Episode 9 X-Ray

You're watching X-Ray. On tonight's programme: It was sold as a safe

pony. So why did teenager Katie end up in hospital? Helen paid hundreds

to a debt management firm, but debt collectors still came calling.

would you pay five pence on a Hello. This week we're on the

streets of Swansea, tackling a very sticky subject - chewing gum.

first, the Burchell family from Ebbw Vale wanted a safe pony for

their daughter. But that is definitely not what they were sold.

It's the stuff girls' dreams are made of. A pony of your very own to

love and care for. But it's a big commitment for any parent. Not only

will they cost thousands of pounds a year, but you want to be certain

that the pony your child is sitting on is safe to ride. When Ruth

Burchell decided to buy a pony for her 14-year old daughter Katie, she

thought she'd know more than most. She and her husband, Dai, train

racehorses at their yard in Ebbw Vale. Well, I've always been

brought up with them since I was a little girl. I used to ride in

shows from the age of five. Then we moved on to the racehorses and you

just learn things, you know. daughter Katie is less confident

around horses. She was badly bullied at school and Ruth hoped

that buying her a pony would help her get over her ordeal. So what

kind of pony were you looking for, for Katie? Well, it didn't matter

what colour it was or how old it was. It just had to be bomb-proof

and quiet. And by bomb-proof, I mean you could put your

grandchildren on it or your grandmother and it would look after

them just the same. Ruth knew just the man to help her in her search.

Jockey Byron Moorcroft, who was also a horse dealer. He was a

friend. He'd ridden winners on our racehorses and he'd been here lots

of times over the years. He was more like my brother than anything.

He knew exactly what situation I was in with my riding so we thought

he was quite an obvious person to go to. It wasn't long before Byron

found a pony which sounded perfect. He texted me back that he had a

very quiet club pony that had been pony clubbing and used for fun

rides. I thought, this sounds the one. And you made it clear who the

pony was for? Yes, because he asked who the pony was for. I was there

when she had the text and every time she had one I was like,

"You've got to ask more, you've got to find out about this one. It

sounds fab". This is Libby. Ruth paid Byron Moorcroft �900 for her

and Katie was thrilled. Libby looks harmless enough. But she's not. As

Katie found out the first time she rode her. Mum gave me a leg up and

as soon as I touched her back, she just went mad. It was just like a

rodeo pony on the telly. She just wouldn't give up really. There was

no let up in her bucking. There was nothing I could do to help her.

Katie needed hospital treatment for her injured arm. But it took much

longer to mend her shattered confidence. It took me a few months

to get back on and I found it really hard just going near any

horses. Realising Libby wasn't the bomb-proof pony she'd been promised,

Ruth contacted Byron and once again it seemed she could count on her

old friend. He agreed to replace her. He even sent her a photo of

the pony that he would change it for. A little chestnut pony called

Candy. He was going to come and get it. Then we had more snow, then he

was having trouble with his lorry. Three weeks later, he was still

going to come and get it. Byron then texted Katie, trying to

persuade her to get back on the dangerous pony. He was saying how

his cousin had been riding it, how it had done show jumping

competitions and how it had won. When I told him that I just

couldn't do it, he just wouldn't take no as an answer really.

may not realise it, but when you buy a horse from a dealer you're

protected by the Sale of Goods Act and your rights are the same as

when you buy something in a shop. Ruth demanded her money back from

Byron because the pony wasn't fit for purpose. But Byron insisted

there was nothing wrong with Libby. Desperate to sort the problem out,

she even got some expert advice. Two independent experts agreed that

Libby was so nervous, she'd be dangerous and completely unsuitable

for a novice rider like Katie. Left with a dangerous pony and �900 out

of pocket, Ruth felt like she had no other option but to take her old

friend to the county court. The judge agreed with Ruth. He ordered

Byron Moorcroft to pay her more than �1,000. But almost nine months

after buying Libby, Ruth hasn't seen a penny. And shockingly, it

seems Byron's still at it, selling horses through a Facebook page

called Bridgend Equine. It hasn't only hurt me physically but it's

hurt my mum and my dad and I don't think we'll ever trust anyone the

same where a horse is concerned. They've been battling for nine

months to sort this out, but at last, there is some news. After we

contacted Byron Moorcroft, he has finally apologised to the Burchell

family. He's also collected the pony from them, and paid them back.

About time too! Now, if you were watching last week, you'll remember

the heartbreaking story of the Killen family from Swansea, who'd

been ripped off by one of the most heartless scammers we've come

across. Serena and Andy Killen have five children. Money is tight and

that means they've never had a family holiday. They looked on

Gumtree and found a bargain caravan break for �210. But the ad was a

fake and this woman, Jessica Scutt, stole their money. Now, since last

week's programme, we've heard from three more victims who say Jessica

Scutt ripped them off too. We've put them in touch with the police,

who are already investigating. But it's not all doom and gloom. Serena

is here now. Well, it seems our amazingly kind viewers really felt

for you and they've sent us loads of e-mails, offering you eight

different free caravan holidays at various locations like Porthcawl,

Kidwelly, Barry, Tenby and Caernarfon. It's so heart-warming

to know people are thinking of others, trying to help. I want to

thank people for their generosity and kindness. We even had an e-mail

from a viewer in Germany and from people offering some spending money

too! I just can't believe it, I really can't. Hopefully, we might

be able to give the children the holiday they deserve. Well,

wherever you decide to go as a family, have a fantastic time.

Thank you. Still to come tonight: The online vehicle scams with a

suspicious Scottish connection. would you pay more for chewing gum

if it meant cleaner streets? Remember, if you want our help to

sort out a problem, you can give us a call on 03703 334 334.Or send us

an e-mail. Make sure you give us a daytime phone number. And if you

want to comment on tonight's show, join us on Twitter. Next, Rachel's

in Newport, finding out why one woman's debts just aren't going

down. It's a visit we'd all dread, but Helen and Les Clilfford were

especially shocked to get a knock on their door. I was mad. I thought,

why is a debt collector coming to my door when we we're paying them?

Helen Clifford has chronic health problems. She and husband Les

survive on a very low income. But in recent years, they've been

determined to pay off debts they built up a decade ago. 10 years ago,

they hoped for a fresh start on this Newport estate, but their

efforts to set up home stretched their finances to the limit.

Furnishing that home cost more than they expected and before long they

were borrowing more to pay back their loans. You've still got your

house to run, you've still got to get your electric and you've got

your rent to pay and in the end, that's why we didn't have any money.

I had to borrow it. Then you're paying that back and you're just in

one big circle all the time. With almost �11,000 of debt hanging over

them, four years ago, a desperate Helen turned to the Citizens Advice

Bureau. They recommended something called a debt management plan. So

this is how they usually work. Every month, you make one payment

to a management company. They then divide that up and pass it on to

whoever you owe money to. Most debt management companies charge a fee

but Helen was advised to join a free scheme. Well, it was going

really well, you know. Debts was being paid. It was as if I was

worry free. No more trouble paying the money and they were paying them.

In just three years, the free service helped the Cliffords cut

their debts by $7,000. They now owed just �3,600. The Cliffords

hoped they were finally on the right track to becoming debt free.

But then, out of the blue, came an offer that they thought they just

couldn't miss. In August last year, Helen was cold-called by a company

called One Debt Solution. They phoned up and then just promised me

the world. He said to me he could cut my debts in half. And it just

sounded good at the time, you know what I mean? Convinced they'd ease

her money worries, Helen admits she signed up without reading the

paperwork. Helen started paying the company �100 a month and assumed

that, just like on her old plan, all that money was going to paying

the debt. I'd say the first two months it was OK, but then we

started having letters off the creditors telling us that we

weren't paying them. I thought it was just because we'd gone to a

different company, and they had to sort out paying them. I didn't

think anything of it at first. Debt Solution had also promised

regular updates to show how they were sorting out Helen's debts, but

she says she heard nothing. The company insists they sent Helen two

updates, but she disagrees. never heard nothing off them. They

never contacted us with anything. Then in March, six months after

signing up with One Debt Solution, the Cliffords got a very unwelcome

knock at the door. A debt collector, sent by a store card company, said

she was there to recover money because they'd had no payments

toward the debt. I was mad. I thought, why is a debt collector

coming when we're with debt management people? That's when I

went and phoned One Debt Solution to find out what was going on and

why there was a debt collector at the door. What was happening? Where

was the money then? One Debt Solution admit they had kept all of

Helen's cash. They say they were still trying to challenge her debts

and they can't stop debt collectors calling. The whole experience has

left Helen confused and we had another shock for her. These are

your terms and conditions here. I didn't even read them. There are

quite a lot of fees here. So did they mention any of that to you?

nothing. We're talking about a �500 fee. I don't know quite what that

is for. Then we've got an administration fee there. 15% of

the payments that you make to your creditors has just gone straight

away. 25% there if they get any money back for you and then �75

documentation fee. I knew nothing at all about that. Nothing. He

hadn't explained about paying him money, nothing at all. My debt was

never going to get paid with that was it, because if that's all I was

going to do every month was to pay �100, it's to pay that. And Helen's

not alone. We found other customers online angry at no updates and

unpaid creditors taking action against them. Bitterly disappointed,

Helen pinned her hopes on getting back the hundreds of pounds she'd

paid to One Debt Solution. She phoned to complain and says they

promised a refund within a month. But after hearing nothing, she rang

back and got a very different response. So I phoned them and said

to them, where's the money you owe me? And they said to me that I'm

not entitled to none. The Cliffords are now back with their free debt

management plan. But they're furious that One Debt Solution

still has their money, which could be helping to pay off their debt.

If I'd known what they were going to do, I never would have gone with

them. I wish I'd kept my head screwed on like it usually is. I

wouldn't recommend them to anybody at all. Well, at last, there's some

good news for Helen. Since we contacted them, One Debt Solution

gave back all her money. More than �500. They deny promising to wipe

out half her debts but admit that none of the money she gave them

went to paying off what she owed because they were 'challenging' her

debts, which takes a long time. Next, Lucy's On The Case.

A holiday should live long in the memory. But for Rosemary Cole, the

threat of being stranded abroad made a recent trip memorable for

all the wrong reasons. I thought my flight had been paid for but when I

wanted to come back home I had to pay again. Please help me, Lucy.

I'm on the case. Rosemary was looking forward to her trip to

Spain in May. But a mix-up with her flights has left her seriously out

of pocket. Hi, Lucy. Come on in. Rosemary, I want to hear all about

this holiday. You've been having a problem? Do you try and go away?

often as possible. I save my pension up for my holidays. My

husband pays the bills. Perfect. Back in February, Rosemary booked a

ten-day trip to Barcelona through holiday company Travel Republic.

Her flights were with the airline Vueling. What appealed to you about

flying with Vueling? First of all, they were advertised as just �39 a

flight one way, which was excellent. And they were Cardiff as well, so

it was just an hour away. Rosemary was looking forward to her latest

adventure. But in April, Travel Republic told her that Vueling had

cancelled her return flight on May 19th and she'd now be coming back

on the 22nd instead. Rosemary had a great holiday but when she arrived

at Barcelona airport to fly home, there was more bad news. I went to

the check-in desk and she said you've missed your flight by three

days. We had you down to fly back on May 19th. What did you think

when they said that to you? I said, I've got it in black and white. The

ticket says the 22nd. I'm sorry, she said, you're not on our list

and you've missed your flight so either you pay for a return flight

or you don't get on the plane. And she turned her back. I felt

abandoned. Rosemary forked out �180 for a flight to Cardiff but hasn't

any joy getting her money back from Travel Republic or Vueling. They

were just passing it back and forth for five months and I still don't

know who caused the problem. What would you like me to do? I'd just

like you to get my money back for the flight, because I can't do it

myself. It's impossible. I'm on the case. Thanks. Right, well, it seems

there's been a serious mix-up here. Vueling are blaming a computer

glitch. It seems the original flight was cancelled but was later

reinstated. The trouble is, no one told Rosemary. She certainly wasn't

at fault and shouldn't have had to pay again to get home. And it seems

Vueling agrees. They've now offered to refund Rosemary �380. That's the

cost of the flight plus �200 compensation. And there's even more

good news because Travel Republic have offered Rosemary a �250 hotel

voucher for her next booking. Thanks for getting my money back. I

think I'll book another holiday now. And that's another case closed. The

refunds are certainly mounting up this week! Now, are you a chewing

gum chomper? If so, you may have to fork out more for your habit in

future to help tackle this. Minty, flavoured or even teeth whitening.

Wales is a nation of chewers. We get through 46 million packets of

gum every year. Trouble is, lots of it ends up on the floor. But one

Assembly member in Wales, Darran Millar, has come up with a cunning

plan. He wants gum chewers to pay an extra five pence on every packet

of chewing gum in Wales. If it became law, councils would use cash

collected by shopkeepers for street cleaning, education and to crack

down on gum droppers. But Swansea newsagent Simon Cogger is not

convinced I think it's definitely going to be an inconvenience and

hopefully a better scheme could be thought of, whether it's charged at

source or taxed at source so when we buy product, it would be a lot

So, a five pence charge on a packet of gum. How popular is that going

to be? If it's going to help stop it, they've done it with carrier

bags, yeah. I don't mind paying that because I've done it and I

feel bad. Disgusting, should be like Singapore, is it? They don't

allow it. It sticks to your shoes, not very nice to look at. Have you

ever spat it on floor? Yeah. What do you think of 5p? Good, maybe it

will stop me doing it! I don't think you'll be able to stop it,

they should fine you on the spot. The person with the tough job of

gum busting in this part of Swansea is Andrew Peters. Sorry to

interrupt you. So this is the machine. How does it work?

blitzer. It blasts steam and turns it into dirty water. Is this a

massive problem in Swansea? I think it's a massive problem everywhere,

we've been doing it for a year. A million pieces. We did this area

ten months ago and we're back here again. So what do you think about

the 5p charge, will it deter people? I think it'll be a good

start if used for cleaning and education. It'll be an excellent

start, yeah. Andrew, thanks very much. I'll let you get back to work.

What do you think about a 5p charge on a packet of chewing gum? Sent us

a Tweet and let us know. Next - if you're thinking of buying a car or

a van online, we've uncovered a scam that you really need to know

about. Finding the perfect set of wheels can be tricky, especially

when you're looking for something a bit special. Take a campervan like

this. They're in demand and they're not cheap. But if you're buying one

online, look out because you could end up paying a criminal and

Matthew Palmer from Cosheston in Pembrokeshire had always admired

his friend Simon's campervan, which he has let me borrow today. But

Matthew wants one of his own to travel around Britain with

girlfriend Sarah. This is a fantastic van. Sadly, not yours,

it's your friend's. But is it one like this you were after? Sarah had

her heart set on the older version so being the good partner I am, we

went straight for the older one. This just popped up on Autotrader,

basically an old 1978 Devon Moonraker in excellent condition.

How much was it selling for? �3,400. I had big plans for it. I was going

to drive to the beach at sunset and ask Sarah to marry me in the

campervan. The advert said the campervan was in South Wales. But

when Matthew tried to view it, the story changed. It turned out she

was on an army base in Dundee in Scotland, which made it very hard

for me to go up and have a look at the van. I suppose I used my heart

not my head and we just went for it. The seller sent Matthew a link to

Google Checkout, a secure payment site. It looked genuine so he paid

the money upfront, not realising that that the payment site and the

advert were both fake. Everything seemed fine until the day the van

didn't turn up on the doorstep. I pretty much broke down in tears

really because Sarah was so upset. Looking back, there were signs that

this was a scam. The price was way below its real value. The location

was too far away to visit. Scotland seems to be the scammer's favourite.

And the photos and description were copied from another online advert.

Five miles down the road and just days later, Peter Bradley-Watson

was hunting for a campervan, too. In the past two holidays in a

campervan, both times we hired so we decided to buy a campervan. We

looked on eBay but had a pop up ad from Autotrader for one in South

Wales, relatively close. Sounding familiar? It was a different van to

the one Matthew saw. But the price was almost identical and this one

was in Scotland, too. She was in the army and she'd been moved near

Dundee, a place called Barry Budden Camp and the campervan was there,

too, in Scotland. That's 500 miles away from Pembrokeshire but the

helpful seller promised free delivery. Like Matthew, Peter

thought the advert and payment site looked genuine. But they weren't

and his campervan never arrived. I've been very naive and in places

quite stupid but only in retrospect do you see the mistakes. Spelling

mistakes and strange grammar. No phone number, just an email address.

And scammers often want to be paid through a link they send you so

they can pocket the cash. These two cases happened within a week of

each other but I want to know how often this is happening. We set out

to find the scammers. I've been looking on websites like eBay,

Gumtree and Autotrader and I've found loads of campervans for sale.

And some are really cheap. Like this one on Gumtree. A rare 1961

model for just �4,100. It sounds too good to be true. And sure

enough, when you copy the description into a search engine,

it takes you to the genuine advert. The photos on this site are the

same but the price certainly isn't. This one is almost �18,000, more

than four times higher than the one on Gumtree. It's the scammer's

classic trick - copying a legitimate advert and offering the

same vehicle for a bargain price to lure people in. So I ask to view

the cheap van, which is apparently in Cambridge. And I soon get a

reply. And surprise, surprise, the seller is telling me she has moved

to Scotland! I can still buy the van using something called eBay

Buyer Protection. But that's not a payment method and the website

address is fake. I think I'll give it a miss. And it's not only

campervan criminals who claim to live in Scotland, as Arwyn Isaac

from Ceredigion discovered. I work on a caravan park. I do all the

maintenance on this park and I've got a bit of spare time in between

and I thought I'd buy a mini-digger for a bit of extra income. I

spotted one on eBay and I bought it. How much? It was �5,500, sounded

good value, good price. The mini- digger was, you've guessed it, in

Scotland. Arwyn wanted to pay cash on delivery but the seller said no

and sent him a link to pay via eBay. Or so he thought. It was supposed

to be delivered on Tuesday but nothing turned up, so I contacted

eBay. They said I didn't buy it through them. The website logo and

wording were just like the real thing. But Arwyn didn't spot the

dodgy address, a mistake which cost him his life savings. How did you

feel about being the victim of a scam of this kind? I've heard a lot

about it but I never thought I'd be one of them. But I am one of them

now. Matthew, Peter and Arwyn all asked their banks to stop the

payments. But it was too late. And because they'd paid by bank

transfer, they couldn't get their money back. Online criminals are

often based abroad. The police say they are pursuing leads in the UK

for these cases, but warn there is little chance of recovering the

money. So if you're buying online, keep an eye out for scammers and

make sure you are always the one in Don't get caught out. That's it for

this week. Remember, if you've got a story you want us to investigate,

we want to hear from you. Give us a call on 03703 334 334. Or email