone,

-to Enfield, because they had space there.

-I see.

And when you got there, it wasn't E & Q Cars, it was K & T Car Sales.

I think so, yeah.

But as far as you were concerned, it was the same company?

It's the same company, yes.

'This is getting complicated now.

'I need to work out which of these companies is responsible.'

When you took the car in,

-did you take it to K & T Sales in Enfield?

-No.

-You took it to the original place?

-Yes.

-E & Q?

-Yes.

-And where is the BMW now?

-It's with him.

-Do we know it's with him?

-Well, we gave it to him.

-Do you know where it is?

-No.

-No. He told us he took it to his mechanic.

-Yeah.

-And that's it.

-Nine months ago?

-Nine months ago.

Right.

'Pascal and Blessing took the car

'to Mr Quissanga at his Leytonstone car dealership.

'There is where they will hopefully find the company they need to sue.'

This is a very tangled web.

Pascal and Blessing have got a car on the drive that doesn't work,

they don't want, that doesn't belong to them or Mr Quissanga.

'Let's hope Pascal and Blessing get a reply

'to their letter before action.'

My name is Gary Bell

and, as a QC, I spend most of my working life

dealing with major court cases.

But I haven't always been a barrister.

I've known some tough times,

and now I want to use my knowledge of the law to help others.

I want to show you how you can use the courts

to recover your money.

Maggie Hart thought she was having a brand-new kitchen fitted.

But this is what she got.

She wants her money back, and I'm helping her.

So far, she's sent a letter before action,

asking for a full refund from the kitchen fitter, Barrie Parkin.

Sadly, Maggie's experience is all too common -

a tradesman starts a job,

he's paid upfront, the work stops

and then he disappears with all the money.

All of Maggie's paperwork was for a company called JBC Marketing.

And Barrie Parkin said he was the sole proprietor.

So there's no limited company to look for.

If Maggie had typed his name into a search engine,

she'd find it linked to other companies -

JBC Conservatories Nottingham,

Nottingham Handyman Services

and here, The Dream Maker in Hucknall.

It looks like Barrie's been busy all over the area.

My name's Derek. I live on my own.

I am 70.

Retired. I play golf.

And I play golf!

In between playing golf, Derek does cook for himself.

So he decided he wanted a new kitchen

and went to his local DIY store.

They said, "What we'll do is get a representative come out and see you,

"give you a price and we'll go from there."

The DIY store were good to their word, and a kitchen designer turned up.

Well...Barrie Parkin turned up.

The spiel he gave me as regards selling - top class.

He could sell. There's no arguing about it.

Barrie sold Derek a £3,000 kitchen

and Derek was very happy with the deal.

The fitter then came - not Barrie this time -

and spent four days putting in the new kitchen.

But when the work was done, Derek wasn't happy any more.

You can see what the problem is. The drawers are not closing right.

They're not lined up right.

The chip on the top of the worktop.

I said, "I just want it doing, that's all," which I did.

If you bought a car from a garage and it's got a dent on it,

and they said, "It's just part of the job," you wouldn't accept it.

And I wasn't going to accept it.

They started to rile me a bit, they did!

I started asking questions.

Then they started saying, "I'll be there at nine o'clock"

and then it'd be one o'clock before he got there.

Not one to sit around when there was golf to be played,

Derek started to lose patience with Barrie.

And then they'd say, "I can't stop long, cos I've got to go somewhere else."

I'd say, "What about finishing this?" They'd say, "I'll come back and finish it."

And that's how it was right until the end. I really got fed up with them.

I'm not denying I got a good price for the kitchen,

but I still wanted it finishing.

I would not recommend him to do anybody any work on anybody's property,

whether it's a kitchen, building or anything else.

I can't truthfully say about building, because I don't know what his building work's like,

but I can only go on the kitchen I've had supplied and fitted.

Derek may not know what Barrie Parkin's building work is like,

but just down the road in Mansfield

live a couple who know exactly what can happen

when Barrie Parkin turns his hand to construction.

My name's Andrew Watterson. I live with my wife Lynn

and my daughter Bethany.

We've got a good relationship. We're quite happy...

apart from when we have a cowboy builder!

The Wattersons wanted to have a new retaining wall and driveway built.

They contacted a local builder, who gave them a quote.

He said he'd had 40 years' experience.

He came up with lots of technical jargon,

quoting lots of rules and regulations.

Mr and Mrs Watterson were quite sure

they'd got the right man for the job.

That is, until he started the work.

First thing he did was dig straight through the electric cable.

That was the first day.

The second day...um...

he didn't turn up.

Then the following day,

they'd laid the foundations.

It was like a war zone.

The wall was leaning.

None of the corners were straight.

There was big gaps in between the mortar.

Barrie Parkin started to use their garden as a dump.

And then had the audacity to hang an advertising sign on their wall.

It was Dream Makers Group,

which is more like a nightmares group!

Underneath that, it said "Built with pride and passion".

That is a complete and utter joke!

Barrie Parkin claiming to be a dream maker?

I think we can safely add false advertising

to the list of complaints the Wattersons have against him.

As well as the £5,000 they'd paid Barrie Parkin,

they then had to pay another builder £5,000

to get the wall done properly.

When he turns up, he can talk the talk, but he cannot walk the walk.

All he wants is the money.

His name is Barrie Parkin.

He couldn't build a Lego house.

He couldn't build a Lego wall.

Intensive care nurse Maggie

is definitely not alone in being unhappy with Barrie Parkin's work.

The law that protects consumers is clear -

if you make a promise, that's what you have to deliver.

It's a binding contract.

But if this case goes to court,

Barrie Parkin may argue that Maggie got the kitchen she paid for

and is just being unfairly critical.

So I've called in expert witness Jerry Ponder.

I wonder if he can pinpoint exactly what's wrong?

Well, this is my first view of the kitchen,

but straight away, there are some very obvious problems.

There are no work surfaces,

no doors on the cabinets.

The extractor here doesn't go anywhere - there's no ducting,

there's no chimney on top of it.

If the wall units had been set a little bit lower,

it wouldn't have been necessary to cut the cornice there.

The tap is mounted on a temporary board,

which is very rough.

The doors and drawer front's missing.

Yeah, there should be an end support panel here.

No edging on the plinths.

These blanking plates look as if they should have sockets on them.

At least this one here. In a case like this,

where you've got a feature brick wall, that's just a mess.

I think those are the main problems.

This kitchen is probably the worst case

that I've been called in to provide a report on.

This kitchen is not finished.

All in all, a disaster.

As professional opinions go, that could not be clearer.

If this case goes to court,

the judge may well want an expert's report

or even an expert to give evidence at the hearing.

We don't know if this will be necessary yet,

so we asked Jerry to hold off writing his report until then.

Back now to the case of the couple whose faulty car

has been taken in for repair by the dealer who won't return it.

They've already sent a letter before action

and are waiting to hear back.

If they don't get a response, they may need to start a court claim.

The issue then will be which company the couple should take to court.

Mr Quissanga operated under a number of different company names.

The question is - who do Pascal and Blessing take to court?

The car was advertised by E & Q Cars Ltd.

They bought it from K & T Cars,

but then took it back to Jet Car Sales Ltd.

K & T Cars and E & Q Cars Ltd have now both been dissolved.

But Jet Car Sales Ltd is still trading from the Leytonstone address

and Quissanga Baptista Alberto is listed as the director.

When Pascal and Blessing handed the car over to Mr Quissanga for repair,

it was at this company - Jet Car Sales Ltd.

They still have the car,

so it's that company that need to be taken to court.

Car dealers are covered under consumer law.

The car has to be fit for the purpose for which it is purchased.

And if a second-hand car goes wrong straight away,

you should take it back and demand that the dealer repair it

or give you a full refund.

Even so, I think it's always a good idea

to check out any dealer online before you purchase.

And the online reviews for Jet Car Sales Ltd are pretty off-putting.

This is Lee.

He's a self-employed decorator.

Having a car is pretty important to me.

If I didn't have my car, I wouldn't be able to work

and I definitely wouldn't be able to support my family.

When Lee was looking for a new car, he found the exact model he wanted -

a second-hand Vauxhall Vectra at Jet Car Sales Ltd.

It's more or less one of the top of the range models for a diesel -

it's the SRi, comes with all the luxury toys.

I pretty much did have my heart set on that car, yeah.

Lee took his family on the train up to London.

He liked the look of the car and bought it for cash.

On the spot.

They then set out on the long drive home.

I got the majority of the way home.

Then about 30 to 35 miles, it started vibrating real bad.

From when I got it home, I parked it on my mum's drive

and that's where it's sat from there.

Lee was devastated that he'd spent all his money on a wreck.

He called Jet Car Sales Ltd, but the dealer didn't want to know.

Having no joy with Quissanga, Lee turned to his stepdad,

who, luckily, is a mechanic.

Normally my son knows his way around a vehicle.

I think, on this occasion,

he bought with his heart rather than his head.

Lee's stepdad worked day and night to fix the faults.

They had to replace the whole engine and clutch.

The car's now back on the road, but it's cost Lee over £1,000 to put it right.

And that doesn't include all the hours his stepfather had put in.

I would say we spent about 30 hours, if not more,

on the vehicle, to get anywhere near where it was useable.

Lee asked Quissanga to cover the cost of the repairs.

Instead, the trader said he was only too happy to have the car back

now that it was fully roadworthy and repaired.

Basically, all I got from the guy was just "Bring the car back".

My argument was I've spent a lot of money on the car,

putting it right - why am I going to bring a decent car back to you?

I just cannot believe how someone can get away with ripping so many people off.

I can understand maybe ripping one guy off

and maybe getting away with it,

but he seems to have done it to a fair few people.

And one of those fair few people is former jet aircraft engineer Paul.

He knows all about Quissanga and his many companies.

He bought this car from Quissanga at the Leytonstone address.

I drove the car back. I had no real problems with it.

The next morning, I was cleaning it, going through it,

and I found some paperwork in the glove compartment.

And one of it was an old receipt.

An old garage receipt that had a different mileage on it.

The document showed that the car had once had a much higher mileage

than the number shown on the milometer.

20,000 miles more, in fact.

My whole reason for buying the car

was to buy a low-mileage car to put a lot of miles on.

For Paul, these extra miles meant he'd paid way too much for the car.

I contacted the previous owner.

He told me the mileage that he sold it to the dealer on.

So I automatically knew then the dealer had clocked the car.

"Clocking" is when the recorded miles on a vehicle are rewound

to increase the vehicle's value.

It's a criminal offence.

I wanted him to take the car back, give me my money back.

I did not want the car anywhere near me.

Paul tried endlessly to get his money back from Quissanga.

He won his court case.

But Quissanga evaded justice by closing down the company.

E & Q Cars was dissolved in November 2010.

And Jet Cars was started up.

I'm feeling totally disgusted that somebody can form businesses,

fold businesses, form businesses and the authorities do nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Once a limited company has a court judgement against it,

it's possible to stop that company being dissolved.

Because Pascal and Blessing left their car with Jet Car Sales Ltd,

that's who they should sue.

And they're in luck - Jet Car Sales Ltd is still trading,

so they can start a claim.

Once they get a judgement,

they can try to prevent it from being dissolved.

The 14 days they gave Jet Car Sales Ltd to return their money has now passed.

So that's exactly what they should do.

To start their claim, they simply need to go online.

In the Claimant box they put themselves

and, in the Defendants box, they put Jet Car Sales Ltd.

Next are the brief details of the claim -

that they bought the car from a trader,

that it was faulty,

that they took it back to be fixed

and were given a courtesy car that was also faulty,

and that the trader owes them a refund

or the return of the car.

Then the value - £2,000 for the car

and then they can add the court fee, which is £80.

When the court receives this,

a letter will be sent to Quissanga, giving him a time limit to respond.

Let's hope that, for Pascal and Blessing's sake,

he sees sense and gives them their money back.

I've been helping Maggie Hart sort out the mess left behind

by a builder who's been leaving a trail of destruction

across the East Midlands and Lincolnshire.

Maggie's given Barrie Parkin 14 days to return all the money she paid him

to design and fit this kitchen.

It's time to go back to Lincoln to see if she's heard anything.

-So you've heard nothing from him?

-No.

Well, I'm not surprised, because we've been doing some investigating into him.

He's got a number of different names -

Nottingham Handyman Services,

or, my particular favourite, Dream Maker.

SHE LAUGHS

'To put an end to Maggie's nightmare,

'she'll need to fill in the claim form.

'Once Maggie puts her details in, she needs to name a defendant.'

Barrie Parkin,

and we'll put him down as...

JBC Marketing and Building Consultants.

'Next, the brief details of the claim -

'that Barrie Parkin left the kitchen not fit for purpose

'and simply not finished.

'And then the value -

'everything she's paid to Barrie.

'So that's £2,200.'

I think that's cheap at the price,

-considering you've had to endure seven months of hell.

-Yeah.

Well, hopefully this letter will be the first step towards getting your money back

-so you can get a kitchen put in, so you can cook supper for your kids.

-Yeah!

There's the post box. Looks like Barrie Parkin's painted it!

It does.

Let's bring Barrie Parkin to court,

where he's no doubt got his own parking space.

And let him explain that kitchen to the judge.

Yes.

Let's just hope I get my money back from him.

If Barrie Parkin asked my advice as a QC,

I would tell him he's got no defence and he should pay up.

And go into something other than fitting kitchens.

Maggie's done everything she possibly can

to get this matter resolved amicably.

But she's now left with no option but to take Barrie Parkin to court.

We know from previous cases that he's likely to put up a defence,

but having seen the kitchen and having had an expert look at it,

I'd be very, very interested to know what that defence would be.

In Essex, Pascal and Blessing are waiting to hear if Jet Car Sales Ltd

have responded to the court.

They're claiming either the return of the car that they bought

and then had to take back, or the £2,000 they paid for the car,

plus £200 for removing the courtesy car

and £300 for other transport costs.

£2,500 in total.

I'm heading back to find out if they've heard anything.

-Pascal, nice to see you again.

-Nice to see you, Gary.

I hear you've got news from the court.

Yes, I have, yes.

This is the recent letter that I got from the court.

And as we expected, the defendant didn't respond.

Yes, that's what the court said.

He didn't file a defence, so you've been granted

-judgement in default.

-Yeah, which is good news.

-Well, congratulations on winning the case.

-Yeah.

And when you've finally got judgement and you've finally recovered your money,

when this fellow's been exposed for a crook,

-you still will have suffered two years of hell.

-Oh, yes. That's right.

Yeah. Which is painful.

It's really painful to go through that.

And he now has to pay you £2,594 forthwith,

which includes, obviously, the money for the car,

the money for having the car towed back to the garage

-when it broke down and £95 court costs.

-Yes.

Well, Pascal and Blessing are not happy, and why should they be?

They've been ripped off and for two years now they've been without their car

and without their money.

But now they've got the court judgement

against Mr Quissanga and Jet Car Sales

and they can finally get their money back via the bailiffs.

We wrote to Jet Car Sales Ltd asking for an explanation.

But they did not reply.

Meanwhile in Lincoln, mother-of-five Maggie Hart

is trying to recover the cost of a fitted kitchen she paid to Barrie Parkin.

For over a year, she's tried to get her money back, whilst struggling with no worktops or drawer fronts.

She's now taking him to court to return the money.

Maggie's claim is the £2,000

she paid for the kitchen and installation, plus £200 design fee.

That's £2,200 in total.

I was expecting to have to go to court.

That's what I was waiting for - the date for me to go to court,

but obviously, because he didn't respond,

it was dealt with and that's it. He's got to pay that money now.

It looks like Barrie Parkin is as good at answering a court summons

as he is at building a kitchen.

He didn't defend Maggie's action

and when we wrote to him asking for an explanation,

he didn't reply to us either.

Maggie's won her case,

and if he doesn't pay up, just like Pascal and Blessing,

she can pass her claim to the bailiffs for enforcement.

I just need to think about what's going to be the next step

to have the most success, really, of getting my money back.

Which...

I will do,

eventually!

It might take some time, but I will!

It's certainly worth doing, if you get ripped off.

It's definitely worth doing.

I would definitely just go to court.

No doubt.

Maggie is absolutely right.

And just like Pascal and Blessing, she's taken the matter into her own hands

and used the power of the courts to stand up for herself.

They worked out who was at fault,

took them to court, and both won their case.

There are no guarantees when it comes to going to court

and it should never be the first option,

but when all else fails and no-one seems to listen,

the law is there for us all.

And we can use it to show we won't be beaten,

just like Pascal, Blessing and Maggie.