Episode 1 The Sheriffs Are Coming

-Meet the sheriffs.

-Let's go introduce ourselves.

-Got a High Court writ to attend today.

If it's not paid, we'll remove the stock.

-Their job is to get you your money back.

-It's about to get physical.

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

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

-We need to deal with it now.

-We'll remove vehicles to that value.

If you're acting on his authority, pay it.

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

Are you going to open this building, or am I going to force entry into it?

-You need to pay this.

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

-Don't put your hands on me!

-I'm going to call the locksmith, effect entry

-into the premises and remove all the items.

-Whoa, whoa!

They're enforcement agents of the High Court.

And the law says they're on your side.

Just collected 42 grand.

Coming up.

When this couple bought themselves a car, things didn't go to plan.

When we were driving faster, it just didn't seem to accelerate.

At that point I was pretty cross.

Craig and Tommy go in search of what they're owed.

-Is that not you, Waterside Car Sales?

-Of course I am.

So you are Waterside Car Sales?

What I am saying is we took this name over.

You're digging yourself a bit of a hole now.

No, no, no, I'm not digging myself any hole.

Lawrence and Kev are in a chocolate shop

and they won't leave empty-handed.

You can have 15 minutes but then we are going to clear the place out.

And the sheriffs take on Barclaycard for a large sum.

It is £35,000 plus.

The law's the law. And it applies to everybody.

Today, sheriffs Tommy Coyle and Craig Wild

have a familiar problem to deal with.

Right, we're off to Birmingham today.

Off to see a garage.

Waterside Car Sales.

The claimant in this particular case is a Katie Miller.

She is owed a total of £2,916.

The sheriffs are looking to get Katie her money back

after a car sale went wrong.

Katie and Andrew Miller travelled 50 miles from their home

to Birmingham, to buy a car that Andrew needed to get to work.

So I work as an outdoor instructor.

I love doing it, I get to work with young people every day,

I get to take them on school trips, kayaking and climbing

and caving and things like that.

A car is essential because I've got to get there,

but it also involves taking things like kayaks around on the roof,

and going all around the country.

Andrew needed to find a car, but there wasn't much money.

The couple had recently married and were hoping to have something

left in the bank after buying their wheels.

Our budget was £2,000.

We picked a few cars, we had to look quite far afield

because the criteria was quite tight.

And we found a few in Birmingham,

and Waterside was one of the places we went to.

They came across a VW Golf they both liked.

Mohammed Haque at Waterside Car Sales let them have the Golf

for a price that was within their budget.

He let us take it for a test drive.

It was derby match day in Birmingham, so it was quite busy.

So he...we went for a really short test drive.

It wasn't quite running right, it was a bit jittery.

Obviously raised the concern, and he said, "No, no problem, we'll sort it out.

"I'll get my garage to look at it."

We waited for half an hour, they brought the car back.

Switched it on, drove it a little bit, and absolutely fine,

no problems at all.

We believed it was all sorted and it was just a simple problem.

The couple drove away from Waterside Car Sales happy.

They didn't realise they weren't going to stay that way for long.

The overall driving experience was quite good,

up until we turned the engine off...

and started it back up the next time.

ENGINE STRUGGLES

From there on, it went downhill.

It was very juddery at a slow speed.

And then, when we were driving faster,

it just didn't seem to accelerate.

At that point I was pretty cross.

I wanted to go about getting the car back.

Naturally, they contacted Mohammed Haque at the garage

and asked to bring the car back for a refund.

But the garage only wanted to try and fix it again.

He's already tried to fix it once and didn't.

That's the stage when he started saying, "You have no right to bring

"this car back, what do you expect when you buy a second-hand car?"

We knew that actually if you buy something faulty from someone,

you have rights to take it back.

The couple wisely got in touch with Trading Standards,

to find out what they could do about their badly running car.

We had to have shown willingness for him to fix the car,

so under the guidance of Trading Standards, we asked him

to collect the car, which he was very reluctant to do initially.

He tried to tell me that it as my responsibility

to pay for transport of the car.

I said that actually, legally, I shouldn't have to incur any costs

from this faulty car that he'd sold us.

We ended up finally getting him to agree to collect the car,

-and he had the car for, I think, a couple of months.

-Mmm.

When the car was finally ready,

the couple travelled over to Birmingham and collected it.

After two months waiting, they hoped their troubles were over.

Got there, started it up, drove it home again.

And exactly the same problem happened.

After three breakdowns, the couple got on the phone

and demanded their money back.

Waterside Car Sales weren't forthcoming.

He answered the phone and just made excuses.

Didn't want to talk to me...

and just made excuses for leaving the phone conversation, and left.

A local garage told them it would cost hundreds of pounds to

investigate the problem, let alone fix it.

The couple decided to go to court to get their money back.

No-one from Waterside Car Sales attended the hearing,

so Katie and Andrew won a default judgment.

But, two months on, the couple haven't been paid.

The sheriffs are the last hope and the last option we have.

Over in Birmingham, sheriffs Craig and Tommy

are planning to get them the money a court says they are owed.

They've found what appears to be Waterside Car Sales.

Hello, mate.

You the boss?

The man on-site isn't the owner,

but he does get him on the phone for Craig.

What it's to do with, got a court order today

for £2910.71.

He doesn't seem to know about Katie's case.

She's taken the company to court for the money.

And the court... And the company...

Waterside Car Sales.

The man says his name is Mohammed Haque.

But that he runs a different company,

and Waterside Car Sales have moved out.

And when did they go?

Craig thinks he sees evidence to the contrary.

Well, obviously, it is all still signed up here Waterside Car Sales.

Mr Haque says he will come down to the garage.

He said we've got to wait inside.

The sheriffs look inside for evidence of Waterside Car Sales,

and it doesn't take Craig long to find something.

If you carefully look at the very top,

it's got Waterside Car Sales on the top there.

That's what we are looking at. Any more? Any more?

There's a small office in the garage,

and Craig has a look around and finds further clues.

The trade plates in there are Waterside Car Sales.

Even though it is all Waterside on the front,

this Mr Haque reckons he is a director of a limited company

that has taken over this building about two months ago, he said.

I don't believe him, to be fair,

I think he's got something to do with their company.

Moments later, Mr Haque arrives.

Hello, sir.

Perhaps he can explain which company this is.

What we're saying is, the judgment is for £2910.71, so...

how do you want to pay it?

Mr Haque believes he has proof

that a different company now operates here.

-This is us.

-This is you here?

-Yes.

-Do you know anything about Waterside at all?

-Waterside used to be here.

We are still using their sign, but we are them.

Right, OK.

But Mr Haque isn't convincing Craig and Tommy.

Why are you still using their signage and their cards?

Because we can't afford to put any new signs in at the moment.

-You're saying you have nothing to do with Waterside whatsoever?

-No.

-This is us.

-I appreciate that, yeah.

When you arrived here, as M & J Midlands Ltd,

the place was empty, Waterside had gone and everything else?

-Everyone was gone.

-Why are you still using their trade plates?

-Sorry?

-Why are you still using their trade plates?

-We took it over.

Till this expire, we...

Why didn't Waterside, when they left, take these with them?

They left it there. What am I supposed to do?

Well, you shouldn't be using them, should you?

-I shouldn't be using them, no.

-No.

When I said to you, when you moved into here and it was all empty,

that wasn't true, then, because they've obviously left these, haven't they?

The sheriffs decide to confront Mr Haque with more of their findings.

They hope he'll realise he must pay the bill.

Did they leave any cars?

No. They wouldn't leave any cars, would they?

-When we moved in here, there was no cars.

-Right.

So far, it's not looking good for the sheriffs.

Although Craig has found evidence

he thinks disproves Mr Haque's story about a new company,

he's no closer to convincing him to pay up.

Later on, the sheriffs make a discovery that changes everything.

There you go. Waterside Cars Ltd.

Kev McNally and Lawrence Grix are out on patrol today,

looking to recover a debt.

Enforcement agent Kev has got his thinking cap on.

We are in Cambridge at the moment.

We are going to Chocolat Chocolat.

I presume it's a chocolate shop.

They owe £1,793.

Kev suspects Lawrence would take payment in kind.

Maybe Lawrence likes a bit of chocolate,

he's nodding his head there.

Chocolate and gin and tonic, I think.

But the sheriffs won't be getting any chocolate

-until they find out where they're going.

-I've got no idea.

I've gone the wrong way.

But every way they go is wrong.

It says, "Authorised vehicles, bollards, CCTV in use."

Well...

Nearly a mile from it, so I'm not walking for a mile.

The sheriffs have got a major battle on their hands this morning -

getting through Cambridge's traffic control system.

I'm going back round this way again, because I think it's somewhere...

Oh, no, buses only.

Where the hell are we?

This place is a serious joke.

Anyone watching, don't come to Cambridge, you won't get anywhere.

A driver like me, I'd... Ah!!

-No, that is a pedestrian zone. So we will go back around here, then.

-Yeah.

-Look, no entry.

-This place is a joke!

Still half a mile away.

Finally, a breakthrough.

Right, I am a legend. Keep going.

No, seriously, we'll be there in a minute.

Unless that's the river.

HE LAUGHS

We're definitely going to get there now because it is one way

all the way to it. Literally the best co-pilot ever.

Don't worry about me.

They've found the chocolate shop.

But not the parking space they'll need for the van.

They'll have to park somewhere if they want to collect this debt.

It's literally about an hour walk from here.

But it seems the distance is no object

to a sheriff with a chocolate shop to find.

Lawrence just wants to get stuck into the chocolate.

Look at him, he is rampaging his way towards there.

Just want to get there. I only put an hour on the parking meter,

it's half hour walk from the van, isn't it?

Got a vision of...turn up at the shop

and he's already eaten half the stock.

He's got chocolate covering his face and wrappers everywhere.

Eventually, the sheriffs arrive at the chocolate shop.

But master of directions Kev has missed the sweet spot.

-Where's he going?

-No-one told me it was here. That's a surprise.

-Hello, there. Are either of you the owner at all?

-I'm the manager.

My name's Mr Grix, my colleague and I are enforcement agents.

We've got a High Court writ to execute for Chocolat Chocolat.

We are here today to take control of goods to the value of £1790.50,

which will basically mean everything in here.

The young store manager is worried.

She clearly knew nothing about this.

Are you able to get the owner on the phone?

Is she?

Can you get them on the phone?

I think that is probably best.

The manager doesn't want her chocolate shop emptied of stock,

and she's been dropped in at the deep end.

No worries.

The seriousness of the situation is starting to dawn on the staff,

and they shut the shop.

Eventually they do make contact with the absent shop owner's daughter,

and put Lawrence on.

She asks for more time to pay.

You can have 15 minutes but then we are going to roll the truck

to come and clear the place out.

Because we've been here half an hour already.

OK. All right, bye-bye.

With nearly £2,000 to pay, the sheriffs would have to take

a lot of chocolate, so Kev is looking for other options.

There's a few bits of furniture round here for a start.

There's lots of ceramic gift stuff. Downstairs, it's the same.

Lots of chocolate, computers down there, printers.

A few appliances around, a couple of fridges.

And sort of chocolate mixing...

equipment.

But the sheriffs would prefer money.

The elder daughter who I've just spoken to says

she's the owner of the business, but she's got no access to any funds.

Which I find a bit hard to swallow,

unlike chocolate.

So we are just waiting now, I've given her 15 minutes to try

and get in touch with her parents.

If she's the owner, she should be able to deal with it, is my opinion.

It clearly wasn't the ideal day to look for payment.

Despite the ongoing negotiations, Kev thinks Lawrence is holding back.

Don't really like chocolate. It is way too sweet in here for me.

A bit concerned.

He's got the devil in him over there.

Struggling to contain himself.

KEV LAUGHS

But before Lawrence can indulge himself,

the owner phones through with good news.

It's been paid by card?

Right, I'll get onto my office now and check,

because if it's done by card, it is instantaneous.

I'll issue a receipt and leave it with one of the ladies here.

All right, thanks. Bye.

But, just to make sure no-one fudged the payment,

Lawrence is checking that the money has been received at the office.

All right, lovely. Yeah, cheers.

Bye.

Yeah, it's there.

Can't ask more than that, paid. On our way.

It's been a difficult morning for the young manager,

but she wouldn't have a shop to manage

if the sheriffs had to take control of the chocolate.

-Thanks a lot. See you later, guys.

-Cheers.

Successful job in the end.

Went in there, no dramas.

Once she established what it was, paid on her bank transfer,

so, yeah, full payment. It wasn't a huge sum of money.

I think it is a busy shop. You could tell by the amount of people when we got in there,

and then the amount of people while they were shut, while we were there.

Just wanted to get the shop open and running again. But they paid

the full amount, £1,800 just about.

On we go, they're open for trading again. All things good.

All they have to do now is find their way out of the Cambridge

traffic system.

The shop told us...

Back in Birmingham, Craig and Tommy are at Waterside Car Sales,

on behalf of Katie and Andrew Miller. They've found a man

who says he has nothing to do with the debtor company.

-When we moved in here, there's no cars.

-Right.

But they don't believe him.

Just to put the final nail in the coffin,

there's at least three cars, right,

which still have the sale particulars in the windscreen for Waterside.

-Waterside?

-So, in your infinite wisdom, what you did...

you found some trade plate

and you found some paperwork which was Waterside

and you put that paperwork in your cars to sell it under the terms

of Waterside, is that what you're saying? You're digging a hole.

No, no. I'm not digging myself any hole.

-Do you want me to show you? Come on!

-I'm not...

-Show you.

-Your telephone number...

-Of course, it's mine.

-It's on Waterside.

-This is what I'm using for the moment.

-Why are you using this?

You said Waterside left two months ago.

Why would this document be in a car for sale

under the banner of Waterside, now, if they'd moved out two months ago?

But I'm using...

And why would we have the actual trade plates

in Waterside name as well?

I just...

Can you show me the purchase document for this vehicle then?

-This vehicle?

-Yes.

-I'll show you.

-Thank you.

The Sheriffs have the power to search a debtor's premises

for information concerning their writ.

-Excuse me!

-This is called diligent search.

Can you not go through personal stuff?

I'm going to have to go through it, sir, because I believe the company

is still trading from here.

Delving through the files doesn't show Waterside Car Sales have gone.

There you go! Waterside Cars. That's corporation tax.

That's not you?

They left that paperwork as well, did they? Is that not you?

-Waterside Car Sales?

-Of course I am!

-So you are Waterside Car Sales?

What I'm saying is, we took this name over. It was there.

We're finding vehicles which are for sale with Waterside in the windscreen

which has the same telephone number as yours, printed, not handwritten.

The evidence suggests this is still Waterside Car Sales.

You shouldn't be using their signage.

It doesn't make sense to do that.

I'm suggesting Waterside Car Sales is still operating from these premises.

You're selling vehicles on behalf of Waterside.

-I'm not selling cars...

-They are. They're there!

All the Sheriffs think they need now

is one killer piece of paperwork that links this man to this company.

Mohammed Haque?

Yes.

"Mohammed Haque, Waterside Car Sales."

Here we go!

It clearly says, "Mohammed Haque, Waterside Cars."

But you have nothing to do with it?

I just told you, sir. This is what I'm using, Waterside Cars' name.

You shouldn't be using another company's name, sir.

-Of course I can.

-Is that fraud then?

-How could it be fraud?

There's no point us going round in circles.

I want to list down all the vehicles outside.

You can talk to me about payment, OK?

I'm going to start taking control of all your vehicles outside.

The Sheriffs hope the man might come to his senses

once he realises the Sheriffs are going to take control of his stock.

And Craig makes sure he realises what Tommy is doing.

If you can't pay this bill, then we're going to take further steps

-to take them away today.

-But, he...

It's your choice, Mr Haque.

It's your choice.

There's enough evidence showing, basically, our company is here.

So, we can, yeah.

Finally, Mr Haque of Waterside Car Sales

is beginning to talk about paying some money.

I don't have this kind of money to pay straight away.

I can't help you out then, Mr Haque.

How you run your business is up to you.

But you have to give me some time.

-No, we don't.

-But how you expect me to pay that kind of money?

Because the courts say you have to.

If you want to pay it, you can do.

Or we can execute it now at further cost to yourself.

If they execute the writ,

that will mean taking control of vehicles on the forecourt.

Craig gives Mr Haque a moment to think about paying up...

You've got a breakdown here, sir.

Let me... Have you got a card reader?

..and he's told Tommy he'll pay up in full - via credit card.

Katie and Andrew will get their money back

from Waterside Car Sales after all.

That's the £1,000 off the account.

But even that won't be straightforward.

It will be paid off by several different credit cards.

-OK. How much do you want on that one, sir?

-£1,700.

So, £210 and...71 pence now.

Piece of friendly advice,

I would disassociate yourself

from anything to do with Waterside Car Sales in future.

OK?

-I'll leave that with you.

-Bye-bye now.

It took some detective work, but the Sheriffs are happy.

Lured him into the trap of saying what he needs to say

to hang himself really.

£2,940 he's paid over three card payments.

Tommy just handed me the piece de resistance.

That's his card!

Apparently he's got nothing to do with that company,

but they're all over his desk.

It's another challenging job over for Craig and Tommy.

But more importantly,

it means Katie and Andrew getting back the money they are owed.

The whole...him denying who he was

and trying to get out of paying doesn't surprise us at all, does it?

Thank you so much to the sheriffs, Craig and Tommy.

They've been fantastic.

It's an end to this whole saga. We'll be able to put it behind us.

Mr Haque told us that the company's registered address is elsewhere,

not the garage where the Sheriffs enforced.

He said everyone had the legal right to a warranty,

but that the clients had not written to him

and that he had offered them a refund or repair.

There have been Sheriffs since Saxon times

and they only enforce High Court writs.

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

It doesn't matter what the dispute is, you have to pay.

If you've been awarded money by a court but haven't been paid,

the Sheriffs can get you what you are owed.

He hasn't been paid so he's transferred it up to the High Court

for enforcement purposes.

If the debtor won't pay, Sheriffs have the power to remove goods

and have them sold at auction to repay the debt.

I'll take the keys and look after them until we get payment.

We've got an awful lot of stuff to take out to clear the debt.

A High Court writ costs £60.

If the Sheriffs are successful,

there's nothing more for the clients to pay.

So, £6,900 there.

Paid it straightaway so it's all good.

If they are unsuccessful, the only cost is a compliance fee

of £75 plus VAT for each enforcement.

Some jobs require the Sheriffs to take on some of the country's

biggest brands and household names who've been ordered to pay up.

And today, Tommy and Craig find themselves a few miles away

from a giant of the financial world.

We're on way to go and do a job

on behalf of Mr Noel Daniels.

Noel has gone to court and sued Barclaycard, of all people.

Paperwork has been sent to their office in London

which they've failed to respond by.

We've also visited their mail centre in Leicester.

They failed to respond to any of the paperwork

so we're off to Northampton today, which is their main head office,

with a view to collecting the outstanding balance,

which is £35,000 plus.

So, a large debt...

..large organisation.

And, hopefully, we'll do our best and get the money for him.

The claim was for damages

after Barclaycard made a Payment Protection Insurance, or PPI,

repayment to a customer of around £1,500.

It's not every day that the Sheriffs go up against a billion-pound company,

so they are expecting to encounter resistance.

We'll be dealing with, initially, security on the gate,

then the claims department,

then we'll deal with the finance department.

So, a multitude of layers to go through.

They're like any other defendant, that's what you have to remember.

We have the same powers. The law's the law -

and it applies to everybody.

So, is this all Barclaycard?

Everything. It's all Barclaycard.

The site is so big, there's a queue to get in.

Mate, this is a big corporate job, this is.

The Sheriffs' first hurdle is going to be a security guard

checking who comes onto the site.

First obstacle is getting through security.

Obviously, they're going to stop us. They'll want to know...

I have to explain who I am and why I'm here.

Normally, a big corporate company like this,

I give them a bit of respect, as in I'll wait a small amount of time.

It's a large sum of money.

They should be getting someone down here rapid.

We've got the law on our side.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!

The Sheriffs get ready to talk to security.

He'll want to chat with us, won't he? Shall we? Or just crack on?

Just crack on.

The Sheriffs decide to simply drive in.

Go, go, go!

They do have a High Court writ, after all.

Da, da, da!

There you go, son!

Simple, but the low ceiling car park could be a problem.

-You worried, Tommy?

-I am about the roof, mate. Look at it!

You've got plenty of room. 2.2 metres.

Well, first hurdle done! We're on site.

But they so nearly weren't.

The guy's gone now. He's gone.

The barrier is down now, look.

Let's just keep going.

But they're on a massive site - they need to find an entrance.

We're here now so it's just reception.

This isn't the main reception, I don't think. Is it?

-It is.

-It is!

-Well, it's got A reception.

The Sheriffs can force entry to commercial premises...

-You can't get in!

-Staff entrance. Where's the main entrance?

It's that side. We need to go all the way around.

But there's probably an open door elsewhere!

With over 3,000 people employed at this site, it's no wonder

the building is so big that they can't find the entrance.

It's huge!

Freezing, I am!

But, finally, the Sheriffs are in reception

and now have the task of finding the right person to speak to.

What they don't want is to get fobbed off.

Can I speak to someone from the finance department?

I'm an enforcement agent.

-RECEPTIONIST: Sure. Bear with me a second.

-Thank you very much.

It's an enforcement agent...

Yes, please. Thank you. Bye.

Checking, because I wouldn't know where to direct you.

That's fine.

-We'll get our security manager.

-Thank you very much.

Tommy and Craig were hoping to go direct to the finance team.

But now the security manager has come to see them.

We haven't been told about your filming.

He wants our camera to leave the building.

If you could. Thank you.

But Craig and Tommy are staying inside to negotiate.

And soon enough, Craig has some news.

We managed to get through the first two or three tiers,

we're now talking to their legal counsel.

They've asked for further legal paperwork from our head office.

But at the moment, it's looking positive.

It's just a waiting game. We've been an hour on site,

which is justifiable for them to have sufficient time

to dig into this situation if they wanted to sort it out.

Craig heads back inside to rejoin the negotiation.

Two heads are better than one

when you are trying to negotiate a 35,000 plus payment

from the legal team of a giant of the financial industry.

Outside the building, all seems calm.

But inside, the Sheriffs are locking horns with Barclaycard

to get their client paid.

Not surprisingly, the legal team at Barclaycard are not happy.

After two-and-a-half hours inside the building,

Craig has an update.

The legal counsel from Barclaycard have come back to us.

They say they don't acknowledge the claim,

they don't acknowledge the actual defendant.

However, given the situation they're faced with,

they'll make full and final payment today.

They are going to go back to court.

That's their right to do so,

but, obviously, from today, the payment will be made

in the form of a bank transfer in full and final settlement.

Craig heads back in to collect the balance as a happy man.

But hours later, he still isn't finished.

Once back inside, the battle to get paid was far from over.

The Sheriffs allowed Barclaycard what they felt

was a reasonable time to pay, but no transfer was made.

In accordance with their writ, they informed the Barclaycard team

that they intended to take control of company items to clear the debt.

At which point, the team offered to pay the debt on their credit cards.

It's been a remarkable end to the enforcement.

Bit of a battle that one.

It was a five-hour period to get it paid.

Me and Craig got to a point where we weren't happy

with the evidence they were producing reference this transfer.

Our pressure point was that we would wander around,

take control of goods which we're there to do and legally can.

That prompted the credit card payments.

They got all the hierarchy from the building lined up outside

the office and, one by one,

they came in paying 9,000, 7,000, 6,000,

4,000...

Eventually, over a number of cards, they managed to pay it off.

Obviously, we're there to get full payment.

As long as it takes, we'll stay whether it's all day.

We'll still be there. We got the result we wanted in the end.

Following the Sheriffs' enforcement Barclaycard told us:

Due to an internal administration error,

the relevant court papers did not reach their Legal team

and they had no opportunity to respond in court.

They say they have already issued a cheque to Mr Daniels

for the full PPI redress amount

and don't feel that the unspecified damages of £30,000 are justified,

so have applied to the court to contest them.

They say they are determined to resolve the case as soon as possible.

In the Midlands today, Craig and Tommy have got a job to do,

and they are confident they're going to get a result.

We're off to Halesowen this afternoon.

Off to see a company called John Harris & Co.

The claimant in this case is Anthony Smith.

The debt value is around £1,800.

Could be a landlord or could be a tenant.

We're not interested, to be fair.

We're only there under the terms of the court order to get it paid.

But one person who cares very much about how the Sheriffs get on today

is former landlord Anthony Smith.

Anthony is an engineer from Halesowen in the West Midlands.

Several years ago, his parents passed away, but left him

and his brother a wonderful gift - the family home.

It meant a lot to Anthony.

The house was in the family for 30 years.

There were too many memories in the house just to sell it.

And, you know, we decided to rent it out for the time being

until we were committed to selling it.

Luckily, Anthony knew a lettings agent that he trusted.

An old associate from a pub he used to drink at

was now running an agency in the area

and Anthony immediately thought of giving him the property to rent out.

Mr Harris was contracted to rent out the house

and for 10% of the monthly rent, er, was his fee.

Included in that fee, he would find us a new tenant,

take an inventory... Also carry out inspections

of the property to see that it was being looked after properly.

Anthony's work required him to be based in China.

As a successful engineer, he was extremely busy and wasn't able

to keep an eye on how the tenancy of his parents' house was going.

For three years, he thought all was well.

Until he was contacted by his partner in the UK.

I got a Skype call from Sheila and my brother.

They sent out photographs of the state the property had been left in.

The tenant John Harris had put into the house had moved out

after three years in the property, but they'd not left the place

in anything like the state they had found it.

Well, the dog completely destroyed the leather suite.

There was an expensive leather suite in there, which was my mother's.

It was just thrown in the garage. It was just in pieces.

They'd broken every single window in the house

and...the window locks off, and superglued the windows shut.

I mean, the bathroom, the windows, the carpets...

Everything was just... It had to be thrown.

We hired two skips just to remove the rubbish they left behind for us.

I can't believe how a house can be abused so much in three years.

These people had no respect at all for a nice surrounding.

You know, you would never treat your own property like that.

Anthony was upset

because he felt that letting agent John Harris should have been aware

that the property was getting into a bad state.

He was taking 10% of the rent each month, after all.

But there was worse to come.

Tony returned to England from China

and took a close look at his bank balance.

It seemed there were rental payments missing.

He'd missed a month

and then he'd put the next month's at the end of the month.

Then it looked like that month had gone on.

And then he'd missed a month again.

Because I was out in China so much,

I wasn't keeping an eye on it.

Eventually, when the tenants had moved out and we checked

the bank account, there was three and a half payments missing.

Anthony says he checked and rechecked his bank account,

but the money simply wasn't there.

I went down to see Mr Harris,

arranged a meeting with him and I went through

the amount of months that the tenants had been in,

payments into the bank account

and I said to him, "It's not rocket science.

"You know, one and one makes two." You know? It's simple as that.

But he refused to talk any more and we had no alternative

but to go to court.

Anthony brought his case about the missing rent to court.

John Harris defended himself,

but the judgment was in Anthony's favour.

The magistrate asked us

if we wanted to claim for the property and the damages.

I said no, I just want the rent.

They moved in the middle of the month, so technically

they owe a full month, but we'll let them off with half a month.

At that point, Mr Harris said to the magistrate that I was being greedy.

Which was quite laughable.

Anthony feels like he hasn't had the last laugh.

Letting agent John Harris still hasn't paid up what the court

said he owed. So Anthony has called in the Sheriffs.

After 14 months, I was just totally frustrated and, you know,

what do I do? How do I get my money?

I liked what I'd seen with The Sheriffs, so I got in touch and

if these guys can't get my money, then nobody's going to get it.

Emotionally, Anthony feels he wants to do what his mum and dad

would have thought was the right thing.

If she's sitting up there looking down,

she wouldn't be very happy about it.

Unfortunately, I put the business Mr Harris's way

and he let me down terribly.

Two people who are hoping not to let him down

are Sheriffs Tommy and Craig.

And in Halesowen, the Sheriffs have found the John Harris office

and are looking to get Anthony his money back.

Hello. My name's Mr Wild. We're High Court Enforcement Agents.

Can you get the boss on the phone for me?

If you can get him on the phone, I can pre-warn him. To be fair.

Nowadays, Sheriffs send debtors a letter to inform them

they need to pay what they owe.

So Craig and Tommy's visit should be no surprise to John Harris.

Hello, sir.

I'm a High Court Enforcement Agent

and I've got a High Court writ of control to execute today.

And the value of the liability is £1862.01.

But there's a problem.

John Harris is saying that he shouldn't have to pay.

At least not yet.

I've got the court order here, compelling you to discharge the liability.

If you want to come down and have a look at it, that's fine.

But failure to pay this liability means that we have to execute it.

Taking control of the goods here today.

That should focus his mind.

How long will you be, sir? No problem at all. Bye.

His argument is that the courts... He wasn't notified of the court process.

Even though there's been three or four opportunities to discharge it.

From what he was saying, he was going to apply

to leave of the court to challenge it.

He was still waiting for the court to come back to him.

And while Craig lets the owner know exactly how the land lies,

Tommy is looking out for assets.

Just to save time. I'm starting to take control of the goods

and see what he's got to say when he gets here.

While the business might not have huge assets,

Tommy knows they will be reliant on what they do have.

It's not a huge debt.

They're not going to want to lose their computers and stuff.

I'm sure we'll be able to discharge it. In full.

Tommy and Craig are about to find out, as owner John Harris is here.

Here we go. I think he's here.

-You all right?

-Yeah.

He wants to check they've done things by the book.

This thing that was given to me...

-Who signed for it?

-No, it's delivered by post.

The Sheriffs' records show the paperwork was sent.

And at this point, John Harris asks our camera to leave.

Inside, he's on the phone to his solicitor.

The Sheriffs will now have to talk to them about paying the debt.

After half an hour, they're out with some news.

This was quite antsy at first. As all incidents tend to be.

Erm... Was questioning our enforcement processes.

I explained to him it had been fully complied with.

-He then instructed his client to pay it.

-It's a payment in full.

That's good news for homeowner Anthony.

But business owner Mr Harris is not happy.

The Sheriffs may have got money from him today,

but he plans to do something about it.

I asked for leave to appeal.

The next thing I know, these gentlemen have come into my offices.

I phoned up my solicitor and on legal advice I have paid them,

but we now have 14 days to dispute the facts.

The payment was not disputed, however.

And Anthony got his money and, finally, some closure.

I do have to thank Craig and Tommy. They've done a fabulous job.

It was a quick result and I'm very happy. And my family are happy.