Episode 5 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 - Lawrence and Kev face

an unusual barricade on an eviction job.

This will be interesting.

I think he's probably deadlocked it off, mate.

But will they be able to get in and reclaim the building for its owners?

When Stephen McKinnon moved to London,

he was messed around by a lettings agent.

I came home one day

and there was another person living in the living room.

He moved out and is owed compensation.

Can the sheriffs get him his money?

As we're here now with the High Court warrant, we have to insist on full payment.

Mechanic Dilwyn Stoole was sold a duff second-hand engine.

It was in a dreadful state.

It really wasn't the engine that these people had promised me.

But when Sheriff Alan enters the scrapyard which sold it to him,

things get nasty.

It's a dangerous place where you are, Mr Khan.

And Tommy and Craig pay a visit to a multi-billion pound company.

Can they get the money owed to a former worker?

Big old place, this, isn't it?

We want the main reception, don't we?

It's an early start for enforcement agents Lawrence Grix

and Kev McNally who are on their way to a car garage in Luton.

The business owner has stopped paying rent,

so the landlord wants the premises back.

It's a car body shop

and the tenant has been evicted twice already, I believe,

but he keeps breaking back in again and carrying on business,

so we're going up there today taking possession of the premises

and then handing it over to the client.

This job is a writ of possession,

where the sheriffs are taking back a building

rather than pursuing a debt,

but from the information they've been given,

it sounds like there could be complications.

We've been advised that the roller shutter

may be blockaded on the inside by a vehicle.

And that's not all.

There's a small gated yard to the front

where we've been advised there might be a dog.

Doesn't sound too bad.

-Famous last words.

-Yeah, I bet it'd still bite you.

Maybe.

When they arrive, it's still early and the garage is shut.

It becomes immediately obvious

that they've got a problem on their hands.

-Oh, so that's what he's doing.

-Oh, now I understand.

-Yeah.

So, that is going to be a bit of a pain.

We were presuming the car was inside and the door opens outwards,

but the door opens outwards with a car in front.

So, we've now got to get the car moved back

before we can get through the door.

As the handbrake's on, that's going to be tricky,

but locksmith Andy Marsh thinks he might be able to help.

Could try and open it through the...the air bag...

-You've got a puffy bag, have you?

-Yeah.

-And then see if we can pull the door handle, see if that does it.

-Yeah.

If Andy can get in and take the handbrake off,

it'd be problem solved.

We use air bags. That won't damage the vehicle in any way.

It's all electric, so you won't be able to wind the windows down,

so it's pretty much fingers crossed on this one.

The pressure's on.

While Andy gets started,

Lawrence and Kev get their bit of good news -

-the dog's not here.

-The neighbour has advised us

that if the dog was in there, we'd have heard it by now.

So, not going to get bitten, as yet. That's always nice to hear.

Meanwhile, Andy's struggling.

I think he's probably deadlocked it off, mate.

If the car's been fitted with deadlocks,

they won't get in without a key.

Oh, yeah, of course. It's Vauxhall, isn't it?

Some you win, some you lose.

But one way or another, it'll be moved.

The only option now might be a tow truck,

which the landlord has said they would provide if needed.

Lawrence gets on the phone, only to find they've been let down.

She's just informed me her nephew was looking into it

and the guy they were going to use is in Poland,

so he's been trying to find somebody else.

If the sheriffs had known, they would've brought one themselves.

-Now it's too late.

-This is one of the issues you get.

Occasionally, a client says they're going to arrange a truck,

so we've left it for them to arrange a truck.

Soon, the landlord herself arrives with her solicitor,

and it turns out she's pretty pleased to see Lawrence and Kev.

-Hi, Lawrence.

-Morning.

-Are you OK?

-Hiya, Kev.

-Hi, there. How you doing?

Hello. All right? How's it going? Big fan of you guys.

I didn't think I'd actually meet you in my life...

-Thank you.

-..but it happens to me, yeah.

While the family starts calling around for a tow truck,

Kev's looking at other options.

-Hello, mate.

-Hiya.

You haven't got any skates, have you?

-Skates? No, man.

-Not got any?

-Has anyone around here got any, do you think?

-Yeah.

Skates are rollers which can be used to move a stationary car,

and the search is on to see if they can borrow some.

Meanwhile, Lawrence is looking at another way

of getting inside the building.

Do you know which way the fire exit is?

-You know.

-The fire exits, they're all linked.

There might be access at the back through the next-door garage,

so Lawrence goes to investigate.

This chap's in the back of the...

The problem is, they've dumped a lot of rubbish. I'll show you.

-If you go out through here...

-Oh, yeah.

..they've dumped a load of rubbish in the back there.

You'd be all right getting out in a fire. They wouldn't, would they?

It's a no-go. The alley is completely blocked.

Back on the forecourt, the landlords haven't given up on the car

and are taking matters into their own hands.

What are we towing it with now?

It's going to be dragged.

This will be interesting.

-Safety footwear.

-LAUGHTER

And it's not just the funky footwear troubling Lawrence.

My concern is that silly little strap thing

that you can buy out of a petrol station.

It is no way rated to tow something that's in gear with the brakes on.

-If that hook goes...

-Could well ping.

-Yeah, so...

Don't stand too close to that.

It's not quite the set-up Lawrence and Kev are used to.

Not ideal, to say the least, but...

It's not ideal in the slightest.

Cable is not rated to pull that at all.

But will it work? CREAKING

The strain sounds wrong. I'm getting further back.

-CLATTERING

-There you go.

This is so ghetto, isn't it? This is...

Later, we find out whether the sheriffs

can get into the garage.

MOTOR REVS

A petrol grinder pretty much goes through everything and anything.

In London, enforcement agent Ken Warby is headed

to a lettings agents in Camden.

We're on our way to a place called Education For London Limited,

trading as London Homes.

The claimant has got a judgment against them

for withholding a tenancy deposit.

It's just over £5,000.

The claimant is Stephen McKinnon.

The saga began when he moved to London from his native Scotland.

I'm originally from Glasgow. I do like to travel.

Lived in Greece for a while.

Travel quite a lot to America and Europe.

So, I decided to move to London,

one of the biggest cities in the world.

He'd got a new job, but needed somewhere to live

and found property hunting in the capital a daunting experience.

Compared to the prices back home,

you know, I could get a mansion back home for the price of a studio here.

Online he managed to find a two-bedroom flat-share

he liked the look of in Belsize Park in the north-west of the city,

and arranged a viewing with the agents - London Homes.

Based in Camden,

they're not to be confused with any other company of a similar name.

The flat seemed perfect.

It was a good size, it was a nice area that I liked.

It was close to the Tube for work.

And there was another couple sharing another room

in the property which I was fully aware of.

By the time I got on the Tube back to work,

I'd decided that was going to be the flat for me.

He signed a tenancy agreement and arranged to move in.

But the welcome into his new home didn't go as planned.

It was the first time I'd been in the property since I viewed it.

And I put the key in the door

and opened the door and the chain was locked from the inside.

They hadn't told the other tenants who were there that I was moving in.

It turned out to be the first in a long line of problems

with London Homes.

About three weeks later,

I had someone come to the door from one of the energy companies,

basically telling us that the bills hadn't been paid

for the property and therefore

they were coming to switch off the electricity and the gas.

The bills were supposed to be paid by the agents

as part of the contract.

Then there were the unwelcome wake-up calls.

Contractors coming out at 8.00 in the morning,

basically coming to do work we didn't know anything about.

There was no warning, no nothing.

Basically just came in with their own keys

and started drilling holes in the walls.

And things were about to get worse.

I came home one day

and there was another person living in the living room.

Yes, the agent had rented it out.

There was now four people living in a two-bedroom flat.

At this point, I had had enough.

He tried to raise the issues with the agent, but with little success.

Basically they just stopped talking to me.

They stopped replying to e-mails, they wouldn't take my calls.

And it got to the point where I just got fed up

and basically said to them I would really like to end the contract

and move out the flat.

I tried to come to some kind of agreement with them

about the rent - they basically said that I had a contract

and they hadn't broken their contract.

And that that was that.

So, I eventually just cleaned the flat, took the keys back,

got them to sign just to say I've returned the keys

and I moved out a month earlier than I was supposed to.

Nevertheless, Stephen honoured his side of the contract

and paid the final month's rent, leaving him out of pocket.

Then there was his deposit.

I was expecting my deposit to be returned,

cos the flat was in the same condition as it was when I moved in.

And I expected to receive that within maybe two or three weeks

of moving out of the property, if not sooner.

But from there, that didn't happen.

That left him another £1,000 down.

Time, he thought, to pay a visit to London Homes in person.

So I decided just to go down to the agents

and try and speak to the manager.

The manager basically came and spoke to me.

Halfway through the conversation, she got up and left

and went into the back office and never returned.

So I was sitting for about 20 minutes,

waiting for her to come back out

and eventually I had to ask someone else, you know, "Where is she?

"What's happening? Is she coming back out?"

And they told me she was in a meeting

and wouldn't be able to continue the conversation.

Despite a number of e-mails and calls to the office,

Stephen never heard any more about his deposit,

which had a huge impact on him personally.

The deposit that they had on hold for me

would've gone onto another property.

Not receiving that money made it very difficult

to the fact that I ended up moving back to Scotland.

But Stephen hadn't given up on his money.

And after doing some research, he realised that the agents

should have put his deposit

into a government-backed protection scheme - only they hadn't.

I was obviously quite angry that they hadn't followed, you know,

followed the legal procedure that they should've done.

So, where my money went, I don't know.

I presume it's in the company's bank account.

But, you know, it should've been protected for me.

On the plus side, that meant he was entitled to compensation -

up to three times the value of the deposit.

The only way to get it, though,

would be to take the lettings agent to court.

When the company didn't defend the case,

he got the outcome he wanted.

Got a letter from the courts,

basically to say that the judge had awarded the judgment in my favour,

which was absolutely fantastic after...

This is now nine months after I moved out of the flat.

So it just felt, you know, that I was getting somewhere with it.

The court ordered that he be paid back his last month's rent,

his deposit and compensation.

But London Homes never paid.

I've now contacted the sheriffs

because they are basically my last hope.

The company which owes Stephen money

is actually Education For London Limited,

which trades as London Homes from their office in Camden.

Sheriff Ken Warby is on his way there now

to try to get the debt paid

and he's anticipating a tricky job.

As it's an estate agents,

chances are you're not going to get too much

in the way of assets there.

Usually the odd PC, bit of office equipment.

But we'll see how it goes when we get there.

Ken's North London patch has its unique challenges.

There's no parking outside the business.

Let's have a look here.

No, no, no.

The joys of working in London.

There we go, yeah. We can park here.

Ah, that's not going to happen, is it?

-Second time around the block.

-Ah, yeah.

Bingo.

After managing to bag a space, he heads in.

The staff are busy with customers.

Ken's in no mood to hang around in the queue.

Excuse me, sir. Sorry to bother you. Is there anyone in charge here?

I don't have an appointment, no,

I just need to speak to the person in charge here.

-Yes, sir, are you in charge?

-No.

-You're not?

-No.

There appears to be some confusion.

Nonetheless, the man seems willing to help.

I need to speak to someone at Education For London Limited.

-Yeah, yeah, we are they.

-That's you?

-Yes.

Right, OK, my name's Mr Warby.

An individual called Stephen McKinnon has a judgment

against the company for, originally, £5,146. Do you know about this?

At first, the man says he knows nothing about the case.

But Ken is able to jog his memory.

You remember the name now, yes?

Well, I'm here now for the money in full.

So, that's where we are.

Do you make the...?

Can you get him on the phone?

OK, thank you.

The boss of the company is apparently out to lunch.

But the staff appear to be co-operative.

They're going to get the boss on the phone and explain why I'm here.

I've told him I need payment in full now,

so we'll see where we go with that.

The boss can't be reached.

Instead, Ken is introduced to another senior staff member.

-Hi, how are you?

-Hello.

-Hi, my name is Alejandra.

-Hello, I'm Mr Warby.

The woman says the company knew the tenant had been to court -

but she says they didn't know the final details of the payment

they needed to make. It also sounds like she can't pay today.

Of course.

The problem you've got is if you don't pay,

I have to list the items, and organise removal of them.

The woman is asking if they can pay in instalments.

But Ken is holding his ground.

The situation's this -

as we're here now with a High Court warrant, we have to execute it.

Unfortunately, we have to insist on full payment.

What are you able to pay now?

The woman does seem willing to pay,

and with a substantial offer on the table

and few sizeable assets to remove in the office,

Ken is now willing to consider it.

OK, so you make the first payment, that would be 3,270.06.

When are you looking to clear the balance of 3,270?

On the 16th of this month.

Yeah, OK.

-It will not kill me that much.

-I can agree to that.

-I can agree to it. Everyone's happy.

-Yes.

-That's cool.

OK.

They've struck a deal, and it looks like half of the money

owed will be paid today, with the rest to follow in a week's time.

But to be on the safe side, Ken will also get them

to sign a controlled goods agreement for the assets here.

I have to list items here as well and...

In case you don't do it and then we come back.

-LAUGHING:

-Don't worry.

-It's not going to happen,

I understand that. It's just something we have to do.

Meanwhile, the employee gives his side of the story

of how the writ came about.

In this case, the court clarified that Stephen was owed more

than £5,000 - the man claims the company was never told.

Additional fees and interest mean the bill's now more than £6,500 -

with the company stumping up half today.

-KEN LAUGHS

-That's all right, sir, thank you.

What a nice chap.

-Thank you very much for being so nice about that.

-Pleasure. Bye.

Bye-bye.

All in all, it's been a successful visit.

That's a good deal.

They happily paid the half, I've taken that

and I'm pretty convinced they'll pay the balance within seven days.

London Homes did pay the balance

and Stephen McKinnon got his money back.

I'd just like to say thank you to the sheriffs,

they've done exactly what they said they'd do.

I've received all the money that was due back to me,

so I'm absolutely ecstatic. It's been a long year.

His message to other people is don't be put off.

I've done all this without any help from, you know, lawyers,

done a lot of research myself.

And it just shows you that if you took the time and patience,

you know, you can win.

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.

Lawrence and Kev are in Luton trying to reclaim a garage for its owner

after the tenant stopped paying rent.

But a car's blocking the door

and a tow truck, which was promised, hasn't arrived,

so now the landlords are trying to move the car themselves -

much to Lawrence and Kev's disapproval.

-Could well ping.

-Yes.

Their first attempt failed.

CREAKING AND CLATTERING

Now it's take two.

-CREAKING

-Knot's going to go.

Not rated to pull that at all.

This time, it works.

-That'll do you.

-That'll do.

Yeah, remarkably enough,

the double knot on the little garage towrope did the job.

Now it's just a matter of getting through the door.

MOTOR REVS

A petrol grinder pretty much goes through everything and anything.

Diamond-tip blade on it.

Andy gets to work.

He's through the hinges.

And a crowbar finishes the job.

That was it, was it?

-There we go.

-No problem.

Inside, the garage has been left in a bit of a mess,

and you need to watch your step,

but much to the landlord's relief, there's no sign of any major damage

and the equipment they own is still there.

-Just a case of making it secure, then, isn't it?

-Yeah.

While work starts on the doors, Lawrence takes a look around.

The tenant owes rent, and so, along with the writ to evict him,

they've got another one to take control of goods,

but there's nothing here of value.

Certainly no sign of the supercars advertised outside.

Works on some nice cars -

Ferraris, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, Porsches.

Can't see many people rushing to bring their Lamborghini here,

to be honest, but...hey-ho.

The only things of interest are some dirt bikes,

but it's not clear who they belong to.

They haven't got number plates on them,

so there's no real way of ascertaining ownership.

Doubt they're street legal, to be honest.

Another obstacle to enforcing the writ of control

is that they have to serve the former tenant notice.

I brought a notice of enforcement with me today

in case he'd been here.

If he'd turned up, I could've served him with the notice,

but he hasn't, so we've now got to have an alternative address

cos obviously this is no longer his address.

Hopefully, he won't be able to get back in here.

So, for now, all that's left to do is seal the property up,

and this time the landlord's solicitor wants it done properly.

We used commercial bailiffs initially.

We got possession of the premises

and the occupier broke back in the next day,

so we then got a County Court bailiff to come round

and, again, the occupier broke back in the next day,

which is why the sheriffs are here.

And they're not going to make the same mistake.

Check out the fire exit.

Apparently, this is how he got in last time.

Yeah, he's nailed it all up.

He seems to have screwed it up quite securely since he got back in,

but I still see this as the weak point.

So, we're just making extra sure...

..that it's secured.

And then it's time to head off,

though not before enjoying a bit more attention from their fans.

-She's been banging on about you guys for ages.

-Oh, stop it!

It's all coming out now.

"The sheriffs are coming! The sheriffs are coming!"

I hope she doesn't tell you everything what I say.

-Oh, really? Sounds interesting.

-You'll start blushing again.

-Might do.

-Yes.

-SHE LAUGHS

Quite nice to not be getting abused.

Makes a change. But no, no, it's nice.

Job done.

Off for breakfast.

-There you go. There's your keys.

-Cheers then.

-See you later.

-Very nice to meet you, guys.

-Thank you.

-Yeah, thank you very much.

The premises is safely back in the hands of its relieved owners,

and with another successful job in the bag,

the sheriffs are on their way.

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.

All too often, the sheriffs deal with cases

where there's more than one company trading from the same address.

Debts owed by companies like these

are among the hardest for the sheriffs to collect,

as it can be difficult to determine which business owns the assets.

In Manchester, Sheriff Alan Pennington

is about to become embroiled in just such a case.

Yeah, I'm off to serve a High Court writ.

The company's called Sal-Ford & Vauxhall Limited.

Sal-Ford & Vauxhall,

which has no connection to the car manufacturer Vauxhall,

owes £2,500, but the chances of getting paid aren't looking good.

The company has applied to be dissolved.

Alan has been to visit once already, but found it shut.

We did leave a letter at the first instance.

We've had no reply from that letter.

But it's one of those cases where we need to really make contact

to try and get this resolved for the claimant.

That claimant is lifelong mechanic Dilwyn Stoole

from Newport in South Wales.

He came into contact with Sal-Ford & Vauxhall

when he was looking for a new engine

for a second-hand car he was fixing up.

I bought a Fiesta which had an engine problem.

It was overheating, so, obviously, we had to replace the engine,

so I thought, "Well, I'll put a nice, low-mileage engine in

"and it'll last me a few years."

To find the engine he wanted, he posted on internet forums

and received a number of offers,

but one particular engine stood out -

from a dealer based in the Manchester area.

31,000 miles. Came out of a very modern vehicle.

Despite having lower quotes, I picked Sal-Ford & Vauxhall

because they promised me this engine was a low-mileage,

clean, tidy engine.

Dilwyn paid £705 to Sal-Ford & Vauxhall for a new engine

in exchange for his old one,

and within a few days, a van arrived with the new engine.

The minute he dropped the pallet on the floor

and I took off the wrapping, the engine was in a dreadful state.

The sump was smashed. There were parts of the engine broke.

I've taken a video which proves the problems.

-ON VIDEO:

-'The gold plug is snapped in the block

'and the injector is totally loose.'

There was no vacuum pump on it.

'This engine supposedly has done 30,000 miles

'and this is a clutch we've taken out of it,

'and as you can see, it's on the rivets.'

I honestly think this engine had done 130,000 miles.

It was almost a scrap engine.

It really wasn't the engine that these people had promised me.

Dilwyn wasted no time in ringing up Sal-Ford & Vauxhall to complain

and spoke to a woman there.

The initial response was, "Oh, we must have sent you the wrong engine.

"We're just a depot here.

"Where the engine was was a different building."

And I said, "Well, I was really disappointed

"and rejecting the engine."

I told her straight, "This isn't the engine we talked about

"and, you know, I don't want it."

Dilwyn thought the dealer would send him a complete replacement,

and sure enough, a few days later, there was a delivery,

but it wasn't what he was expecting.

On the Wednesday or the Thursday, some parts arrived,

which were the parts I'd described to her as being broken.

I immediately got on the phone to her and said,

you know, that wasn't enough. I needed for the engine to go back.

After a few days of bickering and barking,

she promised that the engine would be picked back up.

A week later, it hadn't been.

And that was the start of a pattern which kept repeating.

Another week went by, the engine hadn't been picked up.

Back on the phone again.

She explained there was another problem -

the van wouldn't come down the lane.

The excuses Sal-Ford & Vauxhall made were absolutely ridiculous.

In the end, the woman at Sal-Ford & Vauxhall

came up with a new solution.

She said the best thing to do would be to send it back at my expense.

-I said, "Well, at my expense?"

-HE LAUGHS

And she said, "Yeah, it's not a problem.

"We'll refund you with the full refund.

"We'll give you the cost of whatever it cost

"to send the engine back." Which I did.

Dilwyn was now £755 down

and still didn't have a working engine for his van.

Eventually, a cheque arrived from Sal-Ford & Vauxhall,

but for just £250, so Dilwyn refused to cash it,

holding out for the full refund he'd been promised.

I was really, really polite. I wasn't going to wind anybody up.

I wanted somebody to help me,

but I was just fobbed off week after week after week.

It was promises and the engine wasn't forthcoming.

It was never going to come.

So, I'm probably into this the best part of a grand now.

I'm thinking, "Whatever. Now I've got to go all the way."

So, I did.

Dilwyn filed a claim against Sal-Ford & Vauxhall

in the County Court.

It's something he'd never done before

and was pleasantly surprised by the process.

It's so easy to do that.

On a computer, it takes a couple of hours.

Don't ever be afraid to take anybody to County Court.

But while winning the case against the dealer in court

proved to be easy...

They didn't even turn up. They had no defence.

They didn't even bother going to court.

..getting the money back wasn't.

I won by default. They've lost the case

and they're still not forthcoming with the money,

so I'm really annoyed to think that this guy has supplied me

with an engine that wasn't what he said it was.

He's taken my money,

he's made me send it back at my expense

and now he's doing a runner.

And that's why the next step for Dilwyn

has been to enlist the help of the sheriffs.

You can ignore letters.

You can't ignore someone who's there with an order

and a bit of authority, you know, so...

I've seen the programmes and I've watched the sheriffs in action

and I'm still hoping that

the sheriffs can go in there and retrieve my money, yes.

Sheriff Alan Pennington is en route to Sal-Ford & Vauxhall,

and after his previous visit, has got some idea of what to expect.

It presents itself as a very large area

of scrap cars and metal.

Both main gates to the premises were padlocked.

As the company has applied for dissolution,

it might no longer be trading,

but there are some indications it's not all over just yet.

I spoke to a neighbour from a local business

who basically said they come and go.

They're not always there each day. They arrive at different times.

Alan's determined to get Dilwyn's money back

before the company dissolution is completed

and its assets are gone, but will today be his day?

Looks like the gates are padlocked again.

Or maybe they're not. Let's just have a quick look.

It's open.

The gates are open after all, so Alan is allowed to go in.

Hello?

Hello?

At first, there's no sign of life,

but then a man appears, keeping his back to our camera.

Oh, hello, sir. Looking for Mr Khan.

Mr Khan.

This is Sal-Ford & Vauxhall Limited, yeah?

Can you get him on the phone for me, kid?

I'm from the High Court. I've got a High Court writ.

Thank you.

Although Dilwyn applied for a writ

in the name of Sal-Ford & Vauxhall Limited,

the company's full name is Sal-Ford & Vauxhall Spares Limited.

-Mr Khan is its owner.

-Is he coming, bud?

Is he coming?

Thank you.

Alan's on the phone when Mr Khan arrives.

I'll explain to you in a minute, sir.

Mr Khan asks our cameraman to leave.

Put the camera down.

He tells Alan the business here is a different company

and he's got the documents to prove it.

He then marches him off the premises.

-You go and get me your proof.

-I will.

Obstructing the work of a High Court enforcement agent

is illegal and Alan gets straight on the phone.

Hello, sir. My name's Mr Pennington from the High Court Sheriffs Office.

Can I have the police, please?

It's 1A Sutherland Street.

Meanwhile, Mr Khan walks off.

Just basically told me to get out of the property

and for my own safety I did that, but he manhandled me out.

Thanks very much. Thanks for your time. Bye-bye. Bye.

And Alan isn't impressed by Mr Khan's behaviour.

He wasn't prepared to listen to me.

He was being abusive and basically escorted me out,

manhandling me to the gate.

He's then left

and there are two other people still in the property.

I've called for the police cos as far as I'm concerned,

I've been assaulted whilst doing my duty,

and whether we speak to Mr Khan today again, I'm not sure.

The company which sold Dilwyn the duff engine

is based at this scrapyard,

but it sounds like Mr Khan might have a second company here, too.

Finding out whether any assets belong to the debtor -

Sal-Ford & Vauxhall - could be tricky.

Now Mr Khan's returned brandishing some paperwork.

I'll speak to you, Mr Khan, when the police arrive, OK?

-Take my number.

-You've assaulted...

-I assaulted nobody.

-Yes, you have.

No, I haven't. I asked you to leave the premises.

You've assaulted me, manhandled me.

You've assaulted me and manhandled me out of the premises.

-I escorted you out.

-No, you didn't.

-It's a dangerous place, mate.

You can't be in there. That's why the gate's shut.

It's a dangerous place where you are, Mr Khan,

because you assaulted me

-and forced me out of the premises.

-I barely touched you.

Alan doesn't want to speak to Mr Khan without the police present,

but they still haven't arrived and Mr Khan's come back for more.

-You opened that gate and walked in.

-That's right. It wasn't locked.

-You're not allowed to do that.

-I'm entitled to move in.

-If it's open, I'll walk in peacefully.

-It's a dangerous place.

You've come to the wrong place.

I even told you you have the wrong place

and I've asked you nicely,

"Come to my office and we can speak about this," but no.

What's all that about? I've got things to do.

-Leave, then.

-I'm telling you, take my number, give me a call.

No, I'm going to deal with you here.

-Right, there's the stuff you need.

-Let's see.

-OK?

Mr Khan hands over paperwork relating to his second company -

Sal-Ford Auto Spares Limited -

including invoices for some of the items in the yard.

There's an invoice for Sal-Ford Auto Spares.

That's the company here.

Everything in there is owned by that company.

So, if you go and touch anything, it's going to be illegal, isn't it?

OK? Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Goodbye.

With that, Mr Khan makes his exit.

You've got my number.

The gates to the yard are locked and the police never turned up,

which means Alan's hands are tied.

There's nothing we can do at this stage.

I've only gone in the premises this morning because the gates were open.

Those gates have now been locked

and I don't have right of access unless the court allow me,

so I'll take direction from the office

over the next few weeks and we go from there, really.

The sheriffs now know this case is going to be tough to enforce.

It's likely Sal-Ford & Vauxhall Spares Limited

has few, if any, assets left.

Also, as Dilwyn didn't use the company's full name

when he took them to court,

the sheriffs are now concerned the debtor will use that

as yet another excuse not to pay.

They've advised Dilwyn to apply for a new writ,

but instead, he's decided to let the matter go.

It was disappointing. Just annoyed to think

this man has got away with what he's got away with.

Although Mr Khan

remains the owner of Sal-Ford & Vauxhall Spares Limited,

he told us that...

It's 9am and Craig Wild and Tommy Coyle are in the van

travelling through the East Midlands.

They're on their way to see a household name

normally thought of as the best of British.

Rolls-Royce, in fact.

Rolls-Royce owes money as a result of a personal injury claim

made by a former worker who suffered hearing loss

from operating machinery.

Although the company settled the majority of the claim,

some legal costs are outstanding.

£1,500. We're off there now to try and get the money.

It's the aerospace division of the business

that the sheriffs are visiting,

but the name on the writ is just one part

of a complex company structure.

It's Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Engineering (Overseas Projects) Limited.

So, we've done a bit of digging.

It is, as a limited company, non-trading,

but it's part of a group of companies belonging to Rolls-Royce.

This'll be a massive place, mate.

I've got a feeling it's going to be big, yeah.

It's not long before the Rolls-Royce complex comes into view.

-Big place, this, isn't it?

-It's all that over there.

We want the main reception, don't we?

The site's huge,

so finding the right person to deal with is not going to be easy.

Time to start knocking on doors.

Hello there, sir. I'm an enforcement agent.

Can I speak to someone from finance?

-G-wing?

-G-wing.

-How do I get there?

-Turn left.

-Turn left.

-And head through this way.

-Brilliant. OK, thank you very much.

Simple, easy-to-follow directions.

-I'm sure he said G-wing or G-zone?

-G-something.

G-zone, G-wing or something.

-G-something like that, though, isn't it?

-Yeah, I think so.

-Is it that way or this way?

-This way. This way, mate.

C-wing, this is. I'm sure he said G-wing.

-Well, we'll try.

-We'll ask in here.

It's just...it's getting through to the right person, isn't it?

-Somewhere this big.

-These places always are, aren't they?

Hello there. I need to speak to someone in finance.

Is that possible?

I don't think they do, no.

They're not going to know I'm here, no.

Thank you.

Despite being in the wrong wing, the sheriffs are offered a seat

and promised someone will come along to deal with them.

I think he's finding whoever authorised that initial payment.

They'll be aware of the payment, hopefully,

and then they can just sort out the balance.

As an £11,500 payment's already been made towards the claim,

the guys are hoping the finance department

will know the details of the case, but it might not be that simple.

Most people go, "Yeah, I remember him cos it's 11.5 G's,"

but 11.5 G's to these is small change.

Moments later, we're asked to stop filming...

..and we have to leave.

After an hour of talking to various company representatives,

Craig comes outside to update us.

As we thought,

we've had to go through several layers of the hierarchy.

They've found the details.

The majority of the actual payment was made by Rolls-Royce's insurers.

However, they've neglected to pay the court costs for the claimant.

As the matter was being dealt with by its insurers,

the Rolls-Royce staff are unsure why it hadn't been settled in full,

but they've agreed to look into it and an hour and a half later,

Tommy and Craig are back.

It's all about talking to the right person and going up the chain.

Yeah, we took some time, eventually got the company lawyer down.

He agreed this needs to be paid.

And now it has been, in full.

It's another successful result for the sheriffs.

If we have the writ,

the court's saying you have to pay it, and you will pay it.

Rolls-Royce told us, "Once we were made aware of the oversight

"that led to the non-payment in this case, we..."

High Court enforcement agents are no strangers

to a bit of detective work.

Unsurprisingly, some debtors aren't keen to pay up

and it's down to the sheriffs to do whatever they can

to track down their assets.

They don't yet know it, but in Kent this morning,

Lawrence and Kev have just such a day ahead of them.

We're going to Mid Kent Generators looking for £6,960 this morning.

The money is owed to a supplier, which rented equipment

to Mid Kent Generators and took the company to court

when they didn't get paid.

A judgment was awarded in their favour,

but as they still didn't get their money back,

the sheriffs are going to pay Mid Kent Generators a visit.

But as they get near,

it doesn't look like the address on the writ

is leading to a commercial premises.

So, it is residential, then.

Looking for a company but at a residential.

It's not...it's not great.

You wouldn't have thought there was potentially any assets here.

Mind you, at least we're here sort of early enough

that we might catch him.

It's not a good start.

This looks like the company director's house,

and any assets will probably belong to him personally,

not the debtor company.

At least someone is in.

Morning. I'm looking for Mid Kent Generators.

Um, is it Mr Monger, the director?

My name's Mr Grix.

I'm an enforcement agent, as is my colleague.

We've got a High Court writ against Mid Kent Generators.

But Mr Monger says he doesn't recognise

the name of the company that's taken him to court.

No idea who they are?

Right, well, we've got a High Court writ in their favour

and we're ordered out today to take control of goods

to the value of £6,960.48.

The company has been dissolved?

Right. When was the company dissolved?

A bad start has got even worse.

They've found the director, but if the company is defunct,

it might be the end of the road.

Lawrence, however, isn't going to give up without some proof.

So, can you evidence that the company has got no money?

Company bank accounts? Something like that?

-Have you got evidence that it was dissolved?

-No.

Have you got your dissolution paperwork? No?

Mr Monger seems vague on the details,

so Lawrence fills him in.

I'll tell you what it's about cos we've got notes here.

Hire of four generators at different sites in Kent and Surrey,

court costs, interest and returned cheque fees.

So, you've obviously bounced cheques on him,

so you can't say you don't know what it's all about, I'm afraid.

Mr Monger now says he does know about the case,

but that he knew the claimant company under a different name.

He says he thought the court case against him had been dropped.

Have you got paperwork to that effect?

Do you want to see if you can find that?

The man disappears inside to look for his court documents.

In the meantime, Lawrence checks the status

of Mid Kent Generators on the internet.

Oh, no, it's not dissolved. The company's house is still live.

When Mr Monger returns, he says he can't find the paperwork,

but is still adamant that the company has ceased trading

three weeks ago and has no assets.

The only thing here is an old VW Golf

that probably doesn't belong to the company,

and certainly isn't worth enough to cover the seven grand he owes.

Getting nowhere, Lawrence decides to give the man some time

to prove his side of the story.

Right, well, I'll give you that.

-It's got my contact details on it...

-Yeah.

-..down the bottom there.

-OK.

You need to send any evidence you've got with regards to assets,

what have you.

OK, I'll give you five days to get that sorted. OK?

-Thank you.

-Bye-bye.

But Lawrence isn't done with Mid Kent Generators

for today just yet.

He's not sure he's getting the full story

and wants to make some further investigations.

It was all very evasive.

He's saying the company's liquidated, which it isn't.

He has no assets, no money. He can't evidence any of that at the moment.

Mr Monger might not have given much away,

but he did provide an address which he says his company traded from.

What he doesn't know is that Lawrence's notes also include

a second address, which he didn't mention.

Although it's a 50-mile round trip, Lawrence wants to check them out,

starting with the address that Mr Monger didn't volunteer.

There we go.

The address leads them to a trading estate,

but the unit in question seems to have someone else's name on it.

Yeah, that's not it.

That's an empty unit being refurbished, isn't it?

He's gone from here.

But we now know it's definitely not here.

So far, the man's story is holding up

and the road trip might be a waste of time.

Still, they head to the second address -

the one Mr Monger did give them - hoping for better luck.

-All right, at the back.

-The end one.

When they arrive,

Lawrence immediately spots something suspicious.

Got milk.

There's fresh milk at the door.

And there's only one day's worth of post there.

He's coming here.

And the milkman wouldn't keep delivering.

If he sees an empty unit and doesn't get paid,

he's not going to keep coming here and delivering milk.

If he's not actually trading out of here,

he's certainly coming back here on a fairly regular basis, I would say,

and there could well be some assets in there.

Although there's nothing valuable visible through the windows,

Lawrence needs to know for sure,

so he goes on the hunt for more evidence.

Mid Kent Generators - is he still running out of next door?

The man in the neighbouring unit says that they have indeed gone.

All right. Cheers.

It sounds like the company has stopped trading,

just like Mr Monger said,

but Lawrence isn't giving up altogether

on the hope of finding something.

He may not be running out of here,

but, you know, three weeks, sold all his assets?

It's unlikely.

But in the end, Lawrence never needs to discover

whether the company still has any assets.

Their visit to Mr Monger earlier

appears to have prompted him into action.

Soon afterwards, he enters a payment plan

in order to clear his debt to the supplier.

Mr Monger told us...

And he says...

In North London, Ken is on his way to a heavy-duty job.

He's chasing a debt owed by a company

specialising in construction machinery.

We're going to Hunter Plant Hire Limited.

Hunter Plant Hire has tried to sue a demolition company

for unpaid invoices, but the case was dismissed.

They were ordered to pay their opponents' legal costs,

but haven't, so now it's down to Ken to collect.

This one is quite a chunky one.

Around about 14 and a half grand after our fees.

Nevertheless, he's hopeful of finding enough assets to cover it.

Should be plenty of stuff there, I would imagine.

Heavy plant, for one.

Small office, loads of plant machinery.

When he arrives, it's just as he imagined.

And here we are.

Ken heads into the office.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Hello. I need to speak to the person in charge.

PHONE RINGS The boss has made an appearance...

Hello, sir.

..so Ken explains he's here with a writ.

It's regarding a judgment against Hunter Plant Hire.

It was for £12,500,

which has now gone up, with our fees.

But the boss has a different take on events.

The boss asks our cameraman to leave.

Ken remains inside to negotiate.

Shortly afterwards, he comes outside to fill us in.

Well, the MD seems to think that he's owed £18,000

as opposed to he owes them originally £12,500.

However, I told him the judgment is against themselves

and we will remove goods straightaway

should he not pay any money.

And by goods, he really does mean the big metal stuff in the yard.

We would hire a specialist low-loader company

that specialise in removing these big diggers

and take one of them away.

I think he's going to pay

because there's no way he's going to want to lose one of his diggers.

Those diggers on their own are worth in excess of £50,000,

and he won't want that at all.

I think he'll pay.

With the law on his side and plenty of assets here,

Ken has every reason to be confident,

but there are no guarantees in this business.

A short while later, he emerges from the office.

So, has he secured payment?

The upshot was he paid half the debt, which is £7,126,

and he's signed a controlled goods agreement

to a piece of plant equipment and office equipment there,

to pay in full within 14 days.

That means, if he doesn't,

the sheriffs will be back to take the goods.

He really didn't want to pay it.

Paid it in the end, and all in all, good result.

The MD paid the rest of the balance as promised

and the demolition firm have got the money they were owed.

190 miles away, Sheriff Chris Pearson is in Huddersfield,

on the road and chasing another unpaid debt.

We're going to see a company, Kayflex Limited,

for an amount of £11,919.52.

Kayflex Limited is a mattress supplier,

which hired a sales agent called Karen Saunders.

When the company terminated the relationship,

under industry regulations she was due compensation,

which hasn't been paid.

She's taken them to court, she's won the case.

It's been progressed to the High Court and they've asked us

to attend today with a writ.

But when Chris approaches the address he's been given

for the company, it looks like there could be a problem.

That's locked.

It's not clear whether the business is even open,

so Chris tries their number.

Hello. I'm stood at the gates looking directly at your factory.

I can't get in. They're all locked up.

Someone's in and comes out to speak to him.

I'm just here to come and speak to

somebody at Kayflex, if I can, please.

How do I get round?

The man seems surprised Chris needs to ask - although there's a padlock

hanging on the gate, it looks like it was open all along.

Chris drives through

and parks up.

-Are you an employee at Kayflex, are you, mate?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, it's to

do with Karen Saunders.

Yeah, yeah.

Shall we go in and sort it out, yeah? Thank you very much.

Chris explains he's come looking for nearly £12,000.

Although the man's cooperative,

he says he doesn't think Chris should be enforcing today.

Not as far as I'm aware.

-No problem.

-Yeah.

The man says the matter's still in legal dispute and tries to get his solicitor on the phone.

Meanwhile, Chris checks his file.

-Are you Mr Khan, are you, sir?

-Sorry?

-Are you Mr Khan?

-No, Iqbal.

-Mr Iqbal, yeah?

-Yeah.

Far from being an employee, Mr Iqbal is one of the company directors and

the file also reveals some unwelcome information about the business.

They're trying to dissolve the old company, Kayflex Limited,

and trying to set up a new company, Kayflex UK Limited.

An application for a voluntary strike-off, a form of liquidation,

has been made by the company. If it goes through, it will

officially no longer exist and Chris won't be able to collect.

He needs to finish the job today.

It could be a messy one, this.

They'll probably try and play for more time.

Unfortunately, time's ran out today, so we're here to collect.

A member of staff comes through a security door

and Chris takes the opportunity to explore.

There's a large warehouse full of mattress supplies.

It would take all day to clear the place out

but Chris has the bargaining chip he needs.

He can now tell Mr Iqbal that time is up.

PHONE RINGS

Can you not?

OK. Well, somebody needs to pay the outstanding debt, mate.

Will you just wait in here?

I appreciate your solicitor's probably dealing with it

but the writ is still live,

which means we need to continue with enforcement.

So if we can't get the debt paid today,

we need to take control and remove goods from the property.

No problem.

The man's off to make another phone call.

But Chris has made his point.

When Mr Iqbal comes back, he wants to pay up.

Yeah.

Do a bank transfer. That's fine, yeah.

I'll give you the details. No problem.

Mr Iqbal has had enough of being filmed and asks us to leave.

20 minutes later, Chris is out, too.

He decided, quite easily, to be honest, to pay in full -

clear the debt off

and then speak to his solicitor at a later date.

Kayflex Limited did go back to court to challenge the judgment

but their application was dismissed.

After a long legal fight, the sales agent Karen Saunders has finally got

the money she was owed.