Episode 9 The Sheriffs Are Coming

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

I did outline all the faults in the vehicle. He rejected all 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 judgment says is owed.

The writ orders 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, Lawrence.

I'll back that truck straight 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.

-DOOR SLAMS

In today's programme...

Karen Steadman's employers were supposed to deduct money

from her wages, to go towards paying her rent.

The money was deducted,

but they didn't pass it all onto her landlord.

So Karen and her family were threatened with eviction.

It was very, very stressful,

and I wouldn't like any other person to go through it.

The sheriffs pay her employers a visit.

Will they get Karen's cash?

-What do I need to do, then?

-You need to pay it.

-I need to pay it?

The sheriffs go to the home of a businessman who failed to pay an employee her wages.

They're told he's moved out. But is it the truth?

-OK, mate.

-Bye-bye.

If that bloke was lying, I don't think he'd give us a forwarding address,

cos the chances are you're going to get rumbled.

And the sheriffs revisit a garage in Hayes which sold a customer's car

but didn't give him the money.

They remove property to settle the debt,

but a £20,000 piece of equipment is missing.

It was here this morning, cos the power lead's still plugged in.

So I think potentially it's in the boot of a car somewhere.

The Steadman family lives in Lewisham, London.

Ten years ago, mum Karen got behind on her rent.

But her landlord agreed a solution.

Karen's employers, APCOA Parking,

would deduct money directly from her wages every month

to pay her rent and the arrears.

But in 2008, Karen and her daughter, Ayesha, got a shock.

We kind of just assumed that everything was going along fine,

until one day the housing officer turned up

and said they hadn't been paid,

and that was the first we knew of it.

Of course, the money was still being deducted off Mum's wages.

It turned out the deducted wages hadn't been passed on

to Karen's landlords by APCOA.

The rent arrears had reached £10,000,

and the Steadmans' landlords couldn't wait any longer for the cash.

They said that they wanted the money, the lump sum of money, now.

And if we didn't, then they wanted to evict us from our house.

There was no way Karen could get her hands on such a large amount

of money at short notice.

We couldn't pay, so it was like,

my mum had to talk to her employer to try and find out what happened.

But then they started giving her the run around

and it wasn't giving much information.

Ayesha and her brother, Josiah, became forensic accountants

overnight, scouring their mum's wage slips and rent books

for proof that the rent money had been deducted from her wages,

but not passed on to her landlord.

I wanted to stay in the house that I grew up in,

so I had to find out what happened.

My mum was getting really stressed, and she was getting headaches and stuff,

Obviously it's not good for her health. I had to help her.

Me and my brother had to do something.

It's very, very stressful,

and I wouldn't like any other person to go through it.

The wage slips proved the money had been taken, but not passed on.

The Steadmans took APCOA Parking to the County Court.

It was a David and Goliath case.

Ayesha, with her home-made dossier of documents,

against APCOA Parking, a £500 million company.

The judge was really impressed.

He was like, the main thing was the table,

where we worked out what APCOA had taken

and how much they paid over and how much they kept, and all the dates.

And once he saw that, he was like, that's the main thing he needed.

The County Court judge found in the Steadmans' favour,

but the company still didn't pay up.

So Ayesha applied for a High Court writ for the owed money.

I thought that this would work, it was just a matter of doing it

and then when the lady phoned my mum to say that they received the case,

I was quite relieved. It was like, "We're going to get paid.

"I'm sure we're going to get paid."

I thought, "At last."

"I can be rent... I can be debt-free...

"For a very long time. I can be actually debt-free."

Living in debt isn't fun.

It's stressful.

Good afternoon...

Because APCOA Parking didn't pay up,

the Steadmans contacted this High Court enforcement office.

They allocated the case to sheriffs Kev McNally and Lawrence Grix.

And now, they are on their way to APCOA to enforce the writ

and hopefully get Karen's cash, plus court costs and interest.

They owe just over £19,000.

Whether they want to part with that money straightaway remains to be seen.

Lawrence and Kev's first challenge

will be finding the right person to speak to

at a company with 4,300 employees.

Nobody will want to deal with it, basically.

It'll be everybody else's problem.

And you'll probably have to wade around for a while until...

firstly, the person that deals with the actual problem arrives,

and then they'll have to get in touch with who's going to pay it.

So it's going to be Legal Department, Finance Department...

But they should have money to pay it, that shouldn't be a problem.

The prospect of being bounced from department to department

isn't the only thing concerning Lawrence.

He's worried he might get a parking ticket.

It's a parking company, and funny enough, we're parked outside

where it says Residents' Parking or Pay At Machine,

and there's no pay-and-display machine in sight, anywhere up this road.

Erm, so there you go.

I've put a sign in the window. What effect that'll have, I don't know.

We'll ask when we get in where we can buy a ticket.

Don't want to incur a parking fine.

Sheriffs handing over cash to the firm that owes them money?

Now that would be a first(!)

-Good morning.

-Hello, there.

-Hi, there.

-My name's Mr Grix. I'm an enforcement officer.

-OK.

I'm here today to execute a High Court writ

against APCOA Parking UK Limited on behalf of a Karen Steadman.

OK.

So, I don't know who you're going to need to call to...

to deal with that.

Hi, there. I've got an enforcement officer in reception.

They're wanting to issue a writ on behalf of Karen...?

-Steadman.

-Steadman.

-She's going to get someone.

-Thank you.

As a matter of interest, we parked in the road opposite,

and it says Residents' Parking or Pay At Machine.

But there's no pay-and-display machine.

I don't suppose you know where one is?

We've had this problem,

-we don't actually do the parking, believe it or not.

-But you don't know where there's a machine?

I don't, because a colleague had the same problem

-and she just left it there...

-Yeah, I've put a note in the window.

Hello, there. I'll show you some ID first.

Mr Grix, I'm an enforcement officer.

I'm here today to execute a High Court writ

against APCOA Parking UK Limited, on behalf of a Karen Steadman.

Erm, there was a judgment made for...

-A judgment made?

-Yeah.

When was the judgment issued?

-Erm...

-Cos sometimes they don't come to the Head Office, sometimes they go out...

Well, the County Court date was 30th September this year.

This says 24th of the first, we've got none outstanding.

Erm...

And I can get the report for you, which I got off the...

A report doesn't, you know, doesn't mean anything.

You know, if you believe you've got nothing outstanding,

obviously it must have been paid, and you would need to evidence that.

-It's, you know...

-Absolutely.

It's no good saying, "Oh, there's nothing on the report."

I've actually got one here,

where I've printed it off. County Court Judgment, 30 September, 2011...

for £16,039 in Bromley.

-What do I need to do, then?

-You need to pay it.

-I need to pay it?

In cleared funds, so it can be transfer,

but it needs to be an instant transfer.

We need to be able to see it arrive in the company account.

-OK. In that case, gentlemen, would you like to take a seat?

-Yeah, sure.

-I will see what arrangements I can make...

-Thank you.

A cheque won't do?

No, no, we don't take cheques at all. It's got to be cleared funds.

It's good news for the Steadmans

that Lawrence had done his homework before coming today.

It's always handy, because I produced...

I produced that check myself,

I ran the check myself the other day before I left the office.

And obviously that shows it's still outstanding, so...

And obviously if the lady hasn't done a check recently, it's got missed.

Half an hour later, APCOA's Legal Department calls Lawrence

to say the company disputed the judgment

and asked for a 'set aside'

to delay payment while the case was considered.

But that was months ago,

before the date on the Steadmans' High Court writ.

Did you actually get a date for your...

for your hearing, for your set aside?

Right. Well, perhaps they didn't even get your application, then, sir.

So, we're eight months down the line.

You applied for a set aside and you've heard nothing

and, with respect, you've done nothing about it.

But if you've applied and not heard back,

surely you should be checking into that.

All I can go by, sir, is what I've got in front of me today,

which is the live writ.

I mean, we need to collect money.

I mean, there's plenty of assets here that we can remove, if necessary, to clear this debt.

OK. But all that... All that will end up doing is putting up the costs,

because obviously we'll have to call in lorries to remove sufficient goods from the premises.

OK. And it's going to disrupt...

Right, the total outstanding at the moment is £19,213.

But if we go over the next 15 minutes,

we'll have been here an hour, so an hour's waiting time will be going on that,

which is £181.50 plus VAT.

At this point, our cameraman was asked to stop filming.

He left the premises to await developments.

An hour later and Lawrence has emerged from the building.

Erm... It was payment in full.

Had the solicitor on the phone.

They applied for a judgment to be set aside

back in January or February.

They hadn't heard anything back.

But just an application for set aside doesn't stop us enforcing anyway.

And it is a bit foolish, if you haven't heard anything,

to just let it go for that long.

They've paid it, and I've checked that the money's in

and it is in our account.

So I've issued a receipt and that's it.

Lawrence and his colleagues successfully retrieve

over £2 million from debtors each month.

They can now add £19,000 to this month's total.

We asked APCOA to comment.

They say that Karen Steadman is a valued member of staff.

They say the situation arose as a result of an error

and the matter was in the process of being resolved

when the High Court writ was issued.

In Lewisham, Karen is relieved

that the sheriff's mission has been a success.

But she knows she also owes a debt of gratitude to her daughter, Ayesha, and son, Josiah.

It's amazing what they've achieved,

and I'm very proud of them.

And I couldn't do it without them,

because the stress, for me, it was too much.

Ayesha has a tip for anyone who needs to take on a big company in court.

Keep documents of everything.

Make sure you've got proof of all of the things that you do,

because people will twist what you're saying...

what they can to get out of anything.

I've learnt, keep all of your documents. Keep them all.

Thanks to Ayesha and the sheriffs,

the Steadman family no longer faces eviction.

It's 7am, and Sheriff Marc Newton is on his way to Winchester

with colleague, Kev.

They're acting on behalf of an office manager

who didn't get paid for a month's work.

She took her two ex-bosses to a tribunal,

which found in her favour. But they still didn't pay up.

So she got a High Court writ.

Marc and Kev are about to enforce it.

We've got a Robert and a Patrick we're looking for at this address.

So...

We're looking for a total amount of £3,482.

KNOCK ON DOOR

I'm after Robert Engelhus.

The man who opens the door says Mr Engelhus moved out a month ago.

No problem. I'm from the High Court.

They've issued a writ for him today at this address.

I don't suppose you've got a forwarding address for him at all?

The man does have an address for Mr Engelhus.

It's a valuable lead.

Debtors rarely leave such information behind.

We need to try to get there quick, really, before he gets to work.

-Should be local, I think.

-Should be.

The address is only minutes away.

But when they arrive, there's no sign of the man they're looking for.

Hiya. I'm after Robert Engelhus?

The woman who answers the door says Mr Engelhus doesn't live at this address.

She clearly has nothing to do with the writ

the sheriffs are trying to enforce.

No problem.

'Because we've been to another address for him,

'and the bloke said he just moved in.

'But I don't know whether that bloke's telling the...'

All right. Lovely. Bye-bye.

She's telling the truth. Definitely.

-She is?

-Yeah, she is. But I'm a bit dubious about him now.

Marc's starting to wonder whether the man at the first address

sent them on a wild goose chase.

Kev thinks not.

If that bloke was lying, I don't think he'd give us a forwarding address,

-cos the chances are you'll get rumbled.

-Yeah.

By giving us a forward address,

when you could easily just say no to that, couldn't you?

-Yeah.

-But saying no to that is an easier option than

giving us an address, innit?

There's only one way to find out if the man was lying -

go back to where they started and question him more intensively.

This time a woman answers the door

and says her husband has gone to work.

But if he has, he must have walked there.

The car is still on the drive.

Can you just confirm his name, then, just so we can let the court know...

Erm... No.

I don't want to...

That's a somewhat strange response to being asked your husband's name.

Right...

-Must confirm something, I guess.

-Exactly, that confirms, all right...

She made a point of locking the door, as well.

When the door opens again, the truth is revealed.

-What's this about, mate?

-Hiya.

The man from earlier is home,

and he is the businessman named in the writ.

He asks the camera to move off his property.

The businessman tells Marc he's gone bankrupt

and shows him paperwork to prove it.

This means the sheriffs won't be able to seize goods from him.

It doesn't look like the former office manager

will get her money today.

Erm...

No problem.

The businessman suggests the sheriffs visit his previous colleague,

who's also named on the writ.

I presume he's local to this area though, is he?

But all he knows is which county he's living in.

He's Essex way, is he?

No problem. There you go, all right.

-Bye-bye.

-Take care, mate.

Marc was right to be suspicious earlier.

It is the guy we were after,

which he couldn't deny the second time he came to the door,

cos he had an ID round his neck with his name on it.

-So...

-I think he'd resigned to the fact that he'd been rumbled.

Yeah, I think he'd given up

and realised we weren't going to go away and we wanted to speak to him, so...

But after all that, he's just got a bankruptcy order made against him anyway,

so there's nothing that can be done.

Marc and Kev will go back to the office

and try to find an address for the other businessman.

In the meantime,

all they can do is reflect on a somewhat bizarre morning.

-Quite satisfied, rumbling someone for just lying.

-THEY LAUGH

But outright.

Kev and Lawrence's next job is at an old battleground,

a garage in Hayes, Middlesex, which sold the customer's car

but didn't pass on all the proceeds.

On a previous visit,

the sheriffs removed property to pay off the debt.

But the equipment only got as far as the van.

The garage owner, Mr Verdi,

offered to pay off the £32,000 owed in instalments,

with £5,000 paid upfront.

Lawrence and Kev took back the computers

and CCTV they'd removed and returned to base.

But the garage owner hasn't lived up to his promise

of regular repayments, to pay off the £27,000 still owed.

So the sheriffs are taking it to the next level.

We're not looking for money today. Unless they happen to pay in full.

Erm... We're actually going to be removing goods.

Lawrence plans to take and auction the garage's CCTV system, computers

and two valuable engine diagnostic kits,

if they haven't already been disposed of,

to avoid the sheriffs getting their hands on them.

They removed one set of diagnostic equipment.

But if they removed the second set, then they've got none there to use.

So I don't think they'll have removed that.

Likewise with the computer system and the CCTV system.

They've only got a very limited computer system.

And they've only got one CCTV system.

So I can't see that they would have removed that,

because then they'll actually be without it.

If you've got duplicates of things...

You know, there's always the possibility that you can hire one or two items,

providing you've still got one to use.

But if you haven't got duplicates, you've only got one of anything...

then you have to leave it there, really.

They've arrived at the garage.

But there's a problem.

It's shut.

The shutters are down and there doesn't seem to be anybody home.

They've disappeared.

But High Court enforcement officers are legally entitled

to gain access to commercial properties to remove goods,

whether the owners are there or not.

Do you want to just give the shutters a try?

I think you'll find they're electric. But they've got a handle on the front, haven't they?

The shutters are locked tight.

So Lawrence phones the number above the front door.

Hello, is that Verdi?

Yeah, it's the enforcement officers. We're outside, knocking on your door, yeah?

Sorry? It's not Verdi's?

It's what?

Precision Engineering?

In Verdi's building, using Verdi's phone number?

No, I do need to ring anybody,

because we've already seized the assets that are in the premises.

I'll... I'll... I'll be calling some locksmiths.

If you're not going to let us in, I'll call locksmiths and forth.

You call the police, then. If you give them CAD number 4895

of the 5th of December, they'll know all about it.

No? OK, then. Bye.

-Not Verdi?

-They're saying it's changed names to Precision Engineering.

That's what they were trying last time, isn't it?

-He said they've gone into liquidation.

-They haven't though, have they?

I'll check.

The man on the phone told Lawrence all the Verdi Ferrari assets

had been sold to a new company, so they can't be removed.

Lawrence calls the office to get them to check the status

of Verdi Ferrari with Companies House.

Are they still active?

Yeah?

Not dissolved or anything?

Lovely. Cheers. See you now.

-OK?

-I'm getting lost with this now.

Erm...Verdi Ferrari isn't in liquidation.

It's still active on Companies House. So, um...

..we're getting locksmiths down to gain entry.

The office are going to sort that out now for us.

But the locksmith might not be necessary.

A mechanic Lawrence and Kev met on a previous visit has just arrived.

The garage isn't deserted after all.

-He's one of them.

-Yeah.

-It's him.

-Yeah, I'm sure it is.

Lawrence and Kev watch to see if there's a secret way in.

He'll probably go round the back and they'll let him in the fire exit.

-There's got to be a fire exit, hasn't there?

-There is.

But we can't get it open, so...

There's little option

but to wait for the locksmith in the warmth of the van.

Minutes later, a mechanic comes up and hands over a mobile number.

You all right? Who's that?

-The manager.

-Manager?

What, he's the manager of this, is he?

I'll give him a ring.

Lawrence informs the Verdi manager about the plan of action.

We're here today to remove goods.

We're just waiting for the arrival of a locksmith

and then we'll be effecting entry into the premises

and removing goods we've previously seized.

Because if those goods have been transferred to the new company,

they shouldn't have been.

No, we don't label goods.

We left an inventory on our first visit

whereby all the goods listed on that inventory,

and anything else belonging to Verdi Ferrari Aftersales Ltd, was seized.

When we came on our second visit, we found that little white labels

with serial numbers had been stuck on,

well, just about anything that moved basically.

And as I explained last time, that was irrelevant,

because we'd already seized the goods on a previous visit.

Items seized by sheriffs and left on site

cannot be disposed of in any way,

unless the third party proves they own them

within five days of them being listed.

We have had no third party claim to any of these goods

from our first visit, which I believe was back in October,

which is, you know, well over the five days.

Now, because no third party claim has been made to those goods,

in accordance with RSC Order 17, we are here today to remove them.

And they will be removed from here and taken to auction.

We're not being fobbed off with waiting round for hours,

because there's allegedly some money on its way.

We're here today to remove goods.

And if you'll excuse me, I'm not being rude,

I've got an incoming call which might be the locksmith.

I need to take this other call.

Hello, Mr Grix speaking.

Missed it.

Lawrence phones the office.

The missed call was them confirming the locksmith is minutes away.

All right. I'll give the police a buzz then.

All right. Thanks, Soph. Bye.

Have you got one?

Yeah, on its way from Hayes. So not very far at all.

Lawrence wants the police to be present

when the locksmith arrives, to reduce the chance of trouble.

I think it might be advisable if some of your officers come down.

All the units along here, all know one another,

and there was loads of them out there last time we attended.

We are going to be effecting entry by force, using locksmiths.

Lovely. Thanks very much. Bye-bye.

Police are on their way.

But before the police or the locksmith arrive,

Mr Verdi, the father of the owner of Verdi Ferrari, shows up.

He's also the landlord of the building.

So what have you come here to do, sir?

Have you come to let us in? Save the locksmith drilling?

-We've called the police. They're on their way.

-Police are here.

-Hello.

-Hello, mate. You all right?

POLICE RADIO CRACKLES

The police coming, and the impending arrival of the locksmith

appear to have done the trick. Kev is allowed in.

We had your colleagues out,

we didn't call them, last time we were here.

Right. Is it the whole property, or is it things inside?

What we're after is goods.

I'm going to wait for my colleague.

You have to unlock that as well.

Generally speaking, they give us the run-around when we come in.

This is the third time.

It's, "Give us an hour and we'll get some money."

And you end up being here for hours, and nothing happens.

So we're here today to remove.

OK. I'm just going to have a word with them.

-I'm going to take these with me.

-Yeah, sure.

Lawrence joins Kev in the garage.

Now they can get on with what they came here to do.

Well, just take everything out.

-Would you like to come up?

-Yeah, sure.

But before the sheriffs start removing equipment,

the policeman tells them Mr Verdi wants to talk upstairs.

So basically...oh, see!

Excuse me. I've asked you before, nicely...

At this point, the camera operator is asked to leave the building.

Mr Verdi tells Lawrence that a new company

is now his tenant in the garage, and it owns all the assets.

But when Lawrence checks the name of this new business

with Companies House, it doesn't exist.

And Lawrence finds cash receipts in the office

in the name of Verdi Ferrari.

His patience has run out.

You've put a name on the lease that doesn't exist.

Come on, let's get this stuff out.

Do want to back these up before I unplug 'em all?

Just unplug it, Kev.

He's been given the chance to back it up and he hasn't.

You can't stop us, sir.

You should have claimed it in accordance with RSC Order 17.

We seized these goods months ago. Don't get in my way.

Don't obstruct me, or you're liable for arrest.

Now, move out the way.

While Kev goes to open the van,

Lawrence stays on the premises to ensure they aren't locked out.

Sheriffs can remove tools of the trade

essential for the running of a business,

if the debtor is a limited company.

And Verdi Ferrari is just that.

And this signed Manchester United Football Club shirt

certainly isn't a tool of the trade anyway.

But the most valuable piece of equipment,

the £20,000 engine diagnostic kit,

is nowhere to be found.

-Disappeared.

-Yeah, disappeared, the diagnostic kit.

Without a trace.

That's twice we've had that in the van.

Should've taken it the first time.

Lawrence has his own theory about the diagnostic kit's whereabouts.

I believe it was here this morning. The power lead's still plugged in.

I think it's in the boot of a car somewhere.

I've searched all over the place, and I can't find it.

Without the diagnostic kit, the property removed today

may not raise the £27,000 required to clear the debt.

So Lawrence notes the details of cars

that could be removed at a later date,

if they're owned by Verdi Ferrari.

Cars on the forecourt listed.

Everything of value removed.

Job done.

The garage owner has five days to pay up what he owes,

or establish the removed property doesn't belong to him.

If he doesn't pay up,

or the equipment doesn't raise enough money at auction,

the sheriffs will be back.

We don't give up.

If they manage to prove that Verdi Ferrari Aftersales

don't own anything, or if they do go into liquidation,

which is what we were told today, although it hasn't happened yet,

then obviously we can't reinforce against a liquidated company.

But who knows! Erm...

We won't be giving up, so if we don't get the proof, we'll be back again.

And we'll keep at it until we get some kind of outcome.

Lawrence and Kev head off.

But minutes later,

they get a phone call from a solicitor acting for Verdi Ferrari.

He's just informed me that he's managed to get

an order from the court for return of the goods.

Obviously we'll comply if there is an order.

But I'll wait until we've got a copy of it in our office.

We won't just take his word for it over the phone.

But people can go to court and get a stay.

And judges will allow a stay on occasion,

just in case there's been some kind of impropriety

or, you know, a potential miscarriage of justice.

They will always grant a stay until such time as you get a hearing.

And if we're ordered by the court to return the goods,

then obviously we'll comply with that.

So the saga of Verdi Ferrari takes another twist

and the sheriffs may be revisiting the garage again

to take the property back.

Lawrence and Kev return to base.

It's 6.30am. And while they wait for news about Verdi Ferrari,

Lawrence and Kev have been allocated another job.

They've got a long drive ahead, so they're passing the time

by having a heated debate about a subject of great importance.

Who do you think would win out of a fight between pate and soup?

I would say soup.

The pate would become dissolved and just become part of soup.

No, it's not if they're mixed together.

It's which one's sort of harder, you know?

Pate's got to be harder than soup. Has to be.

It depends if the soup's got croutons, they're quite hard.

-Ah, see! Now you're changing the dynamics of the soup!

-Ha-ha!

-Pate's a bit namby-pamby.

-No way!

It's a bit of a namby-pamby thing to eat.

"I'm having some pate on toast."

You're kidding, in't ya?

THEY LAUGH

The soup versus pate debate will have to be resolved some other time.

Lawrence and Kev are nearing their destination.

The director of a recruitment firm owes a former colleague £6,000.

So the former colleague got a High Court writ for the cash.

The sheriffs are on their way to execute it.

But they're struggling to find the director's house.

The address on the writ is a house name, rather than a number.

This is the argument against having names on houses.

It's saying we're about here. It's that one. Good man.

Lawrence has spotted a car in the drive

he may be able to remove to clear the debt.

Only one vehicle in there.

Spin it round, Kev, and we'll block the gates.

The house the sheriffs are visiting this morning

is in a more prosperous area than they're used to on their travels.

-Nice old road, though, isn't it?

-Nice. This whole area's nice.

The director lives here. That's what's on Companies House.

And there is a, I think it is the secretary,

is a holding company which is also...

Do you want to jump out? I'll pull it up.

Now they've found the company director's house,

Lawrence and Kev can start the process of executing the writ.

Stage one, formally posting it to the director.

Stage two, seeing him face to face and getting him to pay up.

Lawrence tries to guess the code for the gate.

GATE BEEPS

Oh, well. Worth a try.

There are 1,000 possible combinations for three digits, 0-9.

So Lawrence goes for a more straightforward approach.

INTERCOM RINGS

That's a nice alarming noise, isn't it?

There's only one car there. It's only a Golf.

Only a Yaris, sorry. Unless the other car's in the garage.

But you've got a wheelie bin in front of one of them.

The car's in front of the other one.

-Do you want to try the door?

-Yeah, we might have to.

-Lawrence'll climb over the gate!

-THEY LAUGH

GATE BEEPS Ah! There is a light on.

Someone's faintly visible through the bedroom window.

Would you like to speak on the intercom?

He's potentially phoning somebody, texting someone, or something.

Oh, there's a lady now. Just bobbed her head up.

Sort of peered over the windowsill and dropped back down again.

She must have crawled to the window on her hands and knees, I'd think.

Most people who've got an outstanding debt

when they get a knock at this time in the morning

will have an idea of what it's about.

Morning, sir.

-I'll show you some ID.

-Did you ring?

We did, yeah. Buzz, buzz, buzz, on the thing.

-Didn't ring.

-My name's Mr Grix. I'm an enforcement officer.

-Yeah.

I'm here today to execute a High Court writ

against G2 Human LLP.

-We've got an outstanding debt of £7,046.07.

-Right.

We're here today to execute this writ,

which is basically seizing goods of the debtor company.

-The company has no assets at all.

-It's got no assets here?

It has none, and it certainly hasn't got any here.

This is the registered address of the company.

It is. But it's just a registered address.

-It's not active, and it's not here.

-It's not active?

It's not active, and it's not here, no.

So, when did it cease to be active?

Well, it's active as a company but it's not trading.

It has no assets, it has no money.

It's got a bank account with £3.50 in it.

Are you able to show me some evidence of that?

Have you got a copy of the bank statement with that on it?

I can quickly get you one, but I'm not going to open the gates.

-You not going to what?

-Open my gates.

If you could get me that bank statement, then.

Unlike with commercial properties,

sheriffs can't break into a residence to remove goods

to clear the debt.

They can walk through an open door,

but there's usually less business-owned property to seize

in a company director's home anyway.

You might find a company vehicle,

because, you know, a lot of directors would still take a company vehicle

rather than pay for it themselves.

And you may find a home office.

If it's, you know, a fairly small company.

This is a lovely house, there's obviously money.

Whether it's come from this company or not, we've no way of telling.

But, you know, if there's a home office in there,

we can climb over the gates.

We can't force entry into a residential property.

We can't force entry into the garages because they're attached.

So we've got no way of getting into that house to establish

if there's a home office in there.

Kev thinks he could have sneaked into the house earlier

to see if there is anything worth asset stripping.

Could have got in while he was nattering.

Leaves the door open, doesn't he?

-Huh?

-Leaves the door open.

Yeah, but by the time you climbed over the fence,

he could have run back there quite easily.

-Is that a challenge?

-THEY LAUGH

It's Challenge Kev!

It's surprising what sheriffs are legally allowed to do

at debtors' homes.

If somebody goes in and leaves the front door open, we can walk in.

You can turn the door handle, and if the door opens, you can go in.

-We can climb through open windows.

-We can go over these gates.

There you go.

-Right, OK.

-That's all there is, I'm afraid!

Despite the bank statement backing up what the director said about his company having no money,

Lawrence isn't giving up on his search for assets to be seized.

Obviously now we will have to do a search

and see if there are any commercial premises.

We can affect an entry into a commercial premises.

We can't here. It's your residence.

An Englishman's home is still his castle.

So we won't be forcing entry.

Shouldn't put, um, shouldn't put my house down

as a registered address on businesses that were...

..It really is, it's a dormant company.

It does nothing.

But even dormant companies have property

that can be auctioned to pay debts.

The company director says the car in the drive

belongs to him and his wife, not the business.

But Lawrence isn't taking his word for it.

I've seized the car on paper anyway. We'll do our checks on it.

If it turns out it's registered to you or your wife personally,

then obviously... But we can't take your word for it, sir.

That could be a company vehicle.

That'd be nice. If the company had an asset.

And on that note, the sheriffs make their farewells.

OK.

This time, Lawrence and Kev leave empty-handed.

If a company hasn't got any assets at all,

the director can't be forced to pay anything.

Why didn't he contest it, then?

-Have I got my lights on?

-Oh, dear.

The man at the gate says he has no liability towards the complainant.

He says the company the High Court enforcement officers were looking for

has never operated from his home.

It's a month since Kev and Marc's wild-goose chase around Winchester,

on behalf of the unpaid office worker.

They're still trying to find an address for the other businessman.

If they can track him down in Essex, they'll soon be paying him a visit.

The High Court found against Verdi Ferrari.

Lawrence and Kev didn't have to take any of the property back.

Thanks to the sheriffs, some of the outstanding debt's been paid.

And the customer whose car the garage sold but didn't pay is happy.

Verdi Ferrari is now in liquidation.

It's now two months since Lawrence and Kev

gave the businessman an early morning wake-up call.

It's been established that he works from a home office

in the garage which is attached to the house.

This means the sheriffs can't force entry to remove assets.

So they've now closed the case.

And in Lewisham, the Steadmans have now officially received the money

owed by APCOA parking, thanks to the sterling efforts of the sheriffs.

As soon as the cheque cleared,

within the same week all the debts got cleared.

For the first time in over a decade, Karen is debt free.

It was such a relief.

I feel like my grey hairs can just take a break now.

If you did three months' work, you'd expect to be paid for it.

But in Yasmine Chatur's case,

12 weeks' work at a pharmacy earned her nothing.

I'm just small fry. But I have earned this money.

Lawrence takes on a lawyer in pursuit of Yasmine's cash.

I'm asking you for the third time, what's your boss's name?

-Just phone the office.

-What's his name?

-Phone the office.

The sheriffs get given the cold shoulder,

when they chase up a debt in Derbyshire.

We're putting your phone through the cat flap.

And the sheriffs are back on the trail of the builder

who took an 86 year-old for over £4,000

of shoddy and unnecessary roofing work.

Don't let him escape.

Get him by the tail or anything!

Hopefully there won't be no trouble.

And if we need the police, we'll give them a call.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd