Episode 9 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?

..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. Get him to come in here.

We're not going to be waiting around. It needs to be done now.

I just collected 42 grand.

Coming up, David Goddard was sold a family car

with more faults than features.

Coil springs at the back were gone,

the exhaust manifold nuts were missing,

so that was leaking, um...gases.

Can Lawrence and Kev get his money back?

Is the owner about?

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

A care provider which owes thousands of pounds in unpaid wages

doesn't want the sheriffs in its office.

We'll come and have a look because obviously...

We can, sir. We have a legal right to do so.

His attitude was that we're going to leave some letters and walk away, but we don't.

A car parts supplier is the victim of misdirected mail.

Can Lawrence make them understand the letter of the law?

Pay it. If we're ordered by the court to refund it at some point, we'll refund it.

And Craig is chasing a wedding photographer with an unpaid debt.

But does he have any assets?

This is the gentleman's website.

It quite clearly states here that he no longer trades.

It's a bright spring morning

and Lawrence and Kev are in South London

on the trail of a car dealership which owes a debt to their client.

What is it, 11.30 in the morning.

We are in South Norwood, South London.

We are going to Prestige Car Sales.

They owe £3,958.

Prestige Car Sales of South Norwood,

not to be confused with any other company of a similar name,

was taken to court by painter and decorator, David Goddard.

His dealings with the business began

when he was looking for a family-sized car for his wife.

I have actually got about 13 grandchildren

and six great-grandchildren.

And my wife takes them, especially in the summer holidays,

takes them down, we've got a caravan in Selsey Bill.

So, it was always ideal to have a bigger car

to carry the children around.

They hadn't been looking for long

before they found a car which seemed to fit the bill.

My wife looked through the internet and found a Vauxhall Zafira,

um...at Prestige Cars of South Norwood.

So they went to have a look

and took the car for a test-drive.

We'd taken it out on the Saturday and it sounded quite nice.

It was fine. The MOT was only three-four weeks old, the MOT.

And unfortunately, I left my bag there, in the back of the car,

after test-driving the vehicle.

Um...and when we got home, my wife said, "Well, that's an omen.

"You know, that car must be for me."

So, they bought it for £2,290.

But the problems began immediately.

The next day, there was a puncture,

so we put a new tyre on the vehicle.

Um...then I said, "Well, you'd best go down to the tyre place

"and get the tyres checked".

Um...and it needed another two tyres.

Um...and this is only two days after we bought the vehicle.

And that was just the start.

It was only a matter of days

before it started misfiring about two cylinders.

It started to rock all over, it was jumping all over the place,

with misfiring, so on and so forth.

And then, finally, it just gave up the ghost, basically.

So we had to abandon the vehicle and get it back home.

David called up Prestige Car Sales

to report that the car had broken down.

He said, "Well, can you get the vehicle to us?"

I said, "No, we can't really because it's immobile".

Instead, they agreed he'd take it to a local garage.

Their inspection revealed a plethora of problems.

The coil springs at the back were gone,

the exhaust, um...manifold nuts were missing, so that was leaking gases.

He said, "If I was you," he said, "I've got it running for you,

"but you shouldn't really spend any more money," he said,

"because the misfiring's still there

"and diagnostically, it's telling me that it could be the engine,

"it could be the gearbox or it could be a sensor."

I mean, what do you do? Do you replace the three?

It could have been anything up to about £2,000-£3,000.

It was very, very frustrating that they'd sent the vehicle out

in that sort of condition after me telling them

and explaining to them what the vehicle was going to be used for.

David spent £600 fixing just enough to get the car back on the road

and contacted Prestige Car Sales about the remaining problems.

He said, "Well, bring the vehicle back", he said,

"and we'll sort it out for you".

So, David returned the car to the dealers.

But while he waited for it be repaired, he took a closer look

at the service history documents which he still had.

He found a cylinder head had previously been replaced

and the car had experienced recurring issues

with the engine misfiring.

I said to my wife, I said, "Look,"

I said, "this car isn't any good".

I said, "It's just not fit for purpose, basically".

David decided he no longer wanted it

and asked Prestige Car Sales to keep the car and give him a refund.

They told him to put it writing, so he did.

I just said I'd forgo the £600 and £200 I spent on tyres,

just pay me that, I think, £2,290.

I said, "All I want is my money back, basically,

"so we can get another vehicle".

Um...no reply. Nothing. Nothing at all.

I couldn't believe that someone could think that they could

just take £2,000-plus off somebody, a working person,

and seem to think they'd forget all about it.

David took Prestige Car Sales to court.

They didn't defend the case, so he won a default judgment

for the full cost of the car

and the repairs he'd made at his own expense.

They still haven't paid.

So, now David's put the sheriffs on the case.

It's a necessity and it's got to be done.

Otherwise, um...I don't know,

I've no other way of getting the money back, anyway.

In South London, Lawrence and Kev

are about to pay Prestige Car Sales a visit.

Hoping the dealers are still here, for a start.

Hoping they've got some assets,

some cars worth some value.

As they approach, it appears

the garage is tucked away behind the main high street.

They head in to make their introductions.

Hello, mate.

-Are you the owner, by any chance?

-No, mate.

-Is the owner about?

-Sorry?

Is the owner about?

My colleague and I are enforcement agents.

We've got a High Court writ against Prestige Car Sales.

We're ordered out by the High Court

to take control of goods to be sold at auction and clear the debt.

Sorry, are you the owner, are you?

Sorry, he just said you weren't here, so...

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

The boss is here after all.

Now Lawrence has to explain the whole thing all over again.

We're ordered out by the High Court

to take control of goods to the value of £3,958.29.

Those goods can be sold at auction to clear the debt.

The boss leads them into the back.

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

The garage extends behind the row of shops

and is actually much larger than it appeared from the street.

But we don't get to admire the stock for long.

-We'll wait outside.

-All right.

Our camera is sent outside.

Indoors, Lawrence explains that if the owner

doesn't come up with the nearly £4,000 the court demands,

then he'll have no choice but to leave

with at least one of Prestige Car Sales' vehicles.

The boss isn't happy

and says he's applied to get the judgment set aside,

but he doesn't yet even have a court date.

He knows all about it. He's actually got the car here,

so I don't know why he's got the car here and hasn't paid it.

He's actually going back to court at some point.

He hasn't got a date for that yet, but he will be going back to court.

Lawrence has told him the best course of action is to pay up now

and try to challenge it later.

It sounds like that's what he's going to do.

He knows he's got to pay it, so he's going to get a card

from one of his colleagues in there and they're going to pay for it.

The sheriffs have been on site for a mere 20 minutes

when associates of the owner arrive.

Between them, they produce a card and Lawrence takes a payment

for the full £3,958 owed.

All went fairly smoothly.

They will undoubtedly take some kind of legal action, I would think,

to stop the money being paid out until they've had the hearing,

but at the end of the day, we've been paid

and that's all we're worried about.

In the end, Prestige Car Sales' application

to get the judgment set aside came to nothing.

The case never did go back to court.

Five months after buying the car,

David Goddard has got his money back.

I'm very pleased that the outcome is in our favour

and we've received our money back.

It's great, brilliant.

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 the van and heading to Ashford in Kent.

We are going to SBE Ltd.

We're looking for a total of £2,325 today.

Our claimant is Extreme Clean Commercial Ltd.

The cleaning company successfully took SBE Ltd to the county court

over an unpaid invoice.

After the debt still wasn't settled,

they've now transferred up to the High Court and got a writ.

The Sheriffs don't know much about the details of the case,

but it does gives the pair the opportunity

to reflect on their own cleaning abilities.

I am quite tidy, actually, yeah.

I'm afraid my cleaning doesn't come up to scratch at home.

My garage is always tidy, everything's in its place.

That's my domain and people aren't allowed in there.

And it's not just Lawrence's garage that's spic-and-span.

In the van, too, his orderliness has impressed Kev.

We've got a first-aid kit, we've got a hammer around here

just in case the van turns upside down

and we need to smash a windscreen to get out.

-Doesn't have to be my van, does it?

-In case of a werewolf(!)

Could come across an accident on the road

and somebody needs busting out their car.

If the apocalypse was to hit now,

we'd be all right in this van, that's all I'm saying.

There's everything in here you'd ever need.

Ha-ha!

Fortunately, the apocalypse hasn't arrived

by the time they reach the business's premises.

There it is.

They don't know what SBE Ltd does,

or whether there'll be any assets to take.

The signs on the building don't give much away.

"Global Electronic Service Logistics Management."

Whatever that means.

But they'll soon find out.

-Oh, good morning.

-Morning.

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

We've a High Court writ to execute against SBE Ltd

so we probably need to speak to somebody in legal or accounts.

But before reception can call anyone, a woman comes down the stairs.

-Hi, there.

-Oh, hello.

-We are High Court enforcement agents.

We have a High Court writ against SBE Ltd on behalf of

Extreme Clean Commercial Ltd.

We are here today to take control of goods to the value of £2,325.53.

Oh, OK. That's a bit odd. I'm disputing it.

Unfortunately, the bottom line is we have a High Court writ which

commands us to come here and take control of goods to clear the debt.

And the only way to prevent further action is to pay in full.

-What shall I do?

-Pay.

-How do I pay?

-Transfer.

-Transfer.

-OK.

-Shall we go to a meeting room?

-Yeah, sure.

I don't want anything filmed.

The woman takes them upstairs but our camera is asked to leave.

Inside, things start to get complicated.

They've been joined by the managing director

and it seems the company isn't willing to just pay up after all.

The sheriffs have also realised there's a factory

at the back of the building, full of potential assets.

Only the MD won't let them in.

When Lawrence demands access, the staff set off the alarms.

ALARM BLARES

Moments later, the police arrive.

What should have been a simple job

has turned into a headache for the sheriffs.

After explaining themselves to the officers,

Kev comes outside to fill us in on what's been happening.

Yeah, it's a big old company.

Out the back, the workings of the factory,

they're repairing mobile phones.

There are machines and other assets worth thousands.

No wonder the managing director doesn't want to let the sheriffs in.

He wasn't prepared to pay,

wanted us to wait around for the rest of the day and possibly longer.

But it seems light-footed Lawrence has managed to give the MD the slip.

Lawrence, in his nimbleness, went through a door

and we were into the workshop.

With the sheriffs listing assets in the back,

it was game over for SBE Ltd.

We're back dealing with the lady we were initially dealing with.

She has her debit card and she will be paying.

So, we've got the card machine here, we're going in, getting payment,

full payment, and we should be on our way soon.

Kev heads back in with the machine

and true to their word the company finally pay up.

Debtor's assets are the leverage sheriffs need to get paid

and they have the right to explore a premises to find them.

We were dealing with it quite sensibly

and calmly initially with the young lady,

but then the managing director came down and started getting himself

involved telling us we couldn't do this, we couldn't do that.

We were required to stay in reception,

we said we weren't going to so he instructed the receptionist to press

the panic alarm but I managed to nip through a door

when somebody went through it so I declined the offer

to go back to reception which didn't please them very much.

But after ten minutes, the young lady came back

and said she would pay it on her card.

And that's what happened. So, we got paid in full.

And with that, the sheriffs head off to the next job.

The cleaning company will now get the £2,325 they were owed.

This morning, Tommy and Craig are in the Black Country.

So, we're off to West Bromwich this morning with regards

to two employment tribunal cases against the same company.

The company itself is Enable UK Midlands Limited.

The director of the company is an Amjad Mahmood.

One's for £5,100 and the other one is for £11,700.

Enable UK Midlands Limited provides supported living services

for the disabled and elderly.

In 2015, the Care Quality Commission described its services

as "not always safe" and the leadership as "inadequate".

Now, two former staff members have won employment tribunal cases

for breaches of contract and unpaid wages.

Today, the sheriffs are instructed

to collect a total of nearly £17,000.

Whatever amount we collect today,

we will split the money equally to each case so they both get a share

and, hopefully, also, we'll have an arrangement in place

to pay the rest off for them.

The job's the same with two writs as with one

and the first step, as always, is to find the boss.

-Hello.

-Hi.

I'm trying to get in contact with Enable UK Ltd.

Can I help you?

-Take a seat...

-In the waiting room? OK?

The sheriffs are ushered into a waiting room

and Tommy immediately fears the worst.

-They're going to try and hold us here.

-They won't, mate. They won't.

Sheriffs have been locked in cupboards

and meeting rooms before so now always take precautions.

I've double-checked all the doors - they've got no locks on.

They said, can we just wait in the waiting room for a minute.

Bit of courtesy, we will do that,

but once we've explained the situation to them,

they need to pay it or we carry on doing our job

which is taking control of goods.

After a minute's wait, a man comes in to talk to them.

Hello, sir.

Is Amjad about?

My name is Mr Wild.

We are here today with two High Court writs for employment

tribunal liabilities. The total outstanding is £16,962.03.

We are not leaving until we are paid.

We can give you some account details to pay it now. If you want them.

Speak to Amjad first and I will have a chat with him.

-He ain't got the money.

-They ain't got the money, no.

Although happy to wait if it looks like they are going to get paid,

Craig's patience isn't going to last long.

I think his attitude was that we would leave them letters

and walk away, but we don't. Not when it gets to this stage.

We have the power and authority to walk around these premises

and that's what we will be doing.

The man comes back but he has not been able to get

through to the director, Amjad Mahmood.

We've come up because we need to see where you're trading from.

No, we're not going to sit here.

Where are you trading from, office-wise?

We will come and have a look.

-We can, we have the authority.

-We have a legal right to do so.

-I've shown you my identification.

-I showed you mine.

-I can show you again. We're not waiting here now.

-We can't wait.

While Craig investigates what's upstairs,

Tommy heads into the office.

Before he can do anything, however,

our camera attracts the attention of the men present.

We leave and continue filming from the road.

Inside, staff tell Craig and Tommy

that they haven't seen Amjad Mahmood for three weeks.

And that there are three other companies in the building

who, between them, own all the goods.

Sheriffs are entitled to carry out a diligent search

for information pertaining to their writ

and as they hunt through paperwork in the office,

Craig and Tommy discover that not only is Mr Mahmood a director

of at least one of the other companies in the building,

but they also find a document listing many of the office goods

as the property of Enable UK Midlands Limited.

Tommy comes out to fill us in.

Yeah, it got a bit heated initially inside the building,

but there's four separate companies operating within there,

and all claiming not to know the director of our company

which we started to find out is not true.

We started finding more and more paperwork of our company.

Obviously got them a bit irate.

They started to realise we're not just going to go away.

With Tommy confident at least some of the goods belong to the

company on their writ, the staff in the office were out of options.

So, they gave up at this point.

The more information we gather, you see them breaking down

and they've come to a deal which is they're going to pay 6,900.

They'll do a controlled goods agreement

until the rest of the balance is paid on both orders.

Tommy heads back inside with the card machine and he and Craig

take payment. It's not long before they're back.

We have a part payment today of £6,900 which brought

the balance down to £10,000 exactly.

As time went by, we kept finding more and more information

sort of contradicting what they were telling us.

They ended up looking a bit silly in the end

and I think they realised and we got the result we did.

They haven't seen Amjad since Christmas,

they don't know where he is, he's uncontactable

and, ultimately, Mr Amjad has 48 hours

in which to get in contact with our office otherwise we

will be back to execute and complete the execution of the court order.

Following the sheriffs' visit, Enable UK Midlands Limited

entered into a payment plan to clear the outstanding balance.

Further money was received, however two months later, the company

was wound up, leaving its debt to its former workers part-paid.

It has just gone 8am and Lawrence and Kev are in Romford, Essex.

We're going to Euro Car Parts.

We're looking for £6,678.

The company on the writ is a large distributor of vehicle parts

and garage equipment.

Unusually, the sheriffs are visiting one of its branches

rather than the company's head office but Kev is feeling confident.

Got a lot of leverage in the fact the assets there are going to be

worth a lot more than what our debt is.

Fairly confident that we're going to get paid.

Lawrence's experience of dealing with large companies

suggests otherwise.

It could take a while just to

track the claimant down in their system.

I think it's going to be a bit of a pain, to be honest.

And it's his prediction that will turn out to be true.

The sheriffs arrive at the business unaware of the saga that awaits.

Here we go. Euro Car Parts.

They're immediately recognised by a customer on their way in.

And a staff member gets the boss.

You are the manager, yeah?

We've a High Court writ against Euro Car Parts.

We're here today to take control of goods to the value of £6,678.37.

Apparently, it was garage equipment which was supplied which was faulty.

Lawrence tells him the name of the claimant

and he seems to know about the case.

That was before I was branch manager here.

Great(!)

We're quite happy to go out of public view to get this sorted.

Sure.

He leads them upstairs to discuss it further.

You know who it is, yeah?

Yeah, I was a sales manager and at the time,

we used to supply them and I know there was a falling out.

The manager says he remembers a dispute over a piece of machinery.

A local garage bought an exhaust gas analyser but were not happy with it.

He says the manufacturer examined the machine

and determined there wasn't a problem.

And so, the store refused to issue a refund.

It is quite an expensive part then, I presume.

It's what they stick up your tail pipe for an MOT.

Regardless of what the debt is for,

Lawrence has a job to do

and he gets straight to the point.

We're looking to remove, basically, 6,700 quids' worth of stuff

at auction value so...

Probably five times that...

-What do they have to do otherwise?

-Pay it!

As Lawrence suspected, the manager couldn't, if he wanted to.

He calls his boss.

These people are here now to take away 6,000 pounds' worth of goods

unless we pay it. Do you want to have a quick word with the guy?

-This is my regional manager.

-Hello there, sir.

The regional manager says he knew nothing about any legal action

and says the company never received any papers from the courts

so Lawrence checks his file.

All that I can see here,

the paperwork went to Units 1 and 2, Lyon House.

In RM1.

The manager says he doesn't recognise the address

and as he hasn't seen the paperwork,

he doesn't think the sheriffs should enforce today.

Right, I can understand what you're saying

but that's not for us to decide on today.

The simplest way, you aren't going to like this, but nobody does,

is to pay it, we hold the money for 14 days by law anyway,

which gives you 14 days to seek independent legal advice. Bye-bye.

He's going to phone somebody at head office.

-Was he aware of it, was he?

-No.

-Not at all?

-No.

And now the store manager wants to take a closer

look at the address on the paperwork.

Euro Car Parts, Unit 1 and 2,

-Lyon House, RM1 2VA.

-That's not us, is it?

It's probably why we don't know anything about it!

Is that not head office or anything?

A quick search online gives the answer.

That's Europe Cars!

You've still come to the wrong place, we know nothing about it.

No wonder we couldn't defend it or anything.

So, I think you have to give us some time due to that.

We don't, unfortunately, because we've got a live writ.

It looks like the court paperwork was sent to Europe Car,

a car hire business totally unconnected to Euro Car Parts.

The company are understandably unhappy about paying out

over £6,500 for a case they say they knew nothing about.

But the sheriffs have a writ in the company's name

which has to be enforced.

The court has ordered us to come here and take control of goods.

The way to deal with it today is to pay it and at some point

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

That is the sensible way to deal with it today.

That decision currently rests with the regional manager.

While the sheriffs wait to hear back, they start to think

about possible items for removal if it came to it.

On this occasion, they might not even have to

look around the building to find out what's there.

Realising Lawrence is a car buff,

the manager's gone to get a catalogue.

Lawrence is going to be in his element.

There's all sorts in here.

He's going to love that. Look, there we go. Post lifts.

Lawrence's eyes light up at the range of car lifts on offer.

And the manager's salesman instincts take over.

Single face 2,100 + VAT. £10 a week.

Gosh!

This could be a first, Lawrence sold something on a job.

Never seen this happen.

Don't think my wife would be too impressed.

Luckily for Lawrence's wife, a call comes in before he can commit

to installing a £2,000 vehicle lift on her driveway.

Hello there.

Lawrence is slowly making his way up the company chain of command

but the head of legal he is now speaking to you

is no happier about the sheriffs' attendance.

She, too, says that as Euro Car Parts haven't had the paperwork,

they shouldn't have to pay.

It's not in our remit

to look at the case and say we shouldn't be here.

We have a live writ, we are commanded by the High Court

to come here today and take control of goods to clear this debt.

She says she will try and go back to court to get a stay of execution

on the writ and apply to have the original judgment set aside.

But Lawrence knows it's unlikely to happen

before he's forced to remove goods today.

Right, that's entirely your prerogative, but can I suggest

that somebody starts looking into how you're going to pay this?

We've been here over an hour now and things need to move on.

OK.

OK. Bye-bye.

Lawrence thinks he might have finally got his point across,

but 35 minutes later, there's been no news.

I'm just wondering if you can give me an update

cos the sheriffs are getting a bit impatient now.

They've been here an hour and 45 minutes. Thanks.

The manager doesn't get an answer and, ten minutes later,

Lawrence tries himself.

I was just phoning for an update, really,

because we need to be moving things on now.

No disrespect to yourself, but if you haven't had authority to get

this paid, then I'm going to ask the branch manager here to try

and find somebody who has got the authority to get it paid,

and if it isn't, we're going to start removing goods.

Lawrence has been repeating himself for some time now

and his frustration is growing.

You can see the wording on the writ.

I am commanded to take control of goods to clear this debt,

but I'm sure nobody at Euro Car Parts is going to lose any sleep

and the company's not going to go bust for the sake of £6,500.

Pay it.

If we're ordered by the court to refund it at some point,

we'll refund it.

But the powers that be still don't seem to want to pay.

Right, well...

Right, OK. We're going to start removing goods, then. Erm...

You know, there's nothing more to be said.

Lawrence's ultimatum finally has the desired effect.

I can furnish the branch manager with our bank details.

That's not a problem. It needs to be an immediate payment.

We need to verify that it's in our account before we can leave here.

-Did she say she is going to pay it, then?

-Yeah.

After all the toing and froing, Lawrence has finally won the battle.

Faced with imminent removal of the goods,

the company has agreed to pay, and half an hour later,

the money is in the sheriffs' bank account.

Yes, it's in. Right, I'll do you a receipt.

After more than three hours,

the sheriffs can't leave quickly enough.

Thank you very much.

Starving. We've been in there hours.

-I know.

-We've got to get some food.

-Yeah.

It's been a tough morning,

but Lawrence and Kev have fulfilled their duty and satisfied the writ.

It took a while to convince them to do so, but they've paid in full,

knowing the money is going to be held for 14 days.

If we're ordered to pay it back by the court,

then we'll do so, but, you know, we've done as much as we can.

We've collected full payment.

Following the sheriffs visit,

the judgment against Euro Car Parts was set aside

because the court papers had been served to the wrong address.

The sheriffs returned the money

and a new court date was set for the case to be heard.

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.

In the Midlands, sheriff Craig Wild is on the road with a tricky case.

This time, it's a photography business that's in the frame.

So, we're off to Sutton Coldfield this morning.

It appears to be a home address.

The claimant in this particular case, a Mr Philip Heron,

has took North Face Imaging to court

and obtained a County Court judgment

and a High Court writ against the company.

Mr Heron hired North Face Imaging to take photos at his wedding,

but he says he never received them,

so he took North Face Imaging to court to recover the fees

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

Now, Craig is looking for £2,260.48 to settle the bill,

but it's not going to be easy.

The complexities of this particular case is that it doesn't

appear to be a limited company.

I have to seize goods belonging to the defendant,

which is only a trading name.

We haven't got that individual's name

because he's not named on the writ.

Craig's only got a trading name,

not the company or person who actually owes the money.

He parks up near the address and it's just as he feared -

not a business premises, but a home.

If he knew who the man behind the trading name on the writ was,

it might help his case, so he does some last-minute research.

This is, er, the gentleman's, er, website.

It quite clearly states here,

"Please be aware that we operate from my home address."

That means it's more likely there'll be valuable assets

such as photographic equipment here.

But there's bad news, too.

It also states that he no longer trades.

Sole traders may retire their trading names,

but without the protection of a limited company, any debts they

incur are their own, personally, and can still be chased up.

With a bit more digging,

Craig finds an online review, which mentions the photographer by name,

and there's even a picture.

He's got a LinkedIn profile. That's him.

Armed with all the information he needs,

Craig parks up on the driveway and heads to the door.

Hello, my love. Sorry to disturb you.

It's the photographer's wife who answers.

She's not pleased to see us, and the camera retreats to the road.

My name's Mr Wild.

I'm here today with a High Court writ for North Face Imaging.

The photographer's wife says the debtor is at work,

so Craig shows her the writ.

The claimant in this particular case is a Mr Philip Heron.

She thinks the debt's been paid and goes in search of paperwork,

but when she returns,

it's a telephone that she pushes through the letterbox.

Hello?

Craig's finally through to the photographer,

who immediately tells him he can't come up with the £2,000 plus

he owes and wants until the end of the month.

That's not an issue at all,

providing we fulfil the obligation of the court order, and that

basically means that we have to take control of goods in lieu of payment.

Removing the contents of the house would be unpleasant for all parties

and most of the items would be unlikely to raise much

at auction anyway, but Craig knows the man is bound to own

some valuable photographic equipment, so makes a proposal.

What I'm prepared to do in this particular case would be just

listing down the photographic equipment,

rather than household goods.

The debtor says most of his kit is on loan to someone else, but Craig

has got to either get a payment or take control of goods of some value.

What I'm saying is, is there anything here, photographic-wise,

that I can list down?

If I list a camera down here now,

that would then give me the authority to give you to the end of

the month to make the discharge to the account.

Finally, they agree that Craig will take control

of a camera that is being stored inside the house.

The phone goes back through the letterbox.

-DOG BARKS

-The dog's going to bite my hand off.

The photographer's wife needs to sign a controlled goods agreement

on her husband's behalf, and so Craig is let into the house.

The agreement means if the photographer doesn't pay his bill

by the end of the month, the camera may be taken to be sold at auction.

We took control of the goods.

His wife signed the control of goods agreement,

giving him till the 30th of January to pay in full.

To that end, it's been a fantastic result for Mr Heron, the claimant.

The debt was soon settled in full.

Mr Heron would rather have got his wedding photos,

but at least he's got his money back.

North Face Imaging insist they...

They say...

In 2005, new laws were introduced meaning that passengers can

claim compensation from airlines

if their flights are delayed more than three hours.

It's estimated that more than £100 million

is paid out in the UK every year.

But customers don't always find it easy

to get the money they're rightfully owed.

Collecting unpaid compensation has become a regular job

for the sheriffs and today, Lawrence and Kev have got another one.

This morning, nice and early, eight o'clock,

we're heading over to Heathrow Airport.

We're going to Vueling Airlines.

They owe just over £1,000. It's £1,046.

It's a low-cost Spanish airline.

The claimant is owed compensation from a delayed flight

more than two years ago...

..which Vueling still hasn't paid.

They've got an office just outside the main terminal.

What a pain it's going to be, trying to find somewhere to park!

As is often the case,

Lawrence is more fazed by where to leave the van than the job ahead.

Airlines normally pay up. They've certainly got the money to do so.

We have to seize assets and they have planes,

so, potentially, we could be taking control of a plane or planes,

but for this amount of money,

I can't see anything like that happening.

They'll be paying this money, erm...

and we'll be on our way. I'm sure of it.

Lawrence needn't have worried.

The address turns out to be well away from the main terminals.

Keep your eye open, co-pilot.

That's it.

Once they've found it, there's plenty of space for the van

and they head in.

BEEPING

Oh, we're in.

We're in.

The sheriffs have come to the office of IAG -

International Airlines Group - the holding company of Vueling,

as well as British Airways and Iberia.

They introduce themselves to reception.

Morning. We're looking for Vueling Airlines.

Just say there are enforcement agents with a High Court writ.

Reception calls ahead to warn the airline,

and with a visitor badge made, Lawrence and Kev head upstairs.

Hello, there. I believe somebody's coming to see us.

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

Moments later, that someone appears.

Hello, there.

But before he talks to Lawrence,

he wants our camera out of the building.

Inside, Lawrence shows him the writ.

Kev was right about one thing -

there's no need to go and clamp any aircraft.

Vueling might have kept the claimant waiting for his flight

and his compensation, but with the sheriffs on the doorstep,

they get things moving a lot more quickly.

In less than an hour, Lawrence and Kev emerge from the building

and they've been paid in full.

We were shown to a conference room

and the head of finance came in and spoke to us.

They made the payment fairly quickly, but because it was made

after midday, apparently it won't hit our bank account

until tomorrow, but I've seen the printout of the payment

being made, so I've basically issued a conditional receipt,

which is nil balance, subject to the clearance of funds into our account.

I've no reason to doubt that the payment

will drop into our account tomorrow, so it's another paid in full.

He may have had to fight for it, but now,

more than two years since his delayed flight, the passenger

finally has the compensation the law says he was entitled to all along.

It's another successful case for the sheriffs.

Vueling Airlines told us they...

But the...