Episode 6 The Sheriffs Are Coming

Meet the sheriffs...

I'm a High Court enforcement officer. We're here to execute a High Court writ.

Their job 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.

-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.

..it's time to call the sheriffs.

I've seized your car, sir.

Either let us in the door, or we'll go by the window.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...

They're enforcement officers of the High Court

and the law says they're on your side.

I've just collected 42 grand.

Coming up...

Open the door.

In East London, a building owned by a charity has been occupied by squatters.

Can the sheriffs get the squatters out

and return the building to its owners?

-Enforcement officers!

-You have an hour to get your stuff together.

Just keep your dog under control.

DOG BARKS

Ian Allen created some much-loved children's TV characters.

Welcome to Button Moon!

He was shocked when someone stole and sold his designs.

Someone coming along and altering your creation.

I was heartbroken...

Angry...

Will the sheriffs get Ian the money he's owed.

I have been sent here today with a High Court writ to seize goods.

And Graeme Maznik's motor had seriously faulty locks.

I couldn't even take the key out of the ignition barrel.

At the time I was very angry.

Graeme had to shell out for the repair.

Morning...

Can sheriffs Lawrence and Kev get him his money back?

We are ordered here today to seize goods and the only way to prevent further action is to pay in full.

The sheriffs are most often seen seizing goods

on behalf of the High Court so that claimants

get the money they're due.

But they also enforce other High Court writs.

Today, they're in Hackney, East London,

where a property belonging to the Hackney Joint Estate Charity

has been occupied by squatters.

The charity rents out buildings to finance its work with

disadvantaged people in the borough

but, with the squatters in place, there's no income.

That is your hat, I believe. You must have mine.

Enforcement officers, Lawrence Grix and Kev McNally,

are part of a team who must get the squatters out.

And they're being a bit quieter than usual.

It's just coming up for six in the morning. We're in Hackney.

We're at the rendezvous point,

we're just waiting for some of the others to arrive.

We'll be moving in...

..covertly.

We go in nice and early, hopefully we'll catch them in bed.

They won't have time to respond, we'll catch them unawares.

We just get copies of the writ, just to hand out,

if any of the squatters want to see, while we're there,

what the legal paperwork is and we've got these to show them.

So there is no dispute about anything.

Lawrence and Kev have done this sort of thing before.

They're not normally aggressive.

You do get aggressive ones

but there's all sorts of hazards you've got to be aware of.

You've got to be aware of needles, contamination, electricity, water.

You want to just try and keep the situation quite calm.

Once one of them starts getting quite lairy,

it can generally have a knock-on effect and gains a bit of momentum.

No, we try and keep it all peaceful enough.

If they don't want to go and want to be obstructive,

then they will be forcefully thrown out.

For now, the team is sticking to the softly, softly approach.

Job one is to enter the building,

quietly, if possible.

We don't want to be shouting and hollering and making loads of noise.

You know, alert them to us, barricade themselves in, or anything.

The easiest way in, is the way they go in.

That is always the easiest way.

I don't think we can get a crowbar in this.

Slip it in there.

They can't budge the lock, so they're going to force the door.

WOOD CREAKS

As expected, the noise attracts attention.

Can you open the door, please?

Good morning.

One of the squatters has come down to open the door.

How many of you guys are in here?

Can you wake up your friends and tell them to start backing up, yeah.

Thank you very much.

I've got one guy in there, he's getting his stuff.

He's all right, no problem at the moment.

Just one of you in here?

OK, you need to pack your stuff up. We'll give you some time to pack.

There's one in here, as well.

We'll give you a little bit of time to pack.

You have about an hour to get your stuff together.

-OK, one in there and one in there.

-One here, as well.

There's four, in all.

It was a bit of an effort getting in.

A solid, steel security door.

It was on the verge of giving in when the young lady came

and opened it. It does sound like they were expecting us.

We'll give them an hour or so to get their stuff out now.

The squatters have hacked into the electricity supply

and it's a serious risk.

You know, you don't want to get an electric shock.

-I go nowhere near this.

-I don't know if it's been earthed here. It's all been jumped.

You can see bare electrics everywhere.

Potentially, you do not know what is live, and what isn't.

You don't touch anything, really.

This is their gardening.

The home grown cannabis plants suggest that at least

some of the squatters have been here a while.

The priority is making sure they're all accounted for,

then getting them to pack up their things and move out.

Is everyone packing?

There are four people on this floor

and they're packing their stuff up.

-You've got an hour, mate.

-I've told them.

The tall geezer is a bit out of it.

He's fine but keep a bit of an eye on him, as well.

Everyone here, at the moment, is OK.

Just trying to keep it all on a level.

The eviction is going well

but this is only half the job.

The writ includes the adjoining property,

also occupied by squatters.

Open the door!

They aren't co-operating and won't open the door.

The sheriffs take action.

We will return to Hackney to see what happens

when the sheriffs get in.

DOG BARKS

On a bright, autumn morning, sheriffs Chris Pearson

and Steve Hockborn

are outside an industrial estate near the East coast.

We're in Carnaby, East Yorkshire.

Looking for a Mr Robert Redshaw on behalf of a Mr Ian Richard Allen,

for the amount of £8,968.79.

The person they're on their way to help is Ian Allen from Norfolk.

You might not recognise him

but if you're one of the millions of children he has inspired

and entertained over the years,

you'd certainly recognise one or two of his creations.

# Button Moon... #

This is Mr Spoon.

He's called Mr Spoon because he's got wooden spoons for his arms.

This is his wife, Mrs Spoon.

This is their daughter Tina Tea-Spoon

and this is their best friend, Eggbert.

Ian's a puppeteer and the man responsible for the all-time

children's classic series, Button Moon.

# Button Moon... #

Oh, hello, Mr Spoon. Welcome to Button Moon!

I did lots of things like Playschool, Rainbow, Spitting Image

but my name to fame is Button Moon.

Climb into your spaceship.

Go on!

We can all get ready for the countdown.

Someone asked me, "How did you get the ideas?"

I was in Blackpool, looked up at the sky,

saw a bright, yellow moon and thought, that could be a button.

Are you ready?

In each episode, Mr Spoon would travel to Button Moon

in his home-made rocket ship.

Five, four, three, two, one...

Blast off!

Whey!

And, of course, all of the characters on the show

were based on kitchen utensils.

At the time I didn't realise it was going to be such a hit.

It was a low-budget TV series.

# Button Moon... #

Although still regularly repeated on TV around the world,

the last of its 91 episodes was made in 1988.

Since then, people have regularly approached Ian about ways

of capitalising on its success.

Among them was Robert Redshaw,

who runs a TV and film merchandise company near Bridlington.

I said, "No" to Mr Redshaw

because I've already got Button Moon T-shirts out there

and if I do any work with you at all,

I've got to approve the designs for the mugs

and I didn't hear anything.

So there was no-one more shocked when, some months later,

his attention was drawn to a range of Button Moon-inspired merchandise

being sold by Mr Redshaw's company.

I switched on the computer,

I saw they were being sold all over the Internet.

I contacted Trading Standards.

They were very sympathetic and said, "Yes, it's truly Button Moon."

I was heartbroken, angry.

Someone coming along and altering your creation

for their own means, was just awful.

Ian contacted Mr Redshaw who claimed the merchandise

was just a parody, but this didn't satisfy Ian.

He went back to Trading Standards, who told Mr Redshaw

to stop selling it and destroy what stock he still had.

When he was told by Trading Standards to destroy them, he sold them on.

I found one ad on Amazon, another ad on eBay.

He decided to take legal action to protect his creations

and stop the sale of the merchandise. The case went to court.

It's a painful experience to have to go to court.

I can't say I enjoyed it. I was very scared. Stage fright.

It's theatre, court.

I didn't have this script.

It was a new experience and I don't want to have to go through it again.

Robert Redshaw contested the case, maintaining it was

a parody of the brand and not infringing Ian's copyright.

The judge disagreed and was unimpressed by Mr Redshaw's failure

to prove how much money he had made from the merchandise.

You just can't come along and take someone's creation and use it.

It is stealing.

The judge agreed it was a clear infringement

and awarded Ian the judgement,

ordering Mr Redshaw to pay him £7,158.12.

Hurray!

However, despite this order, Ian still hasn't been paid.

He's now had to bring in some other stars of TV

to help get him what's rightfully his.

In East Yorkshire, Chris and Steve are paying a surprise visit

to the man who produced the offending merchandise,

Robert Redshaw.

-Redshaw House.

-It's not really a lot of help.

In Button Moon, Mr Spoon went to the moon in a baked bean can rocket.

Equipped only with a van, Chris and Steve aren't doing quite as well,

failing to find Mr Redshaw's business.

This is where we went before.

The trouble is, all of the units on the estate look the same.

Honestly, mate, it could be anything around here.

We could be driving around all day, to be honest.

I'll tell you what, we'll pull in here.

I'll run in and see if I can find out.

Even the locals don't seem aware of Mr Redshaw.

I'm looking for a Robert Redshaw, Redshaw House?

-No idea.

-Thanks for your time, anyway. Cheers, buddy.

That postcode covers most of the trading estate.

Nobody seems to know where it is.

Steve's gone to the bakery over there.

He's either getting some information,

or he's eating them out of house and home!

Returning, baked potato free, Steve instead has some hot information.

Down here on the right it's called Kapow Gifts, or something.

A few more minutes driving around and it's starting

to get frustrating.

She just said it's on this side.

-So you've verified it's on the trading estate, then?

-Yeah, it is.

Why didn't you get an exact place to where it was when you asked?

You'll have to ask her again.

Say, "Sorry, I'm that stupid I didn't get all the information last time I came in."

What are you stopping for?

Because I'm going to have to do what you didn't do.

Right, let me out.

I'll go and have a walk.

We'll just have to wait and see what he comes up with.

As Steve heads off,

the location of Kapow Gifts hits Chris between the eyes.

There it is! Redshaw House.

There you go, we'll just leave him.

Where's he going?

PHONE RINGS

I'm talking to Mr Redshaw, can you get down here.

I'm here now.

Right...

Not only has Steve found Mr Redshaw,

he's got himself inside his premises

and once a sheriff is inside your commercial premises,

by law, you can't get him out.

OK, it's to do with Mr Ian Richard Allen.

-Yeah, I thought it might be.

-You know what it's about?

-I've e-mailed him countless times.

-Right...

-"Can't you send me an invoice on where to send the money."

-Right.

What we need to do, I've been sent today with a High Court writ

to seize goods to clear the debt.

I can show you the e-mail right now if you want to look at it.

I've actually e-mailed him, "Where do you want the money?"

Can you pay it off in full, first of all?

Yeah, so long as it's now...

£8,968 in total.

-I've got a bit... I'd like to dispute that...

-Right.

-..extras that he's going to charge for you.

-Absolutely.

He just never asked me for the money.

Far from disputing the case,

Mr Redshaw claims he has tried to pay Mr Allen the money.

But, it hasn't been paid and Mr Allen has gone to the High Court,

so Mr Redshaw's bill has gone up.

That was your original bill with your judgement costs,

which I believe was around about what you said you had to pay him.

This is the interest accrued. This is the sheriffs' fees.

But, but...

On what basis...

-How can

-I

-dispute that.

I can't give too much advice because I'm working on his behalf.

Do you see? But, at the end of the day, if you have any grievances,

you take it up with him.

If you have any grievances with the court, you take it up with them.

If you're in a position to pay it, the best thing to do is pay it

and take it up in your own time. Pretty much straight away next week.

-What's the procedure if I don't?

-We will seize everything until we get proof of ownership.

That's the route. Hopefully we don't have to go down that route

but that's what we would have to go down.

And with two sheriffs on-site, and the prospect of his property

being seized and removed, Mr Redshaw agrees to pay.

I think he's going to pay by credit card,

take it up with whoever he needs to take it up with later.

That's all we need to do, get the payment, get out of here.

Steve heads in with the card machine.

But in remote East Yorkshire,

the card machine struggles to make a connection with the bank

so the payment is done by direct transfer into the account.

As Chris tidies up the paperwork,

Steve gets nostalgic about children's TV.

Oh, yeah, I watched it all the time!

No...

HE CHUCKLES

I can remember it being on. I had a little girl at that time.

She's 25 now, 24, so she doesn't still watch it.

With the debt paid, Mr Redshaw wants to put his side of the story.

I could understand why, it's his creation. It's his baby.

He describes it as his baby and his children being kidnapped.

He's a bit melodramatic.

I can understand what he's saying.

It's his main creation, I'm not aware of anything else he's created

that's taken off like that. It was a big show at the time.

But he still thinks it's a big thing, 30 years later,

and that we've made a massive amount of money out of it.

That's not the case. We only made a few hundred mugs.

The licensing he would've got off that, the royalty,

would have been 10%, which would only have been £100, or something.

It's totally disproportionate to what was awarded.

It's a good result for the sheriffs

and for Button Moon creator, Ian Allen.

I've done a bank transfer and he's cleared the full lot off, which is a result.

And, finally, in the interests of justice, a decision must be made.

Who was responsible for the hour it took to find the address?

So, really, it's more Steve's fault than mine, to be honest,

as is everything that goes wrong!

No-one is more delighted at the outcome

than Button Moon creator, Ian Allen.

And, a couple of his friends.

Well done.

The sheriffs got the money.

Yay!

In Hackney, East London, Lawrence and Kev are part of a team evicting

squatters from two buildings owned by the Hackney Joint Estate Charity.

Good morning.

The squatters opened the door to the first property and are co-operating with the sheriffs.

Open the door!

But in the second building it's a different story.

Lawrence applies his boot and then it's the same routine as next door.

Good morning, enforcement officers!

Do you speak English?

You don't speak English.

You do speak English?

You understand, yeah? OK.

Pack your belongings and leave.

Which room's the dog in?

-We're enforcement officers.

-We know that. We're coming out now.

We will give you an hour to get your stuff together, yeah.

Just keep your dog under control.

There's the one woman in the room downstairs with the dog.

We'll give her some time if she keeps the dog under control.

They know the position.

They know there's a repossession and they know they're going.

Erm...

So we'll just give a bit of time and they'll go peacefully.

We're finding an increasing number that are actually employed.

The squatters are co-operating, but there's a lot of kit to shift.

-Have you got everything you need there?

-Yes.

-Yeah?

We want them to go as peacefully as possible.

No aggravation.

No, you'll have to make everyone a cup of tea if you're doing that.

-How many is there?

-15.

-No, you're all right.

In this building, too, Lawrence spots the tell-tale signs

of horticultural activity.

This is a little hydroponic cupboard

for growing a cannabis plant.

There's quite few cannabis plants being grown around the place.

So, obviously, illegal activity is going on.

Definitely a bit funky.

They have got a lot of stuff.

This guy reckons he's been here a year.

Unless he's going to get removal trucks in,

he's going to be here all day, which we're not going to be around for.

Many of the squatters are now outside the building

and even the dog has been evicted.

-What's the dog's name?

-Killer.

The issue now is how to get rid of their stuff.

The rear forecourt is getting absolutely full.

Really they could do with removal lorries.

I don't know how they're going to get it away from here

but there's an awful lot of stuff going out.

Some of the squatters have organised a truck.

It's soon full.

Others opt for a less legal solution to moving out.

Yeah, there's been a little bit of a dispute at the moment

because the squatters have been going to the local supermarket,

paying their £1 for their trolley, wheeling them back, filling them with stuff and taking them away.

The lady from the supermarket has come round demanding her

trolleys back. That's what they've been up.

Paying their £1 for their trolley and filling it up with stuff.

But what do the squatters themselves think?

They've given us time to get things out and, you know, that's awesome.

At the end of the day, we've had a good run, we're happy.

We know you need the building back, to renovate.

That's OK, that's how the process goes.

It's not worth fighting for a building that'll be used.

But it is for a building that's going to be left abandoned.

What happens now? Standard procedure is, we get all our stuff to a safe place

and then we go find another building.

Luckily, there's plenty around.

The sheriffs believe there could have been over 25 squatters

in the two properties.

We have to search every bit of it. You do get people hiding.

It's been known before. You come into the most grotty bit

and you find somebody hiding in a corner.

Thinking they're going to get away with it and let their friends back in later on.

Now they've all gone and the building can be handed back.

Yeah, they've have their time now.

All the stuff's gone that they need.

We're going to shut up now and give our client a bit of a tour round,

make sure he's happy with everything and get everything signed off

and we're done here.

The manager of the demolition firm

contracted to strip the property isn't impressed.

It's really bad.

There's graffiti everywhere, there's rubbish.

The basement is full up to the ceiling.

It's dangerous.

You couldn't live in it, it's beyond belief, really.

It took us a little while to get in

because one of them was very secure, metal door.

Once we were in, they just left.

Locksmiths are securing the building to make sure it can't be reoccupied.

The owners say it will be redeveloped very soon

with rental income paying for the work of the charity.

It's been a textbook operation for the sheriffs.

Thanks, in part, to the co-operation of the now former squatters.

High Court enforcement officers, known as sheriffs,

have collected almost £200 million of unpaid court judgements

in the last three years.

We're here to seize goods from the property.

Now we do at this stage have our locksmith if needs be.

If you get a county court judgement of over £600,

you pay £60 to take it to the High Court

so that the sheriffs can enforce it.

We're in enforcement officers, we've got a High Court writ.

We've come to take 12,056.76

If the sheriffs succeed, there's no more to pay.

If they don't, there's a £60 admin fee.

I'm not leaving, no, I'm an enforcement officer with a High Court writ.

It's a breakfast time start for the sheriffs.

Enforcement officers Lawrence and Kev are heading east out of London.

We're on our way to Royston in Hertfordshire, at the moment.

It's 8:20.

We're going to a car dealer, Ash Vehicle Sales.

It is a limited company.

We haven't got limited on our paperwork, we've got Ash Vehicle Sales.

The man the sheriffs are on their way to help

is bright, young spark, Graeme Maznik.

He currently lives in Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

I've been training for an electrician for about a year and a half now.

I'm about halfway into a three-year course.

Graeme's ambition is to become a fully qualified electrician.

He's been working and studying hard, as an apprentice,

to learn his trade.

As well as qualifications, he also needs a vehicle to get him from job to job.

It's essential to get my own transport to get myself into business, really.

I've saved up about 3,600 and had a part exchange on my old car.

Graeme spent over two months searching online

before finding Ash Vehicle Sales, a garage run by Ashley Smith,

who was selling the ideal vehicle, a Mitsubishi L200.

I looked through his website and it seemed pretty genuine.

It quotes on there that I'm trustworthy salesman dealer

and he's always there to help.

Graeme made the journey to Cambridge to check out the vehicle.

He was thrilled with the Mitsubishi 4x4.

When I turned up he was a friendly guy. He gave me the chatter, as a car dealer would.

The vehicle already had the key in it. I took it for a test drive. I was happy with it.

The guy took the cash and a couple of moments after that he left.

Graeme was happy with the vehicle and having paid £5,050,

made the journey back home.

He wasn't expecting what was to happen next.

I went to lock it, I couldn't take the key out of the ignition barrel.

Me and my dad were there for about half an hour.

Pretty frustrated, and, at the time, was very angry.

With no way of removing the key from the ignition,

Graeme couldn't lock the doors to secure the vehicle,

rendering it unusable.

He desperately needed the car for work,

so contacted Ash Vehicle Sales many times to get the 4x4 fixed.

Mr Smith wasn't interested.

It was pretty wrong really because he sold me the car

and at no point tried to rectify the situation.

I mean, if I was an electrician, I went to someone's job

and they had a problem, I'd say, "Look, don't worry about it,

"I'll be around as soon as I can to fix it."

It's bang out of order.

Mr Smith didn't acknowledge any of Graeme's letters, or phone calls.

Graeme's only option was to get the vehicle fixed himself at a Mitsubishi garage.

The bill after we'd taken it to the Mitsubishi garage was £526.

I sent Mr Smith the invoice for the work to be done.

He couldn't have done the work because it had to be done by a Mitsubishi dealer.

Ash Vehicle Sales didn't acknowledge the invoice, or respond.

Graeme had to borrow the money for the repairs from his dad.

Graeme wasn't willing to stand for this and decided to take his case to court.

I thought the best way to take it to county court

and get the situation done, like, the legal way.

It's Mr Smith's responsibility to have the car

in a roadworthy condition.

Why should it be my responsibility to fix it

when he sold it to me as it is?

Mr Smith didn't attend court.

In his absence judgement was issued in Graeme's favour

and he was awarded £695.67.

Since the judgement, Graeme hasn't heard from Ash Vehicle Sales.

Now he has one last hope...

..the sheriffs.

On their way to Royston, Lawrence is optimistic it that he will be

able to get Graeme his money.

If he's a bona fide car dealer,

they should have plenty of stock there.

One car would probably cover that so I would hope we would find

sufficient assets to clear this quite easily.

It is AVS?

-Ash Vehicle Services.

-That's it, there.

Except we're Ash Vehicle Sales.

-We have been warned.

-What have we been warned about?

-I don't know, satellite dishes?

-Satellite dishes?

I always watch out for a satellite dish.

When they arrive at Ash Vehicles Sales, the gates are locked.

There isn't anyone to clock us just yet.

-Right, it's a bit.

-It's on us.

Lawrence was hoping there would be assets

and some promising vehicles are parked outside.

He knows from bitter experience they'll be of no use

unless he can prove they are owned by the company.

Morning.

-I'm looking for Ash Vehicle Sales.

-Yeah.

-That yourself, is it?

Just show you some ID.

We've got a High Court writ to execute against Ash Vehicle Sales

on behalf of a Graeme Manzik.

We're ordered here today to seize goods to the value of £1640.95.

The only way to prevent further action is to pay in full.

-Graeme Mansik?

-Yeah. Sorry Maznik. M-AZ-N-I-K.

-Do you know him?

-Come in the office, I don't know.

He has a writ against you.

Ashley Smith, the owner of AVS, asks our camera to stay outside.

At first, he doesn't remember the case.

I've got a copy of the actual judgement

and it says that you didn't send a response.

Mr Smith says he's recently moved house

and that the paperwork must been delivered to his old address.

Lawrence isn't buying the story.

This is the address we've got.

I would imagine if he came here to deal with you,

then that's the address he would have put on it

and that's the address that all the paperwork would have come to. The simplest thing to do is pay it.

Lawrence points out that with a live writ

he has to either collect money, or assets, today.

He's gone through the county court, it's been transferred to the High Court

so that we've got a live writ and that's it.

Mr Smith realises that his only option is to pay the money

today and he offers Lawrence a cheque.

Don't take cheques.

It's cleared funds, so credit card, debit card, cash, bank transfer...

He's going to pay on a card now and get this out of the way.

We're just going to list down some goods.

He's got this Porsche out the front here so we'll put that down on our paperwork.

Erm, he's going to pay anyway. No, it's all good.

I'll write you out one of our receipts, yeah.

We'll leave you in peace.

Ashley Smith has paid the sheriffs in full.

Now he wants to put his side of the case.

His issue was he bought a vehicle,

a week later, he had a problem with the lock,

which he sent me a letter to say he'd already decided

to have it fixed without letting me know about it.

He referred it to a Small Claims Court and, erm,

it's gone on from there.

I've sent paperwork back to the court

for resolution and I haven't heard anything back

and then this is his why it has resulted like it has today.

£1,645.95...

I had no other option than to just to pay it.

It shouldn't have gone as far as it has today.

As I say, it's down to the court's fault, not mine.

It's been another good result for the sheriffs

and for Mr Maznik, who will get his money back.

Even though they won't need to seize vehicles today,

Kev can't help taking a professional view of Mr Smith's Porsche.

'95 Boxster, 4,500, five grand?

Fairly quick, in-out, got the payment, onto the next job,

couldn't be better really for a car dealer.

Sheriffs have special powers to seize goods,

they can then sell at auction to settle a debt.

Often the threat of seizure is enough to make the debtor pay

but if the individual, or company, has no assets to seize,

it may leave the sheriffs powerless.

That's the challenge facing High Court enforcement officers,

Mark Newton and Tony Smith, as they head into Essex,

hoping to enforce a claim against a company with a somewhat confusing name.

We're going to Betterview Windows and Conservatories Kent Ltd

in Wickford, in Essex,

for the amount of £36,126.40.

Betterview Windows Kent Ltd is based in Essex

and the claim is being brought by former employee, David Steel,

who was made redundant after 17 years.

He rejected the company's redundancy offer

and the case went to court, where it was not contested.

Mr Steel was awarded £30,000 for unfair dismissal

and loss of earnings.

The company appealed and lost,

but the claimant has not received his money.

Can Tony and Mark get him paid?

Hiya. I'm after Betterview Windows and Conservatories.

We're from the sheriffs,

for Mr D K Steel.

I'll see if I can get someone to come out to you.

-Yeah, we'll wait here then.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Minutes later Tony and Mark are invited inside.

One of Betterview's doors is shut on our camera.

Then it's through more doors as they cross to another building

to meet the general manager. He doesn't want to be filmed.

Our cameraman is asked to leave the building.

The man they're meeting is Barry Noad.

He claims the company has no assets and is unable to pay.

You have no way of paying anything at all? All right.

He says that any assets on site are owned by his wife.

If you can't afford to pay, we'll need to see proof

that the stuff is not yours. We need to see proof of that, then.

Mark asks for proof about who owns what.

Mr Noad heads off to get the paperwork.

Meanwhile, Tony and Mark list assets

in case there is anything they can seize.

Say he drives a Range Rover, which is probably one of these two.

At the end of the day, it isn't going to be registered to the company, is it?

He's got a truck and some vans that are quite good, worth a bit of money.

We don't know whether they're on finance, or belong to the company

but, as it stands at the moment, we have seized them on paper.

We're just waiting for some documents to arrive now.

The boss explains that the original company, Betterview Windows Essex

went into administration in 2008

when the bank called in their loan.

They kept trading through another company, Betterview Windows Kent.

All the assets of the Essex company, including the vans

the sheriffs seized, were bought personally by Mr Noad's wife.

Basically all the assets you and your wife personally own,

because you lent the money to the company.

This is bad news.

With no assets to seize, the sheriffs have no way of getting the £30,000.

Can Mark get anything for the unfairly dismissed David Steel?

This is quite a complicated case.

Mr Noad says he let five men go and two rejected the redundancy package.

One of those has since accepted a payment plan of £500 a month

but David Steel didn't, leaving him with nothing.

What we're going to need to do is get an arrangement going

if there isn't an arrangement in place.

Mark tries to speak to the company accountant about putting

a plan in place, but he's not there today.

With no cash on the table, and no assets to seize, reluctantly Tony

and Mark depart with the promise the accountant will call within a week.

-Cheers!

-See you later.

Meanwhile, Mr Noad wants to put his point of view

and explains that he was ill when the case went to court.

I had a stroke and I made an agreement to pay £500 a month

and it was accepted, but David Steel wants his money in full

because I drive around in a reasonably nice car and I work

average 16 hour days and he said that we're very wealthy.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Where does that leave David Steel?

Basically I haven't got any money

and I don't think the claimant's going to be happy with that

but, unfortunately, if that's what he's offering,

our hands are a bit tied because there's nothing more we can do.

If Mr Steel agrees, at £500 a month,

the debt will take five years to settle.

With nothing to seize, for once, the only powers

the sheriffs could exercise are their powers of persuasion.

And, since we filmed,

David Steel did receive payments of £6,500 from Betterview Windows Kent.

However, since then the company has gone into liquidation

with Mr Steel now unlikely to get back the remaining £26,000 he's owed.

On a sunny afternoon in the north-west of England,

enforcement officers Pete Spencer and Graham Biggins are in Blackpool.

They're heading to the offices of an advertising company, Storemedia Plc.

Having run into financial difficulties,

the company was taken to court for unpaid solicitors' fees.

They didn't contest the case and judgement was issued for them to pay up.

Pete's previously visited the office where

he has seized goods on paper with the threat of removing them unless

the company stuck to a payment plan they set up for the debt.

Unfortunately, for Storemedia, payments have ceased

so now Pete's back and, if the money isn't raised today,

goods will be going with the sheriffs.

-Hiya, Storemedia? Enforcement officer.

-OK, no problem.

-Thank you.

-You dealt with me last time, in the office.

-Yeah. I'll see to it.

The staff clearly remember Pete and the debt.

They take him into a private office to discuss the next step.

-Hiya, are you OK? We spoke last time, didn't we?

-Yeah.

It's the same case, unfortunately.

The payment plan's not been kept up to, or it's not been accepted,

I don't think by the claimant. Yeah, they've rejected the offer.

We've come for full payment today,

or to remove those goods that we seized last time.

-Which goods are them?

-All the Dell computers.

They did last time I came when I seized them.

So where've they gone to now, then, if they belong to somebody else?

OK.

At this point, our cameraman is asked to leave the building.

Pete, meanwhile, keeps going inside.

In particular, he's interested in the items

he's seized on his previous visits, mainly computer equipment.

They're technically the property of the court

and if Storemedia won't pay, they'll be leaving with Pete.

The Dell computers were the property of Storemedia last time.

But the member of staff gives Pete some worrying news.

He says Storemedia has gone into administration

and the equipment in the office has been sold to another company.

Pete explains to the staff that as the business is not yet officially in administration,

the items he listed are technically the property of the High Court,

so they couldn't be sold to another company.

Pete lays down the options to the office staff.

Pay up, or the computers go.

Storemedia plc, are they able to pay that amount?

Are they able to pay any amount off that figure?

The staff say they can't afford to pay the debt,

as Storemedia's bank account is now frozen.

We will be removing goods today.

Seizing and removing goods is a last resort for the sheriffs

but with this company in administration,

and unable to pay anything, the sheriffs have no choice.

Yeah, we've got a few items.

We're just going to start loading them up now.

We've got quite a few computers and bits and bats.

The scenario is at the moment, we're seized all the items from our other visit.

That's what we're removing today. There's 20 items in total.

Dell towers, Dell monitors and some keyboards and a mouse

and a data card machine.

While Pete and Graham get on with the heavy lifting,

someone comes out of the office to tell us things from his point of view.

The company, Storemedia, is going to into administration

so, unfortunately, the bank account is frozen at the moment.

Even if we did have the available funds,

we wouldn't have the capability to pay it, either way.

I have explained that to the gentleman but,

unfortunately when they've got a warrant...

Unfortunately, they're coming to seize goods so there's not a lot we can do about that.

Printing has gone up over the years

so when your bad debt goes up

from maybe eight, ten, 12% to nearer 20-25%,

it has a big impact on the cash flow

and the day-to-day running of the company.

It's no real fault of the directors.

It's no-fault of the staff. It's just down to the economy, really.

That won't be enough, there's £7,800 outstanding.

Unfortunately, the assets have got very little value really

but to do our job we're taking the assets of the company that was here.

-Is that everything at 20 items?

-That's it.

-Sound.

Get some paperwork signed and we'll be on our way.

Yeah, it went all right.

I don't think they're going to bring much money but it's better than nowt, I suppose.

The position to wind up the PLC company,

which is going through on Monday, in the High Court, anyway.

After next week, the company probably won't exist, anyway.

And, with that, Pete and Graham head off.

Although they're some way short of the amount they were after,

Pete's persistence means they don't leave with nothing.

Once the equipment is sold on behalf of the administrators,

the out of pocket solicitors firm should get some of the money they're owed.