Episode 6 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 courts.

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 have to remove

the vehicle off the drive.

You'll have 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.

I just collected 42 grand.

Coming up -

Mandy Springer was sold a car with a dangerous flaw...

This was the one where the wheel came off.

My grandson and I definitely could have been killed that day.

..but the dealership which sold it to her isn't keen

to pay for the repairs.

£1,140.62 pays us, gets her paid and we're gone.

Er, no.

A shop which sells mobility scooters owes a customer a refund.

The sheriffs plan to get it, whatever it takes.

The goods will be going,

because there's no evidence that they belong to anybody else.

It's 10am and Lawrence and Kev are in Windsor,

on the trail of a second-hand car salesman with a debt.

This morning, we are going to see a Mr Howard Bridgman,

trading as Primavera Cars.

He owes £1,140.

This is expenses incurred.

Four days after the purchase of a Land Rover Freelander

and the wheel fell off it.

Not ideal.

No, it's not good to have a wheel fall off any vehicle, really.

So, yeah, that's who we're after now. We're a couple of miles away.

Lawrence and Kev are working on behalf of Mandy Springer.

She was driving with her grandchild, Dante, in the car

when the incident happened.

She'd only just bought the Land Rover from a local dealer

she'd found on the internet called Primavera Cars.

The salesman seemed fairly helpful, he was quite a friendly fellow

and he didn't seem to know very much about the car, actually.

When I was asking him had the car been serviced? He said, "Oh, no."

Nevertheless, it seemed to be what she was looking for.

My husband and I looked over the car,

we did pop the bonnet as well, we looked underneath for any

kind of mysterious rusting

and you know, it seemed sound to look at.

The Land Rover had a new MOT and Mandy negotiated a discount

to pay for a service she'd arrange later.

Thinking she had a good deal, she paid £3,600 and drove it away.

Only a few days later, disaster struck.

I'd come off the motorway and as I pressed the brake, the car shook,

I just about held it...

..and you could hear

something, like, it snapped.

I was very fortunate that the guy behind me

didn't actually smash into me.

Another guy came out and was knocking on the window,

shouting, "Your wheel's come off the car!"

The wheel had come almost completely detached.

And the car was stranded in the middle of the road.

We're in two lanes of traffic because the car had slightly swerved

into the other lane,

so we could have been hit by any car coming down.

I think my grandson and I definitely could have been killed that day.

It wasn't safe to stay in the car,

so Mandy took 22-month-old Dante onto the verge

and called Primavera Cars.

There was no footway to stand, so we were standing in brambles.

I was trying to get help from the garage.

In the end, it was kind of like I was just arguing

and wasting my time. He refused to help me.

He didn't care, he didn't care at all.

So Mandy called the police who helped recover the car.

But Primavera wouldn't take it back.

They said no, they didn't want to help at all.

Instead, it was delivered to a Land Rover specialist.

When he examined it, Mandy was shocked by what he found.

He gave me four of these, these are spacers.

I didn't know anything about spacers until he told me.

It's to make the wheels look bigger, make the car look bulkier,

so maybe a boy racer might have stuff like this on their cars.

The spacer sits between the hub and the wheel,

and on this one, four of the five connecting bolts had failed.

This was the one where the wheel came off,

it was just by the grace of God that that one held on.

Using wheel spacers isn't illegal in the UK, but should be declared

to insurance companies as an after-market modification.

Mandy feels she ought to have been warned.

These should have been taken off the car prior to them selling it.

They should have known about these.

Mandy took Howard Bridgman to court.

He didn't defend the case and was ordered to pay her back

the money she spent on fixing the car and her costs.

Bridgman offered to pay Mandy by bank transfer, but she was worried.

I didn't trust their actions at all.

There was no way I was going to give them my bank details.

Wary of giving out her details, Mandy said she wanted a cheque,

one of the other payment methods recommended by the court.

But Bridgman refused.

At one point, they called me eight times in one day,

kept calling and calling and saying, "We want your bank details.

"If you don't give us your bank details,

"we're going to issue a counter action against you."

They could have made payment at any time and they refused to do it.

And then there were the text messages.

"I'm still not happy about the way this has played out

"and I would suggest you receive adequate training in car mechanics

"before checking the vehicle over yourself in future instances."

So I thought...

..at the end of the day, you sold a car to somebody,

it could have killed them.

In fact, the law makes it clear that the dealer

is responsible for the vehicle being fit for purpose.

With the garage apparently unwilling to send her the cheque she wanted,

Mandy was left with little choice.

I had seen The Sheriff on telly before.

Never thought in a million years that I'd have to use them.

I was angry enough and I did want something to be done.

I did want my money back.

And so now Lawrence and Kev are on their way to get it for her.

Since Mandy bought her car,

Howard Bridgman has joined forces with a new business partner

and they now trade as Primavera Cars Limited,

operating from the same address as before.

Howard Bridgman's partner is on site

and he seems to know all about the case.

Hello, there.

Yeah, good, thank you.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

Right, well she's sent us out with a High Court writ.

£1,140.62 pays us, gets her paid and we're gone.

Lawrence isn't here to run messages around and it's now too late

for the car dealer to make a payment directly to Mandy.

Right, problem being she's now transferred it

to the High Court for enforcement purposes.

What you need to seek is independent legal advice, we're not here

to advise you. We're here to obviously execute the writ

on behalf of our claimant.

The man doesn't want to pay the costs of the sheriffs' visit.

But like it or not, the full amount is what he'll need to come up with.

We hold the money for 14 days,

it doesn't get disbursed straight away.

So that gives you 14 days to get legal advice.

Then if we're ordered to pay back the money,

we pay back the money, simple as that.

But at the moment, we've got a High Court writ

that says this has got to be paid.

The man doesn't want our camera in his office and we're asked to leave.

He doesn't protest much longer however, and Kev soon comes out.

Spoke to the guy. He knows all about it, to be fair.

He's going to make payment now, so I've got the card machine,

brought the van up and he's going to pay and off we go.

The man does indeed pay

and he invites our camera back in to tell his side of the story.

He says he thought the accident might have happened

because a friend of Mandy's had given the car a once over.

She said that, "Two days ago, my brother in law, who's a mechanic,

"was looking over the car", and all that and found some bits.

Anyway, and then she's had the wheel came off two days after that.

I said, "Well, sounds like something that he's probably done, then."

He says Primavera offered to look at the car, but Mandy refused.

They didn't defend the case because they didn't receive the paperwork.

And he says, following the judgment, they tried to pay

but the disagreements over the payment method was the problem.

She wanted a cheque.

We kept asking for... E-mails asking her, for her sort code

and account number, so we could pay it.

Cos we want evidence to show that we've done it.

So we know it's been paid, so we can go to the court and let them know

that it's all been done. Cos we don't want this going any further.

Mandy was under no obligation to give out her details

and cheque is one of the payment methods recommended by the courts.

Refusing to send one has now cost Primavera Cars,

though the man has come up with a way to make sure

he gets his money's worth.

We'll do a selfie.

That was about as easy a job as you'll ever get, to be honest.

The gentleman saw us, recognised us, invited us into the office,

he knew exactly what case it was about.

He's not overly happy that he's got our fees on top now, but he was half

expecting a visit from us anyway

and just paid us straightaway on a card. So...

..all in all, another successful case for our client.

Back in Reading, it's the news Mandy's been waiting for.

It's been a really good result.

I'm pleased that I did get in contact with the sheriffs cos

they've helped take the stress out of a stressful situation.

So, I'm really pleased.

I just sincerely hope that doesn't happen again to somebody else.

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 £66, 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.

Lawrence and Kev are making a trip to the seaside.

We are heading to East Wittering,

down on the south coast.

We're going to Non Stop Mobility Ltd for a total of £1,903.

So it's a commercial premises we're going to, a shop.

The writ's in favour of a customer, who bought a mobility scooter,

and wasn't happy with it.

I quote, "It was not fit for purpose."

After being refused a refund, the customer took the company to court

and won by default after it didn't enter a defence.

The sheriffs are hopeful they'll be able to get their money back.

I imagine there's going to be plenty of assets at this shop

as long as the shop's still trading.

We can fill this thing up with mobility scooters if need be.

It shouldn't be too much of a problem, I don't think.

But famous last words.

Famous last words indeed,

as this job's about to throw up some surprises.

-There.

-Just there.

The sheriffs head in.

Inside, they find the company director's husband, Mr McWilliam.

-We've got a High Court writ against Non Stop Mobility Ltd.

-Oh, yeah.

They've set it aside?

-Yeah.

-When was this?

It's a familiar story.

Mr McWilliam claims the judgment has been overturned.

But when he starts getting out his paperwork,

a different picture emerges.

His appeal hasn't yet been heard.

So the only thing which will stop the sheriffs enforcing

the writ today is if he's been granted a stay of execution,

which he thinks he has.

Have you got a copy of the order staying the writ, because I haven't.

Obviously, if it's stayed, then we'll leave you in peace.

But we've got no evidence at the moment that it is.

But unless we can see that, then we have to carry on.

The shopkeeper should have a court order

confirming what he's saying, but he can't seem to find it.

And it's becoming increasingly obvious

he hasn't understood the court process.

There's two separate things. There's a set aside and there's a stay.

And each incurs its own fee.

How many application forms did you send?

-One.

-And what did the application ask for, a set aside or a stay?

They won't give you a stay without a set aside.

The fact that you've got a hearing date,

that is when your set aside hearing is.

Well, if you've only paid one lot of £155...

If Mr McWilliam had got a stay of execution, then

he would have had to pay a second court fee.

It sounds like he didn't.

If you can't find the paperwork,

-have you got the money to pay this today?

-No chance.

Right, well, then we'll be removing goods.

The man insists he does have a stay of execution,

but his paperwork's in disarray.

No, this was the original judgment.

He's showing Lawrence various letters from the court...

This is the notice that it's been transferred to Chichester.

..but none are the right one.

So, we're getting there, but you hadn't even opened that.

Then amongst a pile of letters, it's Lawrence that strikes gold.

Oh, here it is.

It's the court order,

confirming there's a hearing in a few weeks' time.

But it's what it doesn't say that's crucial.

There's nothing that says enforcement action

is stayed in the interim.

It's the smoking gun Lawrence needs.

He can now press on to try to get the claimant her money back.

It doesn't stay execution in the meantime,

so the amount outstanding is £1,903.03,

which needs to be paid immediately, or goods will be removed.

-Is there no-one that could lend you the money?

-No.

Right, well, goods will be removed to clear the debt then, sir.

The sheriffs get to work deciding which items to take.

In particular, they've got their eyes on the mobility scooters,

which are the most valuable things in the shop.

But now, faced with their removal, Mr McWilliam

claims they're not the shop's.

Right, have you got paperwork to that effect?

You know, paperwork where you enter into a contract

with people to sell goods on their behalf.

Well, then, the goods will be going because there's no evidence that

they belong to anybody else.

But just when it looks like this job's only going one way,

events take a surprising turn.

Mr McWilliam has phoned the courts,

and is asking them to intervene on his behalf.

He appears to have found a sympathetic ear

and hands the phone to Lawrence.

What I've said to the gentleman,

he's obviously applied for a set aside because he's got

the hearing date, but he hasn't applied for a stay in the interim.

I've got a truck on the way to remove the contents of the shop.

He should have applied for a stay. He hasn't, he hasn't got one,

so the writ is live and we're here to execute it today.

But the woman at the court wants to double-check.

She's gone.

Well, she's going to go and speak to the judge.

A few minutes later, she rings back.

PHONE RINGS

And it's just what Lawrence had feared.

I need a copy of that revised order e-mailing to me, please.

A judge has revised the court order and even though he hasn't

paid for it, Mr McWilliam has now been granted a stay of execution.

As it's the sheriff's job to carry out the court's wishes,

they have to leave empty-handed.

But later in the programme, we'll find out what happens

when they're back two months later.

Sheriff Ken Warby is in Dunstable, near Luton,

on his way to a trading estate.

We're going to visit a large furniture store, SCS,

the original debt is just over £2,000.

Ken's attending on behalf of a customer who bought

a recliner sofa, but the leather finish began to peel off.

When she asked the store for her money back,

she was instead offered an alternative sofa at a reduced price.

She wasn't happy, and despite the Citizens' Advice Bureau

intervening on her behalf, they couldn't come to an agreement.

So she took SCS to court

and when they didn't offer a defence,

was awarded a default judgment.

Ken's not expecting them to remember.

I'll give them enough time to try

and find out exactly who the claimant is, chances are they'll

need to speak to the head office

because this is just one of their branches.

But given the stock he knows will be on site,

he's not going to take no for an answer.

They'd have more than enough assets to cover the debt here,

pick one of about 30 or 40 three-piece-suites if you like.

Sometimes, Sheriffs go direct to the company's head office,

but they're entitled to enforce anywhere the debtor has assets.

This is one of a dozen or so stores they've got up and down the country.

However, the notice of enforcement would have come to this address.

It's the address on the writ, so Ken heads in.

SCS, I'd like to speak to the person in charge. My name's Mr Warby.

It doesn't take the man long

to realise he's not about to make a sale.

We're asked to leave while Ken starts the process

of getting through to someone with the power to pay up.

This is as I thought it would be, big company,

I've just spoken to the store manager,

so he's now contacting his head office.

He's going to fax over a copy of the actual

writ of control, so it's just a question of waiting at the moment.

There's only going to be one outcome,

I want the money for my client. That's it.

With nothing else he can do, Ken has a quick sit down

and his thoughts turn momentarily to his own living room.

The sofa's really nice, actually, it reclines a treat.

The one I'm looking for really is on a button, electric, on a button,

if I can get one like that.

I'm not sure I'd get a discount here, somehow.

Finally, however, the manager is back

and an hour and a half after he arrived, Ken's done.

Head office are going to pay,

a control goods agreement has been signed, and yeah, successful job.

The customer's finally got her money back.

SCS might be a few thousand down on the day,

but after Ken spent the morning trying out every sofa in the shop,

they might have a new customer to make up for it.

Grey one was rather nice,

so I did say to them next time I come in,

if I'm not holding my clipboard, maybe we can do some business.

SCS told us -

Earlier, Lawrence and Kev visited a shop

called Non Stop Mobility in East Wittering.

The sheriffs had to walk away empty-handed after a judge

granted the shop a last-minute stay of execution

to allow an appeal to take place.

Now two months later,

Lawrence and Kev are heading to the seaside town once again.

He's had his hearing. The case has been thrown out,

so we're on our way back here now

and going to get payment. Well, we're hoping to get payment.

But the sheriffs aren't banking on it being that simple.

Last time the shopkeeper said

he didn't have the money

and now with extra fees,

the bill's gone up.

Best case scenario, he's expecting us and he's got the money

sitting there waiting for us, but I shouldn't think so.

He's going to know we're going to be back.

Hello?

At first the shop looks to be unattended.

But then Mr McWilliam emerges from the back.

-Oh, hello.

-Hello again, sir.

You lost your appeal, didn't you? So now the full total is due.

We're here today to take control of goods to the value of £3,268.36.

Were you not aware you lost?

This time he asks our cameraman to leave.

He tells Lawrence he thought he'd won his case.

He gets out some paperwork from the court, which he says will

prove it, but it's a move that spectacularly backfires.

He's saying he doesn't know anything about it.

And then produces a letter that is an order saying

that his case has been dismissed

and he also has got an extra £1,500

on top of the judgment debt.

So he's not best pleased about that.

The sheriffs hadn't been told about the additional costs

awarded by the court.

Now they've been added, the shop owes well over £4,500.

And Mr McWilliam isn't about to settle up.

He's saying he hasn't got any money to pay,

the same as he was last time, and to be honest, I don't doubt him.

His wife's got no money, he's got no money.

So the only thing we've got of value really are the scooters.

I think there's nine scooters in total.

He's saying he's signed a letter saying that his mate owns them,

but it's literally, just a bit of paper.

So we've decided we're going to take these scooters,

cos there's no other way we're going to get paid here at all.

In fact, it's not just the scooters that will be going.

To get the claimant her money back,

they're going to have to pretty much clear out the shop.

Lawrence has begun listing the goods one by one.

And Kev reckons he's rather enjoying it.

He's got a bit of a glint in his eye

looking at some of these scooters,

There's a sort of wide scooter that he's got his eye on, I think.

He's sort of coming to that sort of age.

Don't tell him that, though.

But Lawrence shouldn't get carried away too quickly

as Mr McWilliam has again put in a call to the local court

in a bid to stop the sheriffs in their tracks.

They've advised him to fill in some different form

that she's going to submit to the judge.

And in the meantime, the atmosphere inside the shop is heating up

as a man has arrived with a large Alsatian dog.

It turns out he's got some sort of stake in this business,

so he's got money invested in it.

I think he's the guy that owns the scooters as well

or claims to own the scooters.

But I think he's got actual more investment than just that.

He sort of bombed in here with his Alsatian,

telling us we're not going to do this and that and what have you.

But it's going to take more than a large dog to put

the sheriffs off and the man soon leaves.

Meanwhile, Mr McWilliam has heard back from his latest

appeal to the courts

and this time, he hasn't been so lucky.

Surprisingly enough, the judge has seen it already

but dismissed everything.

So that avenue for him has gone now.

The entire contents of the shop are going to be removed.

There's three scooters, I think, that we've seen paperwork for

to show us that they don't belong to this Limited Company.

The rest of it's going to be going and the truck is on its way.

It's obvious the business is struggling,

and emptying the shop isn't ideal for anyone.

So Lawrence and Kev do make one last-ditch attempt to get the man

to make some kind of payment,

but it doesn't have quite the reaction they'd hoped for.

We basically said if he could get two and half grand together, then

we could leave his stuff here and put an arrangement in place for him.

But he's not going for it, can't get any funds together, so he's gone.

He's given us the keys to the shop and he's off, left us to it.

If that's what he wants to do, it's up to him.

The truck pulls up outside and Lawrence and Kev start loading.

That's going to be the first one.

What's the best way to take them?

Cos we don't want them going down those steps.

There's only one thing for it.

After all, Lawrence is at home on anything with four wheels

even if it only goes 5mph.

I do have some knowledge of mobility scooters.

My mother got through a few in her latter years, God rest her.

Managed to fit a few in the back of my van

when they'd broken down and I had to go and collect her.

She used to run out of batteries.

Kev, meanwhile, is wrestling with the complexity of the machines.

What's going on here? What's he done to this one? Has he broken this one?

This one's got something wrong with it, Lawrence.

Only Lawrence doesn't have the same problem.

It's very slow, but I'll get there.

Might have to push a bit.

As for Kev,

-he's still struggling...

-It's not neutral. What am I not doing right?

..and is ultimately beaten.

This one, Lawrence, is broken.

What have you done with it?

-It's just broke.

-It's not broken.

You muppet. What's the matter with you?

They fill up the van as much as they can

and though it probably won't be enough to cover the £4,500

the shop owes, every bit helps.

Mobility stuff has got a value.

There's a few bits in there that are worth a reasonable amount of money,

but most of it's second-hand.

It'll have some value to it.

And that means that the customer who took the shop to court

will get at least some of their money back.