Episode 2 The Sheriffs Are Coming

'What do you do if you're ripped off and don't know where to turn?'

I outlined the faults in the vehicle. He rejected those.

'A court of law backs you but you still don't get your money.'

Little did I know how long it would take

to try and recover the money from him.

Sorry.

'It's time to call the sheriffs.'

We have every right to enter the premises by force if necessary.

We will be entering that building.

'Sheriffs are High Court enforcement officers who recover what a court judgement says is owed.'

They've ordered us to come here and seize goods to the value of this debt.

'They're the experts in getting cash that's rightfully yours.'

£1,323.

-'But fighting for the underdog isn't a job for the faint-hearted.'

-Mind yourself.

I'll back that truck through your windscreen.

-'Debtors aren't pleased to see them.'

-They're harassing me.

'Because they hate paying up.'

-Are you happy for me to leave you some paperwork?

-No, I'm not. Go away.

'In today's programme...

'..the sheriffs go into battle on behalf of an 80-year-old pensioner

'who's owed over £1,000 by the owners of an auction house.

'The debtors give their visitors a hostile reception.'

-Don't come over here with that camera, I'm telling you that now! I'll

-BLEEP

-knock you out!

'The sheriffs confront a plumber who charged a customer £2,000

'for a bathroom fitting he never even started.'

-Why are you here?

-Because the money's still owed.

-So what are you here for?

-To collect the money.

'And 65-year-old Paul Gravette

'won a personal injury claim after a fall left him in agony.'

It was unbearable.

And I had to go to hospital with it because I couldn't stand the pain much longer.

'Paul was awarded £4,000 but he never got his cash.

'Can a sheriff put that right?'

'Beryl, a 90-year-old pensioner who lives in a care home in Middlesex,

'needs the help of the sheriffs.

'Beryl's relatives decided to auction some of her furniture for her,

'but it all went badly wrong.'

Beryl lived all her life, she's a spinster,

she lived all her life either caring for her parents

or working, she held a very responsible job in the NHS.

'But when Beryl reached her 80s, her health started to decline.'

Unfortunately, dementia set in and she was unable to care for herself at home,

and over a prolonged period,

with increasing amounts of carers at home, she gradually deteriorated

and we had to move her into a residential care home, which is where she is now.

'In 2010, Sheila's husband David

'asked a local auctioneers to sell some of Beryl's belongings to raise some funds for her.

'The property was sold at auction and they waited patiently for Beryl's money to arrive.'

And no cheque.

And at this point, we just thought, "Well, that's not right."

And this went on for about two months.

Throughout January, I started to phone them. I emailed them.

They would never come up with anything. They'd always promise us,

"Oh, yes, it'll be next week" and nothing would appear.

The old cliche, the cheque will be in the post. And it never was.

You know, she needs this money.

It's to help her in her final years

have what she needs.

So we should make every attempt

to get what is hers for her.

'David and Sheila went to the county court

'and got a judgement for £1,503.

'But the auction house still didn't hand over Beryl's cash.'

Even though the court's decision is that the auction house need to pay up,

there doesn't seem to be any kind of stick in order to make that happen.

There doesn't seem to be any way of gradually increasing the pressure on the auction house

to make sure that they do pay.

I'm lost in all of this

because I don't really understand why, at some stage, there isn't a further threat.

'But there is a further threat. The High Court Enforcement Office.

'Their job is to get people the money they're owed.

'When Sheila and David found out about it,

'they contacted the sheriffs here in Croydon, and now they're swinging into action.

'Lawrence Grix and Kev McNally

'are on their way to the auction house in North Finchley.

'The auctioneers now owe over £2,000 because of interest and court costs.

'But the biggest settlement the sheriffs have ever had is £5 million,

'so they're pretty confident about sorting this more modest sum.'

It's only about £2,400,

so I'm quite hopeful that we'll be able to get that cleared quite easily.

But we'll see when we get there. Hopefully, it should be open

because of the time of day, and it is a commercial premises.

So hopefully we'll be all right.

'Lawrence and Kev have arrived at the auction house.

'It's time to get Beryl her money.'

-Hello there. Are you in charge, sir?

-I am at the moment, yeah.

My name's Mr Grix.

-I'm a High Court enforcement officer.

-Yeah?

And I've come here today to enforce the High Court writ

on behalf of a claimant, Mrs Sheila Fathers.

-I don't...

-You don't know anything about it?

It's against Euro UK 2 Limited trading as NL Auctions,

-which is here, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Erm, basically, there was property auctioned off and they never received the proceeds.

When was that?

Let's see if I've got that. I think I've got the actual copy of the auction paperwork.

15th November 2010.

I've got a list here of what was sold.

'At this point, the camera operator was asked to leave the auction house.'

I'm here today, sir, to collect £2,283.41 in cleared funds

or I'll be removing goods.

'The man tells Lawrence he's had no notice of this writ,

'he knows nothing about it and the property on display doesn't belong to the business.'

Well, that's down to you or whoever to prove

because we are ordered here to remove goods and that's what we're here to do.

'The man makes a phone call and then asks to see the High Court writ.'

I've got a stamped copy there.

That's basically just a copy without the stamp on that I'm happy for you to have.

It's basically exactly the same. That was a copy of the original judgement.

Obviously, nobody turned up or bothered to reply to it.

OK?

So it's what's known as a judgement in default,

because nobody from this company filed a defence against it.

But this is the stuff that was sold.

I've got the list of stock here that was sold,

which our client has provided us with.

'The phone call the man made was to his wife. She's just arrived.'

Right, I've given your colleague here the copy of the original county court judgement

and this is a generic copy of the writ.

'The woman asks if the writ is for the disputed figure,

'£1,503.'

No. £2283.41.

Cos it's gone to the county court, so there's court costs there,

it's been transferred up to the High Court, so there's court costs there,

and there's costs for us coming out today.

'The woman refuses to pay the additional costs.'

I'll be removing goods. Because we don't come out for nothing.

'It's not just Beryl who needs her money today.

'The sheriffs incur costs, too.

'These are paid by the debtor, not the client.'

Right, our fees are £588.66 plus VAT, as it says on there.

'And the longer this goes on, the greater the cost.

'High Court enforcement officer overtime is £180 per hour.

'The owner's wife offers part payment by cheque, but that's not good enough.'

It needs to be the full amount and it needs to be in cleared funds.

And that is the bottom line.

'At this point, our camera operator is asked to move away.'

-I'm fed up with this

-BLEEP!

Can you move? I don't want you round here! Go!

What do you think this is?

'The owner's wife then shouts a bit more.'

You with them?

You don't come in my auction, right, filming nothing! I'm telling you that now!

'And goes in the direction of the bank.'

Move him from there! That's my private property!

'Ten minutes later, the owner's wife returns

'and Beryl's money is handed over in cash.'

Don't come over here with that camera, I'm telling you that now!

-Cos the way I feel, I'll

-BLEEP

-knock you out!

'Inside the auction house, Lawrence and Kev finalise the paperwork

'with the man who was there when they arrived.

'It turns out he's one of the company directors and he didn't like handing over Beryl's cash.'

The husband got quite aggressive towards the end. I don't think he wanted to part with the money.

But in the end he did, we gave him a receipt, collected full payment and we're on our way to the next job.

'The battle at NL Auctions was par for the course for Lawrence and Kev.'

People are quite often aggressive.

A lot of the time, the people that we're going to

have been trying to avoid the debt in the first place

and the last thing they want is us turning up.

And aggression is a last-ditch, last resort to try and prevent themselves having to pay.

But it doesn't work, cos we're used to it

and if necessary, we'll call the police for assistance.

'An hour after arriving at the auction house, the sheriffs are on their way

'and Beryl will get her money soon.

'We asked NL Auctions to comment.

'Susan Tarrone from the company said this unfortunate incident was an isolated case

'and occurred at a time of stress and illness in her family and was a matter that got out of hand.

'She also apologised for her language at the time of filming.'

Yeah, we can force entry to a commercial premises.

'This High Court Enforcement Office is based in London.

'It employs over 40 full-time officers,

'returning tens of millions of pounds to people owed money every year.'

Oh, brilliant! Looks like I've got my money back.

'High Court enforcement officers, also known as sheriffs,

'have more powers than bailiffs to enter properties, remove goods and auction them to settle debts.'

-Listen, I'm a director of the company.

-Yep.

-I'm asking you to leave the premises.

-Phone the police.

-I will do.

-OK.

'It's a job that dates back to Saxon times

'and it's busier than ever.

'Over 70,000 High Court writs are executed in this country every year.'

-We're here to seize goods.

-Oh.

'It's 6.30am and two sheriffs have been dispatched to a new job.

'This time Kev's joined by Mark Newton.

'They're acting on behalf of a customer who paid a plumber

'thousands of pounds to fit a new bathroom.

'But he never did the work.

'After spending four months trying to get her money back,

'the customer got a High Court writ

'which the sheriffs are about to enforce.'

We're in, er, Hertford this morning.

We're looking for a Mr Wayne Everett

who owes £4,291.

We'll just give it a knock and see whether we can get any answers.

-RINGING

-Please come in, here's my debit card for four and a half thousand pounds.

'There's no answer, but luckily, the plumber lives in the ground-floor flat

'so Mark can look for signs of life.'

-RINGING

-He must be there. There's someone in.

There's got to be someone in. They just don't wake up, do they?

'An old sheriff's trick is trying the tradesman's entrance button.'

-Coming at seven o'clock.

-How did you learn that?

HE KNOCKS ON DOOR

'If the plumber was asleep, he isn't any more.'

-Hiya. I'm after Wayne Everett.

-Yeah.

-I've got a High Court writ that's been issued.

'Mr Everett tells Mark that the case is being referred back to court.'

We've got another hearing on the 24th.

OK. Have you got any details of that here? Cos we haven't been told this.

-Wait there.

-Yeah, no worries.

'If Mr Everett had left the door open, Mark and Kev could've walked straight in

'and looked for property to remove to clear the debt.

'High Court enforcement officers have significant power

'to access even residential properties.'

-Hi there.

-There we go.

-Right. OK. Let's take a quick photo of that.

-Yep.

-Are you aware that at the moment it's still a live writ?

-Well, we're going back to court.

'The court documents show that Mr Everett offered to pay his customer

'£40 per month to pay off the debt,

'but she wanted £250 per month.

'Mr Everett is now contesting the whole case.'

-OK? So...

-All right, I'm just going to take a photo of this. Yeah?

-You've sent a copy of this to our office, you say?

-Sorry?

-Have you sent a copy of this...

-The court... The court will have done that.

-No, they wouldn't.

-Can I have that?

-Yeah, I just want to take a photo.

-I'm not going to allow you to.

Well, I know, but otherwise... They're going to say, "Have you seen some proof? Where is it?"

-and I'll say, "I haven't got a photo of it".

-It's going through the court.

-I need a photo.

I'm not going to let you. You've come knocking on the door,

-you haven't done your research...

-But it's still a live writ.

It hasn't gone back to court. It's still live, it's still owed.

-You offered £40 a month, yeah?

-Your client will get, basically,

nothing when we go to court

-and they're told that I was disturbed, and my partner, at this time in the morning.

-That's fine.

-That's not for us to decide.

-We're not deciding anything.

No. But you saying whoever's going to get X amount, that's not for us to decide.

-We're here...

-It will look embarrassing on your point of view.

-It's nothing to do with us.

-We're just here to enforce a writ.

-But it's going through the courts.

-But it's still a live writ.

-We are appearing in court.

-It's a live writ. That's the point.

-That's why we're going back to court.

-No, but it's still a live writ.

-At this current stage, it's still owed.

-Fine, yeah.

-Right. So that's why we're here.

-So why are you here?

-Because the money's still owed.

-What are you here for?

-To collect the money.

-But we're going back to court so you can't.

-OK, we're just going round in circles here.

-You allowing us to take a picture would make it easier.

I tell you what, I'll fax a copy to your office.

We've come all the way here, we could just take a photo of it, job done.

-Saves you faxing it.

-Go on, then, take a photo of it.

So I'm presuming you don't want to pay, then.

-Obviously not. We're going to court.

-All right, I'm just asking.

Like I say, it's still a live writ and it can be enforced.

Until the day you go back to court and you get the answer...

-The judgement.

-And the judgement may not go your way.

'And if Mr Everett does lose in court, he's going to face an even greater debt.

'Each sheriff visit adds to the cost.'

-I'm speaking from your client's point of view.

-Yeah.

-What if she loses?

-Yeah. She loses.

-And it's costing her a fortune.

-It's not costing her anything.

-Well, she's got to pay for you.

-No. She doesn't pay for us.

Well, it seems on the figures that she is,

-because I'm having to pay for it myself.

-Yeah, you pay.

-If I lose.

Yeah. You pay for it.

-And if I win...

-Yeah.

-..who pays for you?

-No-one.

-Oh, that's a shame, isn't it?

-HE LAUGHS

-All right, you've got the paperwork.

See you. Thank you. Bye-bye.

'If the sheriffs don't get any money for a client,

'they only charge an admin fee of £60.'

Let's DVLA some cars.

'Mark wasn't able to gain access to Mr Everett's flat to list potential property for removal,

'but Mr Everett may own one of the cars in the car park.

'If he does, the sheriffs could remove it at a later date to pay off his debt.'

I'll get the lot down. I'll write a load down.

'When he gets back to the office, Mark will do a DVLA check on all the vehicle registrations

'to see if any of them do belong to Mr Everett.'

-The only one that's worth money is on foreign plates!

-HE LAUGHS

He may have a result where he needs to pay.

Then he's obviously not going to be so happy.

But we'll see what happens with it in the end.

'And Mark and Kev may well be making a return visit to Mr Everett.

'When he finally did go to court,

'the judge ruled he should pay £50 a month until he clears the debt to his customer.

'If one payment is missed, the sheriffs will be back.

'Lawrence and Kev's next job is in a whole new league.

'It's the Enforcement Office versus one of Japan's largest companies, Fujitsu.'

It's half past eight in the morning. We've just arrived at Stevenage.

We've got a writ against Fujitsu Services Limited

and the total outstanding at the moment is £149,481.

So a vast amount of money.

We've already driven past the building and it's a massive, massive office block.

There's absolutely no doubt whatsoever that they've got the money to pay this

and I would estimate they've got the assets to cover it, as well.

'But Fujitsu is the world's third largest IT services provider

'with over 172,000 employees worldwide.

'Tracking down the relevant individual to deal with this writ

'could be quite a challenge.'

They'll have to get hold of the right people. Simple as that.

I can't believe that an organisation as big as this wouldn't be able to get somebody to deal with this.

And within reason, I won't be tolerating anything like that.

I won't be tolerating excuses for, "Oh, we can't get the right person."

It doesn't matter what excuses they come out with, how big their company is,

they've got a debt and we're here to collect it.

-Hello there.

-You all right?

-Yeah. I'll show you my ID.

-We're here to execute a writ against Fujitsu Services.

-Any names?

No, we've just got Fujitsu Services, so whoever's in authority that can deal with it.

No-one's here at the moment. About nine they normally come in.

-They've got people on reception, though, have they?

-Yeah, but we can't allow you on site

till we get permission from them.

All right. I understand what you're saying.

-Your best bet is probably... Let me make a quick phone call.

-Yeah.

-Just pull up anywhere on the side so I can still let traffic in.

-OK.

Because technically, you can't stop us coming in.

I know what you're saying and I respect your position

and I'm happy for you to try and contact somebody who can deal with this,

but when it comes to a point of law, you can't stop us coming in.

I can understand all your security and the need for it with an establishment like this,

and I'm quite happy to respect that, but I just want to...

-Let me just make...

-I just want to establish the point, OK?

'If necessary, sheriffs can force entry to commercial premises

'as long as they're detached from residential living quarters.

'But for the time being, they decide to park around the corner and wait.

'But as usual, there's a bit of an issue with the sat-nav.

'Corners can be hard to find.'

"At the end of the road, turn right."

-Turn right? There's no entry.

-They're getting relegated soon.

-My ten-year-old one's going to be...

-It's that one. It's saying turn right.

-It's not, though.

-I mean, my internal compass said go that way, yeah.

-You ignored it, though.

'The sat-nav's brought them back to where they started from.

'They park up and discuss the upcoming negotiations with Fujitsu.

'Lawrence hopes the discussion won't have to be in Japanese.'

I know a couple of bits from watching Shogun when I was child and that's about it.

I don't know if that's going to stand us in good stead.

"How are you?" and "I'm all right, thanks."

-You don't know, "Give us £150,000"?

-No, unfortunately not.

'The boys may need to brush up on their Japanese quick. They've been approached by security.'

-Hello.

-Have you got any details of what this is about? I can't get anybody for you without details.

-All right. What it is, it's a foreign judgement.

-Right.

Looking at the language, it appears to be German.

And they've got a judgement for £149,000.

With our costs, it's £149,481.93.

'Fujitsu have clearly been caught by surprise.'

I can't let you into the building. I'm not allowed to let you in.

Unfortunately, you can't actually stop me.

-I can stop you.

-You can't.

-At the moment, I can stop you coming into the building.

-You can't.

Whether you hear back... I'm not trying to be awkward.

-And we're not, either.

-We've been very cooperative. Your security staff have asked us to wait here.

I can understand the sensitivity of your business.

I can't let you into the building. I'm in control of this building and I'm not allowed to let you in.

Well, unfortunately, as an enforcement officer executing a High Court writ,

I can force entry into a commercial premises if necessary.

-We don't need permission.

-We do not need permission to enter your building.

-What I'm asking for is the...

-What are you entering the building for?

-To seize goods.

-To seize assets.

-We're here to seize goods.

We're ordered... I can show you a copy of the writ.

-Do we not get... Has anybody had prior notice of this?

-No.

-No.

Because there is a judgement, someone within your company will know about the judgement.

And the fact that it's gone unpaid...

..means that the claimant is allowed to get it enforced at any time.

-Can I just ring the bosses back?

-Yeah. I'm happy to show you the writ.

If you want to look at that bit there, it actually orders us,

"You are now commanded to seize in execution

"the goods, chattels or other property of Fujitsu Siemens Limited."

OK? So that is what entitles us to enter your buildings and seize assets.

-Let me just go and ring them back.

-We'll come back to you in a second.

-Yep.

'Lawrence can see it from Fujitsu's point of view.'

I would imagine the lady herself has got absolutely no experience of a High Court writ before.

So she is unaware of our powers.

That's why I'm trying to remain courteous about this,

but you've got to tell people where they stand and we will be entering that building.

There is no question about it, we will be entering that building and we will be seizing assets

because that is what we are commanded to come here and do.

All we're asking for is the common courtesy not to be left sitting on the street.

That's an appalling way to conduct business, sitting on the street.

'Fujitsu need to beware. Lawrence rarely gets angry.

'But when he does, it's not a pretty sight.'

It's discourteous and disrespectful, isn't it?

They're not respecting of our position,

so we're getting to the point where we're going to have to be a little more forceful.

'If the sheriffs aren't allowed in soon,

'Lawrence will park up, walk straight into the building

'and start listing property for removal.

'Things could turn nasty.

'65-year-old Paul Gravette is a retired shop assistant who lives in York.

'He needs the help of the sheriffs

'because he won a personal injury case against a pub but it hasn't paid up.

'The story starts in winter 2009.

'Paul was going for his regular Sunday lunch appointment with some friends,

'something he looked forward to all week.'

Now that I've left work, I'm on my own, I live on my own, I'm not married,

it's a bit of company for me. You know? And that's what I like.

There's just four of us go out and it's a bit of company.

It only lasts about a couple of hours but it's nice cos I have someone to talk to, basically.

'That Sunday was a particularly cold day,

'and the pub car park was covered in snow and ice.'

I dropped my friends and my cousin off at the entrance to the pub.

I drove the car up to the top of the car park, locked the car up...

..walked down towards the entrance to the pub, which was over that side.

Like that. And I slipped like that.

This foot went first, I went over like that.

I put my arm out to stop myself and ended up like that, on my elbow.

It's not what I planned for a Sunday afternoon by any means, but there we are.

'Paul realised instantly he was badly hurt.'

The pain was horrendous.

We had our dinner and how I drove my car home I just don't know.

'When he got home, Paul was in agony, but he tried to grin and bear it.'

The pain, as the day wore on and the night wore on,

it just got worse and worse until it was unbearable.

And I had to go to hospital with it because I couldn't stand the pain much longer.

'Paul was in hospital for five and a half hours.

'An X-ray revealed his left arm was broken.

'He was off work for three weeks,

'but realised the situation could have been so much worse.'

What was worrying me was that if an elderly person walked down that hill towards the pub

and slipped and banged their head, they could've killed themselves.

That's what was bothering me.

'Paul felt something had to be done so lessons could be learnt.

'And three years on, he feels just as strongly.'

If they'd have put salt down or sand down or even a warning sign saying,

"Please be careful, car park very dangerous because of ice and snow,"

then people would've known, but there was nothing down at all.

They didn't put any salt down or sand down or anything.

'Paul took the pub to the county court and claimed for damages.

'He won his personal injury claim and was awarded £4,000.

'But that wasn't the end of the story.'

So far, after two years of trying to get compensation for my injury,

the Swan Hotel has not paid a single penny in compensation

no matter how hard my solicitor has tried to help me.

'With nowhere else to turn, Paul went to the High Court

'and got a writ for the money he was owed.

'He contacted the Enforcement Office in Croydon and asked them to execute it.

'And now sheriff Pete Spencer has been dispatched to the pub in Aberford, Leeds.

'His aim, to get Paul his money or seize goods to auction to raise the cash.'

Hiya. Afternoon. I'm just looking for someone to speak to at the Swan Hotel.

OK, I'll just get the manager for you. Who's asking?

-I'm an enforcement officer from the High Court.

-OK.

-Thanks.

'Because of court costs and interest,

'the total owed is now £10,683.'

Hiya. Are you OK? You OK to speak in here or is there somewhere private we can go?

Cheers. Thank you.

I'm an enforcement officer enforcing a High Court writ.

-It's regarding Swan Hotel Aberford Limited.

-Right.

The claimant's a Mr Paul Gravette.

'The employee has nothing to do with this case.

'She tells Pete he needs to speak to the owner, Mr White. But he's not in.'

-The only thing I can do is to get him on his mobi.

-Please. Yes, if you can.

What I'll do in the meantime, I've got to levy items on the premises, so we're going to start levying items.

-All right.

-But if you can get him on...

-Sorry.

-I'm just going to list the items.

-It's the first time I've come across this.

-OK. No problem.

-So you're going to price them?

-We're going to do the list of items.

-It's just to protect the outstanding debt...

-All right.

..if we have to go to remove or anything like that. I'll do it as discretely as I can.

-I know you've got customers in there.

-That's what I thought, yeah.

'And it's not only customers who will be watching Pete listing property to remove to pay the debt.'

As you can see, there's quite a few items on the wall,

stuffed animals, stag heads, which we've got down,

but you write one down then turn around and there's another two looking at you.

'But Pete isn't going to look a gift horse or stuffed fox in the mouth.'

I've levied two stuffed foxes.

I've just turned round now, there's a third stuffed fox looking at me from the rear over there

so I'll just have to add that as an extra stuffed animal. I think they would sell well at auction.

There's good value to stuffed items like that and I believe they're quite saleable.

'High Court enforcement officers are allowed to go wherever they want in commercial premises.'

I'm just making a list of those items as we go round.

Just items that are of any value, really.

Tables, chairs, display cabinets and anything else.

I need to count those down there.

Two, four, six, eight, ten.

14, 16, 18.

'This could be one of the most diverse inventories of Pete's career.

'Word has reached the owner about what's going on.

'He's phoned the pub and asked to speak to Pete urgently.'

Right, if you're going to pay by card, it's got to be chip and pin actually with you present.

We have got a card machine but obviously we wouldn't be able to do that over the phone.

But you can make an offer to pay over three monthly instalments.

Yes. That has to go to the claimant and payments have to come through ourselves

but you put that in writing to our office

then we ask the claimant if that's acceptable or not.

The paperwork I'm going to leave on site at the moment.

I just need to ring our office to make sure they're happy that I've levied all the items.

Obviously, do a walking possession agreement

that if you do fail on the payments,

we do come back to remove items to cover the outstanding debt.

That's fine. OK. Thank you. Thanks. Bye-bye.

'It looks like Pete may have succeeded in getting Paul Gravette his personal injury money.'

He's going to put it into writing that he's going to offer three monthly payments to cover the total.

That's a good result, I think.

And ultimately he is aware that if he doesn't keep to the offer that he's made,

if it's accepted, that items... We come back and remove items.

'Before he leaves, Pete hands over a walking possession agreement,

'which means any second visit could be less amicable than this one.'

If the payment terms don't actually get paid,

we've got the right to come back, whether you're here or not,

to remove items to the value of the outstanding debt.

-Hopefully, we won't be back.

-All right.

-OK. Cheers. Thank you. Bye-bye.

'Sheriffs have been known to remove ships, sheep and even shellfish on their travels.

'But it seems like the Swan's stuffed stags are safe. For now.

'Back in Stevenage, Lawrence and Kev have been waiting outside the Fujitsu HQ for over half an hour.

'Lawrence decides to raise the stakes.'

I'm not letting you in!

I'll just show them that I'm not going to try and tailgate them through.

-All right?

-Have you come down to see us?

-Sorry?

-Have you come down to see us?

-No, I've only just got here.

-Oh, right.

-What we're trying to do is, because we didn't know anything about...

-So you have come to see us.

No, no, no. I just said I've just come out to tell you that we're just finding out what...

So you've come out to speak to us. That's what I'm trying to establish.

You're not just somebody walking past, you've come here to speak to us, to tell us something.

I'm not trying to be awkward, but I asked you if you'd come to speak to us and you said no.

-Well...

-So you've got a message for us. Somebody's...

-No. Obviously you want to come in, do you? I don't know...

-Yeah.

To be honest, I don't think we've been treated

particularly professionally or courteously so far.

-We've done the utmost to be professional and respectful to your situation here.

-OK.

We're not looking to come storming round the place to see all your latest technology.

That's not what we're here for. We're here to execute a High Court writ

and what we're asking is to be treated in a courteous manner.

-It's who it's got to go to.

-But we're sat out on the road though.

We're quite happy to sit in reception while you do that.

I wasn't trying to tailgate that vehicle through or anything like that.

You know, we have the right to enter, if you don't allow me to enter,

I'm going to park my vehicle here and go in on foot.

And if anybody tries to stop me, I will call the police,

because it's an arrestable offence to obstruct an enforcement officer in the execution of a writ.

We don't want to go down that road, we just want to be treated with some courtesy.

Can I just say, some of us have just got here,

-we didn't know you were coming so...

-No, I can appreciate that.

If you give me a couple of minutes, if you just pull up to...

-Yeah. Yeah.

-Give me a couple of minutes, I'll come back and see you.

But with respect, that's what the lady said about 20 minutes ago.

-She's on the phone in there.

-Give me a couple of minutes and I'll come back to you.

-OK, sir.

'This time a couple of minutes is just that.

'Lawrence gets a call from Fujitsu management asking for more information about the writ.'

It looks to be German, I believe. GMBH.

It was a judgement initially of £117,122.64,

which with execution costs, interest, judgement costs,

and our fees for attending today and VAT,

the total outstanding is £149,481.93.

We have every right to enter the premises by force if necessary.

And, you know, we don't want to have to do that.

OK. Thank you.

'Finally, things seem to be happening.

'Lawrence's firm but fair approach pays off.'

That was the manager of the site.

-He's the overall head honcho here, I believe.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

He didn't know.

He's going to allow one of us, I believe, into reception.

So we're winning.

I don't know how long till we get to a situation where we resolve it,

-but we'll take you to reception.

-Yeah, sure.

-We'll get you a coffee.

Can you just turn down the left there?

-Just down here, yeah?

-Yeah.

'So Lawrence not only gets a comfy seat, he also gets a coffee.

'But will he get any money?

'An hour later, Lawrence emerges.

'It's been an intriguing negotiation.'

They got their head of legal on the phone, who didn't quite understand the situation.

He thought we couldn't force an entry into a building. He actually said,

"You're not getting in our building today," I said, "I'm already in."

They were unaware of the debt, where it's come from, what it's all about.

So I've basically given them copies of the paperwork,

he was quite insistent that they weren't going to pay today.

We can't turn people upside down, shake them and make money fall out of their pockets.

We're there to seize goods, and if necessary, remove them.

He was saying he needed time to sort that out.

They were going to go to the High Court and attempt to get an injunction

to stop us removing goods, which is just a waste of everybody's time.

They're a massive company. They're not going to run away.

If they owe the money, they will pay. I've absolutely no doubt about that.

They need time to look into it, so what I've done today,

I've taken walking possession, so I've basically seized the entire contents of the building,

or as much of it as need be to cover the debt.

If it doesn't get paid or resolved in a satisfactory manner,

then we will be back, and if necessary, we will remove goods.

'Walking possession means the sheriffs can list, or seize, property

'for removal at a later date if the debt isn't paid.

'They don't need to physically remove goods there and then.

'Usually this does the trick in getting debtors to pay up.'

If we believe the goods are in jeopardy,

we will insist on removal there and then, if we're not getting payment,

but the goods aren't in jeopardy here, it's a huge building, a huge company,

they're not going to make all their assets from this building disappear.

So we were quite safe in taking walking possession.

'Lawrence isn't leaving with £150,000 in cash,

'but he's still satisfied with the way things have turned out.'

They were perfectly civil once we got in there.

I spoke to their solicitor and we've got the outcome we've got.

'And Lawrence sticking by his guns clearly did the trick.

'Soon after his visit, the firm owed the money by Fujitsu got its cash.

'Fujitsu told us that the payment delay was a genuine oversight on its part

'and it took immediate steps which rectified the situation.

'It's now two months since Lawrence and Kev paid the auction house a visit.

'In her nursing home, Beryl has now received the £1,503 she was owed.

'The debt owed by Mr Everett the plumber stands at £4,000 because of court costs and interest.

'The £50 per month repayments ordered by the judge

'are being monitored by the enforcement office.

'If any are missed, Mr Everett will be getting another visit.

'And it's now two months since Pete visited the pub in Leeds

'on behalf of 65-year-old Paul Gravette, who slipped on ice in the car park.

'Paul's got the first instalment of the personal injury money he's owed.

'And thanks to the enforcement office, he will soon be getting the rest.'

I am delighted with this outcome.

I'm very grateful to these enforcement officers who have done all this for me.

It was never a question of money.

It was a question of principle and just to prove the hotel wrong

in not having proper facilities for ice and snow.

'Next time...

'..a builder made 86-year-old Hilda Shaw fork out £4,000 for some work on her roof.

'And he left it in a worse state than when he started.'

I was absolutely shattered. I was crying, I couldn't leave off

cos I realised the mess I was getting into and I couldn't say stop.

'The sheriffs pay the builder an early morning visit to try and get Hilda's money back.

'And things get rather heated.'

I will back that truck straight through your windscreen.

'The sheriffs try to track down a landlord

'who didn't pay his student tenants their deposits when they left.

'But he proves elusive.'

He doesn't want to deal with it over the phone, he's telling me to come to an address he doesn't seem sure of.

'And office manager Joan Wales was unfairly dismissed.

'She was awarded compensation but her ex-bosses didn't pay up.

'Can the sheriffs help?'

They just thought I'd walk away and I wouldn't fight for this.

But I do fight and I am fighting because it's wrong.

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