Episode 9 The Sheriffs Are Coming

-Meet the sheriffs.

-Let's go and introduce ourselves.

-We're High Court Enforcement Officers.

-We're here today 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 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.

..it's time to call the sheriffs.

I've seized your car, sir.

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

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 - when the sheriffs visit a wedding photographer,

they are surprised by what they find in his studio.

I've got a half-naked woman in here.

As the model covers up, will they recover the debt?

So it's a choice of either payment or we have to seize the goods.

Samantha Millerchip paid a builder to carry out renovations in her house

but he walked off the job without finishing it

and took her money with him.

I just thought I'm not going to be getting any money back

for any materials.

She's got a High Court writ to try and get her money back.

Can the sheriffs now get it for her?

When an electrician can't get the money he's owed,

Sheriff Pete Spencer goes in to collect the debt.

-Looking for Inner-space.

-Get off me.

-As things turn nasty, the police are called.

-I need police assistance.

Will Pete get out of the building safely, and recover the money?

You're not getting out of here without giving me

that memory card, mate.

-Just give us one second, let go.

-That is assault.

Sheriffs Craig Wild and Tom Coyle

are in a city famous for apples, porcelain, and sauce.

Right, we're in Worcester today,

another lovely rainy day we've got ahead of us.

We're after an individual, a Mr David Purslow.

The claimant is a Mrs Anna Edenborough.

It's a balance of £7,527.37 we're after today

which is not a small balance.

Anna Edenborough hired photographer David Purslow to take

pictures of her wedding in August 2011.

But after the newlyweds returned from honeymoon,

she had not received her photos.

The proofs on David Purslow's website looked good,

but despite Anna chasing him,

Mr Purslow never sent the full-quality photos.

I reckon we went past it.

Over a year later, there were still no photos,

so Anna took the photographer to court.

He didn't contest the case, and now he hasn't paid the money

awarded by the court

which, with costs and interest, is just over £7,500.

Determined to get Anna Edenborough her money,

the sheriffs approach the photographic studio.

-Hello.

-David Purslow?

-Yeah.

-Could I have a work with you in private?

Not at the moment, I'm in the middle of something.

-I need to speak to you.

-You'll have to wait.

I can't wait, unfortunately.

I've got a half-naked woman in here.

-Do you want to come in at the moment?

-Eh...

No, can you give me ten minutes?

-No, I can't let the door be shut cos I'm from the Sheriffs Office.

-Oh. OK.

Defendants give the sheriffs many reasons for not entering premises,

but the presence of a half-naked woman is among the more unusual.

Tom has powers to enter commercial premises,

so he's not going to let the studio door close

but he agrees to avert his eyes while the model covers up

before continuing.

-We're here with a High Court order.

-OK.

We're here for a balance of £7,527.37 to do with a Mrs Anna Edenborough.

-You haven't got that today?

-No.

I'm completely unaware, I've got no idea. Who is Anna Edenborough?

To jog Mr Purslow's memory, Tom looks through the court paperwork.

It doesn't reveal much.

She supplied evidence to a county court that you owe that balance.

I've had no paperwork here or anything like this.

But Tom's sure the debt is genuine,

and his live writ means he needs to resolve it today.

-Our job here today is to ask you for the money.

-Right.

Unfortunately, if you can't pay,

then we're to seize goods in lieu of payment,

anything that's here.

Craig calls HQ to see if they can shed more light on the case.

One second, Joan, I'll put you on speakerphone, all right? One second.

Craig and Tom know they've got the details right

and should press on.

So it's a choice of either payment or we have to seize the goods.

Mr Purslow says he hasn't got £7,000.

Then we're going to have to seize the goods.

Anything else will be going as well, i.e. any vehicles.

At auction value.

Normally about 10% of its true value so, as you can imagine,

we'd have to remove a lot of stuff.

With the prospect of the sheriffs seizing a lot of goods to pay off

the £7,000 debt, Mr Purslow realises he'll have to try to raise funds.

Best thing to do is start making some calls.

Checking through his e-mails,

the photographer finds one from his former client,

complaining that she has not received her disc of wedding photos

but he's sure he's had no letters from her or the court.

She's put it in the hands of the courts now, she won't deal with you.

It's a court decision now.

The model, who was having

one of the increasingly-popular "boudoir" shoots prior

to her wedding when the sheriffs turned up, is still in the studio.

The shoot clearly over, she wants to put her clothes on and leave.

Once in a commercial building, the sheriffs won't leave

but they do promise not to look.

I'll face the wall here so it's OK, no problem at all.

Mr Purslow is no longer denying any knowledge of the debt

but he's not paying either.

Time to tell Mr Purslow where things stand.

So we're going to start listing everything down to see the numbers

and if you can't raise it, you've got roughly an hour

then we're going to have to start looking at taking the goods.

Mr Purslow doesn't have the money,

but he's convinced his sister to pay.

Craig makes the arrangements.

Is it in a debit card account that you have?

OK, how far away are you from here?

-I'll have a sit down.

-Yes. Is that yours, is it?

-It is mine.

20 minutes later, the photographer's sister arrives.

She doesn't want to be filmed.

Mr Purslow's £7,000 debt arose

when he failed to deliver a disc of wedding photos to a bride.

Finally, his sister's paid his debt by debit card.

We'll give you a copy of that

and a copy of all the paperwork we'll leave you with today.

-All right.

-All right, David? Well, thank you for your time.

-You take care of yourself.

-Not a pleasure, but thank you very much.

-No, no, thank you very much.

-Thank you for your time.

With the debt settled, Mr Purslow wants to put his side of the story.

There's Anna Karina and David's photos all online,

all accessible of which she's had.

However, it does say in the contract and the paperwork

that they will get a disc of images of this

which I believe I have sent, she says she hasn't got.

The paperwork went to an address I was at eight years ago,

seven, eight years ago, which the court guys say is probably my fault

because it was on the bottom of the paperwork and everything.

Being a small business and relying on cash flow,

I didn't have the money,

so I called my amazing sister who I love very, very much.

He says it's not an excuse, but Mr Purslow tells us

he was being treated for cancer shortly after the wedding,

and that may explain why this job didn't get his full attention.

But he's learned from today.

For the sake of a 50p disc...

When you leave, I've got to deal with my sister for £7,500.

It's horrific and frightening and, you know,

got to get your paperwork sorted out.

Big lesson from the day is don't...

You've got to make sure your address is correct and everything like that.

It's a good result for claimant Anna Edenborough,

who was unable to get her wedding photos but now,

thanks to the sheriffs,

will be getting the money a court says is hers.

He was in mid-shoot, it looked like, as we turned up.

We had to be quite respectful, as we always are,

but at the same time, I still need to get into the building to do my job.

And Craig assures us

this is one job where he's glad he was second in to the premises.

I'm glad that Tom, yeah, did his job.

Got into the premises

which is always the difficult part for any enforcement officer

but, yeah, well pleased he got in there

and I was quick to follow but not that quick.

It's early in the morning, dark and cold,

the usual conditions that see sheriffs out and about.

Today, Lawrence Grix and Kev McNally are heading to the

South Coast on behalf of another out-of-pocket member of the public.

We're just coming into Southampton.

It's a residential address for a defendant by the name of Paul Wyllie.

I believe he fitted...

He did some building work for our claimant.

The person they're on their way to help is

Samantha Millerchip from Gosport in Hampshire.

Recently, she wanted her bathroom refitted

and was looking for a suitable builder to take on the work.

My mum gave me a lump sum of money

because she knew I wanted to do some home improvements.

I put a post on Facebook to ask

if anybody knew someone they could recommend

because I had no idea on this type of thing

and I wanted my bathroom refitted to start with

because it was a very old bathroom.

It wasn't long until a friend recommended a local builder,

Paul Wyllie.

Samantha called him in and, happy with his quote,

asked him to start the work.

Once he started, the five-six day job did take longer,

it was more like three weeks

because he didn't always turn up every day when he said he would

but he did do a really good job of the bathroom

which I was pleased with.

Happy with this work, Samantha took the opportunity to suggest

other important jobs she needed doing -

removing her carpets and laying down a wooden floor,

putting new fittings in the kitchen and redecorating the front room.

He was very convincing of how he could get the rest of the work

done in the house that I needed to do at a relatively good price.

I trusted him that that would be the case so I was happy to pay him

the money for the materials and pay him money for labour

on the basis that he would come and do it.

Liking his quote, Samantha agreed to the job

and paid up front for work and materials.

But soon after work had started, problems began to appear.

So he'd come round for a couple of hours at a time

and not really get a lot of work done.

This went on and on

and I'd constantly be texting him, phoning him and chasing him up.

But worse was to come.

Samantha and Mr Wyllie agreed to a revised deadline.

She was going on holiday

and he agreed all work would be completed by the time she returned.

But when she did get back, the work wasn't finished

and Mr Wyllie was nowhere to be found.

I tried to phone Mr Wyllie a few times

after the final deadline.

He didn't answer his calls.

I did send him a text message and it was at that point that he said

he had bitten off more than he could chew,

he wasn't going to be able to finish the work

but, of course, he'd be returning the materials

that he had bought to date

and returning the money I had paid for labour

and he acted quite offended

that I suggested that he may not still have the money.

So he agreed that he'd be returning it all

and then nothing since.

At this point, I didn't believe a word he had said.

And Samantha was even less happy at the quality of the work he had done.

She's since had to have repairs carried out.

He told me the skirting boards he had fitted to my walls

were so bowed because my walls were an uneven shape

but apparently that wasn't the case at all.

He had just basically cut them too long and rammed them in.

I had new flooring,

click-and-lock flooring that you just put into place but it turns out

he's basically glued it with very strong glue.

The whole point of the flooring is you can move it if necessary.

There were no fronts on any of my cupboards.

The shower he had installed then turned out to leak

so I had a big damp patch on my bathroom ceiling.

For me, personally, it was a really stressful time.

I had a lot of problems sleeping cos I was worrying about it a lot.

My mum, like I said, had just been diagnosed with cancer

so it wasn't something I particularly wanted to keep

sharing with her or telling her what was going on

because it was, you know, she had enough on her plate as it was.

Samantha felt she had no choice but to bring legal action.

Mr Wyllie didn't contest the case

and a judgment was issued in Samantha's favour.

Despite this, she still hasn't been paid.

Her only hope now of seeing her money lies with the sheriffs.

And hoping to get her the money she's owed,

Lawrence and Kev arrive at Paul Wyllie's house.

-Hello, sir. Mr Wyllie, yeah?

-Yeah.

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

-Mm-hm.

We're here today to execute a High Court writ against you

on behalf of a Mrs Samantha Millerchip.

We're here today to seize goods to the value of £4,703.08.

The only way you can prevent further action is to pay in full

so how would you like to pay?

Right, then we'll be taking your van, sir.

-It's your job?

-Yeah.

You've got two vans here, sir.

But you're Wyllie and Son?

You're not a sole trader so you can't claim "tools of the trade".

That is not solely for your use in the conduct of your business

because you're a partnership with your son, Wyllie and Son,

so you can use the Astra.

Lawrence and Kev are invited inside to discuss with Mr Wyllie

the money he owes Samantha Millerchip.

Mr Wyllie tells Lawrence and Kev he can't afford to pay today.

The van's looking like Lawrence's best bet for getting the money paid.

Kev comes out to fill us in.

Mr Wyllie knew all about the debt, he just didn't expect to see us.

He's claiming he's got £3,000 coming to him on Monday.

We need to take some money now and see what happens from there.

Inside, Lawrence pushes on with the enforcement.

At the moment, the van's the only leverage we've got.

So, providing it's not on finance, I think we'll be taking it.

The son's emptying out the van.

He's possibly resigned to the fact that's it going to go.

Kev stays outside to make sure the van doesn't get driven off.

But inside, Lawrence is making some progress on behalf

of Samantha Millerchip and her money.

With his van in jeopardy, Mr Wyllie agrees to strike a deal.

He'll pay some today, some more the following week

and the balance at the end of the month.

-Can you bring the card machine, Kev, please?

-Yeah.

So, let's go and see how much.

And with that, Lawrence leaves.

He's not only got a substantial down-payment for Samantha

and a promise of more to come,

he's also got a signed Walking Possession agreement

which means if Mr Wyllie doesn't pay the rest of what he owes,

Lawrence can come back for the van and other listed assets.

Basically, I've taken £1,200 today,

he's going to pay another £2,000 on Tuesday

and the balance at the end of the month.

I'm pretty sure he's going to stick to that.

If he doesn't, we'll be back.

We've got some money out of it

which is as much as we could do today, to be fair.

But Mr Wyllie didn't make any of the additional payments he'd promised.

So Lawrence and Kev were forced to pay him another visit.

He hasn't paid any more.

He's phoned the office on a few occasions saying he's going to pay

but basically he hasn't paid anything

so we're going to potentially remove goods today.

Once inside, Mr Wyllie told Lawrence he did try to pay some money,

but that he had problems with making the payment over the phone.

Lawrence took a further £1,000 payment from him

and arranged for a payment plan for the balance.

I've told him he's got to submit a proposal in writing

within five days. It's got to be a reasonable amount of money

but something he knows he can pay and if that's accepted by the client

then, provided he sticks to it, he won't need to see us back again.

For Samantha Millerchip, it means finally getting

some of the money she's owed, with, hopefully, the rest to follow.

Really, really good news,

very positive because I had, in my mind,

I had kind of written it off because I didn't think I would be

able to get anything back.

And providing he keeps up the repayments and makes the payments

as agreed then, yes, justice has been served.

And to date, Mr Wyllie has stuck to his payment plan.

Being a sheriff often involves a little detective work.

Debtors can be hard to track down.

Sometimes they try to evade payment,

sometimes they just move.

Sheriff Pete Spencer has been trying to track down Inner-space Lofts for a while.

They owe money to an electrician who did work for them but wasn't paid

but they've proved hard to find.

I've been to three or four other addresses for this company already

so this will be the fourth address that we'll be attending for them.

This time Pete's done a "trace" on the company

and they've turned up in Leyland, Lancashire,

sharing premises with another unrelated company.

As Pete rolls up to the address, it looks promising.

Well, they've got a vehicle parked outside,

relating to the company we're looking for.

Let's go and have a look.

If Inner-space are here, they must be in an inner space.

Hiya, I'm looking for Inner-space.

-How are you doing, you all right?

-You're in the wrong place.

-Seems like the right place.

-Take it off me.

But before Pete gets any further, the man grabs the camera.

-Get the

-BLEEP

-off.

-This is Mr Bond.

He tells our cameraman to leave

and turns his attention to the sheriff.

-He tells Pete to leave.

-I don't have to leave.

I've got a High Court writ to attend this address.

Despite the Inner-space branded van outside,

and his own Inner-space shirt,

Mr Bond tells Pete Inner-space Lofts is not here.

They've done a trace to this address.

He says Inner-space has shut down, but Pete knows otherwise,

and wants to hear about assets he could seize.

So the Vauxhall van outside, who's that registered to at the moment?

Mr Bond tells Pete that the debt is owed to an electrician

who worked for him.

He owed the man £1,000,

but after a disagreement, doesn't intend to pay anything.

-You need to get the

-BLEEP

-out, mate.

Mr Bond discovers our cameraman is outside,

and comes down to tell him to stop filming.

-Give me the

-BLEEP.

-Hold on one second!

He grabs the camera, breaking the viewfinder.

Let go of the camera. If not, I'll phone the police.

-Phone the police, mate.

-You've just broken the camera.

Still holding the camera,

he asks for the memory card containing the pictures.

Give me the memory card out of there.

Just let go of the camera one second.

Then he drags the camera and cameraman back into the building.

Just give us one second. Let go for one second.

Once he has the cameraman inside,

he says he's not letting him or Pete Spencer out.

You're not going out of here

without giving me that memory card, mate.

I can promise you, mate.

-I can promise you, mate, if you want to come in here with your

-BLEEP...

Effectively held prisoner, Pete calls the police.

I'm a High Court enforcement officer. I'm at a premises in Leyland.

I need police assistance.

I've got a BBC cameraman with me who's having problems

with the people on the premises and they're refusing to let us leave.

You can hear in the background,

they're refusing to let us leave the premises.

The problem is what you're doing is actually assault on the cameraman

at the moment, so that's why the police are going to have to come.

You've touched the camera, you've touched him.

-I've not assaulted him.

-No, that is assault. Touching him is assault.

The police arrive in force.

Our cameraman is released,

but the police ask us to stop filming inside

while they sort out the situation.

Mr Bond explains to them that he doesn't believe the debt

owed to the electrician is anything like the figure on the writ.

But the police are here to deal with Mr Bond obstructing

an enforcement officer, and assaulting our cameraman.

An assault has taken place.

All parties, luckily, have been separated,

however the cameraman had been assaulted

and, of course, we had to deal with that proactively.

We're going to take his details,

see if there is any damage to the camera

and deal with the occupant and the premises owner at a later date.

PETE: The police had a very good response, really, to be fair.

We did explain to him that he can't kidnap us and keep us imprisoned

and I had no other choice but to call the police.

We had several units here in under five minutes

and they've obviously dealt with the situation

and are still dealing with it now.

Finally able to get on with his job,

Pete checks the status of the Inner-space van

with the HPI register.

It's on finance.

This means it can't be seized

as it doesn't belong to Inner-space Loft Conversions.

It's been an eventful visit.

Unfortunately, there's no assets here.

The vehicle that is here belonging to the defendant

has got finance on it, so that's of no interest to us,

and there's no property inside belonging to that defendant.

He's just basically sharing a desk.

The other guy who's going to prove all the goods belong to him

has been here for years, so no doubt that will happen.

That's where we're at today. We've left paperwork.

We're just en route to the police station now to do statements.

Since we filmed, Mr Bond appeared before Leyland Magistrates Court,

where he admitted assaulting our cameraman, and grabbing the camera.

He was given a 12-month conditional discharge.

Despite Pete seeking Inner-space Lofts at four different addresses,

when he found them, there were no assets belonging to the business.

For the moment, the electrician who brought the case

still does not have the money the law says is rightfully his.

Andrew Bond of Inner-space Loft Conversions told us

his firm was in a dispute with the claimant which was ongoing.

He said he had disputed the original court claim

by sending relevant documentation to the court.

He disputed that he caused damaged to our camera,

pointing out this was not proven in court.

He believes the situation has been blown out of proportion

and blamed our cameraman for antagonising it

by continuing to film from outside.

On a grey morning in the Home Counties,

enforcement officers Lawrence and Kev are charged

with recovering an unpaid debt for a motorbike racer.

We're in Reading, on our way to a company called TriCounty Motorcycles,

on behalf of a claimant, Ms Louise Powell.

Today we're looking to seize goods to the value of £2,662.08.

Louise Powell is a motorbike racer.

Following a repair to her machine by TriCounty Motorcycles,

it failed to start at the race track.

She had it repaired again by another company,

and has taken TriCounty Motorcycles to court for the cost.

They didn't appear to contest the case,

and the judgment was in Louise's favour.

But they haven't paid, so now she's been to the High Court,

and Lawrence and Kev are rolling up at TriCounty Motorcycles

to get her the money she's owed.

-Hi, there. Do you work here, mate?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

My name's Mr Grix. We're enforcement officers.

If TriCounty Motorcycles don't pay, Lawrence and Kev will seize

and, if necessary, remove goods to sell at auction

and the showroom is filled

with promising-looking bikes and equipment.

Basically, we've got a High Court writ to execute

against TriCounty Motorcycles on behalf of a Louise Powell.

OK, yeah.

We're here today to seize goods to the value of £2,662.08.

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

Right, OK, we've been in touch with Trading Standards

and they said they were dealing with it for us.

In what way?

Because the bike was never brought back to us to be put right.

The business owner says Trading Standards told him

that he should have had a chance to repair the bike.

But because the case has now been to court and there's a live writ,

this isn't something the sheriffs can get involved with.

-They actually went through the county court on 20th August.

-OK.

At that point,

-you were ordered to pay 1,542.95...

-Mmm-hmm.

-..with judgment costs of £80.

-OK.

-Because you didn't pay...

-Right, OK, if I'd known...

At that point, it would have been 14 days, pay in full within 14 days.

Because you didn't, she's within her rights to transfer it

to the High Court for enforcement purposes...

-Fair enough.

-..which is what she's done,

which obviously incurs more costs.

There's interest going on at 36 pence a day at the moment.

Obviously, there's our costs coming out.

There's execution costs, which brings the bill to £2,662.08.

I haven't got it, so...

We're not ordered out to collect money today.

We're ordered out to seize goods to clear the debt.

Right, good luck.

I'm not being rude, please don't take it the wrong way. Right, can...

At this point the owner asks our camera to leave.

He says the business can't pay the debt.

Worse for claimant Louise Powell,

the motorbikes in the shop are all on sale or return,

don't belong to the business and can't be seized.

Kev turns to the other stock.

You've got a few lids there and a bit of clothing.

The owner offers to box up some stock to be seized,

but Lawrence knows it's not a good option.

We're ordered to take goods. It's always a last resort for us.

The simplest way is if you can pay it,

if you can find some way of coming up with it.

The owner says the business can't pay

and asks if helmets, costing up to £200 each, would cover the debt.

Lawrence isn't optimistic.

If that goes to auction and somebody bids 20 quid on it

and they're the only bidder,

it's very much whether it would clear it or not.

If it didn't, you'd still have an outstanding debt

and we'd have to come back.

The owner agrees there's no point auctioning helmets

for a fraction of their value,

especially if this wouldn't even clear the debt.

The only way, really, is to pay.

Is there anybody that can help you out with it?

The owner agrees to make a part payment.

In my estimation, there isn't enough stock there to clear the debt.

Not at what it would get at auction,

so we're getting half today on a card...

..and then the balance,

in a week or so.

He wanted us to take bits of his old stock to try and clear it,

the stuff he hasn't been able to shift for a while

and see what the balance was after that.

It doesn't work like that.

We're not interested in removing stuff that's not going to sell.

And with that, it's all over.

One of the business owners pays on a credit card.

That's yours, the rest of your paperwork.

Thank you. We'll leave you in peace.

With the payment made, the owner wants to put his side of the story.

We had a young lady who used to race for us for about four years.

She left and moved on and about, say,

eight months or a year after, her bike came back with problems.

We sorted it out. She went to a race meeting. The bike didn't start.

She took the bike somewhere else.

We got written with a bill of 1,600 quid.

We rung Trading Standards and they said,

"What would it have cost us to put it right?"

and it would have only cost us 400-500 quid to put it right.

We were never given the chance and, basically,

today they have come in to seize the goods of that amount.

Lawrence is walking away with only part of the money,

but he's confident he'll get the rest.

I've said it before, but it seemed like a couple of fairly honest guys.

Didn't muck us about, there was no aggression,

they just seemed a couple of straight-up fellas.

Getting payment of half of it is OK.

I think he's going to make every effort to make

the rest of the payments as soon as he can.

One of them paid it on his own personal credit card,

so it's not like the company had the money to pay it.

He said that's what he does when the company card's maxed out -

he uses his own.

You can't really argue with that.

They had some lovely bikes in there, to be fair.

Some of the new KTMs were great. I'd have one of those.

Lawrence and Kev work for this

High Court enforcement company in south London.

High Court enforcement officers enforce 70,000 writs

and collect £65 million a year...

Can I have a word with you, please?

I've got a High Court writ. I'm executing it here today.

..money rightfully owed to their clients.

You were obliged to pay it.

-End of story.

-If it's not paid, we'll be removing the stock.

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.

Are you going to pay in full, sir?

Right, I'll get the crowbar out of my van.

Enforcement officers Lawrence Grix and Kev McNally

are in the van again and heading into Kent.

We're off to a defendant by the name of Graham Campbell.

The total debt outstanding is £3,253.18

and our claimant is Sussex Turnery and Moulding Company Ltd.

The debt is for several orders of timber

from Sussex Turnery and Moulding Company Ltd,

which Mr Campbell didn't pay for.

When he stopped replying to communications,

the company took him to court.

Mr Campbell didn't contest the case and was ordered to pay.

The company, operating in Sussex since 1957,

still hasn't received the money, and has called in Lawrence and Kev.

Looks like we're getting closer.

A visit to an antiques dealer

with a debt is a promising job for both our sheriffs.

Hopefully he'll have some antiques of some value...

..that we can seize and, if need be, remove to clear the debt.

That's when I hand over to Kev, my antiques guru.

My dad's had an antiques, furniture business

for the last 35 years.

I worked there for a bit, growing up,

in and around the shop.

I know a fair bit about furniture, I guess.

The sheriffs are attending the address on the writ,

although the debtor is one of a number of antiques dealers

trading at the premises.

Hello, there.

Looking for Graham Campbell.

-He's not here?

-No.

Right.

Yes, please, yeah.

As the other trader calls the debtor, Mr Campbell,

it's clear there are plenty

of potentially valuable antiques around.

As the place is used by several dealers,

the challenge will be pinning down

exactly what belongs to the man on Lawrence's writ.

-Hello, sir.

-Graham Campbell is on the phone.

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

I'm here to execute a High Court writ

in favour of Sussex Turnery and Moulding Company Ltd.

I'm here today to seize goods to the value of £3,253.18.

The only way to prevent further action today

is to pay it in full, sir.

But Mr Campbell says he's never heard of the claimant,

Sussex Turnery and Moulding Company.

That's obviously their official name.

They may have a trading name that I don't know of.

Mr Campbell agrees to meet the sheriffs.

OK, sir, that's fine.

Yep, yep, if you make your way back here,

we'll speak to you when you get here.

While they wait, Kev sizes up the situation.

That's 120 quid. Edwardian, is it?

Solid wood, it's a good bit of furniture for £120.

Everyone loves a cuckoo clock.

Bit of taxidermy.

It's all fashionable at the moment, though, massively.

His years around the family antiques business clearly aren't wasted.

It's broken.

Lawrence discovers a shocking truth -

he's become a museum piece.

It's amazing the things from my youth that are now worth money.

Look at these little Thomas The Tank Engine things.

There's loads of...

It's all very interesting, all these little bits and pieces.

Lawrence and Kev's Antiques Roadshow is brought to a halt by the arrival

of business owner Graham Campbell, who asks our camera to leave.

He says he doesn't know anything about this debt,

and doesn't want to pay.

But Lawrence's writ says he owes the money and must pay today.

We do hold the money for 14 days so you might be able to take

legal action in the meantime.

With two sheriffs bearing a High Court writ on his premises,

and some of his antiques about to leave them,

Mr Campbell realises he has no choice other than to pay -

though he still says he doesn't know what he's paying for.

Here's the account number

and you just need to put that reference number on.

Mr Campbell realises the debt could be to a company he calls STAMCO.

Yes. STAMCO. That's it. Sussex Turning And Moulding - STAM.

That's what it is. So you knew all about that one.

Mr Campbell tells the sheriffs he ordered some timber from STAMCO,

but some arrived warped and he paid only for the good bits.

But he didn't make this point in court,

and now he's paying the amount on the writ.

£3,253.18, subject to clearance into the SHCE accounts.

If you just want to sign and print.

-Right. We'll leave you in peace, Mr Campbell.

-Thanks, mate. Bye-bye.

A good result for the company that supplied the timber,

who will now be getting the money the court agrees is theirs.

And once they'd convinced the antiques dealer he really did

owe the money, a straightforward assignment for the sheriffs.

The debtor wasn't there when we got there

but the people in the shop called him and he was there within 20 minutes.

Initially he didn't recognise the name of our claimant,

Sussex Turnery And Moulding Company. He knows them as STAMCO.

When I put two and two together and realised that it was STAMCO,

he knew about the debt. It was for the supply of some wood,

which he claims wasn't of merchantable quality, really.

The fella was a nice enough guy in there. Held his hands up to it once

-we'd established what it was.

-All in all, a nice, easy, successful job.

Mr Campbell told us he...

He said he was a self-employed man...

Enforcement Officers Craig and Tom are in the van again

and driving through sunny Shropshire,

to recover an unpaid debt on behalf of a client.

We're on our way to Shrewsbury today.

We're after Mr and Mrs Green, trading as Green's Land Rover.

We're there today for £3,289.11.

The case involves two car-dealing couples.

The claimants took one of their customers' cars

for repair to Green's Land Rovers, run by Richard and Julie Green.

Unfortunately, Green's Land Rovers couldn't fix it

and had to send the car to the main dealer.

The cost should have been paid by Green's Land Rovers,

but they didn't have the money - so the claimants lent it to them

in order to release the car.

But the loan was never repaid.

Eventually the couple took the Greens to court,

and, when they still weren't paid, to the sheriffs.

Hello, sir. Mr and Mrs Green about?

We've got a High Court writ to execute today for £3,289.11.

At this point our camera is asked to leave the building.

Craig remains, and explains

to business owner Richard Green what's going to happen.

The order commands us today to seize goods in lieu of payment

if you can't pay it.

Mr Green says he needs to take legal advice.

Craig explains that whatever advice he takes,

they will be taking goods today unless Mr Green pays in full.

But, as Craig points out,

having the goods seized wouldn't be a good option for Mr Green.

It does get quite expensive if it does get down to that.

Obviously removal fees, contractor fees, advertising costs,

storage fees and all the like.

Mr Green tells Craig he can't afford to pay today.

There's quite a lot of goods in there to list down.

Tools, individual tools and so forth.

I'm going to start seizing them, let him seek his legal advice

and take it from there.

Craig phones the office to arrange

a truck for goods they are seizing.

Lawrence, I've got one for you.

He hasn't got the money available, can't afford to pay,

so we're going to need a 7.5 tonner.

As Tom and Craig arrange big trucks, Mr Green reconsiders.

How quick can you get the money, sir?

Lawrence, I'll ring you back in about 5-10 minutes.

Mr Green rings round to try to raise some money today.

He also says he wasn't given time to settle the original debt, but

Craig isn't buying it.

Well, if you had it in May and it still hasn't been paid and we're

in October now, that's five months down the line. You know, by your

own admission, you're aware about it to a certain degree.

Unconvinced Mr Green is going to be able to pay,

Craig sets the truck up once more.

I don't think it's going to go anywhere

so we're going to need the transport.

Mr Green's solicitor is on the phone,

and he's advised his client to apply to have the judgment set aside.

But Craig's heard the line before.

Yeah, yeah. N9244.

It won't prevent the action from taking place today.

Craig takes the phone to talk directly to the solicitor.

It's a County Court Judgment that's been escalated to the High Court

so it's now a writ of FiFa.

As I've explained to Mr Green, we're not

in a position to offer a walking possession arrangement today.

Craig explains the sheriffs consider

the items in the garage as being "in jeopardy".

If they only seized them on paper,

there's a danger they might disappear

before the payment is made.

Craig and Tom have refused to compromise,

and the pressure finally pays off.

Has it gone into your account, Mr Green?

Have you got a debit card with that account?

That's what we want to see - that coming out the van.

With money in his account, Mr Green sets up a bank transfer.

Craig phones base to see if the money has hit the account.

Hi, Jack. Can you look at the bank account for us?

We're looking for £3,289.11.

Thanks very much. Cheers. Bye-bye.

We've just left the address now and gone on

a walking possession, which allows us to leave the goods in situ.

Just waiting on that balance to clear.

We've seen a pre-payment gone out of his account for it but it

hasn't actually hit our account. But it will do today.

It's a good result for the claimants,

who couldn't get the money that was rightfully theirs

until they got help from the sheriffs.