Episode 6 The Sheriffs Are Coming

Meet the sheriffs.

-We're High Court enforcement officers.

-We're here to execute a High Court writ.

They're the men whose job it is to get you your money back.

It's an arrestable offence to stop me doing my job.

If you've been ripped off and don't know where to turn...

-I'm not waiting any more.

-I'm ordered to seize goods to clear this debt,

which would mean clearing this place out.

..if you've been to court but still not been paid what you're owed...

-Why don't you just tell me who you are?

-This is an absolute crock. You need to pay this.

..the High Court enforcement officers are charged by law to recover

-what a court says is rightfully yours.

-I've seized your car, sir.

-You can either let us through the door or we'll go through the window.

-Whoa, whoa, whoa.

-It's time to call...the sheriffs.

-I've collected 42 grand.

Coming up...

Clive Nicholl paid £2,700 for a car which he says was dangerous.

It was only a passing motorist who pulled my wife over and alerted her of the problem

that stopped her possibly having a serious accident.

The sheriffs' epic run-in with the car dealership that sold it goes beyond anything they expected.

-You're not listening to me.

-It's in your name.

-Could you get your camera outside, please?

-Don't push, don't push.

Sheriffs Lawrence and Kev pay a return visit to a college

which owes a former consultant over £2,000 for unpaid work.

Can they convince them to pay up or lose their assets?

This is five months down the line. If there was a prior...

Don't keep interrupting me.

And sheriff Pete goes in pursuit of over £23,000

owed by a building company.

Enforcement officers.

We've got a High Court writ to attend here today.

Hitting the road this morning are sheriffs Marc Newton and Tony Smith,

who have an intriguing double assignment at a Surrey car garage.

We're looking for a company called Sandhurst Bridge Cars Ltd.

We've actually got two writs at this address.

We've got one for Sandhurst Bridge Cars Ltd

and one for a Sami...Alsilawi, who's the director of the company.

For one writ it's £2,305, for the other writ it's £5,114.

The sheriffs are visiting on behalf of two former customers of the garage

left deeply dissatisfied with the state of the vehicles they were sold.

We'll go there and see if they're still trading under the same name this morning

and see if we can get a result.

One of the people they're on their way to help is Clive Nicholl.

He and his family came back to live in the UK from New Zealand

after the tragedy of the Christchurch earthquake destroyed their life there.

We lost our house, all our contents.

Most of our contents were ruined.

And the aftershocks kept happening

and a few months later there was another six... magnitude six earthquake.

And that was just too much for my wife and children and we came back to England the next day.

Arriving in the UK, he urgently needed a car to provide

transport for his family, including getting the children to school.

Getting a car was absolutely essential, it was the most important thing.

We needed a seven-seater, we needed something large, we have four children.

He hoped the purchase would help the family get back on track with their new life in England.

Instead, it and the dealership that sold it to him

have caused him so many problems, he's had to go to court and to the sheriffs

to get his money back for a car he says put his family in danger.

It made us fearful that the kids could have been

involved in a serious accident.

They could have been killed. My wife too.

Looking around for a vehicle that would transport his family,

he came across a Volkswagen Touran at Sandhurst Bridge Cars dealership.

The garage owner was Sami Alsilawi.

When we visited the garage, he was very friendly, helpful, he seemed like an OK guy.

The car seemed to be in good condition, and with a warranty to boot,

Clive felt he had the vehicle he wanted and the security if anything went wrong.

He paid £2,700 for it and drove it away.

The Volkswagen Touran drove OK for about three weeks

and then the automatic gearbox failed. It just had no power, it wouldn't engage any gears.

Deeply unhappy with the intermittent gearbox problem,

the Nicholls went back to the garage director to demand he address it.

So my wife called Sami Alsilawi

and he said, "Bring it back and I'll get my mechanics to have a look at it at their garage."

She managed to get the car back to him, he didn't take it to his garage, he drove it around and said,

"It's fine, there's nothing wrong with it."

He would do nothing about it until my wife threatened to call the police.

After Mrs Nicholl's threat, the garage boss offered to exchange it for another car - a Seat Alhambra.

But the Seat turned out to be even worse.

We realised the Alhambra had technical problems pretty much straight away.

It would lose power going up hills, the heating didn't work, it would fill with water,

and most importantly, the front wheel was really, really wobbly.

A passing motorist flagged my wife down in panic

because it was about to fall off.

That car was dangerous. We could have had a serious accident.

My wife was in the car with our four children,

and that made us really angry, that he can sell us a car like that,

and also fearful of their lives.

It has many faults.

We took it to the Seat garage

and they spent half a day looking at all the problems

and there are more they didn't have time to investigate.

The back door doesn't shut properly,

both the front door switches are broken, which means the central locking doesn't work,

and the car can lock itself.

If your keys are in the car and you close the door...

That happened a few times.

And the engine, it turns out the turbo charger had seized up. It needs a new turbo.

Both Clive and his wife tried to get back in touch with Mr Alsilawi.

He said he'd send them a warranty for the car.

We waited for that and it didn't come.

My wife had to keep texting, saying, "Where is it?",

and he made excuses and then he wouldn't answer our calls.

After a month of waiting, the warranty finally arrived.

My wife rang up the warranty company to get the car fixed. It turned out that hadn't been registered

and was invalid anyway because the faults were pre-existing.

When he refused to answer our calls any more,

the only way he would communicate with us was via text messages.

Even then he would deny knowing us, ask who we were.

The last resort was when he accused us of breaking both cars and driving the Alhambra to distraction point.

That was his words.

We figured, what could we do? We had to take it further.

They took Sandhurst Bridge Cars' director, Sami Alsilawi, to court.

He didn't contest the case and the court ordered him

to pay the Nicholls £3,300. But since then, no money's been paid.

Their only hope of getting their money back now rests with the sheriffs.

Sandhurst Bridge Cars.

Arriving at the address, Marc and Tony are enforcing two writs today -

Clive's, which is in Sami Alsilawi's name, personally,

and a second one, also from a disgruntled customer,

but in the company's name - Sandhurst Bridge Cars.

It's time for Marc and Tony to make their presence felt.

Guv'nor about? We've got a writ for this Sandhurst Bridge Cars Ltd.

-Yeah?

-Yeah?

-Are you the owner?

-No. I work here.

-You just work here.

-Is he about?

-At the moment, no here.

Can you get him on the phone?

We're from the High Court, tell him. Sheriffs from the High Court, yeah?

As the employee calls the garage boss, Marc and Tony head inside to explore his office.

-Is he phoning him?

-Yeah, he's ringing him now.

Soon after, the employee returns with his boss on the phone.

Hello? Yes, it's about a High Court writ that's been issued.

The man on the phone is not the defendant, Sami Alsilawi.

Instead, he claims to be the boss of a different company, Yorktown Motors Ltd,

now based at the garage.

He claims this company has been trading in place of Sandhurst Bridge Cars

for the last three weeks.

So what's it called now?

Yorktown. OK.

So why is there card payments, credit card slips,

for Sandhurst Bridge Motors? It was done on the 18th. That's, like, last week.

There seems to be a lot of stuff lying around for Sandhurst Bridge Motors considering they're not here.

They have got their stuff here, because I'm seeing it in front of me.

You got your Companies House certificate, then? Yeah?

Yeah, where's your certificate? The guy's pointing somewhere.

Right, yeah, I've got a Yorktown Motors sign.

The employee seems eager to help, but this isn't the official documentation

confirming the change of company name that Marc wanted to see.

Yeah, I can see the sign.

Just cos there's a sign here doesn't mean it's a different company.

The Yorktown Motors boss claims never to have heard of Sami Alsilawi

and that the two debts are nothing to do with his new business.

Marc's far from convinced.

If I find out it is something to do with you, we will be charging you waiting time.

I'm not leaving the building. OK?

All right, thank you. Bye-bye.

There's nothing for Yorktown Motors apart from the sign, which is tucked up behind there.

If the sheriffs can prove Sandhurst Bridge Cars is still trading there

and there are assets in its name, or in Sami Alsilawi's personally,

these can be seized and sold to pay Clive's debt - and that of the second writ.

Keep digging through them drawers, Tone.

Sheriffs have the power to examine documents relating to any High Court writ they're asked to enforce.

To Marc and Tony's experienced eyes,

this office is proving a treasure trove of clues,

suggesting Sandhurst Bridge Cars is very much still in business.

Marc checks the chip and PIN machine for a record of what's been sold.

The last transaction was seven days ago. Done from Sandhurst Bridge Cars.

He said they went three weeks ago but obviously they've left their card machine here.

It's just... It doesn't add up.

Then Marc checks the Sandhurst Bridge Cars website...and gets a surprise.

Since the sheriffs arrived, someone's made some changes.

I checked it a half an hour before we came here and it was Sandhurst Bridge cars.

I have just gone on it then and it now says Yorktown Motors.

It's exactly the same website with the same numbers and everything but the heading is just changed.

With no sign of either the Yorktown Motors boss or Sami Alsilawi,

and the evidence mounting, Marc decides to go on the offensive.

He's got some awkward questions for the employee left holding the fort.

They've left their card machine behind and his bank book.

Hang on. This was done three days ago.

This was done just over a week ago.

Again, same address. Card machine, which is that card machine.

Or are you telling me that he's done it from another address and then brought everything back here?

Somebody's telling me lies, aren't they?

What we're going to do is, we're going to seize a car to cover this debt.

No, no, no, no. We don't leave it today, unfortunately.

To collect Clive's debt in company director Sami Alsilawi's personal name,

they need to find proof of assets registered to him.

-Black Audi out there.

-YHA5, isn't it, something like that?

-YHA3?

-Yeah.

There you are. Bought at British Car Auctions by Sami Alsilawi on the 23rd of the 11th, '12.

It's exactly what they were looking for, a receipt for a vehicle

bought by none other than Sami Alsilawi just four days ago.

An Audi that's sat on the forecourt.

With no-one seemingly willing to give them a straight answer, and no sign of Mr Alsilawi,

the sheriffs decide to take this enforcement up a level.

Got one.

Lock. Marc, we've got a lock.

Unless they get the money they've come for, this car will be leaving with the sheriffs.

And, as an extra precaution, they block the forecourt entrance too.

The startled employee gets the boss of Yorktown Motors back on the phone for round two with Marc.

This time, the boss admits he does know Sami Alsilawi after all.

We've got some cars here that were bought by Sami, who's the director of Sandhurst Bridge Cars.

You told me you was nothing to do with him and you bought all the cars from auctions

and you had nothing to do with the old company.

The Yorktown Motors boss now claims he in fact bought

some of the cars on his forecourt from Sami a week ago.

But there's still a problem.

Marc's got a receipt in front of him

which shows Sami himself bought the cars far more recently than that.

How did you buy the car off him three days before he bought the car?

The dates just aren't adding up for Marc.

It's gone from three weeks, yeah, to one week

and now we're saying it's three days.

Is that what you're telling me? You're getting confused between three weeks and three days?

Right, bye-bye.

The call ends with the Yorktown Motors boss still claiming, despite his confusion over the dates,

he did buy the cars from Sami, paying in cash, so unfortunately there's no paper trail for the deal.

Well, why don't you ring him up? Because obviously you know him.

A fired-up Marc's attention now turns back to the luckless employee

stuck in the office with him.

Receipts for cars bought four days ago in the name of the director for Sandhurst Bridge Cars Ltd, OK?

I have a writ for the director of Sandhurst Bridge Cars Ltd. Yeah?

-Yeah.

-I'm seizing that car.

Do you want me to keep going through these files and find more stuff?

That was bought three days ago by Sandhurst Bridge Cars.

That was sold by Sandhurst Bridge Cars. Do you want me to keep going?

Or do you want to just get the guy here?

The employee leaves the Portakabin to make another phone call, as Marc continues his detective work.

And he soon finds something important.

What have you found now, private eye?

It's like Morse and Lewis, innit?

Yeah, that's the MOT and the logbook for that. Try that.

I think that's the keys to the Audi. If it is, put them in your pocket.

Yeah.

With the car keys in hand and still no sign of

the boss of either Sandhurst Bridge Cars or Yorktown Motors,

it's time for an ultimatum.

We're going to have to call the tow truck. Which I don't want to do.

-No, no. He's coming.

-OK. So if he comes and pays, he's going to have to pay for the tow truck.

Whether the man's really coming or not,

Marc's determined to push on with the enforcement and now calls the tow truck.

Yeah, it's an Audi A4 convertible.

Yeah, I've got the keys, got the logbook, got the MOT.

OK? It's a race now, who turns up first, him or the tow truck.

Whether Marc is able to take the Audi away, or whether Sami Alsilawi

can prove he's sold it and has no assets at the garage,

we'll find out later.

That is your car, I don't care what you say, and it's going.

It's not going, no. I sold it.

Today, sheriffs Lawrence Grix and Kev McNally are in London

on their way for a return visit to a college that hasn't paid its debts.

We're off to Hayes in Middlesex, to Genius Tuition. It's actually a college that we've been to before.

Earlier in the series, we featured the story of freelance marketing consultant Louisa Nightingale.

She was employed by Jatinder Kaur

to carry out work for the College of Accountancy and Management Studies

and its sister business, Genius Tuition, to try and help them

attract more students.

Did loads of work for them, thought of these plans that we can draw up of things to help the college.

But despite putting in long hours and hard work, she was never paid.

It got to the point where they then started to say, "We don't actually have any money."

So I just thought, "OK, this isn't good."

You can't hire someone and you just can't not pay them!

Five months previously, Lawrence and Kev visited the college

to chase up two judgment debts Louisa had won through the courts.

One was against the College of Accountancy and Management Studies,

and the other against Genius Tuition, both based at the same address.

At first they refused to pay, claiming they couldn't afford to.

But, on Louisa's behalf, Lawrence was having none of it.

My belief is, the only way to satisfy this writ

is to remove the goods today, unless payment is received in full.

Lawrence's tough line had the desired effect. A paid-in-full.

But only for one of the writs.

The second judgment, against Genius Tuition, remained unpaid.

And five months on, it's still outstanding.

So now Lawrence and Kev are going back.

Last time, they seized goods on paper against Genius Tuition's outstanding debt.

And today, it's payment in full or those goods will be removed.

Hi there. My name's Mr Grix, I'm an enforcement officer.

I've got a High Court writ to execute against Genius Tuition.

We have been here before and basically seized all the assets of the college.

At this point, our cameraman is asked to stay outside.

Lawrence gets straight to the point.

He wants to talk to the boss, Jatinder Kaur, about why he's there and what he plans to do.

Can we see if we can chase her up on the phone? We need to be cracking on. Is she on her way?

The receptionist gets Jatinder Kaur on the phone.

That's the director, isn't it, on the phone. But she won't come down here.

She's ringing round, trying to do everything else, other than come here and sort it out.

Jatinder passes on a message via the receptionist.

She claims the goods Lawrence previously seized

belong to the College of Accountancy and Management Studies and not Genius Tuition.

If the goods belong to CAMS, she should have claimed them within the five days, as prescribed.

No disrespect to yourself, you're in an awkward situation here.

It's futile me relaying things through you that she is just going to argue about.

She didn't come down here herself last time. She didn't deal with it last time.

She hasn't dealt with it in the five months.

We seized the entire contents of this college last time we were here, in July.

Again, no disrespect to yourself, I'm not going to keep relaying messages through you.

She needs to come down here and get this sorted out or we're going to have the van up to the doors

and we're going to start emptying the place.

With Lawrence not mincing his words,

-it's not long before the boss, Jatinder Kaur, finally gets on the phone to him.

-Hello there.

She says that Genius Tuition has no assets, has never owned any property in the building

and that if Lawrence doesn't back off, she's going to call the police.

You can do. I've not got an issue with that at all.

Are you going to let me get a word in? Are you going to let me get a word in?

The boss continues to insist Lawrence can't take the goods he previously seized.

But five months on from his seizure, Lawrence isn't prepared to wait any longer to remove goods.

Right, the documentation I left last time for Genius Tuition,

whereby all the goods within the premises were seized,

you should have addressed that. Are you going to let me finish?

Right, the paperwork I left said you had five days to notify

the owners of those goods so that they could submit

a third-party claim in accordance with RSC order 17. Now, this is...

No, let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish.

This is five months down the line. If there was a prior...

Don't keep interrupting me.

Having had enough of being talked over, Lawrence hangs up.

I will not be continually interrupted.

I've terminated the call because she wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways.

I think she might be calling the police. I don't have a problem with that at all.

You need to start backing your computers up.

Kev's not one for waiting around, and wants to get moving on the enforcement.

-I think I might get the van and start getting stuff out towards it, I think.

-Yeah.

With Lawrence standing his ground and Kev about to move the van, Genius Tuition finally cracks.

-Hello?

-The boss, Jatinder Kaur, agrees to pay the second debt.

No, we can't do a cardholder-not-present transaction.

Right, so have you got the bank details, have you? OK. Thank you. Bye-bye.

With the money going through, it's payment in full for the sheriffs.

And that's it, we're done, we'll leave you in peace now. Bye-bye.

Collected full payment on that one.

The lady was a bit argumentative on the phone.

Once again, she wouldn't come down, she was getting other people to deal with it for her.

Claims that none of the stuff was owned by Genius Tuition,

but she's had five months to claim it on behalf of her other company

or inform other owners of the claim to the goods.

Nothing had happened so I told her I'd be removing it

and basically she did a bank transfer for the full amount.

So we've collected in full on it. Happy days.

It's a great result for Lawrence

and more importantly form Louisa Nightingale

who, having taken the daunting step of going through the courts

to get what she is owed,

is finally going to get all the money that's rightfully hers.

Back at the Surrey car dealership,

two hours after they arrived, sheriffs Marc and Tony are still waiting around.

Waiting around.

They're on a mission to collect £3,300 owed to Clive Nicholl,

who bought a faulty car from car dealer Sami Alsilawi.

We took it to a Seat garage

and they spent half a day looking at all the problems

and there are still more they didn't have time to investigate.

So far the sheriffs have had no direct contact with Sami,

but they have found a car he bought four days earlier.

Tony clamped it and they've called a tow truck.

Marc, we've got a lock.

But they've got a problem. A second man, who's on his way down to see them,

is claiming he has bought the garage and its vehicles from Mr Alsilawi

and now runs a different business from the premises, Yorktown Motors.

If he's right, Marc and Tony will be leaving with nothing.

They wait to see what arrives first, the tow truck or Yorktown Motors' boss.

What we got here?

Someone here.

Finally, a car arrives. It's the boss of Yorktown Motors.

-You all right?

-He gets a warm welcome from Marc, who has a few things he wants to clear up.

You did tell me, when I first spoke to you, you had nothing to do

with him, you didn't know who they were, it was an empty yard.

But he bought that car on Friday last week.

Yes, I bought it cash from him.

-No, but why would he go and buy a car on Friday when he's no longer trading?

-You can ask him.

You need to get him on the phone, because we're going to seize the vehicle.

Why don't we just stop telling lies? Let's go in here and have a look at some receipts, shall we?

OK, because there's receipts for sales of cars.

This car was bought last week, yeah?

This one...was last week. Or just over a week ago, actually.

Suddenly, another man appears who isn't best pleased to see our camera.

-Don't push, don't push, don't push.

-I'm not pushing.

And he wants the sheriffs out, too.

-Could you please leave the premises, guys?

-No.

-Sandhurst Bridge Cars, they're not here.

-No. You need to pay the debt.

It's the director of Sandhurst Bridge Cars, Sami Alsilawi.

Straightaway, he says he's not interested in paying and that his business is no longer there.

Where does it say that?

But Marc's not beaten that easily.

He points out that Clive's writ is in Sami's personal name,

-as, he believes, is the Audi they've clamped.

-It's in your name.

-But it's Sandhurst Bridge Cars. It's not Sami.

-Where does it say?

Sandhurst Bridge Cars. I was the company director.

-But it's in your name.

-It's a limited company.

-It's in your name.

-It's limited liability.

-There is no "limited" on that.

It doesn't say that on there, does it?

We keep filming as the argument continues on the forecourt.

-OK, the car's going.

-The car can't go anywhere.

-The car belongs to this gentleman, not to me.

-This car is going.

-No.

-OK, I'm not going to argue with you, I'm going to tell you. The car is going unless the money is paid.

-No.

Sami tells Marc the garage website backs up his story

that the garage operating is now a different company.

-You go online.

-I know, because you changed the website this morning.

-I'm not stupid. Don't treat me like an id...

-You can't change a website in a second.

-Yes, you can.

Having seen for himself the business name on the website

conveniently change over the course of the morning, Marc's not that easily fooled.

But it's not deterring Sami, who even has a simple explanation

for what he's doing at the garage he claims no longer to run.

-I'm coming to buy a car.

-OK, well, you bought five cars on Friday. Why don't you go in one of them?

Backed up with a rather large prop.

It's not Sandhurst Bridge Cars. Sandhurst Bridge Cars has moved out.

Sami, just because you've shown me a sign doesn't mean it's nothing to do with you.

-You go and do your homework and come back later.

-I've done my homework.

-We've done our homework.

-I'm not going away.

Suddenly Sami wants to speak to us. He continues to dispute the court's judgment,

saying he doesn't believe it should ever have been brought against Sandhurst Bridge Cars.

I went to court and I said to the court that it's not my company.

My company was established in September 2011, and it's still down to me.

Company used to be here called Johnny cars, or whatever,

and my company started in September last year.

His defence is one that was rejected by the court.

Sami is convinced there's no way the writ can be in his name personally.

-It's not in my name.

-It is in your name.

But all that Marc and Tony need to know is on the High Court writ, in black and white.

Read the line which says "defendant". What does the first bit say?

-Sami Alsilawi, yes.

-It's in your name.

-But it's not my car.

Sami, you're not listening to me. It's not in the company name.

-It's in your name.

-We're going round in circles.

That is your car, I don't care what you say, and it's going.

-It's not going, no. I sold it to him.

-It is going. It's going.

-It's not going.

-It's going.

I can't get a word in. It's ridiculous.

-It's one of them I don't want to listen.

-Yeah, you just don't want to listen to what he's saying.

Getting nowhere with Sami Alsilawi,

Marc turns his attention to the Yorktown Motors boss

who Sami claims bought the seized car from him.

When I originally spoke to you this morning,

you knew nothing about Sandhurst Bridge Cars. You didn't know Sami.

-Why did you tell me lies from the beginning?

-I'm not lying.

-Well, you have lied. You lied to me this morning.

-No.

-You told me you knew nothing of it.

You said you took over this yard, it was an empty yard.

-Because I was driving.

-That doesn't make... No. No.

-I was focusing on the road. In the rain.

-You were focusing on the road?

So, because it's raining, you thought you had an empty yard

-but now it turns out you had a full yard.

-Yes. If police catch me I get three points.

-OK!

But his story's not much help either.

Unbelievable.

The reason he didn't know him this morning, Tone... You'll like this one.

..because it was raining when he was driving and he got confused!

While Sami and the Yorktown Motors boss head off for a private word,

Marc and Tony await the arrival of the tow truck and savour some peace and quiet.

I'm not interested any more. I'm not interested. The car's going.

Unless he wants to shell out for it, it's going. You do it the easy way or you do it the hard way.

Well, we'll just have to call the police, won't we, if he's doing that.

-But I don't want to go down that route.

-No. My legs are aching now because they're getting cold.

But it's not long before the car dealers are back

and this time Sami has suddenly found proof that he did sell the Audi to Yorktown Motors

and no longer owns it. A receipt.

-No, you didn't. You've just done it.

-Yeah, well, it's a receipt.

-No.

-We're not idiots. All right?

-This is a receipt.

-Now you're insulting us.

-Don't treat me like an idiot. You've just done the receipt.

-Doesn't matter.

-It does matter.

-It's 25 November. This is proof it's his car.

-This is proof it's his ownership.

-No. Doesn't prove his ownership.

-Doesn't prove his ownership.

-Don't treat us like idiots, please.

With the sheriffs' patience being stretched to the limit, finally the tow truck arrives.

Are you all right, guys? How you doing?

Right, it's in there. But I'll just... I'm a bit...

We need to make sure... Because I think they're going to try and stop us taking it out.

Marc isn't prepared to argue any more.

He just wants the car so he can get Clive Nicholl

and his family the money that's rightfully theirs.

-Well, we're going to take the car.

-You're not taking the car.

-You're not taking the car.

-I'm taking the car.

-You're not taking the car.

This car is for this gentleman.

I'm not going to get into a stupid argument or a stupid fight over this. We'll just call the police.

-Call the police, that's fine.

-And then...

Just purely to stop a breach of the peace with you, yeah? OK.

Hello. Can I have the police, please?

With the tow truck waiting and the situation liable to get

out of hand, Marc decides he has no choice but to call for back-up.

Well, you just read it out.

Later, we'll see if Marc can leave the garage with either the money he's after or the Audi.

Go on, run me over.

Sheriffs have collected almost £200 million of unpaid court judgments in the last three years.

There's your receipt for that.

One of the most powerful tools at their disposal,

and part of the reason for their high rate of success, is the power they have to seize assets.

I now believe the goods to be in jeopardy, so I will be removing them today.

Although the sheriffs have seized everything from planes to diamonds,

removing goods is rare, happening in less than 1% of cases.

We are the last-chance saloon to prevent your goods being removed.

But the threat of it is ever-present when the sheriffs enforce,

and more often than not gets results.

Well, perhaps you need to tell him that the cars are going to be going off his forecourt.

These days, a High Court writ costs £60. If the sheriffs are successful, there's nothing more to pay.

If they're unsuccessful, the only cost is a £60 admin fee.

-See how easy this job is?

-We're off.

Today, sheriffs Pete Spencer and Dave Crabtree are in Lancashire

on their way to chase up a debt owed by a building contractor.

We're off to a company, Bailey Developments NW Ltd,

in Clitheroe, Lancashire, this morning.

And their total due today is £23,650 and 38 pence.

It is an industrial unit, so I'd assume they're going to be opening at 9am,

or there should be somebody there when we arrive this morning. We'll find out when they get there.

The people they're on their way to help, who don't wish to be identified,

carried out work for the company but only got part of the money they were owed.

The case went to court, but Bailey Developments didn't contest it.

The court ordered them to pay nearly £30,000.

But so far, most of it remains outstanding.

There's a credit on my paper showing £7,000 payment already,

so obviously they have paid something.

That's the place there, just on the right-hand side.

So it's up to Pete and Dave to make sure it's paid.

Writ in hand, Pete and Dave park up and head in.

It's not often they go about collecting such large debts.

But, big or small, Pete's determined to collect any debt that comes his way.

Time to ask for £23,000.

Good morning. Enforcement officers. We've got a High Court writ to attend here today.

The sheriffs have barely made it through the door

when we're asked to stay outside.

Inside, Pete gets straight down to business,

outlining why he's there and what he's come to collect.

We've got a High Court writ to attend here today.

This got moved up as of the 1st of the 11th to the High Court.

Inside, Bailey Developments don't take long to realise

this is a debt that should have been settled a long time ago.

Despite the size of the debt owed, they agree to pay up.

Their only challenge now is to find a way to pay.

Soon after, a very pleased Pete emerges.

Been in and spoken to the lady that's running the company. She hasn't got the full amount today.

What we've done is, we've done an inventory sheet and seized goods at the property.

In the meantime, she has made a bank transfer, immediate payment of £5,000 today.

Then she's followed that up with a £10,000 payment on Monday and then a remainder payment four days later.

So hopefully by next week it'll be payment in full, of £23,650.38.

Not a bad morning's work.

£5,000 in the bank with over £18,000 guaranteed to follow.

A good day for Pete

and an even better one for the people owed the money.

Bailey Developments apologised for any inconvenience caused by the delay in their payments.

They said they'd been making regular payments to the company in question

to clear any outstanding monies owed

but that unfortunately, due to the economic downturn,

they, as a business, had suffered from a lack of cash flow.

However, they added that this has now been resolved and the matter fully settled.

-OK, the car's going.

-The car can't go anywhere. The car belongs to this gentleman.

-The car is going.

Back at the Surrey car dealers, sheriffs Marc and Tony are still

locked in a stand-off with the director of Sandhurst Bridge Cars,

Sami Alsilawi.

They're trying to get disgruntled customer Clive Nicholl

the £3,300 he's owed.

We're going round in circles. That is your car, I don't care what you say, and it's going.

It's not going, no. I sold it to him.

With a car in his personal name clamped

and the tow truck ready to remove it, Sami's last chance to pay up

and stop the vehicle leaving is fast disappearing.

But Sami's still convinced the sheriffs have no right to take the car.

We want to get the black Audi, that's what we're getting.

But with the police already on their way to keep the peace during the removal,

Sami has another bright idea of how to stop it...

..using another vehicle to block the sheriffs and his seized Audi, inside the forecourt gates.

-You have to move.

-I don't have to move.

-Don't drive at me, don't drive at me.

-OK.

Are they on their way? Just tell them he's run you over. Go on, run me over.

Just tell them he's run you over.

Experienced sheriffs Marc and Tony are less than impressed and have an easy solution of their own.

OK, what we're going to do, if you don't move it,

-we'll just drag this out the way.

-It won't go anywhere, this one.

We are going to drag this out the way.

It's a criminal offence to obstruct a High Court sheriff in executing their duties.

Things could soon get a lot worse for Sami Alsilawi.

Thing is, mate, you're going to get nicked for obstructing us

-in a minute, if you don't sort yourself out.

-That's fine.

Not to mention his sheriffs' bill, which is increasing by the hour.

You can charge us waiting time and we'll charge him.

If that's all right. Are you all right to wait, yeah? No worries.

Here we go, it's the gendarmes now. We'll get it sorted now.

-Hello, ladies.

-Hello there.

After four long, frustrating hours at the garage,

finally, two police community support officers arrive to act as peacekeepers.

Marc and Tony have now got to convince them that they're right

and Mr Alsilawi wrong.

Tony briefs the PCSOs on what's been going on.

-That's his name, personal name.

-Yeah, yeah.

-All right?

-I can vouch for that being him.

-That's what we're seizing.

-Because he bought the car on Friday.

-Right. OK.

-And that's the one we're seizing.

-OK, cool. Yeah.

We're just here to prevent a breach of the peace.

You need to move the vehicle and let them get on with their job. OK?

The PCSOs' presence seems to have had a calming effect on Sami,

as he watches Tony remove the clamp from his car.

But as the sheriffs begin their removal of the Audi,

Mr Alsilawi again decides he's had enough of our camera.

-Can you switch off the camera?

-No, sorry.

-Switch off the camera.

Luckily, the PCSOs are on hand

and make sure the Audi's departure goes smoothly.

With the Audi finally loaded and secured, the tow truck drivers want to get going straight away.

And there it goes. The car Sami Alsilawi fought so hard to keep

disappears on the back of a tow truck in an instant.

It will be sold, if necessary,

to get Clive Nicholl and his family back what they're owed.

All right. Just some... notice of seizure.

Marc has some paperwork for Sami, explaining his car is now the property of the court.

And his freshly increased bill.

And that's your bill. £6,121.50.

All right?

But Sami's still not quite ready to go quietly.

-Shut off this thing, mate.

-Look, he's just here doing his job, OK?

Thank you for the help. Thanks very much. Cheers. Bye-bye.

With a valuable asset seized to be sold at auction

if Mr Alsilawi doesn't pay up, it's job done for Marc and Tony today.

They're left to reflect on a testing afternoon.

To be honest with you, out of all the jobs I've ever done,

I don't think I've been told so many lies before.

The story changed all the time,

so we weren't ever going to get to the bottom of it.

But we've ended up taking the vehicle away, so....

We'll just wait and see whether they write into the office now to appeal against it.

-Or they might even decide to pay it.

-Yeah, or they may decide they just want to pay. You never know.

Finding the car owned by Sami meant this could be taken

to pay off the debt in his personal name.

Yeah, it's quite a nice car. A4 convertible.

We've got the keys, the logbook, the MOT,

so we've got everything for the car to sell it, which is quite good.

-Right, what do you want to...

-Oh, let's go and get a cup of tea or something. I'm absolutely frozen.

However, the second smaller writ against Sandhurst Bridge Cars itself remains unpaid,

as they weren't able to find proof it still had assets at the garage.

And since we filmed at Sandhurst Bridge Cars,

the Audi seized by the sheriffs has been sold at auction.

It raised £3,600, which, after auction fees,

will go towards paying off Sandhurst's debt

to Clive Nicholl and his family.

That is fantastic news. That is absolutely brilliant.

Just the kind of result we're after. Brilliant result.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd