Episode 8 The Sheriffs Are Coming

-Meet the Sheriffs.

-My name's Mr Grix,

my colleague and I are enforcement agents.

-It's to do with a High Court order.

-They work for the High Court,

and if it says you are owed money, it's their job to go and get it.

I am here for £6,072.18.

They can demand payment on the spot...

I'm here for the full balance.

How are you going to pay it?

..or remove assets instead.

The car will be going unless you can pay it.

You will have a week to pay in full before it gets sold at auction.

Obstructing their work can be a criminal offence.

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

-The door needs to stay open.

Every year in England and Wales,

unpaid debts totalling more than £80 million

are recovered by the sheriffs.

Coming up - Kieron Kelly discovered his new car had been in a crash.

I was stunned, shocked, angry.

I didn't drive the car any more.

When the dealer responsible says he can't pay, Lawrence has other ideas.

West Car Sales have got all the cars that are here.

-Yes.

-Unfortunately, that's who we're here for.

Ken won't take no for an answer at a hotel with a debt to pay.

Please start making these phone calls now

to get this money to me now, OK? I'll wait.

Tommy and Craig eye up a Jaguar on a debtor's driveway.

Are you telling me you can pay this in full?

If you're not telling me that,

then I will clamp the vehicle and look to remove it.

And the sheriffs take control of goods at a Coventry mechanics.

It's getting near the endgame now,

so they need to either pay up or lose the gear. Simple as.

In Kent, enforcement agents Lawrence Grix and Kev McNally

are on the road. They have got a High Court writ

to collect a debt owed by a car dealer.

Right, today we're in Sittingbourne.

We're going to West Car Sales.

We're looking for £1,452.

I presume the debt is relating to the sale of a second-hand vehicle.

The claimant in the case is Kieron Kelly.

He first came across West Car Sales when he was looking for

a cheap second-hand car and checked out the stock

at a few of his local dealers.

I saw a car that was appealing to me, it was within my price range.

The car was a Renault Megane.

It was black, it was a five-door car.

We have four grandchildren,

so of course, from time to time we pick the children up from school.

So what we needed was a car that would be able to accommodate

both myself and my partner and the grandkids.

Kieron went to the dealers and met the salesman there, a Mr Jeff Lee.

He was quite an amenable chap, he was quite friendly,

he seemed quite trustworthy, so I took the car out on a test drive

for about ten minutes or so and then brought it back.

It wasn't great, but, at the end of the day, for £850, you know,

you are not going to get a great, great car.

But it seemed to be good value for money.

Kieron may not have been looking for a top-of-the-range car,

but there was one thing he was adamant about.

He didn't want anything that had previously been in an accident

-or written off.

-I had had a bad experience with a previous car,

so I asked the dealer specifically,

"Was the car that I was buying subject to a write-off?"

He just quite simply said no.

So Kieron bought it and drove it happily for several months,

until one day he scraped the front of the car

on the curb while parking

and was surprised by the amount of damage it caused.

The whole front end, ie the whole bumper,

was detached and it was hanging.

When Kieron got home he called the AA,

and when they took a look they found

clues that the car had in fact been in a previous accident after all.

They knocked the door and said,

"Look, I think you need to get your logbook."

So I came back into my home,

got the logbook and clearly on the logbook

it had stated that the car was subject to a write-off.

I was stunned, absolutely stunned.

Stunned, shocked, angry, annoyed.

The obvious thing to do was get in touch with West Car Sales.

I rang on four or five occasions,

couldn't get a response, so I decided

to ping him an e-mail to let him know

of my concerns and that it had been mis-sold to myself.

And therefore I wanted to reject the vehicle and seek a full refund.

For some weeks Kieron chased for a refund, but it wasn't forthcoming.

The car, meanwhile, was marooned on the driveway,

where it still remains.

Having been told that this car was potentially dangerous,

I didn't drive the car any more.

I was looking for a job, so when I was going for interviews,

I was hiring a vehicle.

Could I afford it? The answer is no.

And after still getting nowhere with West Car Sales,

Kieron took the company to court.

On the day of the hearing, he was feeling upbeat.

I supplied 15-19 pages' worth of correspondence,

together with text messages and all the communication.

So I was extremely confident of the outcome.

No concerns.

But just moments before the hearing, Mr Lee arrived,

wanting to make a deal to pay Kieron back in instalments.

Kieron accepted, and the agreement was rubber-stamped by the judge.

His first payment was due to myself of £100 on the 1st of December.

He failed to pay it, and he said he had family issues.

So I decided to extend that for a week to give him a bit of grace,

and, lo and behold, he failed again.

Kieron has now had enough of being messed about and has transferred

his case up to the High Court.

Having seen the programme on the TV

it makes me feel that they can achieve something

that clearly I can't,

and I'm just really hopeful that they get the outcome I need.

Lawrence and Kev are about to arrive at West Car Sales

and, ever the optimist, Kev is hopeful of getting Mr Kelly's money.

I've had a look at the site online while I was doing my research,

and there's quite a few cars on the front here, cars and vans.

So hopefully they'll be owned by our debtor company

and we'll be able to get this debt paid.

And as they pull into the garage, it seems Kev's research was spot on.

There are a lot of vehicles here.

It goes a way back, doesn't it?

And before they even manage to park,

a man pulls up alongside wanting to know why the sheriffs are here.

-West Car Sales, we're here for.

-Yeah.

It is you, is it?

-It's you we're dealing with, is it?

-Yeah.

Do you want to park yourself up and we'll hop out?

It's the man who sold Kieron his car,

and it seems he doesn't dispute he owes the money.

In fact, he says he wants to pay.

The problem is, you've got assets.

We're not ordered out to collect your money,

we're ordered by the writ to take control of your goods.

All you can do is pay in full, because you've got the stock.

Although Mr Lee admits he sold Mr Kelly a car,

he's now saying he sold it under his own name,

not the garage's, where he's just an employee.

But that's not what it says on Mr Kelly's receipt -

nor on Lawrence's writ.

West Car Sales have got all the cars that are here?

Unfortunately, that's who we're here for.

It's their name on the writ,

so any of these cars that belong to West Car Sales are likely to go

to clear the debt.

At the moment it stands at £1,452.

You know, one of these cars would cover it.

The owner of West Car Sales is away, is he?

Mr Lee might not want his employer's cars to be taken,

but the sheriffs can't just ignore the paperwork from the courts.

Fair play to you for sticking your hands up and saying,

"Right, it should actually be me,"

but we can't deal with it as being you.

So if you want to pay it on their behalf, again, fair play to you.

No.

Because there's stock here,

and you've just admitted that the stock belongs to West Car Sales.

We can give you a little bit of time to try and cobble the money together.

You can put it on a couple of cards if it helps as well.

Doesn't have to be from one.

No. You can put it on as many as you want.

While Mr Lee is cooperating,

so far he still isn't showing any indication

that he's about to come up with the money.

So Lawrence ups the ante.

If it comes to removal, there's another 1,300 quid going on it.

It's going to virtually double.

No, we don't want that. So that's what I'm saying,

I can give you a little bit of time to get this money together.

Yeah, we're not talking days.

Not talking hours, either, really.

Because obviously we're busy guys.

Lawrence's strategy works.

Mr Lee suddenly produces the company's card

and offers to make a payment.

Right, let's see if we've got a signal.

You have to know your PIN number or you can't do it.

Unless you can go do it online. Have you got online facilities here?

Mr Lee can't use the card and heads into his office,

leaving Lawrence and Kev to ponder their next move.

Yeah, it's a bit of a shame he hasn't got the PIN number to

the account here, otherwise we would have had a big part of it paid off.

So we'll just see what developments there are now.

The development is that Mr Lee immediately returns,

and this time he's brought cash.

I think he's got the full amount.

-1,000, yeah?

-All good.

Do you want to hop in the other side and count this, Kev,

while I start writing the receipt?

-What's there?

-1,500.

-1,500, yeah?

-Yeah.

Mr Lee has settled the balance in full

and he gives his side of the story.

I sold a car to a chap, it must have been about eight or nine months ago.

Chap had it for six months.

It had been involved in an accident, I wasn't aware of this.

The chap then came back and saw us,

and obviously gave us the point of view that he wanted a refund.

Wasn't in a position to do so at the time because obviously we wanted

to have the car checked.

He didn't allow us to do so, and here we are today.

Thank you.

We tried to make an arrangement with the guy

but obviously it was unaccepted.

So if you've done wrong, you've got to pay for it.

That's yours.

That went very well, really.

He was quite calm from the start.

He did inform us that it should really have been his debt

because it was a car he had on sale or return,

not a car that was owned by West Car Sales.

But it's got West Car Sales on it

and all the stock there was West Car Sales, happily for us.

There was a point where we didn't think he was going to be able to come up with the money

cos he didn't have the PIN number for the credit card he had,

but then he went off and appeared with cash.

So...happy days. Another job done.

And Lawrence isn't the only one who's pleased.

Excellent result, it's been a great day.

I've contacted the Sheriffs' Office today

and they've managed to recover all the money I was claiming.

It's a shame that I've had to go to the extremes that I've had to.

However, I'm just pleased to say it's all done, it's all dusted.

We can now just move on and enjoy the rest of our lives.

There is, however, one aspect of the court order

that's yet to be resolved.

Part of the judgment was that the car would be collected.

To date, it still hasn't been collected and I'm in a situation now

where I'm probably going to have to go back to the court

with a view to getting the removal of the vehicle.

So, you know, unfortunately that part of the story hasn't ended.

Using the county courts to try and recover money you're owed isn't difficult.

1.5 million money claims are made every year in England and Wales,

involving anything from faulty goods or poor workmanship

to unpaid invoices.

Claims can be filed by post or online for a small fee.

Both parties in the case will be asked to submit evidence

and you may have to attend a court hearing.

If you're successful, a county court judgment, or CCJ,

will be issued against the debtor.

And if they still don't pay, that's when you call the sheriffs.

Sheriffs typically enforce over 1,000 writs every year.

And while everyone is different,

enforcement agents often find diplomacy is more effective

than simply threatening to remove everything in sight.

If it's necessary to play the long game, Ken Warby is happy to do so.

He just wants his clients' money back.

We're going to visit a hotel called the Stuart Hotel in Luton.

It's a sizeable hotel, by all accounts.

The hotel has been taken to court by a linen company

over unpaid invoices.

I'd imagine it's for tablecloths and bed linen, et cetera.

Dry cleaning.

The hotel didn't defend the case in court

so a default judgment was issued against it.

But more than three months later it remains unpaid,

and now Ken needs to collect £6,276.

From the outside, the hotel does indeed seem sizeable,

and so looks promising for a payment.

I would imagined there's quite a few assets in there -

bar area, wet stock.

There's always an office, PC equipment, TVs in each room.

So, hopefully, we'll get somewhere.

Ken heads in to tell them those assets are in jeopardy

unless they can pay up.

Hello. I'd like to speak to the MD. Person in charge? If possible.

He's not available at the moment.

-Would you like to come back later on?

-Not really.

-Is he in the building?

-No, he's not. He just left.

-He will be here in one hour, probably.

-About an hour?

-Yeah.

Is there any chance you can get him on the phone? It's quite important.

The receptionist does just that,

and moments later she's back with the manager on the line.

What it's about...

You're two minutes away? Brilliant.

All right, I'll see you face to face.

Thank you. Cheers, sir.

With the manager on the way,

Ken takes the opportunity to size up the assets on show.

And after years in the trade,

he knows exactly what he's looking for.

Hotel's set out quite nice.

Good-quality dining furniture.

All proper heavy metal, chrome. Leather-backed.

They've got some good equipment down here.

It's always nice to see some assets as soon as you walk in.

True to his word, the manager arrives moments later.

Hello.

And Ken follows him into the office.

Right, sir, this is regarding a High Court judgment.

Ken is just about to explain his writ, but, refreshingly,

this time it's not necessary.

You know exactly what this is about, do you?

The manager said the hotel is under new management

and the debt was incurred by the previous owner.

As the debt in the business's name it still needs paying,

and luckily the new owners agree.

Wonderful.

Oh, I was hoping you wouldn't say that.

I was hoping you would say, "Right now".

The court order was issued months ago,

so it's Ken's job to get it paid as soon as possible.

-We could...

-What can you get me now?

That's fine. What can you pay tomorrow?

You can pay £1,000 tomorrow?

It's a bit of a letdown for Ken.

But given that they acknowledge the debt and seem to have a plan for its

repayment, he doesn't feel the need to threaten to empty the rooms

and force the hotel to close its doors.

Your total due, including charges, £6,276.

-What I need to do is I need to list the assets here.

-OK.

-Because you can't pay right now.

-Right.

So what do you have other than what I've seen in the reception area?

On the ground floor.

-60 bedrooms?

-Yeah.

Kitchen area? There's a kitchen area.

When a debtor can't pay,

sheriffs have the option of agreeing a repayment plan

and taking control of their assets.

As this is a sizeable debt, Ken's list needs to be long.

But luckily there's no shortage of items here.

Glass washer, ice machine.

Bar chiller cabinets.

His comprehensive list is also designed to make sure

the manager knows he really does mean business.

And now I'm just going to do the kitchen and then I'll do

a rough guesstimate as to how much value we've got there,

before making a decision of whether or not to go to the rooms

and maybe look for the TV sets.

But by the time he's been through the hotel's kitchen,

he's has already got page after page of assets listed.

Satisfied it's enough, he completes the paperwork.

That's £1,000 tomorrow, followed by 5,276.56 next Wednesday.

And he's on his way.

Thanks very much.

I'm sure you'll get it done.

I look forward to it. Cheers.

He hasn't been paid, but Ken's happy he's made the right call for now.

He was really nice, and it's a lovely hotel.

If I was to go in there and start unplugging things,

it would basically shut the place down.

So he's promised me £1,000 tomorrow,

and the balance is going to be paid in six days' time.

He's pretty confident of that, I'm confident that he's confident.

Everyone's happy. I am for now.

Ken's taken the man at his word,

but later he's forced to visit the business for a second time.

You've broken the controlled goods agreement.

So the reason we're here now is for full payment

or removal of goods.

It's as black and as white as that.

It's before daybreak in the Midlands, and as usual

enforcement agents Tommy Coyle and Craig Wild are already on the road.

They've got a High Court writ and are preparing to knock on

the door of another debtor - this time at a residential property.

In Luton today. Big early start.

Going to a home address of a Mr Charles Odong.

We have limited information on him,

only apart from the fact that he's actually a doctor.

Mr Odong has been taken to court by a Mr Simon Walsh

over damage to a property.

When he didn't offer a defence, judgment was offered by default.

He now owes £3,226.

The sheriffs reach Mr Odong's address at first light.

-This one here.

-This one.

And there's a welcome discovery.

Oh, 59 plate Jag.

-He's here.

-He's here.

That's his car. It might be clear of finance as well, mate.

-59 plate.

-That's seven years old, that is.

But before they get too carried away with the car,

they first try to make contact with the debtor.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

-Here we go.

-Yeah.

Their knocking has raised one of the occupants.

Hello, there. I'm trying to get in contact with Charles Odong.

I'm an enforcement agent.

It's to do with a High Court writ that I'm here to execute today.

I'm sorry, who are you?

You're his daughter?

OK. Do you want to open the door

and I can just show you some identification of who I am?

Tommy shows the woman his ID

and explains that he's here for just over £3,200.

If he can't get this sorted out by way of payment,

unfortunately we would look at removing assets.

The woman says her father can't come to the door and is in bed,

but Tommy's undeterred.

Tell him to ring me now, and I'll talk to him out here.

Or I can go in the van and talk to him, a bit more private.

Craig, meanwhile, can already sense payment in the air.

It would appear that our defendant's inside the house.

He's laid up in bed.

She's refusing access at the moment, so Tommy's giving her

some paperwork with the figure on and also Tommy's telephone number,

so if he wants to play ball he can pay it straightaway.

If he doesn't, then we're looking to take further action,

which could possibly mean removing one of the cars.

It is not long before Tommy's phone rings.

Hello, there.

It's Mr Odong.

He says he is going to try to get the money together

but he wants the sheriffs to wait for an hour

until his wife comes home.

Right, and waiting for the hour, is that to pay it in full?

Because that's what needs to happen.

We're here to execute the High Court writ which unfortunately would mean

if you can't tell me this is going to get paid

we would look at removing the vehicles off the drive,

or one of them, if it will clear the balance.

Mr Odong says he can't afford the whole amount.

If you can't pay...

Sir, there's no point talking over me

or we'll just carry on what we need to do.

If we can't get it paid in full,

which I've explained already twice now, we're here to remove assets.

So there's no point in me waiting for your partner to come back,

which you've just told me you can't pay it in full.

Now Mr Odong says he might be able to pay it all,

but needs to speak to his wife first.

Sir, sir, that's not what you just told me a moment ago.

If you're telling me...

Are you telling me you can pay this in full if we wait here?

If you're not telling me that, then I'll carry on and clamp the vehicle

and look to remove it.

Mr Odong isn't sure whether he can raise the money or not.

Well, I'm going to clamp your vehicle, sir, unfortunately.

Right, let's clamp the car.

But, moments after he ended the call, Mr Odong's daughter

comes to the door once again.

Are you all right?

Unsurprisingly, she doesn't want the car to go.

No, I appreciate that, but...

Yeah, the problem I've got...

..which I explained to him,

he can't tell me that he's going to have the full balance.

What he's telling me is to wait until he's spoke to his partner

and see what he can get.

If he tells me he's going to have the full balance in an hour

I will wait that hour.

And he will have the full balance?

What I'll do is I'll do all the checks I need to do

and I'll start doing my paperwork.

We'll wait that hour.

All right, thank you very much.

Tommy's going to give Mr Odong the benefit of the doubt.

She did say they'll have the balance. That's all I was trying to get from him.

I don't mind waiting an hour if they're telling me they're going to pay it in full.

But while they're going to hold off on calling a removal truck for the time being,

that doesn't mean they won't secure their prize asset.

Tommy gets the jaw out.

Let's see if I can get it on this back one.

The back one, I think, Tom.

OK?

While they wait it out in the van,

Craig decides to call the office for an HPI check on the Jag.

That will hopefully confirm it's not on finance

and so can be taken if needs be.

Fingers crossed. It's what every enforcement agent wants to hear -

"Clear of finance".

'Hello.'

Hi, Lawrence. Lawrence, can you do an HPI for me, please?

-'What's the reg?'

-Alpha, Juliet, five, nine.

It should come up as a Jaguar XF.

'It does indeed.'

'Blimey, it's on finance.'

'It's an insurance write-off,

'but presumably he paid to have it fixed himself.'

It's the worst news possible.

Not only is the Jaguar on a finance arrangement,

it's also been in an accident so serious that an insurance company

wrote it off before it was repaired and put back on the road.

It's an unexpected blow for the sheriffs.

Our main lever is now gone.

So, I mean, at the moment, he is...

Well, they're still apparently getting the money.

So we'll wait till the time and it's just down to use our other tactics.

Unfortunately this one ain't going to work, so.

We'll evaluate the situation in 15 minutes' time.

And play it by ear.

But half an hour later, there's no sign of Mum.

Tommy knocks on the door.

You all right?

No problem. Rough time, do you know?

She's in the car, driving.

We'll wait a bit longer. All right, thank you.

Another ten minute passes, and a car pulls up.

-That's her, isn't it?

-You reckon that's her?

That's her. Nice Toyota.

Yeah.

But Mrs Odong doesn't hang around to speak to the sheriffs

and heads inside.

While they wait for her to decide if she's ready to engage with them,

Craig spots an opportunity.

-Which one is the clamp on?

-That one.

He has now got his eye on the Toyota Mrs Odong pulled up in.

Can you do an HPI for me, please?

Though hopefully it won't come to that.

They don't look like they want to sort it out at the minute.

But Mrs Odong does soon appear behind the door

and Tommy's pretty sure she wants to pay.

We can do it on an online transfer.

I can give you some account details, if that's easiest.

At least he thinks that's what she said.

Sorry, it's very difficult to hear you.

Hang on, there's a lorry out here.

I can't hear what you're saying.

It's very difficult to hear you through the door.

ENGINE REVS

Sorry?

Part of our job, just conversing with people through locked doors.

Yeah, I've got some account details.

Do you want to take these off me? You can leave the chain on.

But Mrs Odong opts for the letterbox instead.

Oh, yeah. Here we go.

She makes the payment and Tommy soon has confirmation that £3,226

have been received.

That's brilliant. Thank you, Jackie. Bye-bye.

Yeah, that's all cleared in full.

So that's classed as a satisfied judgment now.

All right. Thank you very much.

The Jaguar may not have come good for the sheriffs but, nonetheless,

they've managed to get the outcome they wanted.

Yeah, good result. Obviously we did the early attendance this morning,

which we generally do with residential.

You could see from their actions they weren't going to talk to us initially.

We had to put the clamp on to put the pressure on, unfortunately.

And ended up with the result of the payment in full,

with the partner helping out.

Which is what we wanted.

The claimant, Mr Walsh, will now get the money he's owed.

When debtors can't pay on the spot...

I'm assuming that you haven't got £5,000?

Oh, dear.

The sheriffs won't always remove assets to get your money.

Goods go for about one-fifth of their true value at auction,

and it's often better to agree to a payment plan.

If you can come up with half of it today...

Do you reckon you can do 200 a week?

They'll make a list of assets...

Ice machine, bar chiller cabinets.

Television, PlayStation.

..and a controlled goods agreement is signed,

making it an offence for anyone else to remove them.

You sign the form, it acts as security.

The sheriffs will only return to take the goods

if the debtor fails to make payments.

I've signed him up for £1,000 a month.

Providing you stick to that, you won't hear from us again.

Ken Warby is back in Luton.

He's on his way once again to the Stuart Hotel,

which owes more than £6,000 after failing to pay a linen company.

Last time the manager told Ken he couldn't pay there and then,

and promised to do so within the week.

But the money hasn't arrived.

The original payment plan was

that he was going to pay me £1,000 the day after -

which he never did, that took about a week -

and the balance within six days.

Well, we are where we are now.

14 days later, he's only paid the £1,000.

Previously, Ken gave the manager the benefit of the doubt,

but this time Ken won't compromise.

The leverage we've got is that he's signed a controlled goods

agreement, and the list we've made is quite a large list.

If he doesn't pay, it's my intention to remove the items.

When a CGA is broken,

the sheriffs can return at any time to remove the assets -

no ifs, no buts.

So, one way or another, Ken won't be leaving empty-handed.

-Hello.

-Hello, again.

Once again, he's led into the office where, to his surprise,

the manager hands him a payment receipt.

-This is a receipt you've got for online payment.

-Yeah.

You made yesterday, for £1,000.

Right. The problem is...

When you originally signed that controlled goods agreement,

it was you that said to me, straightaway,

"I'll have the money in six days."

And £1,000 to be paid the following day.

That £1,000 took nearly a week to come to our office, OK?

You paid that late to begin with.

This was agreed 14 days ago.

So you've broken the controlled goods agreement.

So the reason we're here now is for full payment

or removal of goods.

As black and as white as that.

And that's not the only bad news for the manager.

The problem you've also got is that because I'm here now

to remove goods, it's gone up.

So with the £2,000 you already paid,

the amount you owe now is £5,901.09.

High Court costs. Very expensive.

But the manager says he doesn't have £5,000

and hands his phone over to Ken.

Let me stop you there. Who am I talking to?

You're his friend?

The man on the phone says the hotel is trying to come to an arrangement

with the claimant to clear the debt.

I understand that. Let me just stop you there, all right?

The last contact we had with the claimant was that he had given it

to us to deal with.

It's in our hands and, as far as he's concerned,

he wants his payment.

But the man is still hoping to do a deal

and says they can clear the debt in a couple of months.

No, it's not acceptable, sir.

No, sir. No, sir. We require payment in full now.

And unfortunately it's gone up because we're here to remove goods.

Yeah, it has gone up to the tune of £5,901,

and it'll go up a further £300,

should a van turn up here to remove goods.

With a long list of hotel assets that now technically belong to the court,

Ken wants full payment, and it's not up for negotiation.

I'm here now to remove goods now.

So rather than us waste any more time, please start making these

phone calls now to get this money to me now.

OK? I'll wait.

No, I'm not going to go away and come back again, I'm here now.

Sir, I've got a few hours,

so please start making the phone calls,

I'll wait here for the payments.

Believe me, the last thing I want to do

is start removing goods from here.

But that's exactly what will happen if he doesn't pay.

And Ken reckons the threat is working.

It's gone from two months to four hours.

So if he can get the money that quick,

I'm pretty confident we're going to get paid on this.

We'll wait around. He's going to make a few phone calls.

Ken makes himself comfortable in the dining room.

And just ten minutes later,

it seems things are moving in the right direction.

You've got three grand coming, you've got a grand in your pocket,

so you want just shy of two grand now.

-You are waiting for.

-Yeah.

-OK.

The problem is, that's not going to arrive for another few hours.

Ken has heard this man's promises before and is understandably wary.

But it does seem like the threat

of imminent removal of goods has sunk in,

and his efforts to secure the money are becoming more urgent.

What he's saying to me is he's got £1,000 in his back pocket,

which I didn't know he had when I first got in here.

He's also contacted someone that is just about to transfer

£3,000 into his account.

So, in effect, he's got around about four.

He needs another £1,900,

and he's going to get someone else to help him out,

transfer it to his account.

However, that person is not going to be able to get that sorted

for a few hours yet, so I think it's a question of waiting around.

If I leave now then the pressure's off,

so I'm going to stay around and have a coffee, I think.

But in the end Ken doesn't even get the chance to enjoy a cappuccino.

A few minutes later the manager calls him back into the office

once more to tell him he has raised the full amount.

That didn't take long, did it?

Thank you very much.

When he arrived this morning, it didn't look like the hotel

was going to be able to come up with the money today.

But Ken's tough stance has been rewarded

and he's leaving with payment in full.

It's gone from £2,000 tomorrow, and the balance in a couple of months,

to immediate payment on a debit card.

I thought I'd get paid.

I didn't quite think I'd get paid as quick as that.

Tommy and Craig are back in the van on their way to another job.

This time they're looking for a car garage

with a substantial debt to pay.

So we're in Coventry today.

A bit dark and gloomy, especially for Mr Harjinder Singh.

On the writ is Mr Singh, trading as Cross Road Garage.

A parts supplier went to court over unpaid bills.

The case wasn't defended and a default judgment was made.

The debt is now £12,007.

The sheriffs are on their way to an address

which they're assuming is the debtor's place of work.

We've got a unit number, so it's obviously a commercial premises.

So, hopefully, there'll be some assets there for us to look at

and hopefully secure.

With it being a garage, obviously there'll be tools,

compressors, ramps.

Could be a recovery vehicle, which hold a lot of value, generally.

We'll be looking for all this.

-It's just here, mate.

-Oh, there it is, Cross Road Garage.

The sheriffs pull in and survey the site.

First impression, it's a medium sort of sized garage, workshop area

with a fair few sort of mediocre cars,

apart from one quite smart one, which may be the boss's.

But we'll go and have a look now.

Happy days.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

No-one in there. Must be in there, mate. There you go.

-You all right?

-Harjinder Singh?

He's just gone to the shop.

He'll be literally a couple of minutes if you want to wait.

Fantastic. We can wait.

Moments later, Mr Singh arrives.

-Good morning, gentlemen.

-Hello, sir. Is it Harjinder Singh?

-That's me, yes.

-Enforcement agents from the Sheriff's Office.

Come on in.

I will explain everything, sir.

Mr Singh doesn't want our cameraman in his office

so we step outside while Tommy and Craig explain that they're here

to collect £12,000 the court says Mr Singh owes.

But he is not in the mood to reach into his pocket.

He says he doesn't owe any money,

and after 15 minutes trying to set him straight,

the sheriffs aren't getting anywhere.

He's got an unusual sort of take on this.

He claims not to know anything about the liability.

We've explained to him we've got two names on the order,

Cross Road Garage and him personally, trading as.

He then explained that he runs the business

but he's merely an employee.

We told him to get the owner of the business on the phone,

which just happens to be his wife.

He has made no effort to contact her.

He's also explained that he can't pay.

We're going to start listing the stuff down with a view to removing

the items, which we fully explained to him, at further cost.

So hopefully this will provoke him into getting the money together.

But it soon becomes abundantly clear

that Mr Singh isn't going to back down in a hurry.

Even the sight of Tommy and Craig listing garage equipment

for potential removal isn't prompting him to change his stance.

After nearly an hour since the sheriffs first arrived,

they're in much the same position.

He needs to get the wife on the phone,

but he's singing the same tune.

Nothing to do with him, he's just the manager of the business

and it's all in his wife's name and she should deal with it.

Yeah, it's a bit of a cat-and-mouse at the moment.

We'll look to move the van back up now -

obviously escalating this, so he knows it is happening.

While Tommy swings the van into position, ready to receive some of the assets,

Mr Singh comes out to tell us to get off the property.

Leave from here as well. OK.

Inside the garage, the sheriffs continue to list the goods,

which he says don't belong to him.

But in the meantime, Craig thinks he might have come up with another

source of assets and another potential lever to demand payment.

He thinks the car lot next door might be part of the same business.

He reckons he hasn't got any cars for sale,

but I've looked in the office and done a bit of a search in there

and I've found some car keys which could relate to the actual vehicles

behind the fence here.

So he could actually, in fact, be doing car sales.

The car lot seems to be branded as Cross Road Car Sales,

which is a different trading name.

But the telephone number is the same one as the garage.

Craig goes back to speak to Mr Singh

and when he returns, it seems they might be getting somewhere.

Mr Singh has finally called his wife.

The initial conversation was him and his wife talking.

Tommy wanted to speak to the wife directly

to make sure she's fully aware of the situation.

But eventually when Tommy did speak to the wife,

she said she wasn't going to pay it,

she was just going to come down here and have the row.

Clearly that's not what we want, so he's had another chat with his wife

who now says she's going to come down and pay it.

Craig, meanwhile, has made a phone call of his own.

Cheers, mate. Take care. Bye-bye.

At the moment we've been in contact with the office.

They're organising the removal, the contractors to come down here.

We'll wait on their phone call.

But in the meantime, if she turns up and wants to pay it

then we'll also look at doing that. But time is of the essence now.

It's getting near the endgame now.

So they need to either pay up or lose the gear.

Simple as.

A couple of minutes later, a car arrives.

Yeah, that's the wife. That's the wife.

And it seems she has indeed come with the money.

She pays £12,000, settling the debt in full.

The sheriffs unload some of the goods they'd secured in their van

while they waited for the removal lorry, and are on their way.

So, yeah, a good result there.

We got paid in full, £12,600.

It was touch-and-go the second half, but we got over the line.

We'd already got to the stage of putting items

in the back of the van.

Hydraulic jacks, trolley jacks.

It's the point we had to push it to to get them to take this seriously.

More than three months after winning in court,

the parts supplier will now receive the money they were rightfully owed.

Meanwhile, Mr Singh's wife told us she was not aware of any paperwork

from the courts in advance of the enforcement.

She says...