Episode 18 X-Ray

Hello, I'm Lucy Owen. You are watching X-Ray.

On tonight's programme... This man sold worthless car warranties

costing hundreds of pounds. We ask him why.

How our evidence helped convict this bogus doctor. One of his

victims speaks out. And MP Nick Smith asks why private

parking companies are not better Hello. Tonight we are in Swansea.

My hometown! Later on, we will be hearing why some people around here

are very annoyed with Sainsbury's at the moment.

But first, Rachel investigates a car warranty company that has left

customers across the UK seriously out of pocket.

This is Porthcawl's Grand Pavilion, a truly historic Welsh venue which

has played host to everyone from Gerry & The Pacemakers to Katherine

Jenkins. But how rich would you have to be

to turn it into the Moulin Rouge and hold your daughter's 15th

birthday party here? About this rich.

My house is on six acres we have a hot tub with full entertainment

system. Mum, can we take the Porche?

And I also have a lot of cars. These pictures come from a cable TV

show where rich teenagers get a party to die for.

That is �1,318, please. The family here are the Panasears,

from the Vale of Glamorgan. And the cash comes from dad, Harby Panesear.

But where did the money come from? This lane in Llantwit Major used to

be the hub of his business empire. He took over a company called

Motorcare Warranties from his father-in-law, around 2004.

Then, four years ago, he set up another company, Motorcare Elite,

which operated from offices in this house.

The company sold warranties to car dealers, who then sold them on to

their customers, offering peace of mind in case the car broke down.

Andrew Rafferty from Hirwaun needed a reliable car to get to work.

It had done 80,000 miles, so the garage advised me to get one, as a

peace of mind. I took out the Motorcare warranty,

which, as the garage advised me, was probably one of the best on the

market at the time. Andrew paid the garage �200 for a

one-year warranty, but in January last year, he faced a big repair

bill. But Motorcare seemed slow to pay up.

I was �675 out of pocket. It was just after Christmas and I have two

kids. It is a dear time of the year and I was in and out of work.

The cash never arrived and, by March, Motorcare had gone out of

business. But they were just the middlemen. Andrew's policy says it

was backed by an insurance company called Alpha Insurance. Surely they

would pay out? We received a letter saying that,

when they have looked at the records, Motorcare had in fact paid

out on this claim on January 5. I can show them bank statements

showing I have not had this money. Alpha Insurance say they have

evidence other customers are in the same situation. Andrew is furious

with Harby Panesar. It makes me very angry to think I

actually work for a living and earn money and there is people like him

out there taking money from working class people who have worked for

this money. Adrian and Beverly Reynolds, from

Cwmcarn, bought their pick-up at auction, together with a �700

Motorcare Elite warranty, which would last as long as they kept the

vehicle. It seemed like money well spent

when the car did go wrong. So how much was the repair?

The repairs came to �1,260 in total. Quite a lot of money to pay out.

But I guess you were reassured because, hey-ho, you had the

warranty? Exactly.

But it was not that simple. Motorcare had gone out of business,

so they turned to the underwriters named on the warranty, Alpha

Insurance. We contacted Alpha group and they

did not seem to have any record of the policy that we had paid for.

In fact, Alpha say they have never provided insurance for life-of-

It seems Llantwit Major-based Motorcare had some other tricks up

its sleeve. We have been sent lots of Motorcare

warranties by viewers. This policy here mentions the name

of a company called Belmonte Limited. We have been in touch with

them and they say they've never had a contract with Motorcare.

When you look closely, you see the actual insurance underwriters are

London-based Marine & General Insurance Company. We cannot find

any trace of this company fills stop

While Motorcare boss Harby Panesar was issuing these policies he was

living the dream, spending a reported �20,000 on his daughter's

party. But his warranties were not such a

hot ticket. The Financial Services Authority is investigating - and

warning all custumers that their policies may be worthless.

And they say Motorcare sold warranties through more than 400

garages. There must be thousands of people who could be out of pocket.

Harby Panesar says he is unable to speak to us because of the FSA

investigation. Whilst the Motorcare money machine

has hit the buffers, the man in charge is still living in his

luxury home. He has been declared bankrupt, but does not seem to be

on the bread line. We were still keen to speak to Mr

Panesar. Can you tell us why you have been

selling worthless warranties? Sorry, I have not sold any policies.

You have. You have sold worthless warranties to your customers. What

exactly has happened to their money when you have taken it?

I am sorry, but I think you will find the garages have sold the

policies, not myself. Yes, but they were your warranties,

weren't they? No, they were were underwritten by

underwriters. Talking of underwriters, why were

you making up the names of underwriters on your policies?

Er, I haven't. You have - Belmonte.

Yes well, I have been told... Were Belmonte underwriting your

policies? It is a simple question. Yes, they were.

That is not what they told us. We actually asked them and they said

they had never underwritten any of your policies.

The documentation has been given in and that is basically it.

What have you got to say to your customers? You have basically left

them hundreds of pounds out of pocket and you are living in a

place like this. Right. And?

But you have taken their money when they cannot afford it. Don't you

think you owe them answers? Right, No, all the answers will be

given by the authorities. Have you got nothing to say to your

customer? At this point, no.

Why not? Don't you think you owe them an answer?

When the time is right, I will. You will answer questions?

When the time is right. Why not now?

Because now is not the right time. Thank you.

Not the right time, eh? Funny that... He was happy enough to

shock officer will fontina he, but no one came to answering our

questions. But if you are a former customer,

there might be some good news. You may be able to claim back any money

you have lost through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, who

say they aRE currently looking into scheme on our website, so if you

have had any problems take a look. And if you want to get in touch

with us, click on that Get in Touch button or give us a call. The lines

Now, last year a lot of you got in touch about the carrier bag charge,

especially when Tesco stopped giving out Green Clubcard points

for using your own bags. Well, this time, it is Sainsburys you are

complaining about. Maggie Tiltman who lives just down

the road in Aberafan certainly is not pleased with Sainsbury's

decision to charge a flat fee of 40p for bags with each online

delivery. It is very unfair. I always go back a carrier bags to

the delivery man. I do not need them. I know what is just 40p, but

it just seems wrong that they cannot find another system.

Not a happy lady. And it is not just Maggie who's been in touch.

Trissy Williams from Newport says Tesco have offered the option of a

bag free delivery for years and she does not understand why Sainsbury's

cannot do the same. And here in Swansea, Elaine

Williams is so annoyed that she is stopped shopping at Sainsbury's

altogether. Sainsbury's say they decided to

charge 40p because online customers use, on average, eight bags each.

And they have done it so customers know exactly how much their online

shop will cost. But they are going to look at this policy again in the

next few months. We will be watching. Now, regular

viewers will know all about the problems at The Walk car park in

Ebbw Vale. Dozens of people complained to us after getting

parking charge notices from a company called Excel Parking. The

town's MP Nick Smith even mentioned us in the House of Commons.

BBC Cymru Wales is on a story about car parking management in my

constituency. This follows a high number of customer complaints.

Mr Smith was as concerned as we were. He started looking into the

way in which private parking companies like Excel operate. We

asked him to share his findings with us.

I have been outraged by some of the stories people have told me about

what's gone on at The Walk. Councillors Mostyn Lewis and John

Rogers are up in arms, too. They say the council has received more

than 90 complaints. Nick, I can tell you story after

story and I am sure Mostyn can as well, about this sort of situation.

Disabled people have been treated disgracefully.

Mostyn's angry because Excel Parking tried to charge David

Hambley �120, because it took him too long to get a ticket from the

new machines. It is disgraceful.

While we were filming, I was shocked by how many people had

stories about their bad experiences. I am six foot and I am finding it

difficult trying to make sense of these signs here and there is a lot

of information there. The signs are not lit, which means

if it is dark or dusky, it is difficult to make sense of them.

And I am concerned about the positioning of some of the signs.

If you're reading them, you are standing in the road. There is

always the chance you could get winged by a passing car.

Since X-Ray first looked into problems at The Walk and I started

writing to the company, the landowners who have engaged Excel

got involved. There are some new signs up, but

that is not enough. I have been trying to find out how many notices

have been issued and who's making the money.

I got in touch with the company and asked them to explain that to me,

but they will not. I also understand that the owners

get money from the machines here, but the car park managers get money

from the parking charge notices. A cynic would say in their interest

for more notices to be issued. It seems they are making a tidy

profit. They are managed by a guy called

Simon Renshaw Smith. Last year, he paid himself a �100,000 bonus - on

top of a near �400,000 salary. Nice work if you can get it.

A lot of people have been asking me how Excel got hold of their contact

details to send out these parking charge notices.

In last six years, the DVLA here have given Excel details of 200,000

drivers for penalty notices for They tell me that they have to

provide registered keeper details to those with a valid reason to ask

for it. That includes parking companies, although the DVLA says

there are strict controls. So the DVLA provide this data to

Excel because they abide by the British Parking Association Code of

Practice. But the Code of Practice was in part decided by Mr Simon

Renshaw Smith, the managing director of Excel.

That is because he sits on the Approved Operators board of the BPA.

Funny that....! At the moment, people who feel they

have had an unfair parking charge from a private company like Excel

can only appeal to that firm. The British Parking Association will

not get involved, so that firm is the judge, the jury and the

executioner. But there is another way appeals

could be run and it is a model council-owned car parks have to

follow. An independent adjudicator, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal,

decides whether appeals are justified there.

I have come to meet Linda Sparks from Port Talbot. She successfully

appealed against her local council when they tried to charge her for

not paying to park in a disabled space, despite the fact she had

displayed a valid blue badge. The adjudicator accepted the point

that I made that the signs were unclear in their wording. They said

there were no concessions when there clearly were some concessions

and she accepted that these signs did not have the blue badge logo on

them in order that people would know it was relative to them.

Many of the people that have come to me are very happy to pay for

parking, absolutely compliant and want to do the right thing, been

caught out and they think unfairly treated. That is why they are cross,

that is why they are angry. We need to reduce the penalty. That way

everybody is doing the right thing - people pay to park and the

landowner gets money for people Well, Excel Parking Services insist

that they've always acted properly. But the good news is things are

about to change. The British Parking Association has just

announced they will be setting up a new appeals system. We caught up

with Patrick Troy of the BPA to find out what that will mean for

motorists? When it comes into being, what it will mean is that it will

be very similar to the way that members of public who get parking

tickets from local authorities are able to appeal now. So in simple

terms, if you get a parking ticket and you're not happy with it, you

will write to the person who's issued it to you, just as you would

to the local authority. They will consider your case and either

cancel your ticket or ask you to pay it. If they ask you to pay it

then they will tell you to whom you can go to have your case

independently considered. That scheme should come into being in

October. We'll be watching how it works. Now lots of you have also

been in touch asking why they shouldn't just rip up those parking

charge notices. We asked barrister Christopher Rees, who visited The

Walk in Ebbw Vale for us last year, what he thinks. It's not a fine,

it's a charge, which means Excel would have to take you to court if

you didn't pay. Most parking companies don't bother, but they

could if they wanted to. So it is up to the individual to decide

whether they want to take that risk. So now you know. Next, Lucy's On

Mike Thane from Cardiff thought he'd found a great deal when he

bought a second hand Peugeot. But the car has developed a major

problem that's left Mike worried My engine keeps on cutting out when

I'm driving my car and the garage can't seem to fix it. I'm on the

Mike used to run his own garage here in Cardiff, but now it's his

Hello Mike, lovely to see you. Show In March 2010, Mike decided to

trade in his old car for a new model. Is it important to you then

to have a reliable car? Yes if I've got to travel quite a lot cos I go

see my family up north. My daughter is in Nottingham. Regular visits to

see his children and grandchildren who all live far away are important

to Mike. How old are the grandchildren? Six. Mike thought

his �7,000 Peugeot would be just the job for family visits and

motorway driving. Until he had a very frightening experience. I was

within half a mile of home, and a warning light came on the dash. It

just cut out like somebody switched the engine off. There was no power

in the engine. There was cars behind me but they missed me

luckily. The car was under warranty but the garage he'd bought it from

was no longer a Peugeot dealership. They advised Mike to go to Griffin

Mill garage in Pontypridd. They put a new fuel pump on it and then a

week later it was the same. And you had quite a nasty experience didn't

you on the motorway? Yes I was up on the M6, I'd done about 160 miles

and it cut out then. It could have been dangerous then as it happened

there were no cars around. Mike took the car back to Griffin Mill

who carried on trying to diagnose the problem. But when it lost power

again on a busy road last October, he decided enough was enough.

want a car that's safe to drive and not be frightened when I go out

that it's going to cut out on me and cause an accident. OK, Mike,

I'm on the case! So what can you do if you keep taking your car to a

garage and the problem just doesn't get fixed? It can be difficult to

prove that a garage is at fault, but if a customer feels that their

problem isn't being dealt with properly they can register their

complaint with a motoring trade association. Motor Codes is

government backed and has a free- of-charge service to help deal with

disputes. But Mike had a manufacturer's warranty so he was

covered for repairs and could have reported the issues directly to

Peugeot. I've been in touch with Griffin Mill and Peugeot, and both

have offered their apologies. Griffin Mill say they wanted to

take the car in for more testing but Mr Thane refused this request.

However Peugeot have offered to take the car away to carry out

extensive tests at their main Technical Centre in Coventry.

They've also offered �580 to pay for a hire car so Mike can continue

to visit his family while the work is carried out. Thanks Lucy, the

car is now fixed. I'm driving again and now I feel safe. And that's

Mike's a happy man. He is indeed. Now, last March we brought you a

shocking investigation into a supposed therapist working in

Carmarthenshire who falsely claimed he could treat cancer. Our evidence,

and the testimonies of two new victims, led to the arrest of Reg

Gill and his wife Leila and they were finally brought to justice

right here in Swansea Crown Court. Reg Gill is not a doctor. But he

claims he can treat cancer, even though he knows that's illegal

under The Cancer Act. I've been to prison for doing it. Really? Yeah.

Well, it's illegal for me to cure you of cancer. The 77-year-old was

running an alternative clinic here in Carmarthenshire. He advertised

his bizarre treatments at health fairs, convincing sick people who'd

lost faith in conventional medicine that he could treat their illnesses.

Judith Green was one of his patients. He'd said he'd been a

medical officer in the war, he seemed to be experienced, very

knowledgeable, and I had no reason at that stage to doubt that he was

a medical doctor. In 2004, Gill was jailed for fraud, after falsely

claiming he could cure a Flintshire man of pancreatic cancer. But

prison didn't stop Reg Gill from preying on desperate people. Early

last year, we found out that he and his new wife Leila were still

claiming they could cure cancer patients at their home in the small

village of Cwmduad in Carmarthenshire. Our researcher

phoned Reg Gill with a cover story, that she feared she had cancer and

had been advised to have a biopsy. My real concern is that it is bowel

cancer. Quite easily dealt with. sent two members of our team

undercover to Gill's home where his 35-year-old wife Leila assists him

in treating patients. His penchant for younger women soon becomes

clear. I knew you'd be a pretty one. Before long, Gill is boasting about

what he can do for our researcher. Put it like this, if you let me

treat you, you'll walk away from here without cancer. I beg your

pardon? You will go out of here without the cancer. Today? Today.

Judith Green went to Reg Gill concerned about an infection.

Little did she know what would follow. He was waving his hands

around, up and down my body as though he was scanning. And he said

I was in a very bad way, he asked me to get undressed, and he would

use an IFAS machine which would be able to re-energise the body.

his treatment uses a device which the medical profession condemns as

dangerous and unproven. Reg Gill used one of these on his patients.

It's called an IFAS machine, and he claims it kills cancer cells by

releasing high frequency waves and ozone into the body through various

attachments. The machines aren't licensed to treat any illnesses.

But Reg Gill sold them to vulnerable patients for up to

$2,500 a time. Judith was devastated to be told she had

cancer. Gill then used the machine to subject her to an uncomfortable,

invasive treatment. He was the practitioner, I was the patient

with basically nowhere to turn because I've now been told I've got

cancer. Were you comfortable with what was happening? I knew he was

being inappropriate anyway but I was trying to dismiss that at the

time just to get a cure. Reg Gill persuaded Judith Green to stay the

night at his bungalow and to return for another appointment. Alarmed by

his behaviour, she reported him to the authorities. He was referring

to his own sexual experiences with women that threw themselves at him

because he'd saved their lives. I personally believe he's a sexual

predator and he disguises that, creates a smokescreen, tells people

they've got cancer when they haven't got cancer, so that can

completely shake people's worlds and creates this dependency.

April, a month after our report, another woman who can't be named

came to the Gills home in Cwmduad. She too became a victim not just of

fraud, but of sexual assault. The woman had gone to the Gills house

with a friend who wanted to buy supplements. But Reg Gill shifted

the focus to her health. Her words are spoken by an actor. Reg was

looking at me. He started moving the palm of his hand over my

midriff area and he said, you have big problems. He said you're going

to have to take your clothes off for me to have a proper look. He

started to press my lower abdomen then he moved his hand up from my

tummy and started to feel my breasts. He looked me in the eye

and said, well, my dear, I'm sorry to say but you have cancer. It was

a massive shock. In the same breath he said, don't worry I can fix that.

This machine doesn't just diagnose cancer it treats cancer. It was

like the same person had told me I'm going to die then told me I

could live. Reg Gill used the IFAS machine on the woman in an intimate

way. His wife, Leila, assisted him. He was breathing on me, much too

close, but I couldn't move away. Then he said it's all gone, he said

he'd got it. I was so relieved. next day the woman went to her GP.

Shocked at her story, he was able to confirm she did not have cancer.

She searched the internet and after seeing X-Ray's report on the Gill's,

she went to the police. Dyfed Powys Police investigated the claims made

by both women and trawled through X-Ray's damning undercover footage.

In May, officers swooped on the Gill's home to arrest them both.

Detective Constable Nicola Williams led the investigation. We conducted

searches of their home address and found machines and other items

mentioned by both victims. This isn't a case you come across every

day, its very unusual to tell someone they've got a disease in

order to sexually abuse them. The X-Ray programme helped us because

it put into pictures what was going on in the Gills household. Both

complainants had come to us and given us their versions of events

but this corroborated everything they were saying. Mr and Mrs Gill

are a danger to the public, because they are telling people not to have

conventional treatment and are also sexually abusing them. So it is a

very pleasing result. The jury at Swansea Crown Court was unanimous

in their verdict. Reg Gill was found guilty of three sexual

assaults, six assaults by penetration and two counts of fraud.

Leila Gill was convicted of one sexual assault and one count of

fraud. Reg and Leila Gill will be sentenced in the next couple of

weeks, we'll let you know what happens. That's all we've got time