Episode 3 X-Ray

I'm Rhodri Owen. And I'm Lucy Owen.

You're watching X-Ray. We go undercover to investigate the

insulation schemes which can make your house damp.

We confront this car dealer about the condition of his courtesy car.

And remember the witch who does up churches for a living? We track him

down. Are you the kind of all witches?

No, never heard of that name in my Hello, tonight we're in Porthcawl

where we'd planned to celebrate the Welsh summer.

Yes - no chance of that. But we are going to celebrate some local

heroes who help keep the coast around here clear of litter.

More on that later, but first, you've been telling us about

problems with cavity wall insulation for years.

Yes - more than one hundred of you have been in touch complaining of

damp after getting it put in your At this time of year, you're

probably not thinking about keeping your home warm this winter. But

cavity wall insulation companies are busier than ever, signing

people up before the generous grant Cavity Wall Insulation means

putting a insulating material in the gap between the walls of your

home. It usually works well - but in some homes it is completely

unsuitable. But some companies are still trying

very hard to sell it to you! In the last three years, dozens of

you have complained to us about damp, mould and rot after

insulation was put in. Homes in this Llandeilo street were

damaged. It was fine in the beginning. Every

time I was hoovering, plaster falling off.

In Cwmbran, the fibre insulation in this house in became saturated.

They asked me to put my hand into one of the holes and I could

squeeze water out. Expert surveyor Tim Davies has been

shocked by damage he's seen - which he thinks could have been prevented

if cavity wall insulation companies did thorough surveys.

I honestly think they don't want to find problems, they want to sign

people up and do the work and get the money.

So what makes a house unsuitable? Rubble in the cavities, cracks or

existing damp. And location is crucial too.

The problem is, Wales is very exposed. So if you live near the

coast or on top of a hill, insulating your house could allow

water to cross the cavity and cause damp. This is the kind of place we

mean. Houses behind this cliff here in Rhoose in the Vale of Glamorgan

will get battered by wind and rain. Not ideal candidates for cavity

wall insulation. Tim's been looking at one of the houses here.

Hi Tim, looks like a lovely house, why don't you think its suitable

for cavity wall insulation? Very porous brickwork and in such

an exposed location, affected by weather.

So what do you think would happen if cavity wall insulation was put

in here? Well there's mortar in cavity,

mortar on, I'd say in 6 to 12 months it's going to be very very

damp. But would the insulation companies

still recommend that we sign up. We contacted the companies we'd had

most complaints about - some of the biggest firms operating in Wales.

Hi, I wanted to arrange a survey for cavity wall insulation, please.

Then we set up secret cameras in the house. Will the surveyors spot

the problems? Or would they only see pound signs?

Hi, how's things? Good thanks - how are you?

And we'll find out exactly what they had to say later in the

programme. Now, over the last few weeks lots

of you have been in touch about litter after we featured one

concil's zero-tolerance approach. We've also been hearing about the

unsung heroes who keep our communities tidy. There are at

least 12,000 litter picking groups in Wales. Along this particular bit

of coast there are lots of litter picking events. Today we're with

Porthcawl is the Lions. Good to see you all. David, this is a big

problem around here. Well, it has been a big problem but

not so bad now because we regularly pick up the stuff.

So what sort of things do you find? One of the things you find is the

barbeque stuff. Leave it on the beach and sometimes they smash it

up. That causes us major problems. Well, you're all doing a cracking

job. And you've all a lot of work to do today so we'll catch up with

you to see how it's gone. OK, in the meantime, Rachel's been

meeting one teacher who thought she'd bought her dream car from a

garage in Neath. It didn't work out When I passed my test, when I was

17, my first car was a Mini, a little red Mini, I absolutely loved

So, in January, when the supply teacher from Pontypridd needed a

car to get her to work, she knew what she wanted.

I started looking on the internet to see what was out there. I was

looking for something with low mileage, a Mini One, which would be

more reasonable to run. Natalie's internet search led her

here, to Cars2Go in Neath. They had a second-hand Mini for sale that

looked to be just what she was after.

I loved the colour. It was like an electric blue. That was one of the

colours I'd been looking at. One of the main selling points was that it

had low mileage but also it was advertised with full service

history. It sounded ideal, so Nathalie

wasted no time in heading to Cars2Go for a test drive.

It was a nice car to drive, I did notice there was a banging noise

coming from underneath. I'm not sure if I can hear

something rattling. When my father checked it over for

me he said the exhaust was rusted and rattling basically,

I'm happy to work on that with you. Even though they denied that there

was anything wrong with the exhaust they knocked some money off to

cover the cost of replacement. With the discount I paid �4,750 in total.

Nathalie handed over a deposit of �100. She'd pay the balance and

collect the car a few days later. 07.35 So Nathalie took her dream

car home and everything was great, right?

No, it wasn't! Nathalie was about to experience

months of disappointment...and false promises.

It turned out the exahust was not the causing the rattling noise.

Nathalie says an official Mini garage diagnosed a problem with the

gearbox, which would cost �1,500 to fix.

Nathalie hoped the gearbox would be covered by Cars2Go's warranty.

After all, their website promises... Quality Cars! Friendly Service!

Warranties on all cars! Nathalie says that when she tried

to contact Cars2Go, they hung up on her - not exactly the "friendly

service" she expected. But they eventually they agreed to carry out

the work - and the Mini went in to be fixed. And they gave her a

courtesy car, which Natalie neeeded to get to work.

It looked like the oldest one they had on their forecourt, it was an

old Vauxhall Omega automatic, they pulled it out in front of the

portacabin and when we started it up a big puff of black smoke came

out of the back and we thought, "Oh dear!"

To make matters worse, the car didn't have a tax disc, which meant

it wasn't even legal to drive on the roads.

I did ask him about that and he said I can assure you it's the only

car that we have that is taxed, and we just haven't had the disc back

yet. Reassured by their promises,

Nathalie took the Omega home, but when it continued juddering and

spluttering, she decided she couldn't carry on driving it. She

chased Cars2Go for an update on her Mini, but says they couldn't tell

her when it would be repaired. But, they did offer another replacement

car. She'd paid for a glamorous Mini.

The car that they offered as a replacement was - a Vauxhall Astra.

And not just any Astra. When the car was delivered, Natalie was

concerned by the condition of the tyres, one of which was bulging.

The central locking and heating weren't working. This was no

substitute for the Mini so she demanded a refund. But she wasn't

getting anywhere. Cars2Go weren't returning her calls.

She wanted them to repair her run- around, instead they were giving

her the run-around. They'd supplied her with an untaxed courtesy car

and an unroadworthy replacement and not even her solicitors could get a

response from them. Nathalie was at her wit's end.

I've lost numerous days of supply work where I just haven't had a

vehicle to get to work. When X-Ray rang the company, our

researcher was greeted with some very bad language. But the day

after they got our letter they did give Natalie all her money back.

But they've never explained what happend to her Mini, or why the

other cars they gave her had no tax disc or bulging tyres. I've come to

ask them. We're actually from BBC Wales from

the X-Ray programme. We wrote to your company to ask you about

Natalie Amphlett's Mini. What happened to it, you're happy to

talk? Come by here.

What happened to Nathalie's Mini? Basically when she bought the car

there was a rattle, she said it was the exhaust so she had it done. Two

months later she rung back and said it was the gearbox, so we took it

to our gearbox specialist, they got back to us saying it's nothing

wrong with the gearbox - they even put new bearings in it and

everything. Got the car back, there was nothing wrong with the gearbox,

got the car now it drives fine. Why didn't you give her car back?

She wanted money back, when she asked for it she had it within 3-4

days. I think you're getting fuzzy about

the facts here. You provided her with a Vauxhall Omega, you remember

that? That car was untaxed. It was taxed when she had it.

You told her that tax disc was in the post, the Omega was untaxed.

She only had it four days. Was there a tax disc on it, when

you provided the first car? No, there was not one showing but

the car was taxed. So what about the state of the

tyres on the Astra? None of them were illegal, it's

been for an MOT after as well and it's passed an MOT. I don't see

what the big problem is either, she had her money back, done everything

she wanted me to do, so there's nothing I can do.

Well, the good news that we got Natalie her �4,750 back.

Yes, and if there's something you need our help with with give us a

call on our usual number, 03703 334 334, and we'll see what we can do.

Or drop us a line - our email address is [email protected]. But we

won't get very far if you don't include your daytime phone number!

Yes, we need those numbers. And you can also follow us on twitter and

Boatbuilders and rugby fans Dave Jones and Dave Herbert had a

flutter on the six nations earlier this year. But it seemed the odds

Hi, Lucy. William Hill took our �20 bet on the rugby and now they're

refusing to pay up, can you please help us?

The two colleagues placed the same �20 bet on Wales scooping the

Triple Crown and the Grand Slam at William Hill. Two other friends

placed the same bet and collected their winnings, but the two Daves

Hello, both. The Daves both used to be in the

Forces. They've been friends since playing youth rugby for Carnarvon.

Now they work together at Holyhead Boat Yard.

So why did you decide to place a bet on this year's six nations?

Our colleague who originally placed the bet he told us about the odds

that he got, and the way that Wales were performing in the world cup, I

thought for sure it's going to be a grand slam again.

The Daves placed �20 double bets on Wales winning both the Grand Slam

and the Tripple Crown. OK, so you placed a bet for Wales

to win the Triple Crown, odds of 11/2.

You placed a �20 bet for a double win. So winning the Triple Crown at

those odds, it would have been �110 plus your original �20 punt which

would have meant �130. Then it was a double bet, wasn't it? For them

to win the Grand Slam. The odds of that were 8 to 1.

Are you keeping up with all of this? That would be �130 times

eight plus your original stake of �130 which meant a grand total of

�1,170. That's not a bad little win, is it?

Ecstatic, the grand slam is big enough by itself, when you win that

amount of money as well, it's three week's wages straight in your hand.

The next day, their two workmates picked up their winnings but when

Dave Herbert tried he was told the bet was void.

We just couldn't understand how they could justify it being a void

bet after honouring two bets. My heart just hit rock bottom.

The reason William Hill refused to pay out is because the bet is

what's known as a related bet - in this case Wales could only win the

Grand Slam if they'd already won the Triple Crown. So the bookies

should never have combined the odds. The Daves have had an appeal

against the ruling dismissed but they're still not happy.

So what would you like me to do? We'd like you to square this up, to

be honest. Make the bookkeeper see that if they have honoured the bet

it's only fair that everyone should be paid. If they pay one, they

should pay them all. Dave, Dave, I'm on the case.

Right, I've been having a look into this and it turns out that just

five years ago, a bet was little more than a gentleman's agreement.

In 2007, the Gambling Act came into force and bets became legally

enforceable contracts. But any contract you make with a book maker

will come with terms and conditions attached and you should always read

these before handing over your money. On this occasion, William

Hill admits that it made a mistake and the bet should never have been

accepted in the first place. However as a gesture of goodwill

they've agreed to pay out on the two bets. A grand total of �2,340.

Thank you very much, Lucy, for getting us our money, and thank you

Wales - you did the job! And that's another case closed!

Another great result. That means we've had refunds totalling nearly

�7,000 this week. If you want us to look into

something, our contact details are on the screen now.

Now, earlier in the programme we spoke to David Richards from the

local Lions Club here in Porthcawl. And he and his mates have been out

litterpicking along the coast path here. What have you found?

We have lots of paper, classic, tins, bottles, or whatever people

leave on the beach, we pick up. -- Plastics. And what have you got?

The there is a child's toy, plastic bottles, quite a few things. Two

bags. Well, looks like you're donig a

fantastic job. But these guys are just one of the thousands of groups

doing this kind of thing across Wales.

And last year, they collected two thousands tonnes of litter. Let us

know what's happening where you live.

Now, earlier in the programme, we were setting up secret cameras to

investigate some of Wales's biggest insulation companies. Lets see how

they got on! Damp, mould and rot - the nasty

side effects of cavity wall insulation when it's put into

houses which just aren't suitable. Companies should spot the warning

signs during their survey, before installation. But all too often,

they don't and that can lead to big problems later on.

This house in Rhoose is right by the sea. It gets pounded by wind

and rain, the bricks are porous and there's rubble in the cavity. Bad

news, according to surveyor Tim Davies

If you introduce cavity insulation into this property, it's going to

get damp in a very short space of time and there are going to be

problems afterwards. So we set up secret cameras and

asked the companies we'd had most complaints about to survey the

house. Would they tell us it was suitable for cavity wall

insulation? First up - SIG Energy Management -

We played the footage to our expert. You say it's a breathable material.

Does that mean it won't get damp? It won't get damp, it's moisture

resistant. Is that right, what he's saying?

No, it can be susceptible to dampness

Next, SIG's surveyor drills a hole and looks into the cavity.

Hmm, it's quite messy in there, to tell you the truth. Loads of bits.

Now you've seen that, what do you reckon?

To me, I wouldn't bother. Could you get damp as well?

You'll get damp from that. He's got it bang on. This house

isn't suitable, he's said that, good call. I think that's a pretty

good assessment, Lucy, and I'd give him 7 out of 10 for that.

Not a bad score. Quite encouraging, then. Let's take a look at next

company. Next up, Domestic and General

Insulation. What do you actually put in the

cavity? What we tend to use now are the

polystyrene beads instead of the fibre. If the house is exposed the

fibre can become saturated and cause damp.

He's spot on there. As long as you're not in exposed

area, yes, you could have fibre, but to be honest, the beads are

better. Are we exposed here?

To a degree, yes. Not extremely exposed.

That's a complete understatement, isn't it? We're right on the side

of the Bristol Channel. We couldn't get more exposed than this.

So, beads are not suitable at all? Do you think this house is suitable

to have it done? Looking at it, yes. If you did want

to go ahead, I would drill one small hole in the outside wall and

I've got to scope them to look in the cavity.

He needs to look in the cavity, but really, the house is on the coast

with porous brickwork, and should be written off straight away.

Not overly impressed, Lucy. I think about 4.5 out of 10 for effort. Not

great. Next up, the Mark Group are no

strangers to X-Ray - we've had more complaints about them than about

anyone else. What do you actually fill it with?

It's called mineral wool. The usual question is will any moisture

travel across it? No, it won't, because it's completely water

repellent. You could soak it in water and it'll be bone dry.

No, that is just so misleading. Not true. When it gets wet, you wring

it out, like papier mache. It becomes like a pulp.

The Mark Group surveyor then drills a hole to inspect the cavity.

Remember, Tim found lots of rubble in there.

So that's clear, can see the wall tie in there. That's doable. Can do

that one, no problem. He says the cavity is completely

clear. Is that possible? Not from what we've seen in there.

I don't think he's looked hard enough, Lucy.

Back inside, our researcher asks again about potential problems.

There's no chance of this wool stuff making our house damp?

No, absolutely. You won't have a problem with it, guaranteed

There's bound to be damp. Then we're told about a 25 year

warranty from an orgnaisation called CIGA.

We've never had an issue with our insulation where had to call CIGA

out. So you never have problems, really?

Just never have problems with it. That is so not true. I've dealt

with many occasions where the Mark Group and CIGA have been involved

in cases where there's been damp as direct result of insulation they've

put in. So overall, what do you make of

what the Mark Group said on this property?

Very poor - a mark for the Mark Group, 2 out of 10 at best.

So plenty of room for improvement! We've looked at three companies,

but there are others, all part of a thriving industry, paid for by

energy companies and the government. We've been telling you about cavity

wall problems for three years. And we're not the only ones who are

worried. Almost 3,000 people complained to Consumer Direct last

year. The Office of Fair Trading are now investigating and we've

sent them our findings. And we'll let you know what comes

out of that inquiry. But Lucy, what do the companies say about all

this? Well, the companies don't agree

with Tim on this. They all insist that their insulation products meet

strict standards. And the industry body CIGA say that 17 houses in

that postcode area have had cavity wall insulation and they are not

aware of any complaints. So they're denying that anything is

wrong? Not quite. S.I.G. - who did best in

our investigation - say they are reviewing staff training to make

sure all their information is 100% accurate.

The second company - Domestic and General - pointed out that they

didn't finish the survey and would not have gone ahead without doing

But the third company - the Mark Group - their surveyor seemed very

keen to go ahead! He was! The Mark Group said that

problems with insulation are very rare. They said cavities often have

rubble in them and their assessor may have felt it wasn't enough to

be an issue. But that's certainly not what our surveyor Tim Davies

thought. Let's hope the Office of Fair

Trading take a good look at that footage.

Now, last week we brought you the shocking story of the self styled

witch who charged a church tens of thousands of pounds for repairs -

and then left it crumbling. Well, last week, we couldn't get

him to answer our questions. But Rachel's been having another go.

Last week on X-Ray, we left some unfinished business in Abercrave.

We told you about St David's church and a terrible building job done

there by a man called Daniel Hussey. This little piece here which is

loose, you can see that he has used what looks like copper radiator

pipe rather than a phosphor bronze dowell or peg which he has included

in his quotation. The work had cost over �35,000,

which was raised through sponsorship.It should have been the

first phase of work to build a community centre.

I'm disappointed because so many people have put so many hopes in

this project, and there were so many possibilities, and suddenly we

were set back a long way. It turned out that Daniel Hussey

was also a self styled witch who had provoked protests from

Christians in many parts of the country.

He's refused to answer our questions, but we'd now heard that

he was working on another church at Porthkerry, near Barry.

Daniel Hussey? You're not Daniel Hussey? You look like Daniel Hussey.

I think you look very much like Daniel Hussey. Who are you then, if

you're not Daniel Hussey? This is an interesting one because

we've never been in a situation where someone has locked themselves

inside a container before. He did come out a few minutes later.

So, Mr Hussey, are you going to answer any questions about the work

you did at St David's in Abercrave? Are you not going to say anything?

He was then joined by his son, who had a bit more to say.

The work was passed out by the architect. Why aren't you hassling

or naming the architect? The architect - Mike Woods of

Concept Architectural - said Daniel Hussey had come up with an

affordable solution to the church's problems. He added that he attended

site regularly and was happy with the work that was being done. He

said it was up to the church to approve the methods he used.

Radiator pipes? Tell me why that was?

They're not radiator pipes. They were radiator pipes. Our

surveyor has looked at it, an independent chartered surveyor. As

specified, it was copper phosphorous bronze pegs, I think

you'll find. Specified by the architect who signed off the work.

Just to confirm before you go - are you the king of all witches?

No, never heard of that name before in my life.

You've never claimed to be the king of all witches?

He has an identical twin brother. I have an identical twin brother.

Who's also called Daniel Hussey?! Alan Hussey.

That doesn't change the facts that the repairs on St David's are on

the floor. No. Goodbye.

So there we are. That was Daniel Hussey. We came to ask some

questions but he wasn't very keen to answer them. Let's hope he does

a better job here than he did at St David's.

I certainly hope so. And we'll be keeping tabs on that

story. I suspect we've not heard the last of it yet.

Now, that's all we've for time for this week. But if you've got a

problem you want us to investigate, get in touch. Yes - call us - 03703

334 334. The lines are open for another half hour.

And you can email us. Don't forget to include your phone number. The

address is [email protected]. Or we're on Twitter @bbcxray.

Next week, we meet a woman with alzheimers who's been sold five