Episode 4 The Sheriffs Are Coming

If you're owed money but aren't getting paid,

it's time to call the sheriffs.

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

I'm here to issue a High Court writ.

I've got to do what I'm instructed to by the court.

They're enforcement agents of the High Court.

And if a court's ruled in your favour, they're on your side.

If the debtor doesn't want to pay...

You currently owe £9,461.80.

..the law says the sheriffs can get you what you're owed.

If you don't come to the door,

we'll have to remove the vehicle off the drive.

You're allowed a week to pay in full before it gets sold at auction.

Whether it's a small company...

Can I speak to the person in charge, please?

..or a household name...

We're here to see somebody from G4S.

..if they owe you money, the sheriffs get it paid.

I'm not going anywhere. You get him to come in here.

We're not going to be waiting around like that. It needs to be done now.

Just collected 42 grand.

Coming up...

The sheriffs eye up a luxury car

belonging to the boss of a failed care home.

Well, that's Mr Cooppen's Bentley, isn't it?

It's secured with a clamp, and we'll be calling a recovery truck.

Can the debtor raise the money in time?

It needs to be paid in full, sir.

I'm going to hand you back to your daughter now

because I'm wasting me breath.

John Clark's possessions went missing in a house move.

My wife would've been devastated to find they were gone.

Stuff that's been in the family

for 100 years or more you can't replace.

Can Ken get the removals company to pay him the compensation he's owed?

We're shown the door and a lot more besides at a used-car dealers,

but will the boss settle his debt?

He's not going to pay until he gets that vehicle back.

I've told him, "I'm not here to give you your vehicle back."

It's before dawn and enforcement agents Lawrence Grix

and Kev McNally are on their way out of London.

It's just after six in the morning. We are heading towards Surrey.

They're looking for a Mr and Mrs Cooppen, the owners of two

care homes which were forced to shut down due to poor quality of care.

They owe £7,564 for unpaid wages to a former employee

in the wake of the closures.

The Cooppens didn't defend the case in court but nor have they paid up.

Where we are going to is actually quite a nice...nice, big house.

I'm led to believe it's in a gated community as well.

So, we're hoping the gates are either open or we'll get in

some other...some other method.

It could just mean waiting for somebody to come in or out

and then tailgating.

As well as a plush house, it's thought the Cooppens may also own

a plush car - a Bentley Continental spotted on their driveway.

Looking for £7,500 here.

A Bentley Continental should be enough to cover that,

so we need to establish who owns that first.

It's still pitch-black when the pair arrive.

And the gated community is looking, well, gated.

So they don't have a security guard here.

With most people still in bed and the roads deserted, it could be

a long wait before a passer-by can let them in, unless...

It's not going to be as simple as walking round

and pressing the button, is it?

Oh, my God, it is.

-What sort of security is that?

-HE LAUGHS

The gated community has turned out to just be a private road.

Getting in is pretty straightforward.

And there's more good news too.

Bentley's there.

Lawrence wastes no time in getting stuck in.

-It's going to be a little clamp on that one.

-Yeah.

With a light on in the house, it looks like someone's home.

Kev has to try to get the clamp on as quietly as possible

without alerting them.

-WHISPERS:

-These tyres are massive for this clamp.

Is it going around?

If it's not going all the way round, just stick it through the spokes.

Once it's on, Lawrence issues the wake-up call.

A woman answers the door.

Morning. I'm looking for a Mr or Mrs Cooppen.

They don't live here?

But you do know them, yeah?

-My name is Mr Grix. My colleague and I are enforcement agents.

-OK.

The woman shows ID which confirms she isn't Mrs Cooppen

and orders our camera off the property.

She's also being very vague about exactly who she is.

Right, so how did you know the Cooppens?

The woman will only say that she lives in the house,

so her relationship to the debtors is unclear.

But with the Cooppens apparently out of the country,

the only thing Lawrence really needs to know

is whether they have left any assets behind.

That is Mr Cooppen's Bentley, isn't it?

It's in your name, is that right?

-Yes.

-It doesn't matter whose name it's in, it's who owns it.

But the woman says it's hers.

So, have you got proof of that?

At the moment, it's secured with a clamp

and we're going to be calling a recovery truck.

The woman produces some paperwork

which she says will prove she owns the car,

except all it really shows is that it's been registered in her name

in the last few weeks.

Nevertheless, the woman's sticking to her story

and has gone to dig out some more documents.

Meanwhile, Kev has spotted someone else at home.

There's a guy wandering around upstairs at the moment.

We haven't found out who he is yet.

They're not in the country at the moment, who we're after,

but they definitely live here when they come back, I would imagine.

The mystery woman is now on the phone to the police.

And Lawrence is also making a call.

Hello. I need a Bentley Continental GT picking up.

Lawrence is convinced the Bentley's owned by Mr Cooppen.

As it would sell for more than enough to pay back the care home

worker's missing wages,

he's ordered a recovery truck to take it away.

The Bentley is going.

Later on, we find out what happens

when Lawrence gets a call from Mr Cooppen.

No, it's got to be all of it, sir. The car is going then, sir.

And there's a clue to the woman's identity.

You gave the game away there having "mum" on your phone.

If you've been ripped off,

and the person or company responsible refuses to pay

you back, the first step is to make a claim in the County Court.

It's simple to do this online.

For a small fee, depending on the size of the claim,

the court will review the evidence.

And if it finds in your favour, the debtor will be ordered to pay up.

If they don't, then for a further £60, the High Court will grant

a writ, authorising the sheriffs to act on your behalf.

If they're successful, you get all your money back.

Sheriff Ken Warby

is also heading out of the capital into the commuter belt.

It's a long drive, so he's brought some company.

Oh, this is my travel buddy, yeah. He usually helps with directions.

He's a Hungarian Vizsla. His name is Gunner.

And he's a year old.

With his cushion, his doggie seatbelt

and regular toilet breaks, Gunner is more demanding than your average

passenger, but at least he's no back-seat driver.

Today, he's joining Ken in Buckinghamshire,

looking for a debt owed by the boss of a removals firm.

The debtor in this case is a Mr Colin Jones.

He has been taken to court by an individual for lost items.

The debt is totalling, after our fees, £6,200-odd.

The case against Mr Jones was brought by John Clark,

and it resulted from a house move which took place under already

difficult circumstances, after John's wife had fallen ill.

We were married in 1965.

We've got one daughter.

Got to be five years ago now,

we realised something was wrong with her,

because she started forgetting...various bits.

And then everything sort of went downhill from there on.

It wasn't long before John's wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Now she doesn't know me, she doesn't speak, she doesn't...

..doesn't know anybody. To see her as she is now, it's a bit hard.

The illness means she needs full-time care

and has had to move into specialist accommodation.

At first, John remained in the family home.

But, as the months went on,

he realised it would be best to sell up.

She was taken away in the January of '13.

That was the point I thought,

"Well, what's the point in staying here?" You know?

Big house like that, all the memories, all the parties

and that that we'd had there.

So, I decided to move back here, to Haddenham, where I was born.

John enlisted the help of a local removal

and storage business run by Colin Jones.

But, on the day he was supposed to be moving,

he suffered an unfortunate accident.

I fell down the stairs,

landed on half of the boxes that I'd packed, ready to move.

And that's how I ended up in Stoke Mandeville hospital

when I was supposed to be moving.

And so my stuff was moved from my house into storage.

And, then, after I came out of hospital and moved here,

it was brought here.

And, after a few days, we began to realise that stuff was missing.

And they weren't just small items.

Microwave, kitchen table and four chairs...

A hostess trolley, that went missing.

All in all, there were more than 20 missing objects,

including some antique ivory animals with sentimental value.

They had been in my wife's family well over 100 years.

I mean, my wife would've been devastated to find they were gone.

A table and that sort of thing you can replace.

But stuff that's been in the family for 100 years or more

you can't replace.

John assumed they must have been left in the removal firm's

storage units, so he called them up to find out what had happened.

I said the stuff was missing and, "OK, we'll look for it."

I've been up to their depot two or three times.

"Yeah, we're still looking for it," but it never did come to light.

As hope of the items turning up faded, John instead made a claim

for compensation from Mr Jones' insurers for £4,500.

But it was rejected, with the reason coming as a total surprise.

According to the insurance company, I'd given Colin Jones

permission to take some of my stuff to a charity shop.

Come on, I'm not going to pay somebody to store stuff

and then give it to charity, am I?

So, now, instead of the items being lost in storage,

he was being told they were given away.

But he wasn't about to give up altogether.

Why should these people get away with it?

I mean, I just thought, "Well, no, listen, it's not on."

I got straight on to the solicitors and we took it to court.

John won his case by default after Mr Jones didn't enter a defence,

but he still hasn't been paid and has now turned to the sheriffs.

Yeah, I've seen the programmes on telly.

They always seem to get the job sorted, so that's what I done.

Ken and Gunner are on their way to see Mr Jones.

And, following the details Ken's been given,

it looks like this is going to be a house call.

It looks like this is a private address.

Yep, it's a private address.

Ken parks up and heads for the door. But is Mr Jones home?

-Hiya.

-Hello. I need to speak to Colin Jones.

Will he be here this evening?

I'm actually from the court, but I can only really speak to Mr Jones

regarding this case.

Is it at all possible you can get him on the phone for me?

-Can I speak to him?

-Yeah.

Luckily, Mr Jones' wife is able to reach him right away.

Mr Jones is in the doghouse.

But, on the plus side, he's working just down the road.

Right, as soon as you can. Bye.

Thank you very much.

And, sure enough, Mr Jones soon shows up.

Hello, Mr Jones? Sorry to ambush you like this, sir.

My name is Mr Warby.

Ken follows Mr Jones into the house,

but our camera's not allowed in.

Inside, he explains that he's here to take control of Mr Jones' goods

to cover the more than £6,200 he owes.

Unless, of course, he pays up.

And, as Ken comes out to get his card payment machine,

it looks like he might.

Hopefully, he's going to make a payment of £2,000,

with the balance to be paid within 28 days.

It doesn't turn out to be quite that simple.

-Bye then.

-Take care. Bye, guys.

But, nevertheless, Ken is soon on his way.

He tried to pay on the card, the card didn't work.

And he's got his partner to do a bank transfer.

He's getting his partner to do a bank transfer this evening.

In the meantime,

I've taken inventory of the personal items in the house.

And, although Ken is leaving without full payment,

he's happy enough with the outcome.

There's not many assets there and we're getting £2,000 today

and the balance within 28 days.

That's quite a good result.

Mr Jones later settled the balance in full.

And John Clark has got compensation for his missing possessions.

I got an e-mail from my solicitor telling me that the sheriffs

had got payment in full. Which is great news. I can...

Maybe I can put this all behind me now.

In Surrey, Lawrence and Kev are pursuing unpaid wages of more

than £7,500 owed to a care-home worker.

The debtors are the Cooppens,

a couple that ran two care homes which have now been shut down.

A woman staying at their house says the Cooppens now live abroad

and claims she owns the Bentley on their driveway.

Lawrence believes it's owned by Mr Cooppen

and has called a tow truck to take it away.

Only now there's a delay.

Blimey. Okey dokey.

A long delay.

90 minutes.

Kev parks the van in the entrance.

And, while they wait,

Lawrence reads up about the closure of the care homes.

"On Tuesday, the 25th, residents were evacuated

"in their night clothes from Merok Park.

"Inspectors were so shocked by the squalid conditions

"that they ordered it to be closed immediately

"and the pensioners ferried by ambulance to other homes.

"Residents' families describe Merok Park as a pigsty.

"Last night, they called for police investigation and demanded to know

"why the Cooppens had been able to charge so much for such poor care."

Mr and Mrs Cooppen were never prosecuted over the scandal

and, it seems, have now left the country with unpaid debts.

The sheriffs are here to collect.

But they are now joined by other enforcement professionals

called here by the house's occupant.

Basically, we're looking for a couple named Mr and Mrs Cooppen.

Apparently, they're not here, they're out of the country.

So, we're basically taking the Bentley to clear the debt.

The lady in there said, "Oh, it's mine." We've asked her for proof of

ownership, she's gone back in and hasn't come back out.

-If you want to wait here, we'll make contact...

-OK.

..with her and see what she says.

The police go inside to speak to the woman.

But because Lawrence and Kev are there by order of the court,

the police shouldn't prevent them from doing their job.

We've advised her there's nothing we can do

-about the seizure of the vehicle.

-Cos that's registered.

Any issues, give us a call.

-And, sure enough, they're on their way.

-Thanks very much.

-Have a good day.

-Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Soon, the woman makes another appearance.

This time, she's got the debtor, Mr Cooppen, on the phone.

He also claims the Bentley belongs to her.

To which lady? This lady with the provisional license?

It has nothing to do with council tax, this is a High Court writ.

A writ which it doesn't sound like Mr Cooppen is about to pay in full.

Right, well, the car's going then, sir.

No, it's got to be all of it, sir.

And with the extra costs of enforcement, the bill is rising.

You currently owe £9,461.80.

Mr Cooppen wants to make a smaller payment,

but Lawrence is in no mood to strike a deal.

No, sir. The car is going, then it will be sold

and you'll be paid any balance out of that.

No, it needs to be all of it.

It's the sheriffs' job to recover as much of the debt as possible.

And with a car worth about £30,000 sitting in front of them,

they're not going to accept any stalling.

Right, well, the car will be going, sir.

You'll have about a week to pay in full to get the car back

before it gets sold at auction.

No, it needs to be paid in full, sir.

I'm going to hand you back to your daughter now,

because I'm wasting me breath.

There you go. You gave the game away there having "mum" on your phone.

The debtor came up on the woman's phone as "mum",

so she is in fact the Cooppen's daughter.

And Lawrence is now more certain than ever the Bentley belongs

to her dad.

The owner of the vehicle is the person who actually buys it.

It doesn't matter what it says on the log book.

So he's the owner.

All they can do now is wait for the tow truck,

which finally arrives four hours after it was called.

Right, it's this Bentley here.

I'll move my van out of the way there, mate.

The guys swing into action.

After all the waiting around,

finally, the end of the job is in sight.

It should only take a couple of minutes to get it up there.

He'll just do his checks to make sure it's all nice and clean,

get it up and we'll be gone.

There's been no sign of the woman or the man inside the house

for hours now.

And even as the team prepare to lift the Bentley off the drive,

they are staying firmly out of sight.

The car is hoisted up,

checked for any damage...

Scratch there, and there's one along this side as well.

..and then it's job done.

Lovely. Cheers, mate.

The Cooppens will now have a week to pay nearly £9,900 to cover

the original debt plus costs, or else the Bentley will be sold.

For Lawrence and Kev, it's been a long morning.

It's one of those things, it took him four hours

cos he got stuck on the M25. It's nobody's fault.

And Gannet, who's been desperate for food now for three hours 55,

has now wandered off on the phone and he's not in the van,

like, itching to get to some food.

Food? Hell, yeah!

Four days later, the Cooppens paid in full.

Their former employee received their missing wages

and the Bentley was returned.

Many of the sheriffs' cases arise from the sale of second-hand cars.

And just outside Stockport, Sheriff Alan Pennington

is about to enforce

a typical case against a company called Cheadle Car Sales Ltd.

The premises we're going to is on a retail estate.

I'm not really sure who I'm going to meet and what assets they've got.

Cheadle Car Sales was taken to the County Court by a customer

who'd bought a car they weren't happy with.

They won the case and the company was ordered to give them a refund

plus costs.

Eight weeks later, it still hasn't.

So, now, with a High Court writ in his hand,

Alan is going to try to get the customer's money back.

We'll be there shortly, anyway.

And hopefully, we can meet up with someone from the premises

and try and get this case resolved for the claimant.

Cheadle Car Sales, there we are.

-Hello, fellas.

-Hey.

-Hello.

I'm an enforcement agent, I'm here to issue a High Court writ.

Is there anyone I can speak to?

-Is that camera on?

-Yeah.

At the sight of Alan and our camera,

the boss of Cheadle Car Sales, Mr Cawley, makes an appearance.

Yeah, what's it about?

Can I come in and have a chat with you in the office?

Yeah, without the camera.

Our camera's asked to leave.

And while Alan talks to Mr Cawley in his office,

the staff of Cheadle Car Sales start to show us a bit of cheek.

In fact, a lot of it.

Inside the garage, the boss is refusing to pay,

unless, that is, a certain condition is met,

as Alan explains to his office.

Basically, he wants to know what vehicle it is,

and he's not going to pay until he gets that vehicle back.

I've told him, "I'm not here to give you your vehicle back,

"I'm here to issue you a High Court writ."

Anticipating a standoff,

Alan tells the office he might need some backup.

There's about eight of them here.

And unless the police arrive...

I don't really want to get involved unless the police are here.

OK. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. All right, cheers.

And, while the boss leaves to run an errand,

Alan mulls over his options.

He's only going to pay if the car is returned.

He's going to come back

and then we'll go through the process of either having to call

the police to assist me and a low-loader

to take the vehicles away.

So, we'll find out in the next ten or 15 minutes,

when the gentleman comes back.

But when Mr Cawley returns, he hasn't changed his stance.

He now says he offered to fix the customer's car

when it first went wrong.

He still wants the vehicle returned as a point of principle

before he'll pay a penny.

As this isn't covered by the court order,

he's got no right to demand this.

But as it could be a way of avoiding an ugly showdown,

Alan thinks it's worth a shot and gets the claimant on the phone.

He's happy to pay out the full amount of money on the claim

if the car comes back.

What do you think?

The claimant says the car is undrivable and won't return it.

But, as it's currently abandoned on their driveway,

they are willing for it to be picked up at the garage's expense.

All right. No problem. Thanks. Bye-bye.

Alan heads in to tell Mr Cawley that's the best he can do.

All right.

He'll either have to pay his debt and collect the claimant's vehicle

himself or else lose another car from his forecourt.

It has the desired effect.

Mr Cawley agrees to the deal.

But, yet again, there's a catch.

His partner is in hospital

and she has the bank details

and apparently runs the admin side of the business.

So he can't pay today and is asking Alan to come back tomorrow.

It sounds like another excuse.

But, given the situation, Alan thinks on this occasion it is

worth giving him the benefit of the doubt.

The gentleman is happy to pay.

I didn't see the point of any further confrontation.

So we've agreed to meet.

And, if that's the case tomorrow, then all will be well

and done and the case will be closed.

Leaving without payment today might look like another bum deal

from the garage, but Alan's pragmatism pays off.

The following morning, Mr Cawley settled in full as promised.

The car was picked up from the customer

and they got their money back.

In Hertfordshire, Ken Warby is on his way to execute

a writ at a company called Novo Cucine.

I believe they fit kitchens.

And I believe the claimant on this one

is just a disgruntled customer.

A debt of just over £2,500.

Novo Cucine were taken to court by a Mr Michael Quane,

who won his case by default after the company offered no defence.

This type of case is bread-and-butter stuff

for the sheriffs. Ken's visited many a kitchen fitter in his time.

Occasionally, you'll get cookers, fridges, freezers,

that sort of thing. Sometimes they can be really posh,

other times a bit crummy.

Ken arrives to find a large, modern building.

When he goes in, it's exactly what he hoped for -

a big showroom with plenty of assets.

Staff, on the other hand, are harder to track down.

HE KNOCKS ON DOOR

Hello?

Ken heads upstairs to see if he can find someone to speak to.

Hello?

Hello. My name is Mr Warby, I'm from the sheriffs' office.

Can you not get that away from my face? Sorry, I don't want to...

The woman asks us to not film her and she says that the boss is away.

Any chance you can get him on the phone?

Can you get him on the phone abroad then?

Another member of staff now arrives.

And our camera's asked to leave.

After seeing the details of the writ,

it seems the staff are aware of the case, as Ken explains outside.

The claimant wanted a kitchen, he made a deposit.

There was a contract, but he never signed it.

When Mr Quane changed his mind and tried to cancel,

the company wouldn't let him,

so he made a claim through the County Court.

After winning his case, he should have been paid back

and now Ken is here to collect.

With plenty of assets in the showroom,

he's pretty sure it won't take long, and he's not wrong.

Unfortunately, they don't have the means to pay there,

but the MD did.

I spoke to him abroad. He's in Croatia.

And I told him that he needs to pay the balance in full,

otherwise we will be removing the goods today.

So he's made a bank transfer for the full amount of £2,696.99.

I just checked with the office, that's gone through.

So, a good result in the end.

The customer, Mr Quane, has got his money back.

And it's another case closed for the sheriffs.