Episode 8 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.

KNOCK ON DOOR

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'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...

Simon Pruce wasn't told the whole story

when he bought a second-hand car.

The fuse box was damaged and the instrument panel was also damaged.

I wasn't prepared to drive a car that was unsafe.

It was sold to him by a limo hire firm.

Can Lawrence and Kev get them to pay?

There's hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth here.

If not going into the millions.

Sheriff Chris Pearson visits a mattress company which owes

compensation to a former worker.

Not as far as I'm aware.

And a clothing business is trying Lawrence's patience.

No, I know somebody's in there.

If nobody comes out and speaks to me, I will effect entry into the building.

But can he get the owner's attention?

Anybody here capable of backing up the computers?

Because I'm going to start unplugging them.

In the south-east, enforcement agents Lawrence Grix and Kev McNally

are en route to their first job of the day.

They're looking for a company specialising in limousine hire,

which has an unpaid debt.

This morning, we are in Northfleet, in Kent.

We're going to Wild Stretch Limousines Limited.

The amount we're looking for is ?1,982.

So, we're getting there early-ish, eight o'clock.

Should be open then, hopefully.

The debt actually stems from a matter unrelated to the company's

luxury transport fleet.

Its boss sold a second-hand car,

which later turned out to have problems.

The buyer was Simon Pruce,

a physiotherapist with a keen interest in motor racing.

I started motor racing in karts.

And I moved into Formula Ford racing.

But I'm very fond of anything that has a motor in it.

Motorbikes or cars, both on the track and off.

Mr Pruce came across Wild Stretch Limousines

when he was looking for a newer Ford C-Max car,

to replace the one he'd been using to tow his racing car.

He found one advertised on eBay,

and went to see it at the home of the seller, a Mr Hunt.

When I first saw the car, I had some misgivings.

Erm...the first thing I noted was that the seat was wet,

and that there certainly seemed to be water coming through the sunroof.

I mentioned this, and it was explained that the car had

been parked in Mr Hunt's garden over the winter, under the trees,

and it had gathered a lot of leaves and crud on the roof,

so they had jet-washed it prior to me looking at her.

Which seemed perfectly reasonable.

Satisfied with what he'd been told,

Simon thought the car might be what he was looking for.

We test-drove her for probably no more than five to ten minutes.

The car wasn't perfect, but the price was reasonable.

I made a deal with the guy and bought it.

He gave me an invoice from a company called Wild Stretch Limousines,

and gave me a three-month warranty.

The car cost ?1,800 and, at first, Simon was pleased with his purchase.

But after only a few days he began to notice problems.

The handbrake warning light would either not go off

or wouldn't come on.

The radio worked when it felt like it.

I was concerned with the road safety element,

because the indicators didn't seem to work when I wanted them to.

It subsequently turned out that the sunroof leaked very badly

and the inside of the car was very wet

and had clearly affected the electrics.

The car needed a lot of work, and Simon wasn't best pleased.

This made me fairly angry

because I wasn't prepared to drive a car that was unsafe and dangerous

on the roads, both to myself and my family and to other road users.

But, nevertheless, in the initial stages, Mr Hunt seemed responsive

to my questions about the car and seemed willing to help.

In fact, Mr Hunt offered to make the repairs at his expense.

Only it wasn't that simple.

He had the car back,

returned it to me and said he'd fixed all the problems,

but...nothing had changed.

The sunroof still leaked and the electrics still worked

when they felt like it.

He had it back a second time.

This time, he did fix the leaking sunroof,

but the electrics were still faulty.

He agreed with me to engage a professional auto electrician

to look at the car, and he said he would pay for that.

But I never heard from him again.

It was only some time later that I suddenly realised that

he stopped communicating with me the moment 12 weeks had passed.

So, therefore, he obviously felt that he had complied

with his three-month warranty.

The auto electrician did inspect the car, although Simon paid for it.

The findings were even worse than he had feared.

The report stated that the fuse box was damaged

and the instrument panel was also damaged

and that both would need replacing.

The car would cost in the region of ?1,200 to repair.

With Mr Hunt no longer responding to

any of Simon's attempts to contract him,

the only way he could recover his costs was through legal action.

I saw no reason why I shouldn't take him to court and recover the money

that was going to need to be spent in order to put the car right.

Simon found the process fairly simple, and made a claim against

Wild Stretch Limousines Limited for the full cost of repairs.

They responded by filing a defence to the court.

But for Simon, its contents were rather surprising.

It stated quite clearly that Wild Stretch Limousines

are a limousine hire company, and do not sell cars.

"We did not sell this car," and then he signed it at the bottom.

The signature on that form was exactly the same signature

as we'd got on the used car sales invoice.

Simon wrote to Mr Hunt to point this out, but received no reply.

When the court date came around,

no-one from Wild Stretch Limousines attended.

The judge simply awarded the sums required, plus the expenses, to me.

And gave Wild Stretch Limousines ten days to pay.

They didn't, and so Simon escalated the case to the High Court.

We've watched the programmes on television.

So I knew the process existed.

And now it's down to the sheriffs to collect.

The sheriffs are my last hope to get the money in order to fix the car.

Lawrence and Kev are on their way to Wild Stretch Limousines.

They've got a High Court writ,

which empowers them to get Simon's money back.

It turns out, Lawrence isn't normally a limousine kind of guy.

I've never been in a limousine.

Long, useless, cumbersome things.

No appeal to me, to be honest.

Though today might be different.

They're worth quite a bit of money, and... HE LAUGHS

..there might be some there for us to take control of,

that's the appeal of 'em.

The sheriffs are approaching the address on their writ.

There it is.

And it looks like Lawrence is right about the assets.

He's got loads of limousines, hasn't he?

Cars as long as trucks are parked all over the place.

Looks like he's taken the opportunity to park

the things everywhere, doesn't it? Anywhere and everywhere.

He's got a lot of them, ain't there?

The sheriffs park up and head for the unit named on the writ.

Cheers, mate.

Morning.

Do you work here? Are you the owner, by any chance? No.

No? Is he in? Not at the moment.

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

My colleague and I are enforcement agents.

We've got a High Court writ to execute against

Wild Stretch Limousines.

The man's an employee,

so gets the boss on the phone and breaks the bad news.

I don't know. What's it for? The creditor is a Simon Pruce.

Yeah, yeah, hang on. It's Paul.

The man on the phone isn't Mr Hunt, but another of the company bosses.

Lawrence gives him the lowdown.

We're here today to take control of goods to the value of ?1,982.49.

So, basically, to prevent that happening, somebody needs to pay in full.

So, just under two grand.

The boss asks for more time.

Lawrence isn't having any of it.

It needs to be today, sir.

Unfortunately for you,

you've got loads of goods here that we can take control of

to sell to raise the money,

which is what we're commanded to do by the writ.

Faced with the threat of removal, the boss offers to pay,

but only half of the amount owed.

No, it needs to be all of it, sir.

No, sorry, sir. Has to be payment in full.

We're not bailiffs, sir. We're not bailiffs.

We're here with a High Court writ that commands us to take control

of goods that can be sold at auction to clear this debt,

because it wasn't paid when the County Court were dealing with it,

when the judge ordered it be paid.

So, it's deemed that...

It's deemed that you haven't got the money to pay,

therefore you have to have your goods removed.

It's got to be payment in full, sir.

OK.

All right. Bye-bye.

Cheers.

The gentleman, I believe, knows about the debt.

But he wanted to pay half today and half next week,

after his money's come in from next weekend.

But we're only on Tuesday today,

so he should have his money from last weekend, really.

You know, when you've got this much money tied up in stretch limousines.

The boss is apparently now on his way here,

with a view to making the payment.

In the meantime, Lawrence and Kev are counting limos.

Hummers, to be precise.

12 of 'em. 12 Hummers.

These limo companies normally have, like, three or four.

That's loads of money. Absolutely loads of money.

It turns out Kev has some experience of Hummers,

after hiring one in Las Vegas.

We went and saw the Grand Canyon in it.

But we didn't find the Grand Canyon.

LAWRENCE LAUGHS

Got lost.

Grand Canyon's a long way from Vegas.

Yeah, we left about midday and never found it. It was dark.

Dark before we got anywhere near it.

I was giving directions.

THEY LAUGH

That's about right, then.

The Hummers aren't the only assets here.

There are plenty of other limos, too.

Not to mention the flashy motor Kev's just spotted.

If you have a look at the back of the...

back of the old garage in here,

there's a pretty nice Ferrari sitting back there.

Nice little asset.

That could only be removed if it belonged to the company,

which it probably doesn't.

Still, it's worth bearing in mind, just in case they don't get paid.

Lawrence is confident, with the boss on his way, that they will.

If he hasn't got the money to pay in full, I'll be very surprised,

despite the fact that he was wrangling for half now, half next week.

There's hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth here,

if not going into the millions.

So, we'll just see if he comes up with the money,

and if he doesn't then we'll...

we'll start looking at what vehicle we're going to take.

After a short wait, a car pulls up.

Only it then turns around and drives off.

It seems whoever was in it didn't like the look of our camera.

Soon, the staff member comes out to say that it won't be the boss

that's making the payment after all.

Our transport manager's going to pay the bill off his card. OK.

But he doesn't want the camera up there. OK.

He's got a card here, has he? Yeah. In here?

Our transport manager's going to do it off his private card.

Then, obviously, the owner will pay him back.

The sheriffs head in to seal the deal.

All paid and on to the next job.

Yeah, it's done now.

So...happy days.

Happy days, too, for Simon Pruce.

The great news is that I've just heard from the sheriffs

that they've been successful in recovering the money

on the enforcement, and I'm going to receive all of it.

I feel delighted that it's all over and done with now,

and I can concentrate on my racing.

And Simon's got a message for anyone thinking of using the courts.

I'd advise anybody to go through this process if they need to.

It isn't complicated and, in this case, it was very successful.

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.

160 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.

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.

It's half past 12, and on the orders of the court,

Lawrence and Kev are on their way to collect another unpaid debt.

We're in London, going up to NW10.

We're going to go and find Supreme London Limited.

They owe ?13,869.

So, big debt on this one.

The address on the writ leads them to a trading estate.

Is it in here? Is this where we're going? Yeah. Down here.

11 and 12, Supreme.

There's a sign on the wall, but no clue as to what goes on inside.

For Lawrence, forewarned is forearmed, and he checks the file.

Involved in the sale of textiles, clothing, fur, footwear

and leather goods.

Manufacture, importing and distribution of eco-friendly bags.

It's not my bag.

The unit door is locked. Lawrence rings the bell.

Hello, the Supreme London Limited?

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

We need to speak to somebody about a High Court writ.

OK.

The sheriffs are asked to wait.

Lawrence has already got a feeling about this job.

Always suspicious of businesses that don't have an open door.

Yeah.

He might be right. As five minutes later, no-one's let them in.

Becoming of the opinion that there's nobody rushing down to see us.

Lawrence doesn't take kindly to being made to hang around.

He's got the Supreme London office phone number in the file.

Good afternoon, my name's Mr Grix, I'm an enforcement agent.

I've just buzzed up outside about five minutes ago and spoke to

a young man, who I believe was going to try and contact somebody.

Nobody's come to speak to us at the door yet.

I have a High Court writ to execute against Supreme London Limited.

Somebody needs to come to the door and speak to me now,

because I have the power to force entry to commercial premises.

I know somebody's in there. If nobody comes out and speaks to me,

I will be getting a locksmith and I will effect entry into the building.

No, I won't be waiting out here that long.

Apparently they're on the phone to directors,

and somebody will call me in about ten or 15 minutes.

I'm not happy about that.

Debtors don't always know the sheriffs will let themselves in

if need be.

It's a powerful bargaining tool against anyone who hopes

they might just go away if ignored.

We've confirmed that the company we're looking for is here, and there

are people from that company inside, and they're not coming to the door.

So, if necessary, I will call out a locksmith

and we'll force entry to the building.

This time, however, his threat seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Then, just when it's looking like they really might need to

force the door...

an employee has arrived.

How are you doing, mate?

All right, buddy.

And Lawrence and Kev follow him in.

They head upstairs to Supreme London's office, which is

a vast improvement on what Kev had expected.

Different to the outside.

The outside looks pretty run-down and not much is going on, but...

yeah, it's all happening up here.

A note pinned to the wall gives a hint of why they've had

so much trouble getting in the door.

But even now he's appeared unannounced in their office,

Lawrence is struggling to get anyone's attention.

Sorry, who is it that's actually in charge?

So, who's in charge?

Somebody must be in charge at the moment.

None of the people present seem sure what to do.

So there's no managers here at all?

Right, so who's been trying to contact the director on the phone?

Who did I speak to from outside on the intercom?

But someone does get the company director on the phone.

Hello?

Lawrence is hoping that finally the message will sink in.

I have a High Court writ of control, which orders me to come

here today and take control of goods to the value of

?13,869.92,

goods that can be sold at auction to clear this debt.

But even he doesn't seem to understand the importance of the writ.

No, I don't want to come back at all.

I will be executing the writ today.

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

The man doesn't want to come to the office.

You don't have to be here to pay, you can log on to your bank

and pay by online transfer...or...

He doesn't want to do that either.

OK, then.

OK, I will carry on executing the writ and call some lorries. OK.

I'll take things. Thank you, bye-bye.

Not going to pay.

Having been locked outside the front door and kept waiting by the staff

in the office, Lawrence isn't in the mood to waste any more time,

and gets straight on the phone.

Can you see if Rob's available with his 7.5-tonner with the tail lift, please?

Kev, meanwhile, is on the hunt for goods they could remove.

Unfortunately, there's not a great deal of assets here.

There's a lot going on in the office and a lot of computers and

sort of furniture, but value-wise it's not particularly great.

Removal isn't ideal, so Kev tries to make the staff realise

they really do mean business, in the hope the director will reconsider.

Everything you see will be gone. From stock to this, everything.

Literally, I mean,

the whole place will be cleaned out for the amount it is.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right now.

Lawrence adds his weight to the argument.

Is anybody here capable of backing up the computers?

Because I'm going to start unplugging them.

Because we're going to have to take them,

because your boss isn't going to pay this.

With over 13,000 owed, they really will need to remove everything.

It's not the sheriffs' intent to stop a business trading,

but sometimes there's no other option.

If it's...if it's all the company has got,

and they're not willing to pay,

then you have to take what they have got.

And if it shuts them down, it shuts them down.

He was quite adamant he wasn't going to pay,

so you have to do what you have to do.

Removal of office goods is the last resort for the sheriffs,

and the worst option for a debtor.

On top of their low value, they are bulky and expensive to remove

and will cost far more to replace

than they will ever sell for at auction.

Lawrence's growing pile by the doorway seems to have finally

had the effect he wanted.

Yeah, so we've been told there's a director on his way down now,

not far away.

But this belated move doesn't put him off his stride.

No, we're going to carry on to save time.

He said on the phone he wasn't going to pay,

so I'm not stopping what I'm doing just because he's turning up.

If he turns up and deals with it properly

then obviously there'll be no need for us to remove.

Moments later, the director arrives.

Are you the gentleman I spoke to on the phone?

My name's Mr Grix.

Where are we going to, sir?

All right.

Lawrence is led into a meeting room,

while our cameraman's asked to wait outside.

The director seems to now realise that the removal of the entire

contents of his office really is imminent

and that he'll need to find some money today to prevent it.

45 minutes later, the sheriffs reappear.

Despite keeping him waiting,

the director's managed to appease Lawrence.

As it happens, he was quite a nice chap.

Erm, there's photos of him with David Cameron,

Prince Charles, the Queen.

So obviously, he's quite a well-to-do businessman

who mixes in the right circles.

He might have famous friends

but he didn't have the full ?13,869 that the sheriffs came for.

He did manage to pay us ?3,300,

and he's got money clearing into his account tomorrow, which he's going

to do by BACS over to us, so we'll have the balance by Friday.

I think he'll probably do it.

But either way, the ?3,300 we got was more than the value of anything in there.

It was fairly old computers, which go for nothing at auction,

and other than that there really wasn't much at all.

Bits and pieces of furniture,

but it certainly wouldn't have raised ?3,300 at auction.

Plus you'd have had the costs of removing it, et cetera, et cetera.

So it was best today just to get a controlled goods agreement,

get a partial payment and wait for the balance to come in on Friday.

In the end, it's a good result in difficult circumstances.

Supreme London Limited later cleared the balance

and the claimant has got their money back.