Episode 2 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 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.

Just collected 42 grand.

Coming up...

the sheriffs eye up a luxury car

belonging to the boss of a failed care home.

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

It's secured with a clamp

and we're going to 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?

The sheriffs are called on to clear a group of squatters.

Wake up!

But it's the street art on the front door

that's the hardest to remove.

Definitely the dearest and valuable door that I've had to deal with.

And Lawrence visits his dream-car specialist...

Oh, it's lovely. That is just gorgeous.

..but at another garage gets a nightmare welcome.

Definitely an angry man.

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're going to is actually a nice...

nice big house. I'm led to believe it's on a gated community as well

so we're hoping the gates are either open or get in 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 a button, is it?

Oh, my God, it is. What sort of security's 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.

The Bentley's there.

Lawrence wastes no time in getting stuck in.

It'll have to be a little clamp on that, won't it?

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.

(These tyres are massive for this clamp.)

Is it going round?

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 names 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 do 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's Mr Cooppen's Bentley, isn't it?

-It's in your name.

-Yes.

-Is that right?

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.

She's come out with a registration document,

which, as we all know, isn't proof of ownership.

I believe she just had a provisional licence, anyway.

It's rare for a learner driver to own a Bentley Continental.

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.

Maybe 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.

She hasn't said she's renting the property.

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

And Lawrence is also making a call.

Hello there. 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 cars 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.

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 doggy seatbelt and regular toilet breaks,

Gunner's 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 that 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 is 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, a big house like that.

All the memories, all the parties and that we'd had there and...

So, 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, moved here,

it was brought here

and after a few days 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'd before in the wife's family well over 100 years.

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

Said the stuff was missing and, "OK, well, we'll look for it."

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

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

As hope of the items turning up faded,

John instead made a claim for compensation

from Mr Jones's 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 the 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.

John's solicitor then advised him to do some charity shopping of his own.

He suggested I do some investigating, which I did do

and I went round all the charity shops in Princes Risborough

and nobody there knew anything about any of these items.

John's hopes of getting his stuff back or compensation from Mr Jones

were now over. But he wasn't about to give up altogether.

Why should these people get away with it? I mean...

I just thought, "No, 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 and 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.

Yeah, 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 in this evening?

I'm actually from the court.

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?

-Yeah.

-Can I speak to him?

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

Mrs Jones explains there's a visitor on the doorstep.

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.

-When you say he's just down the road,

-literally a minute away or something like that?

-Yeah.

-Oh, OK.

-Two minutes.

-That's fine.

-Yeah?

-Thank you very much.

-That's all.

And sure enough, Mr Jones soon shows up.

Hello, Mr Jones.

Sorry to ambush you like this, sir.

My names 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 a card. The card didn't work.

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've had an e-mail from the guy's solicitor

telling me that the sheriffs, they've got payment in full,

which is great news, I can,

maybe I can put all this 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 25th residents were evacuated in their nightclothes

"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 described 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're 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.

-OK.

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 with her...

-OK.

-..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 they 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.

Cheers, 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 licence?

It's 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's going and it'll be sold and you'll be paid any

balance out of that.

No, it needs to be all of it.

It's the sheriff's 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 Cooppens' daughter,

and Lawrence is now more certain than ever

the Bentley belongs to her dad.

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

It doesn't matter what it says on the logbook.

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 then, mate.

The guys swing into action.

After all the waiting around,

finally the end of the job is in sight.

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

He'll just do his checks around it to make sure it's all

nice and clean, get it up, and then we're 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're 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

3.55 hours, has now wandered off on the phone

and he's not in the van, 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.

It's a wet and windy winter's morning.

Enforcement agents Craig Wilde and Tommy Coyle are heading to Derby.

They've got a writ to enforce against a car dealership

with a bit of a reputation.

It's called the Derby Car Centre Limited.

We're here on behalf of Mr Kevin Emerson.

He bought a car from this company.

It wasn't fit for purpose.

Mr Emerson took the company to court,

and despite winning a judgment in his favour, he's not been paid.

So we're here now to enforce that order,

which is just short of £5,500.

The claimant, Kevin Emerson, is a farm worker,

and his troubles with the car dealers began when he needed

to buy a new vehicle for work.

I wanted a four-by-four because I need to be able

to get up and down fields and that,

even with my job at the farm.

After seeing an advert, Kevin went to Derby Car Centre.

His first impressions were good,

and on the forecourt he saw a Hyundai which he liked the look of.

I started the car up, it sounded all right and it looked all right.

£2,995.

But they took my car in part exchange.

The car was delivered to Kevin's house as promised,

but when he drove it, he immediately found problems.

There was a noise coming from the gearbox,

the clutch was slipping and another problem with the car

was the light on the dashboard from the air bag.

Kevin was worried, so he took the car to a local garage

to have it properly checked over.

And what they found was worse than he had feared.

There was oil coming out from under the gearbox,

the clutch was about worn out.

Plus, the car was pulling to the middle of the road.

The garage told me that...

it's not roadworthy, don't drive it.

Kevin couldn't believe it.

I was mad. I was mad because, as I said, I'd just spent £2,500...

on a car which I couldn't drive.

Kevin contacted Derby Car Centre to complain.

They offered to look at the car, if he returned it.

He told them it couldn't be driven, but that fell on deaf ears.

And all they kept saying,

"I'll have a word with the gaffer and get back to you".

And they never got back.

No matter how many times I rung, they just didn't want to know.

As he needed a car for work, Kevin had to borrow money

to buy another one, while also paying to have the

unroadworthy Hyundai stored at the local garage.

His sister-in-law, Sue, decided enough was enough,

and began to intervene on his behalf.

I sent a letter.

No response.

So we followed it up with a second letter, letter before action,

all advised by Trading Standards.

Still no response.

In the end, Sue managed to get hold of the company boss, Mark Whitfield,

by e-mail. He offered to collect the car, but then didn't turn up.

He started with different excuses.

"I can't come and collect it, you didn't tell me it was unroadworthy".

I said, "Of course we did. You had the report from the garage".

Eventually, the car was collected from the garage,

but it had been there so long, Kevin had to pay a massive bill.

The price of the storage, by the time they fetched the car,

was £1,620.

Now that Derby Car Centre had the vehicle back,

Sue rang up to demand a refund, but it seems the company

had other ideas.

And he said they're going to repair it

and sell it.

Then we'll get the proceeds of what's left,

minus the depreciation of the vehicle

cos it's been stood a long while.

The Emersons weren't happy.

Even if they did get some proceeds from the sale,

Kevin was going to be substantially out of pocket.

I'd bought the car with money that I'd saved.

And then I found myself in the position where then I had to go

and borrow some money to buy another car.

I'm going to be stuck now with this now for the rest of my life

because you just can't pick...

£4,500 up.

And the stress was starting to take its toll on his health.

I'd never had no problems with sleeping or anything

until I bought that car.

And you see, after that...

..my head was just filling up with it.

There was only one thing for it.

Sue helped Kevin to file a claim against Derby Car Centre

in the County Court. And after doing some research,

she discovered this wouldn't be the first time

the business was in court.

I thought, "They're not a very good company".

So I started looking into them and I found out that Mark Whitfield

had got a court order from 2013.

Derby Car Centre had been the subject of 181 complaints

to the City Council over a two-and-a-half-year period.

Mark Whitfield was served with an order under the Enterprise Act,

compelling him to play by the rules, or face jail.

As for the Emersons, Kevin won a judgment by default

after Derby Car Centre didn't offer a defence.

They were ordered to pay him back the price of the car,

as well as costs incurred.

Naively, I thought they'd do the right thing.

You know, I thought they'd just give him his money back.

They'd do anything but that.

Derby Car Centre later applied to have the judgment set aside,

only then missed the hearing.

Kevin and Sue still haven't seen a penny,

and now they're turning to the sheriffs.

I think last resort is High Court sheriffs.

I've seen how they go about their business.

I think they're the people you need to be assured

of getting your money back.

Tommy and Craig are on their way to Derby Car Centre.

Keep it on the left, left, left.

From the sheriffs' research, it sounds like not only

is Kevin one of many unhappy customers,

but the manager is no stranger to the occasional TV appearance.

He was on Rogue Traders, so he's quite familiar with the cameras...

and obviously having people coming to see him with a complaint or two.

But what will Mr Whitfield make of the sheriffs?

Derby Car Centre. A big sign there, look, on the left.

Let's get it done.

The sheriffs head for the office and are met at the door.

You all right?

How are you? Is the boss about?

Could you get him on the phone?

Thank you very much. Cheers.

Mark Whitfield isn't here, so the sheriffs explain

to the staff member they're here to collect a debt.

We need that paid today.

Obviously, the quicker it's paid and we'll be out of here.

The man goes to get the boss on the phone...

No problem.

..while Craig eyes up the assets.

The yard is quite fully stocked of motors.

Doesn't mean to say that all these vehicles are all bought

and paid for outright.

A lot of these businesses tend to work on a finance deal.

But all the sheriffs would need to find is one or two cars

owned by Derby Car Centre that they could remove,

and that would be enough to cover the debt, if it came to it.

I could see you in that, Wilde.

-The Boxster?

-Yeah.

-I can't afford cars like that.

-It's got you all over it, that has.

The white one looks nice, actually, to be fair.

-The soft top one.

-What is that?

-A Beamer?

-Is it a Beamer or an Audi?

Craig goes for a closer look,

just to check whether he can afford an upgrade.

I quite like the Audi, the Audi there.

But at £23,000, it's well out of my league.

I'll stick to my old little banger.

Back in the office, the employee's got someone on the phone,

but it's not the boss, Mark Whitfield.

It's his solicitor.

She says she's appealing the judgment

and doesn't think they have to pay today.

Tommy tries to convince her that they do.

Until you actually go to court and obviously have the hearing and win,

it's still a live High Court order and we have to execute it today.

The solicitor is now talking about making

a last-minute application to the court to grant a stay of execution,

which would postpone any enforcement action.

But Tommy isn't planning to leave today without the money.

The money is held for 14 days by the sheriff's office

before it goes to the claimant.

So if you could get a hearing within that time,

and you do win the case, obviously the money wouldn't go over.

Hold on. I'll put you back on to him now.

Derby Car Centre has now got a choice -

pay the sheriffs the full amount owed

or else they could see one of the cars on the forecourt removed.

It only takes ten minutes to decide.

The director of the company has authorised somebody

to come down here with the money in cash.

But will they be true to their word?

After everything they'd heard about Derby Car Centre,

the sheriffs had expected to have a battle on their hands.

Now it looks like the company's about to pay up without a whimper.

And, just as promised, a bundle of cash soon arrives.

Tommy and Craig count it out.

£5,478.

After months of the Emersons trying to get their money back,

a visit from the sheriffs has sealed the deal,

though that may not be the end of the story.

They're going to try and challenge this order,

which is their legal right to do so.

But that won't happen today,

so in order for us to stop our action

they've paid the money in cash today.

This gives them then a legal time to go back to court and challenge the order.

And if they win the case

then quite clearly the money will get returned to them.

But that doesn't happen.

Derby Car Centre Limited's application

to have the judgment set aside was rejected.

I received a letter from the sheriffs,

they'd been and fetched the money in full,

which is a big relief because now I can pay the storage fee for the car.

That's something off my mind.

I can also give my friend his money back

which I borrowed to buy this new car.

So hopefully now I'm done.

The director of Derby Car Centre told us,

"The company would have been happy to fix any fault with the car

"if they'd had the opportunity to inspect it."

He says...

He says...

Sheriffs are now officially known as High Court enforcement agents,

and they'll collect the money you're owed.

My job is to collect in full or remove goods.

They've got more powers of entry than bailiffs.

We don't have to take any notice of your security protocol, I'm afraid.

And there's no limit on the size of the debts they can pursue.

£1.6 million.

Their fees are set by the government,

which debtors have to pay on top of what they already owe.

Thank you very much. See you later.

If the sheriffs can't recover any of your money,

there's a fee of £75 plus VAT.

Ken is in Camden, in North London.

He's got a writ to execute against a company

which provides security services for construction sites.

We're going to a place called Permanex CCS Group Limited.

They have got an outstanding bill for £14,500.

The money is owed to a subcontractor

called Pro-Tech Security Solutions Limited,

who didn't get paid.

They took the case to court and were awarded a judgment by default

as Permanex CCS Group Limited didn't offer a defence.

Today will be the sheriff's second visit.

We've previously been here before and there was no response,

so I'll give it another whirl and hopefully I'll be successful.

When Ken arrives, it looks much like it did last time.

The shutters are down,

but is anyone in?

There's no response from the intercom.

The gate, however, is unlocked.

Ken has a nose around the yard, which is full of clutter and junk.

A door into the unit's been left ajar.

Hello!

As no-one's answering, he goes in.

Hello. Anyone home?

It's not what he was expecting to find.

This is a weird one. Place is a complete mess.

There's nothing around here.

It's just been abandoned.

Whoever was trading here has definitely gone,

and fairly recently too.

It's pretty obvious Ken isn't about to get the claimant's money.

But he does have a look around to see if there are any clues

to who was here.

Certificate of registration for Clarke Construction Security.

And there's another one, too, in the name of Permanex UK Limited.

That's their company certificate.

Although none exactly match the name Ken's looking for,

they sound like related companies,

so it's likely the debtor was here until recently.

While that's useful info for the file,

there's not much more Ken can do today besides the formalities.

I'll take some pictures of this place,

report this back to the office.

Right.

Ken finishes up and heads off.

In his time as a sheriff, he's just about seen it all.

Even so, this strikes him as a bit odd.

This is a weird one. Looking upstairs and downstairs,

there's rubbish strewn everywhere.

The gate is not locked.

We've just come straight through the gate,

we've gone straight into the unit.

Prime candidate for a squat, actually, being this part of London.

He's not wrong.

Every year, dozens of buildings across London

are occupied by squatters.

And just a few streets away from this abandoned unit,

another empty building has recently been taken over.

The sheriffs have been engaged by the landlord to help remove

the squatters and get the office block back.

Under cover of darkness, the team is gathering.

I'll just give you a copy of the writ, just so you've got one, yeah?

Squatting in residential premises is a criminal offence

and the police will take action.

In commercial premises like this one, it's a civil matter,

and landlords can get a writ and employ the sheriffs.

Enforcement agent Mark King is running today's operation.

Possibly about 18 people in there.

But that was last week,

and that's going to change.

You know, there might not be anybody in there, there might be 50.

There's only one way into the property,

and he thinks the squatters have barricaded the door.

We could have a bit of trouble getting in, I think, this morning.

It's got a couple of bolts across it.

But there's, at the bottom,

there's, like, a metal bed frame laid on the floor.

It is only an aluminium bed frame

but it stops the door from opening inwards.

It's much easier for the sheriffs if they can surprise the building's inhabitants.

They'll not have the time to add to the barricade

or organise any resistance.

Locksmith Andy Marsh has a pneumatic press to try and force the door

quietly without resorting to smashing it down...

..only someone inside is up early and comes to the door.

All right, mate. Do you want to open the door?

Cheers, mate.

The squatters realise straightaway what's going on.

Just open the door, mate,

and we'll give you enough time to get your stuff ready.

But you need to open the door straightaway.

Go, go, go, go, go.

As soon as the door opens, the sheriffs pile in.

They can't take any risks,

even if the early riser seems to be cooperating.

Do you want a copy of the paperwork?

You know the craic. Get your stuff.

Upstairs, they set about waking everyone up and moving them out.

Wakey-wakey. You're being evicted.

Come on, mate, wake up.

We're just doing a quick headcount,

find out exactly how many people we've got in here on the premises.

Give them the time to pack their stuff and then,

yeah, they can leave politely.

There appear to be only a handful of squatters left,

and so far they seem happy to go quietly.

The only resistance is from one man,

and he might just not like mornings.

You need to get up and leave, mate.

Mm-mm. Was it a hard night?

Right, come on then. You need to get up and leave.

Where? Outside.

-Come on.

-Mm-hm.

-Get yourself up.

Thank you.

That way.

All right, go and get it then, mate, quickly.

The sheriffs want people to take as much of their stuff as possible with them.

It avoids arguments over people wanting to re-enter the property

once it's secure.

You've got all your stuff, sir?

-Have you got all your stuff?

-Yeah.

OK. Come on, then.

But they won't wait forever.

Right, come on, fellas. Stop looking at it.

Pick it up and take it out, yeah?

With most of the former squatters outside,

and their belongings piling up on the pavement,

Mark has a chance to look around the building.

This is a new lot. I've not seen this lot before.

It's not too bad in here though.

Not a great deal of mess.

It might look like a pigsty, but the mess is mostly superficial.

Given the damage the sheriffs have seen in other squats,

the landlord can count themselves relatively lucky.

Outside, tempers are rising.

OK.

But it comes to nothing.

The man instead offers the sheriffs his doughnuts.

Meanwhile, Andy's turned his attention to the front door.

Someone's obviously come along and spray painted

a picture of Nelson Mandela.

They want to take the metal steel sheet off the front...

..and keep it at home, I guess.

The painting is by the street artist Bambi,

and it appeared on the door when the building was still occupied

by a courier company.

Now that the building's set for redevelopment,

the landlord has decided to keep it.

Apparently it's quite valuable.

That's an understatement.

Bambi's work has sold for over £100,000,

and this door alone has been valued at 25 grand.

No wonder the landlord wants to hang onto it.

Certainly is definitely the dearest valuable door

that I've had to deal with.

There's no margin for error.

But after half an hour of careful grinding and banging,

Andy manages to separate it from the door in one piece.

A lot easier than what I thought it would be.

Completely different to what we're used to.

Just had to take it a little bit steady.

So we freed Nelson, again.

Without its front plate,

the door needs a little work to make it secure.

The last thing the sheriffs want is squatters getting back in.

Everything's done, client's got possession back of the property,

but we are leaving a guard here as well until further notice.

And with the building secure, it's job done.

No problems at all.

Nice and easy.

Lawrence and Kev are racking up the motorway miles.

Writ in hand, they're heading for Wales.

I don't mind a road trip, to be honest.

It's, you know... It's part of the job.

The debt stems from the purchase of a second-hand car from a dealership.

We are going to Cars R Us, on behalf of a Mr Gordon Desborough.

£1,455.

Car dealerships are usually OK to go to because obviously you presume

they've got cars on the front, so they've got assets there.

I've had a look at the website

and they seem to be decent enough cars that he's got there.

They are not just old poopers.

And, sure enough, as they approach, it's looking good.

Cars R Us. There you go. Down the end.

It's a large dealership,

and it soon becomes clear there are dozens and dozens of cars

crammed onto the forecourt.

That's it, I'm having that Beetle. Level of stock of decent cars.

The chances of getting paid this morning are already looking up.

Now they just need to find the owner.

-Hello?

-Hi.

-Hello, mate.

Cars R Us, yes?

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

We've got a High Court writ against Cars R Us

in favour of a Mr Gordon Desborough.

He was a customer, I would imagine.

We're here today to take control of goods to the value of £1,455.99.

Is your office up there, is it?

It's unwelcome news, but if the man's not happy about that,

it's nothing compared to how he reacts to our camera.

All right.

He'll go out.

The man has gone berserk at the sight of our cameraman,

who retreats to the car park,

while Lawrence and Kev try to calm the situation down.

Inside, they're told the case against Cars R Us is in dispute

because the company were never told about the court hearing.

They say they're due back in court in a week's time,

when a judge will decide whether the case can be reheard.

But with a live writ in place,

the sheriffs still need to get paid today.

And if that's not enough to get under the owner's skin,

our camera's still proving like a red rag to a bull.

Our cameraman is forced to retreat even further,

while inside Lawrence and Kev continue negotiations.

They explain that as the case hasn't yet been reheard,

the original judgment still stands,

and they're here to collect in full, or remove assets.

It hasn't gone down well.

Yet just 15 minutes after arriving,

Lawrence and Kev are getting back in the van.

Once they're on their way, they reveal what happened inside.

Definitely an angry man.

He had one of the shortest fuses,

if not the shortest fuse, I've ever seen.

I think within ten seconds he'd gone from zero

to absolutely spitting feathers.

Coffee cups went up in the air.

He was effing and blinding and he was up in our faces,

wanted to go outside and fight.

He was so enraged, he was spitting.

But it took a little bit to diffuse the situation,

but it worked out all right in the end and we got paid.

So all's well that ends well.

Cars R Us paid in full.

The courts rejected the company's application for a set-aside,

and Mr Desborough has got his money back.

Debts are much more likely to be paid

if the debtor is in a sound financial position.

But the sheriffs often find themselves

knocking on the doors of companies that are in trouble.

In Manchester, enforcement agent Alan Pennington

is on his way to see just such a business.

I'm off to I4 Retail Display Group Limited from Denton,

just outside Manchester.

The company is being taken to court by one of its suppliers.

It didn't defend the case, and judgment was found against it.

It now owes a total of £7,866.

The address on the writ leads Alan to a unit on an industrial estate.

He's buzzed in.

But once inside, he's met with a locked door.

HE KNOCK ON DOOR

They must be in.

Let me just go and see if I can find another way in.

Alan starts to scout around the outside of the building,

yet no-one is answering anywhere.

I notice they don't advertise themselves.

The building hasn't got any identity on it.

A chat with one of the neighbours

confirms that this is I4 Retail Group,

and the business was definitely open yesterday.

Basically what we've found is that the landlord, apparently,

works in the retail park straight ahead.

So if we can't get an answer in the next couple of minutes,

I'll go and see the landlord.

But before it comes to that, Alan spots someone in the car park.

Do you guys work for next door?

What time does your boss normally come in?

INAUDIBLE

All right, I'll wait till he comes in. Thanks, fellas.

Alan gets in the car to wait it out.

And after a couple of minutes, he spots someone in his mirror.

I'm pretty sure that's...

..one of them going now.

Alan heads in, and this time he gets an answer.

HE KNOCKS ON DOOR

Hello, are you part of the office team?

OK. I'm an enforcement agent

and I'm here to execute a writ on behalf of the High Court.

Do you mind if I come in?

The man isn't the boss,

but an employee who's clearly reeling from the shock

of the company going under.

But Alan is here to collect a debt,

and so he needs to get to the bottom of exactly what the situation is.

My name's Mr Pennington from the sheriff's office, OK.

Are you saying you actually applied for liquidation, or you are in liquidation?

I'm not 100% sure.

All I know is I've been asked to come in today.

I'm going to meet the gentleman who is carrying out the deed,

if you will.

Have you just found out this morning?

I found out last night.

Effectively, we've all been made redundant.

Alan's chances of getting the money the claimant is owed

are now looking slim.

The liquidator is due to arrive later today,

but as Alan can't leave until he's sure the company isn't still trading,

he gets him on the phone.

Hello, Neil, it's Mr Pennington here from the High Court.

I believe you're coming here today.

Right. Right.

The liquidator confirms that the company is indeed in administration,

and offers to send the relevant paperwork

through to the sheriff's office.

That means that even if the company does have any assets left,

Alan can't take them.

We'll leave now. There's nothing else I can do.

Bye-bye now. Bye.

And with that, he's on his way.

-I'm sorry to meet you under such difficult circumstances.

-No problem.

-Good luck for the future.

-Thank you very much.

Any money or goods left in the company

will now have to be split amongst the creditors,

and although it's not uncommon for sheriffs to come across

debtors who simply can't pay, for Alan, this was uncharted territory.

That's the first time I've been to a writ of control

where the liquidators have been in the night before.

I empathise with them. They've all lost their positions.

But the claimant now will probably have to go through the administrators

to find out how they could get their money back, or part of it.

But we can only do what we can do,

and there's unfortunately no money to collect today.

In the south-east, Lawrence and Kev are in Kent,

and their prospects of getting paid today are looking pretty good.

The company they're going to is definitely still trading,

and it specialises in classic car restoration.

We are in Ashford.

We're going to Xtreme Jaguar Restorations Limited.

They owe £3,161.

They soup up and restore old Jaguars.

Xtreme Jaguar was taken to court by a supplier,

and unlike many of the sheriff's jobs,

this time the debtor won't be able to claim they never got the paperwork.

Mr Gannon, who is the director of Xtreme Jaguar Limited,

he was actually in court to defend the hearing with his solicitor.

He's not going to be able to say he's not aware of this.

Mr Gannon didn't pay what he was ordered to by the court,

and now the sheriffs are heading his way.

One of them in particular can't wait.

Not because of the money, but because of his love of cars.

I'm very much looking forward to this one.

I do like my Jags, always have done.

Got one about a year ago.

Mine is like a metallic British racing green.

I couldn't tell you....

Well, I could tell you the exact colour but that would be a bit geeky.

I've always loved the shape of the Jag.

There's just something about them.

I've never seen him this excited about a job.

Probably as good as it gets, to be honest, for him.

As for getting paid,

the Jaguars themselves are likely to be out of the equation.

What we're going to find here, I would imagine,

is most of the actual cars belong to customers.

Parts, tools, these are the main things we'll be looking for.

But will they need to take anything,

or will the garage pay up?

Time to find out.

-Hi there.

-Hi there.

-How are you doing?

-Fine.

-All right.

We're enforcement agents.

We've got a High Court writ against Xtreme Jaguar Restorations Limited.

We're ordered here today to take control of goods

to the value of £3,161.14.

3,100 and...

£61.14.

First of all, what's the camera for?

At this point, our cameraman's asked to leave.

Inside, Lawrence tells Mr Gannon

that the outstanding debt needs to be paid today.

Shortly afterwards, our camera's let back in,

only to find Lawrence and the owner talking shop.

So I've just built all...

Oh, that's lovely.

That is just gorgeous.

I've got an X300.

It's the last of the 3.2s, cos I wanted a straight six,

I didn't want a V8.

It's lucky it's the sheriffs' last job of the day,

because they could be here for a while.

I've always, always loved Jags, always wanted one.

And I thought for that money, just for something to pootle around in

-at weekends, you know.

-That's right, yeah.

It's never going to be anything like this.

He's just showing Lawrence round the workshop at the moment.

He knew Lawrence was pretty keen to have a look round here,

so he's giving him a guided tour,

and Lawrence is geeking him out with information over there,

showing off that he knows a little bit about it.

I'll let him have his moment. He's loving it over there.

Back to the writ in question.

Lawrence wants to know if any of these cars belong to the garage.

I'm guessing these are customers' cars, aren't they?

They are, which means they can't be removed by the sheriffs,

or used as leverage to get payment.

But it doesn't look like that will be necessary anyway.

You can pay online with a card,

we've got a secure online payment system,

or you can go online and do a bank transfer.

Mr Gannon is willing to pay £1,100 today

and says he'll clear the rest of the debt tomorrow.

There you go.

Mr Gannon tells us his side of the story.

He says the dispute arose from a respray job on an E-Type Jaguar.

The paint shop involved sent me a sample of the paint, which is this.

And based on that being the correct colour,

I sent the card to the paint shop to be resprayed.

Mr Gannon claims that when the car came back, the colour wasn't right,

so he refused to pay the full cost of the job,

and instead made an offer for part payment.

He wouldn't accept it, we went to court.

Sadly, the magistrate involved couldn't see the concept

of how much it was going to cost to respray a complete E-type.

She did, however, find in my favour and knocked some off the bill,

but nowhere near enough.

She only knocked £1,000 off,

and anybody who's in this industry will tell you,

you're looking a minimum £6,000 to respray an E-Type.

The reason I didn't pay it was purely on principle.

But the court made its decision and Mr Gannon has tried to ignore it.

As a result, he's now facing a higher bill,

with extra charges and fees.

As he seems willing to pay,

Lawrence and Kev are happy to leave with £1,100 for the time being.

But they do list a couple of vehicles belonging to the company,

just in case.

What they've got outside, they've got a recovery vehicle,

7.5 tonne van,

and also a Transit van as well.

So between the two vans,

there's more than enough to cover the little that's left owing.

But I've got no doubt these guys are going to be paying in the morning.

Right, this is your controlled goods agreement.

The controlled goods agreement means that if Mr Gannon doesn't make

the promised payment, the sheriffs will be back to take the vehicles.

-All right, cheers.

-All right, thanks very much.

It's job done for the sheriffs,

and the moral of the story is that a court's decision is final.

The judge said this is how much you've got to pay,

so that's what we have to do.

We have to enforce the writ.

So we've taken what we could get today, which is £1,100.

We've got a controlled goods agreement signed

for the full balance by close of business tomorrow.

The guys have come today.

They're just doing a job, so, yes, I'm quite happy to pay it.

And, you know,

it's unfortunate but I'll just have to chalk it up to experience.

And for Lawrence, it's been a case of mixing business with pleasure.

If I had to pick one from in here, that would be it, I think.

Oh, it would have to be, yeah.

I'd love to own some of the cars that are in there, but hey ho,

I've got my cheap old runaround and that will do me,

and I picked up a bit of advice while I was in there as well,

so happy days.

Xtreme Jaguar Restorations Limited paid the remaining balance,

and the paint shop got the money they were owed.