Episode 10 The Sheriffs Are Coming

If you're owed money but aren't getting paid, it's time to call the sheriffs.

-My colleague and I are enforcement agents.

-I'm here to issue a High Court writ.

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

They're enforcement agents at 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 £9,461.90.

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

If you don't open the door, we have to remove the vehicle off the drive.

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

Whether it's a small company...

Can I speak to the person in charge, please?

-..or a household name...

-We're here to see somebody from G4S.

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

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

We're not going to be waiting round like that.

-It needs to be done now.

-Just collected 42 grand.

Coming up, Swikruti Soni was left more than £1,000 out of pocket

after being denied a refund by a dress shop.

That's like near enough a month's wages for me,

so it's a lot of money. I was really, really annoyed.

When Ken goes to meet the boss, it all kicks off.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

-God punish you.

-BLEEP.

-Right.

All your dresses are now on the floor, OK?

Turn my back on the debtor and the debtor has just punched me

in the head.

A landlord owes money to a former tenant after hanging on to

some of their goods.

Lawrence and Kev go to collect, but will they find him?

Quite a bit of post there for him.

Hold up.

Hello, sir.

A Soho restaurant hasn't settled a bill for its cleaning,

but do they have the money to pay?

If you're telling me you can't pay it today,

that's what you're telling me.

But it's not obvious to me that you can't pay it today.

And the sheriffs visit a car dealer's on behalf of a customer.

Are you the guv'nor by any chance?

But the story isn't as straightforward as it seems.

The car has been returned, but it's got 8,000 miles on it,

more than when they sold it.

This morning, Sheriff Ken Warby is in his home patch, in north London.

He's heading to Hendon

to visit a clothing business with an unpaid debt.

We're going to visit a high street dress shop.

The claimant is an individual.

The shop is called Beautiful Dresses

and is not to be confused with any other company of a similar name.

It was taken to court by Swikruti Soni,

a child carer and mum with an eye for a bit of sparkle.

She came across the shop when she was looking for something

special to wear for some important social occasions.

I had a friend's christening coming up

and a friend's wedding coming up, both best friends of mine,

and I wanted to make the effort, so I wanted to get something nice,

so I went on the internet, I found a company called Beautiful Dresses.

It seemed to be just what she was looking for.

They were lovely, they were gorgeous dresses.

They were like embellished nice dresses, which I love.

You can't just get them in, like, an everyday shop, really.

So I thought I'd order from them.

In fact, she ordered three, telling the store owner that she

planned to return one, once she tried them on.

They didn't come cheap.

The dresses were over £1,000 for three dresses.

They were about £300 each, just over £300 each.

The owner of Beautiful Dresses requested that she

paid by bank transfer.

As Swikruti's events were coming up soon,

she paid extra for next day delivery.

She didn't send them next day delivery.

Over a week, I was waiting.

With the events rapidly approaching, Swikruti decided to cancel

and had to go last-minute shopping for some replacement outfits.

It was a panic to get it all done. I was fretting.

As well as having at the back of my mind about this money, trying to get

this money back as well as trying to find two different outfits.

So it was a lot of stress.

She managed to buy the clothes she needed.

But when it came to cancelling her order with Beautiful Dresses,

that was a different story.

When I asked to cancel them, she just refused to cancel them and sent

me them anyway, even though the christening

and the wedding had both gone.

In fact, only two of the three dresses

she had paid for ever arrived and they were the wrong size.

So I was obviously really upset and I was really, really annoyed.

The shop initially agreed to take the dresses back,

so Swikruti put them in the post.

But getting the refund she'd been promised turned out not to be

that simple. First the owner claimed she'd never received them,

but then appeared to back down.

At one point, she did say - give me your bank details

and I'll put the money in, then nothing.

I constantly rang her, she put the phone down on me.

That's like near enough a month's wages for me,

so it's a lot of money to be spending

for her not to send me the money back.

In the end, Swikruti had no choice but to take further action.

I went to Citizens Advice, who recommended Money Claims.

Swikruti used Money Claims online to file a case in the county courts.

Beautiful Dresses didn't defend it,

so Swikruti won a judgment in her favour.

But she's still not got her money back

and has turned to the sheriffs.

It's definitely my last hope, otherwise the money's just gone.

There's nothing I can do about it. The money's just gone.

In London, Ken's approaching the shop

and is determined to get that money back for her.

I'm assuming that there's going to be stock in the shop.

A proper dress shop.

There should be enough in there for me to get payment in full, I'd say.

I'm pretty confident before I even get there.

Ken's confidence seems justified as he enters the shop.

There's clearly value on the rails here.

Hello. My name's Mr Warby. Are you the owner of the shop?

Is the owner around?

She isn't, but the staff member calls her on speakerphone.

Is it Lili?

That's the name I've got down here.

The boss, Lilian Chidoka, isn't picking up.

You hang up, let me have a go.

Never know.

The staff member says her shift ends after lunch and whether or not

they can reach her, Lillian should be arriving later.

She's not due here for another hour and a half,

when she's due to take over from this lady,

so we're just going to have to wait.

In the meantime, Ken starts looking through the shop's assets.

They're certainly not cheap.

£1,200.

550.

420.

Excuse me, madam!

High value, easily removable goods are ideal

for the sheriffs. Ken's in a strong position to demand full payment.

They're all good quality dresses and there's

a couple of dozen of them as well, so yeah, all good gear.

The staff member, meanwhile, has got the boss on the phone.

Hello.

I'm here because we have a judgment against Beautiful Dresses

from Swikruti Soni.

Our company sent a notice of enforcement to this

address on the 10th of March.

Because we haven't had a response from you, I'm here now to

collect in full and the total I'm looking to collect is £1,658.08.

Lilian Chidoka says she hasn't got the money to pay.

Yeah, that is unfortunate. If you haven't got it, I'm going

to have to list the items in the shop and remove them.

That is the normal procedure, yes.

The boss tells him that he can't remove her goods.

Ken is entitled to but doesn't need to

if he can secure a reasonable payment plan.

Can I just ask you a question? How much do you have to pay now?

If we have to make the phone call and get goods removed,

then obviously the costs are going to go up

and that's what we need to try and avoid.

What do you have now?

She says she won't make a part payment of anything.

There doesn't seem much to be chance of negotiation on the phone

so Ken lets her know where he stands.

What I'll do is, I'm going to wait here

until one o'clock for you to turn up.

However, I am going to require full payment now, OK?

I am not walking out of here without this payment.

Or removement of goods. So that's what you need to sort out.

I'm sorry I can't help you, but we do require payment in full,

so what I would suggest you do is get payment in full

and meet me here at one o'clock.

Otherwise, I'll be listing items and we'll be removing them.

She seems convinced that isn't going to happen.

We can remove goods.

Yes, first visit, we can remove goods.

Thank you.

It hasn't been a very encouraging conversation.

What she's saying is she wants to enter into an arrangement

with me and she has nothing at all to pay me today.

That's not good enough.

We've got goods in the shop that will fetch the value of the debt,

so I'm going to start listing the items here.

She's not due in the shop for another hour.

By the time she gets here,

if she hasn't got the payment, then goods listed will be removed.

Later, we find out what happens when Ken gets to meet the boss.

-I don't want you here.

-I wouldn't do that, if I were you.

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.

Disputes between landlords

and tenants are an all too common occurrence.

This morning, Sheriffs Kev McNally

and Lawrence Grix are about to enforce a case,

where a disagreement over a property ended up being decided by a court.

Ten o'clock in the morning. Romford, we're heading to.

We're going to go and find Dr Souymo Gorai.

Dr Gorai was taken to court by a former tenant who claims

they were unfairly evicted from the property.

And according to the information we have,

he proceeded to rent the property out to someone else,

with all our client's property and personal belongings still in there.

The tenant claims they never got their stuff back

and took the case to court to recover their costs.

They won a default judgment in their favour for £5,000, some

of which has now been paid, but Kev and Lawrence are here for the rest.

He owes £1,670.

The sheriffs are arriving at what they believe is Dr Gorai's

home address and they've spotted a black BMW they think is his.

Yeah, that's it, yeah.

The sheriffs have already done checks on a licence plate

number they've been supplied,

to confirm the BMW is free from finance and so could be removed.

-But there's a problem.

-We have got it slightly wrong.

We were given the wrong number, were we?

One of the digits is different from what the sheriffs have been told.

Right, so we haven't got a result on it, have we?

That means they don't know

whether this car is clear of finance after all.

Lawrence heads to the house to see if the doctor is home.

They try the bell, but there's no answer.

Lawrence looks for any sign of life.

Anything in the letterbox that could confirm that he lives here.

There, there's one for him.

-It's addressed here, is it?

-And another one. And another one.

-And another one.

-So, the sheriffs are in the right place.

But is the debtor here today? KNOCKS ON DOOR

With barbed wire on top of the wall, they won't be climbing over.

While Lawrence takes a closer look at the car,

-Kev tries the neighbours.

-I wonder if you could help me.

Do you know if it's Dr Gorai living next door?

-But they don't seem to know.

-All right, no worries.

It looks like this could be a wasted trip.

Just had to leave paperwork. It's unfortunate,

but we were given the wrong registration for the vehicle.

It wouldn't have mattered whether they were in or not,

we'd have taken the car.

So we have to hope now that either he gets in touch and pays,

or the car's still here when we come back if he doesn't get in touch.

-Hold up.

-But I have my suspicions about that. Aha.

But just as hope of getting the debt paid is fading,

a car pulls in to the drive.

It's Dr Gorai.

Once he's stepped out of the car,

Lawrence takes the opportunity to acquire his car keys.

It won't be worth as much as the BMW, but it's something.

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

We're here today with a High Court writ.

-The total outstanding is £1,670.16.

-Yes.

We're ordered here today by the High Court to take control of goods

to clear that debt, unless you pay in full.

Yes, I can pay in full.

If you give me account details, I will transfer it straightaway.

OK.

Dr Gorai has immediately offered to settle the bill,

so why didn't he pay earlier?

Your letters don't give us any account details.

No, but it gives you details of how you can get in touch

with us to make the payment, doesn't it?

But without the account details, how can I make a payment?

That's something you need to take up with the Ministry of Justice, sir,

because the forms are prescribed forms by the Ministry of Justice.

Yeah.

And Lawrence is happy to provide all the details Dr Gorai needs.

It's that sort code, that account number,

it needs to be done as an immediate payment.

If you do that, then I'll check with my office

and providing the money's gone into the account, we'll issue you

a receipt, you can have your keys back and we'll be on our way.

-Without my keys, I can't get into my property.

-That's a car key, sir.

My house key is in the boot of the car.

Lawrence doesn't want to give the car keys back,

but opens the boot for him.

Dr Gorai unlocks the house

and starts to get some things from the car.

But he's left the front door open,

so Kev steps in, closely followed by Lawrence.

-Would you wait outside?

-No, my colleague's already inside,

so we'll come in while you make the payment.

-Is he?

-Yeah.

-Is that what you...?

The sheriffs are legally allowed to walk through an open door

into a residential premises.

Once inside, they can't be told to leave.

But ten minutes later, the sheriffs are back out of their own

accord, with their every move filmed by the debtor,

who is also willing to volunteer his side of the story.

This was regarding a tenant of mine

who stayed in my property for seven

months without paying rent,

trashed my property, kept a snake in the property,

kept rats in the property, completely trashed my garden.

Dr Gorai claims the tenants left of their own accord

when he chased them for the rent.

Then, I used my keys to get into the property

and there were some goods left in the property.

When we changed the locks for the front door,

they then went to the court and tried to get money back for the

£5,000 goods that they thought that I had stolen from them, which

we had kept for them for some time, but they didn't come to collect it,

and when they didn't come to collect it, we had to

dispose of the goods because we didn't want to touch their goods.

But the court ruled in the tenants' favour

and ordered Dr Gorai to pay them £5,000, which he hasn't done.

Dr Gorai admits he received a demand for payment from the sheriffs,

but didn't think he'd been given enough information.

There was no bank account, there was

no address to where the payment had to be made, there was just a

telephone number and our experience of telephone numbers is very bad.

He gave me the details today and I paid within ten minutes.

It's a much better outcome than the sheriffs anticipated.

That went very well.

We were basically about to leave

because we couldn't get an answer, but he did pay fairly quickly.

He was a bit awkward, as some people tend to be.

We showed him ID when he pulled up on his driveway.

Then he was wanting to see it again,

didn't want to sign the receipt either.

It doesn't matter to us. We got the payment.

So, job done.

And that means the tenant whose property went missing will

get the money the court said they were owed.

Back in north London,

Ken's in a shop in Hendon called Beautiful Dresses.

He's spoken to the owner, who told him

she isn't going to pay the £1,658

owed to former customer Swikruti Soni.

While he waits for her to arrive, he's checking out what's

available if he needs to take control of goods.

Well, I'm struggling between pink, cerise, beige and salmon.

But we're getting there.

I used to work in a paint shop, so I know the range of colours.

A skill he's keen to demonstrate.

We're getting there. Arsenal red.

A nice turquoise one for a change.

Where was I? In the middle of turquoise, red and plum.

But he's not quite so au fait with the specifics of ladies' fashion.

What would you call that?

That's not a dress. What would you call...?

A cape.

Thank you.

OK.

Cape.

35-40 dresses, ranging retail

price from £1,200

to £350.

As they won't fetch anything like that at auction,

Ken is listing enough of them

to guarantee they'd raise a sum which would cover the full debt.

He's hoping it won't come to that

and the shop will make an offer of payment instead.

Have to see what the lady can come up with when she turns up.

She previously told me she had no money, so that's not good.

Hopefully, we'll get it resolved.

Ken's been in the shop for a little over an hour when the boss arrives.

Hello.

She immediately asks our camera to leave and the shutters come down.

Inside, Ken explains he really is going to remove her dresses

if she can't come up with some money.

She doesn't think he can.

And invites us back in to explain.

What he's trying to do is remove goods first visit.

He's not supposed to remove goods first visit, it's never done.

That's what he's trying to do.

In fact, enforcement agents ARE entitled to remove

goods on a first visit.

The debtor didn't make an arrangement within the seven

days after the notice of enforcement,

so now it's down to the sheriff's discretion to decide the best

course of action to get their claimant's money back.

Ken, meanwhile, has made the mistake of nipping out to his car.

Ms Chidoka tries to shut him out.

You're not locking me out.

Call the police, first.

With Ken back safely inside the shop, Lilian continues.

You make an arrangement, OK?

And then if you breach the arrangement, you come back the first

time, if you breach the arrangement, you come back the second time.

The third time, that's when you remove goods.

He doesn't know his job. Film him.

Look at him. He doesn't know what he's doing.

You don't remove goods first visit.

You don't. It's never done.

But Ken isn't on the phone to one of his wives or girlfriends.

I'm executing a High Court writ of control at a shop.

I just need a police officer here to prevent a breach of the peace.

The woman is already agitated

and Ken doesn't want to see the situation deteriorate further.

They will be here within the hour.

They are going to turn up here, just to prevent a breach of the peace,

so I'm able to remove these dresses myself.

I understand that. That's fine.

Convinced she's right,

the shop owner has decided to start filming herself.

The third time, that's when they remove goods.

They are here for the first time and he's planning to remove goods.

It's never done. It's against the law.

I watched... What do you call that programme again?

-The Sheriffs Are Coming.

-..The Sheriffs Are Coming, I watch it too.

And what the bailiffs normally say - OK, they list the items and make

an arrangement with the debtor, I am putting this on YouTube, I will send

a copy to you, BBC, and I will send a copy to David Cameron's office.

Once again, Ken's taken the opportunity to pop out

to his car to pick up some more paperwork.

The shop owner thinks she sees a second chance to lock him out.

-I don't want you here.

-I wouldn't do that if I were you.

What will you do?

I don't want you here, you have to leave.

Ms Chidoka has no right to lock Ken out of the shop

and it's an arrestable offence to obstruct him in his work.

With the atmosphere fragile, he's now just

waiting for the police.

Later, we see what happens when they arrive.

You've just assaulted him, in front of two police officers.

All your dresses are now on the floor, OK?

Elsewhere in the capital,

Lawrence and Kev are heading into the heart of the West End.

They're on their way to a job that's going to turn out

trickier than expected.

We're in the middle of town today. Going in to Soho.

We're actually going to Soho Restaurants Ltd

and it is a restaurant we're going to.

They owe £5,259 for cleaning services that have been provided

to the restaurant that haven't been paid for.

To recover the money it's owed,

the cleaning company has taken the restaurant to court

and won a default judgment when the case wasn't defended.

The sheriffs are eager to try to get it paid

and the snail pace traffic en route to the job is trying their patience.

Absolutely abysmal. I detest driving in central London.

We've been sitting in the van for so long now and not getting anywhere.

-It does take its toll.

-It's only there.

It doesn't help that when they finally

approach their destination, Lawrence misses the turning.

Oh, dear.

What did I say? 22-24.

-Eventually, they pull into the right road.

-Parking suspended.

-Can't park here, but...

-It's that one on the corner.

I'll just wait here.

We're not getting a ticket, as well as sitting in traffic all day.

No, that's it.

After complaining about sitting in the van for the last two hours,

Kev's helpfully volunteered to stay put.

The company they're looking for is based at a restaurant called

Maison Touareg. Lawrence makes his introductions.

-Hello there.

-Hi.

I'll show you some ID. My name's Mr Grix.

I'm an enforcement agent.

Are you the boss at all?

Are you able to get him on the phone?

I'm here with a High Court writ.

I'll explain it to your boss on the phone.

Moments later, the staff member returns with the phone

and Lawrence gets straight to the point.

Hello, sir.

I'm here today with a High Court writ against Soho Restaurants Ltd.

I'm ordered to take control of goods to the value of £5,259.51.

But he's not expecting the boss's response.

Right.

The boss says he owes thousands for unpaid business rates.

Another debt collection company has already executed a writ

and taken control of all the goods here.

It would be one of the more inventive excuses Lawrence

has heard if it's not true.

-But he needs to make sure.

-Right. Have you got a copy of that here?

As it stands at the moment, unless I see copies of this paperwork,

then I'm going to take control of the goods.

The man says it's obvious he can't pay. Lawrence isn't so sure.

If you're telling me you can't pay today, that's what you're

telling me, but it's not obvious to me that you can't pay today.

If the goods have already been taken into control by someone else,

Lawrence can't touch them.

That means he won't have much leverage to get the debt paid.

And he might have to walk out empty-handed.

While the staff member goes to see if he can find the paperwork,

Lawrence makes some enquiries of his own.

I'm going to make a phone call.

The world of High Court enforcement is a small one

and Lawrence knows just about everyone in the business.

All right, Dave? How are you?

I was just phoning cos I think I'm... Well, I am on your patch.

The other agent confirms his company's already been to the

restaurant, just as the staff member brings through the paperwork.

Lawrence can only hope they've left something valuable off the list.

Right, OK.

He basically lists all that's in here, the tables, chairs,

cookers, fridges, everything really.

So, nothing left for me, unfortunately, on this occasion.

Lawrence gets back on the phone to the restaurant's boss.

Right, I've seen all the paperwork, so what I'll do,

I'll leave paperwork here with the amount that's owing

and contact details for me and an e-mail address for the office.

He's hoping that the boss will come to an arrangement to

-pay at least something.

-Give me a buzz with how much you want to pay.

-But he's not optimistic.

-Thank you. Bye-bye.

-There you go.

-And with good reason.

The outstanding debt on the other one for business rates is

enormous, compared to ours, so obviously, he's paying that off.

He wants to pay ours off, so I've left paperwork there and

he said he'll give me a ring later today with what he proposes to pay.

Unfortunately, with no goods to take control of, your hands are tied.

The restaurant boss didn't enter into a payment agreement

later that day and to date,

the debt with the cleaning company has not been settled.

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.

Every year, sheriffs enforce more than 70,000 writs across England

and Wales and recover more than £75 million.

I'm here today to take control of goods to the value of £41,086.

We have to insist on full payment.

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.

Sheriff Ken Warby is still in Beautiful Dresses,

a north London clothes shop which owes £1,658 to Swikruti Soni,

who never received a refund for three outfits she bought.

The owner, Lilian Chidoka, has already tried to lock him out of the

shop twice, and Ken's been forced to call for police backup to continue.

I just need a police officer here to prevent a breach of the peace.

They've already tried to shut the door on me.

Lilian, meanwhile, has decided she'd like an officer of her own.

I need a police officer,

but I want someone that actually knows the law on bailiffs.

Have you got a warrant?

Can I see?

It says writ of control. Is that a warrant?

It's not, but it does command Ken to attend the premises and demand

payment, or remove goods with the authority of the High Court.

It's to his considerable relief when the police arrive.

The lady owes some money. I've got a High Court writ of control.

She's unable to pay any money.

That's the actual copy of the order, court order.

Gives us authority to remove goods.

It's the duty of a police officer to assist an enforcement

agent in the execution of a writ.

Ken explains what he's going to do.

My job is I'm going to remove these dresses,

some of the dresses over there, into the boot of my car,

leave the lady a receipt for everything.

Then my job here is done.

You will go one by one listing, which is done, understand?

The woman is still complaining about procedure.

She is convinced that Ken isn't allowed to take her goods

away today.

I want somebody that knows the law,

a police officer that knows the law and knows where I'm coming from.

This is the first visit. You give the person writ of control,

which means the control of those goods.

And then I make an arrangement with them to pay. You understand?

A writ of control, however, is a civil matter

and the police officer's only role is to prevent anything

stopping Ken from carrying out his duty.

For all her talk of an arrangement,

she's refusing to offer any payment and Ken is left with little choice.

The lady's been told a long time ago this stuff is going to go.

She's still not come up with anything, not a penny.

I was hoping she was going to come up with something, but she hasn't.

So, you know, she's already tried to lock me out of the shop as well.

So as far as I'm concerned, the stuff's going in the back

of the vehicle and it's being taken to an auction house.

Going to get that done now.

Is this the door you tried to slam in my face?

You were forcing it.

Ken's not in the mood for further arguments.

He wants her goods and he wants to get out of here.

It's amazing what you can get in these estate cars.

Start getting these dresses out now.

No sooner has he got the first few in the boot

and the shop owner is trying to take them back.

Ken puts the second load in the back seat.

Removed goods are sold at public auction

and rarely reach anything like their retail value.

So Ken is having to take dresses worth far more than the debt.

But first, Ken has to find an auction house which would take them.

It sounds like the office has found one.

Perfect.

Right.

Hampstead? Even closer, yeah.

These will all be hanging up in about half an hour.

Ken heads back in to remove the last of the dresses.

But Ms Chidoka has other ideas.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

BLEEP

You just assaulted him in front of two police officers.

You have done exactly what we're here to prevent.

All your dresses are now on the floor, OK?

Ken's pretty taken aback.

I was just grabbing some dresses, turned my back on the debtor

and the debtor has just punched me in the head.

From behind. So, she's just locked herself in a room at the back now.

My job here is done.

But she's just assaulted me.

The officers have had to arrest her.

One calls for transport to take her away.

She returns from the back room.

SIREN BLARES

Ms Chidoka was later given a caution for common assault.

Unsurprisingly, Ken's relieved this job is nearly over.

Never been assaulted before on a job.

Not like that.

Loads of verbal, but I've never been physically attacked before.

That's in 26 years, so I've done well, I guess.

It really surprised me.

She was moaning,

but you didn't think for one minute she would punch me in the ear.

There's just one last thing to do

and it's considerably less stressful.

Delivering the day's haul to the auction house.

All I need is to be able to hang them up

cos they can't just be left in a heap.

-Have you got coat hangers?

-I've got coat hangers.

13, 14...

If I don't see another dress in my life, it will be too soon.

I think they're hung up OK.

Yeah, as they were in the shop.

Yeah, all good.

Ken might have had enough of the dresses,

but the auction house manager is delighted with them.

We've never had dresses in, as far as I know, so it's going to

be very, very interesting to have a collection of...

How will we call them...? Evening gowns?

Or ballgowns?

Of various shapes, sizes and colours.

Nothing will be sold for seven days, giving Ms Chidoka a chance to

settle her debt instead and get her stock back.

If she doesn't, then the dresses will be auctioned to pay off her

debt and costs, with any additional proceeds paid back to her.

For Ken, it's been a tough day, so while he's here,

he decides he deserves a treat to cheer himself up.

My dog is a Hungarian Vizsla

and these are basically two stone effigies of my dog.

Front of the house, they'd look nice.

I might stick a cheeky reserve bid on them,

while I'm here.

It's been an extraordinary ordeal,

but it goes to show the lengths the sheriffs will go to in order

to get back the money their clients are owed.

It's been a long old day, from the start of us walking into the shop.

I'm shattered, to tell the truth.

I'm absolutely shattered cos it's been a hard day,

but it's been a successful day, I think.

Those dresses, I think they will fetch the value

and our clients get paid.

Ms Chidoka failed to pay within seven days

so several weeks later, the dresses were sold at auction.

Swikruti can now finally expect to get some of her money back.

It feels like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

It's a complete relief, really.

I was a bit worried when I heard that one of the sheriffs,

Ken, got assaulted.

I hope he's OK.

The knock to Ken's ear has left no lasting damage.

He's also now the proud owner of a pair of stone

Hungarian Vizslas, pictured here with Gunner.

Ms Chidoka said that...

As a result...

On a cold morning near the coast in Essex, Sheriffs Kev McNally

and Lawrence Grix are looking for money on behalf of a client

who's had a bit of car trouble.

He bought a second-hand motor that went wrong.

It's eight o'clock in the morning. We are in Leigh-on-Sea.

We're going to The Car Company. It's a car garage.

Our claimant is a Mr Don Merrifield.

He bought a car from here and the words are -

the car wasn't fit for purpose.

We'll head over there and see what we can do.

We are looking for £3,684.

Mr Merrifield took The Car Company to court.

They defended the case and the court arrived at a decision which

should have been the end of the matter.

The order was that our claimant deliver the car back to them

and on delivery of the vehicle, they would pay the money.

That clearly didn't happen.

Now, whether it was a case of our claimant didn't take the car

back, so they didn't pay him, or he took the car back,

they refused to pay him, so he drove off in the car again, I don't know.

Either way, Mr Merrifield has escalated the matter to the

High Court and Lawrence

and Kev's writ says The Car Company now needs to come up with the money.

And a quick look at the dealership reveals plenty of potential

assets parked up.

Yeah, there's cars on the front there.

All indications are at the moment that it's good.

But as they prepare to go to work,

it's the sheriffs' own vehicle that's giving Lawrence concerns.

He's spotted a traffic warden

and unsure of how long the job's going to take, turns on the charm.

-Morning. It's just we've got a High Court writ to execute...

-Yeah.

..on the car dealer just up the road there.

We don't know how long we're going to be.

Would you be able to cut us a bit of slack?

Give us a shout if you need us to move and we will do.

-OK, mate.

-Thanks very much, mate.

With the warden placated, the sheriffs head to the business.

They've got there before the staff have arrived,

so they use the time to have a look around.

-There's a few cars out the back.

-There's a fence there.

So this is ours. I would guess he probably parks in there, yeah.

There's tyre tracks. So I'm guessing they use the back gate.

But the sheriffs aren't going to get paid by hanging around outside,

so as soon as the staff arrive, they head in.

-You all right there, mate?

-Hello there.

-Are you the guv'nor, by any chance?

-No, I'm the manager.

-You're a manager?

-Yeah.

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

-Right.

We've got a High Court writ to execute against The Car Company,

-on behalf of a Don Merrifield.

-Right.

And we're here today to take control of goods to the value of £3,684.57.

Right.

The only way to prevent further action basically is to pay in full.

-Right.

-Do you have the authority to deal with this?

I've got the owner, who is going to be about half an hour.

Are you able to get him on the phone and see if you can

gee him up at all?

He does, but once the owner is geed up, our camera is asked to leave.

The owner arrives shortly afterwards

and the sheriffs negotiate to get the claimant his nearly £3,700 back.

They also get to discover a bit more about what's gone on.

Basically, the car has been returned,

but it's got 8,000 miles on it more than when they sold it,

so they're saying - look, we were willing to accept the car back,

but we didn't know it had 8,000 miles on it. That's a bit much.

And when they pulled all their paperwork out,

they've got the cheque that they had ready for the guy for the amount.

But with the extra mileage on the clock, they refused to hand it over.

Court's ordered them to pay the money, they haven't paid the money.

Our claimant had to return the car, which he's done.

Albeit with 8,000 miles more on it.

They haven't lived up to their side of the bargain.

The garage says they're going to appeal the court's decision

to reduce the amount they have to pay.

And they're not best pleased to have a visit from the sheriffs today.

But for the claimant, Mr Merrifield,

will the dark clouds over Essex today have a silver lining?

That went very well, really.

They believe there should be some discount on what they're paying.

They've put in an application to set the judgment aside.

They haven't got a hearing date yet or anything,

so obviously that doesn't stop us from enforcing.

We had a High Court writ, we explained the situation to them

and they paid. They're now going to go and seek legal advice as to what

they can do next.

The Car Company didn't manage to get the judgment set aside

and Mr Merrifield has got the money the court says he was owed.