:00:10. > :00:18.Had he been ripped off? We are here to fight for your rights. Spotting
:00:19. > :00:22.the latest scams and making sure you make the most of your money. They've
:00:23. > :00:27.got you over a barrel as it were and you're obliged to say yes because
:00:28. > :00:39.it's got to be done. Confronting the conmen, we are here to help you
:00:40. > :00:43.fight back. Tonight, the problem that is filling
:00:44. > :00:50.up our in tray - the cold calling firms that offer you a free green
:00:51. > :00:54.deal boiler. I haven't had anything. I still have my orignal boiler and I
:00:55. > :01:00.haven't had anything. Now we turn the tables and ring them up. You are
:01:01. > :01:06.actually qualifying for this boiler. I qualify? Yes for the boiler, you
:01:07. > :01:10.actually do qualify for the boiler. Why is Josh's love affair with this
:01:11. > :01:14.Italian sports car heading for a break up? There's a lot of noise, a
:01:15. > :01:18.lot of juddering, the smell of burning. We discover the tricks
:01:19. > :01:25.criminals are using to get your money out of the cash machine.
:01:26. > :01:28.For months we've been inundated with complaints about the green companies
:01:29. > :01:33.that claim to get you free boilers or insulation. Some of you have paid
:01:34. > :01:37.them up to ?400 and they're not going away. Rachel's been looking at
:01:38. > :01:45.the latest batch trying to take your money. They said I was coming out to
:01:46. > :01:50.the countryside to sort out the Green Deal, this isn't quite what I
:01:51. > :01:55.had in mind. The Green Deal's keeping me busy for all the wrong
:01:56. > :01:58.reasons. Within months of its launch we were getting complaints about
:01:59. > :02:06.people being ripped off by Green Deal rogues. Now, we've been
:02:07. > :02:10.inundated! It's difficult to know where to start with this lot. We've
:02:11. > :02:14.had hundreds of complaints about 19 companies who cold-call and try to
:02:15. > :02:25.persuade you that the Green Deal is right for you. Some have already
:02:26. > :02:30.featured on X-Ray. We had more than 80 calls about the now defunct Eco
:02:31. > :02:37.Green Deal Solutions. And more than 100 about Becoming Green. But what
:02:38. > :02:40.about all the rest? Dozens and dozens of calls about companies that
:02:41. > :02:46.you've told us don't deliver what they've promised. We've taken a
:02:47. > :02:53.closer look at two of the most complained about companies. First up
:02:54. > :02:55.- Swansea based Green Deal Network, run by 33-year-old Gareth Meloni,
:02:56. > :03:06.former director of a controversial PPI reclaim company. And second -
:03:07. > :03:13.Green Deal Direct, also in Swansea. It's run by this man, Mohammed
:03:14. > :03:19.Pasha. He also does PPI reclaim. So what do these companies tell their
:03:20. > :03:23.customers? I was promised a new boiler and that I wouldn't have to
:03:24. > :03:26.pay any more money. Only the one off payment. They were offering free
:03:27. > :03:32.boilers and windows with a government scheme. They asked me
:03:33. > :03:37.would I like a free boiler, which at the time my boiler had just broken
:03:38. > :03:41.down so I said yes. They all paid hundreds of pounds for assessments
:03:42. > :03:45.after getting cold calls. But did they get the full story about the
:03:46. > :03:50.Green Deal? Nobody ever mentioned the word loan. And yet when I had
:03:51. > :03:55.the paperwork back, I went through it and thought, they're not giving
:03:56. > :04:01.you anything. This is a loan which you have to pay back. They never
:04:02. > :04:04.told me it was a loan. They never mentioned no loan, no nothing. It
:04:05. > :04:08.was definitely a free government scheme. Everyone's had a survey, but
:04:09. > :04:12.what about the free boiler? I haven't had nothing. I still have my
:04:13. > :04:15.original boiler and I haven't had anything. I hadn't received anything
:04:16. > :04:21.and phoned them on many occasions but couldn't get through. And they
:04:22. > :04:28.just said, you had paid for the survey. I was definitely
:04:29. > :04:33.misinformed. The Green Deal's not a hard thing to understand. We take
:04:34. > :04:37.out a loan to pay make your home more energy efficient. We pay
:04:38. > :04:41.interest on that loan but unlike a normal loan, the repayments are
:04:42. > :04:44.added to your energy bills. Now in theory, those repayments should be
:04:45. > :04:50.covered by the savings we make on our bills. So why are so many of us
:04:51. > :04:55.failing to understand when we're cold called? Is it perhaps the cold
:04:56. > :05:05.calling companies not telling the whole story? To find out, we posed
:05:06. > :05:09.as customers. And guess what, there were lots of misleading statements.
:05:10. > :05:18.At number three - some interesting claims about how safe you'll be if
:05:19. > :05:22.you pay by debit card. We use a Visa and debit card. The reason we do
:05:23. > :05:42.this is because it protects you against any type of fraud.
:05:43. > :05:50.That's rubbish. The consumer credit act won't protect debit card
:05:51. > :05:55.payments. And just because a company can process payment cards, that
:05:56. > :05:57.doesn't mean it's legit. At number two, they say law demands we have a
:05:58. > :06:17.survey. That is so misleading. You only need
:06:18. > :06:24.a certificate like this if you sell or rent your home! But the winner
:06:25. > :06:29.is, the more energy efficient you are, the less council tax you are
:06:30. > :06:36.going to pay. They're making it up. Your council tax has nothing to do
:06:37. > :06:40.with energy efficiency! But are these just mistakes or could these
:06:41. > :06:44.companies be breaking the law? I've asked consumer law expert Huw Evans
:06:45. > :06:51.to take a look. First he hears claims about the potential savings.
:06:52. > :07:03.Your energy bills are going to be reduced as a result of this.
:07:04. > :07:08.The clip seemed to imply that because the gas boiler was more
:07:09. > :07:12.efficient, you would use less gas. That is clearly not the case. You
:07:13. > :07:21.pay for the gas you use. OK, so for the next clip.
:07:22. > :07:26.They cannot say that. That is the assessor's job. There is no
:07:27. > :07:29.guarantee until such time as the assessor says there is an
:07:30. > :07:33.entitlement. In parts of the tape they say it is subject to
:07:34. > :07:36.assessment. But at the same time they're saying that there are
:07:37. > :07:39.guarantees. There is an underlying impression and listening to it, I
:07:40. > :07:45.can see why a person might think they are entitled. But finally, can
:07:46. > :08:08.they be straight about the key financial questions?
:08:09. > :08:14.Yes, yes, yes, it is a loan. And it's repayable with interest over a
:08:15. > :08:19.period of time, it's maybe as long as 25 years. And it is also a debt
:08:20. > :08:22.on the house. Sum up then what you feel about what you have heard? I
:08:23. > :08:25.think it is unacceptable, it's mis-selling. It is not telling
:08:26. > :08:29.people the nature of the products. Are they breaking the law? On what I
:08:30. > :08:31.have heard, there are breaches of the regulations as far as misleading
:08:32. > :08:36.information is concerned. Well, we've tried to speak to both of
:08:37. > :08:39.these companies. But the Green Deal Network has refused to make any
:08:40. > :08:42.comment on the allegations or to do anything for its unhappy customers.
:08:43. > :08:46.Greeen Deal Direct, on the other hand, have promised Julie, who you
:08:47. > :08:52.saw in the film there, a full refund and they have offered Neil a ?100
:08:53. > :08:55.part refund. What do they have to say about all that inaccurate
:08:56. > :08:59.information that their call handlers gave to us? Well, apparantly if we'd
:09:00. > :09:04.been real customers we'd have spoken to a senior advisor and a quality
:09:05. > :09:09.control team. They would have given us the correct information. They say
:09:10. > :09:13.the call handler had no intention of misleading us. She was either
:09:14. > :09:17.explaining things badly or was unsure of the relevant processes.
:09:18. > :09:20.But the good news is that they have suspended their Green Deal marketing
:09:21. > :09:31.activities until staff have been retrained. And the longer that
:09:32. > :09:34.takes, the better for everyone! Now, every second, around ?6,000 is
:09:35. > :09:39.withdrawn from one of these but it's not just you that could be trying to
:09:40. > :09:49.get your money out of the hole in the wall. Last year the total cost
:09:50. > :09:57.of cash machine fraud in the UK came to nearly ?30 million. Criminals are
:09:58. > :10:00.constantly coming up with new ways to get their hands on your money as
:10:01. > :10:08.Dawn Andrew-King from Llandeilo knows only too well. In March this
:10:09. > :10:11.year, Dawn was withdrawing some cash from a machine in the town when she
:10:12. > :10:16.noticed two suspicious looking men sat in a nearby car. It was first
:10:17. > :10:22.thing in the morning and you don't normally see a lot of people around
:10:23. > :10:27.at that time. When one of the men approached Dawn, warning bells
:10:28. > :10:31.started to ring. I used the cash machine and then I turned around. He
:10:32. > :10:35.was behind me and I spoke to him, and he asked me if it was
:10:36. > :10:43.Easter-time and I said, no, it's next week, and I just thought it was
:10:44. > :10:46.very suspicious. Realising something wasn't right, Dawn wrote down the
:10:47. > :10:54.car's registration number and handed it over to the police. It turns out,
:10:55. > :11:00.the machine had been tampered with, and a device fitted into the card
:11:01. > :11:03.machine slot. It was very upsetting and quite scary really because you
:11:04. > :11:10.don't want your details brandished here, there and everywhere. I didn't
:11:11. > :11:13.know if they had taken my money, whether they had circulated my
:11:14. > :11:20.details anywhere because they can do some awful things. Dawn put a stop
:11:21. > :11:24.on her card and thanks to her tip-off, police were able to track
:11:25. > :11:30.the car - catching the culprits. Earlier this year, they both pleaded
:11:31. > :11:34.guilty to fraud and were jailed. I'm so glad I had the foresight to jot
:11:35. > :11:38.down that number plate down and not just ignore the matter - a lot of
:11:39. > :11:48.people could have been defrauded out of a lot of money.
:11:49. > :11:53.Wow, pretty scary stuff. A big well done to Dawn for her quick thinking.
:11:54. > :11:57.Tony Blake is part of a specialist police team in London dedicated to
:11:58. > :12:02.cutting cash machine fraud. Tony, what exactly were those guys doing?
:12:03. > :12:07.It's called card skimming. Here's a skimming device here. Something
:12:08. > :12:11.similar to this we would have used. And this looks like part of the ATM
:12:12. > :12:15.and they go in through the card throat there. They download the
:12:16. > :12:18.details onto the card magnetic stripe on the other cards. So what
:12:19. > :12:22.would they then do with those details? They get another card and
:12:23. > :12:25.put your details onto that card. But to use that card they would need
:12:26. > :12:30.your PIN number, wouldn't they? They would, and if you look at this
:12:31. > :12:34.machine, it's a dummy machine. If you enter a four figure pin as you
:12:35. > :12:40.would normally do. This isn't part of the machine. This is made to look
:12:41. > :12:44.like part of the machine but inside we've fitted a camera which actually
:12:45. > :12:48.looks down onto the pin pad. So if you look up under there. You would
:12:49. > :12:53.never know that is there? This is one we took from a criminal. It's
:12:54. > :12:57.just a mobile phone and there's the pin hole there. That is absolutey
:12:58. > :13:01.tiny, isn't it? It's just a mobile phone and they'll set that on video
:13:02. > :13:04.and they record and capture your pin details. Anything else we need to be
:13:05. > :13:08.aware of, Tony? Yes. They also use one of these little devices, which
:13:09. > :13:12.is to trap your card. Now, again, you won't see these. They're really
:13:13. > :13:16.cleverly disguised. This piece of metal goes inside the machine and
:13:17. > :13:19.what happens is you put your card in, you enter your pin, it's again
:13:20. > :13:23.captured by a camera. That device there doesn't allow your card to be
:13:24. > :13:27.returned to you so, eventually, you have to walk away. You don't have
:13:28. > :13:30.your card or your cash. The criminal comes along, pulls this device out
:13:31. > :13:33.with your card attached to it. They've now got your chipped card.
:13:34. > :13:37.They've got your pins as well. So, effectively, they've now got control
:13:38. > :13:41.of all the money in your bank account. It is pretty clever stuff,
:13:42. > :13:44.isn't it? So what can we do to be one step ahead and protect
:13:45. > :13:47.ourselves? They do something which we call shoulder surfing, which is
:13:48. > :13:50.effectively just looking round your shoulder. So you should be aware of
:13:51. > :13:54.people behind you or they can film you. Perhaps make sure you're nice
:13:55. > :13:57.and close to the machine and you're not allowing anyone to look over
:13:58. > :14:00.your shoulder. But the thing to prevent both skimming and card
:14:01. > :14:04.trapping is to cover your pin properly and by that I mean really
:14:05. > :14:09.use your wallet or your purse. That's the most effective way, I
:14:10. > :14:14.find. So I use my wallet. I put it over the keypad and I can still see
:14:15. > :14:17.it at the front but even if the cameras are there or there, which
:14:18. > :14:20.sometimes they are, then it's going to be hidden from view because of
:14:21. > :14:22.the wallet. Really good advice, Tony. Thank you.
:14:23. > :14:25.Still to come. We reveal the rogues behind a
:14:26. > :14:28.driveway scam that cost elderly victims thousands of pounds.
:14:29. > :14:35.He really did a good selling job when he came because I believed him.
:14:36. > :14:38.But first, Rachel's been to meet one viewer whose dream of owning a shiny
:14:39. > :14:42.Italian sports car has started to tarnish.
:14:43. > :14:49.Italian style combined with a place in motorsport history. For just over
:14:50. > :14:54.a century, Alfa Romeos have promised glamour and brute engine power.
:14:55. > :15:00.Easy, then, to see what made Josh Hobbs, an RAF engineer living in
:15:01. > :15:05.Cardiff, fall in love with this car. The name Alfa Romeo, they're
:15:06. > :15:10.beautiful cars. I'm a young lad, so I wanted a sports car, really. I
:15:11. > :15:15.guess Alfa Romeos are just small Ferraris, really. Good looks aside,
:15:16. > :15:19.this car should have been what they might call in the trade "a nice
:15:20. > :15:24.little motor" or "a sporty little run-around". That's how it was sold
:15:25. > :15:30.to Josh. A year old and 6,000 miles on the clock. The price? Nearly
:15:31. > :15:35.?17,000. Reassuringly, it had only had one owner, the garage itself.
:15:36. > :15:41.This car was their top of the range demonstration model.
:15:42. > :15:47.Tell me what it was like to drive this car for the very first time.
:15:48. > :15:51.Just driving second hand cars, I'd managed to scrape together the money
:15:52. > :15:55.for, to actually be able to treat myself to this. The first time I
:15:56. > :16:00.drove it, it was phenomenal. Just unbelievable. He bought it from an
:16:01. > :16:03.Alfa dealership in Cheltenham in May last year, but within eight months
:16:04. > :16:07.he was having problems. Everything from the electrics to a nasty
:16:08. > :16:13.screeching noise. Nothing glamorous or stylish about that.
:16:14. > :16:19.The first hitch I had was actually driving down the M4 motorway on my
:16:20. > :16:23.way back here to Cardiff. The electric windows decided they were
:16:24. > :16:27.going to just go down on their own, so I was obviously doing about
:16:28. > :16:31.70mph. With that kind of airflow coming in the car, it was quite
:16:32. > :16:35.horrifying. I had to drive all the way home with my fingers on the
:16:36. > :16:38.buttons, holding the windows up until I got home and managed to turn
:16:39. > :16:41.the car off. The windows were finally repaired under warranty, but
:16:42. > :16:46.no-one seemed prepared to deal with the other issues Josh was having. An
:16:47. > :16:49.odd whining noise on corners which no-one seemed able to fix, until it
:16:50. > :16:54.turned into something much more serious. In the middle lane of the
:16:55. > :16:57.motorway in quite busy traffic, and suddenly the brakes make this
:16:58. > :17:04.horrible squealing, screeching noise. The handbrake warning light
:17:05. > :17:09.comes on as if the handbrake was on. There's a lot of juddering, a lot of
:17:10. > :17:14.noise, the smell of burning. The car felt like someone had yanked the
:17:15. > :17:17.handbrake on. Were you scared? Was it frightening? Yeah, it was very
:17:18. > :17:21.scary. I was in busy traffic and suddenly, at that speed, how it
:17:22. > :17:25.would feel to have the handbrake yanked up all of a sudden. Josh
:17:26. > :17:29.limped along to the nearest services before calling out a recovery
:17:30. > :17:33.vehicle. The driver told him there was corrosion in his back brakes.
:17:34. > :17:36.The car comes with a manufacturer's three-year warranty, but that didn't
:17:37. > :17:42.seem to count for much when Josh got in touch with Alfa Romeo.
:17:43. > :17:47.I just get fobbed off, told it's not covered under warranty and different
:17:48. > :17:52.excuses arise for why it's not covered under warranty. As well as
:17:53. > :17:56.it's calling a premium rate number in Italy because that's the only way
:17:57. > :18:00.you seem able to get hold of Alfa Romeo. In the end, his finance
:18:01. > :18:05.company paid for the brake repairs, but there were plenty more wrong
:18:06. > :18:08.with the car. There's been panels coming apart, window seals popping
:18:09. > :18:13.out when you're driving down the road and just falling off. There's
:18:14. > :18:14.also quite a bad crack along the back boot lid where the metal has
:18:15. > :18:24.just come apart - split. OK, time for a pit stop. We need to
:18:25. > :18:29.get an expert opinion on all these problems Josh has been having.
:18:30. > :18:35.Gareth Rees is an independent vehicle inspector. He's agreed to
:18:36. > :18:39.take a look at Josh's car. OK, Gareth, let's tackle corrosion
:18:40. > :18:44.issues first, then. What can you see? First of all, Rachel, this car
:18:45. > :18:47.has just turned two years old and, basically, we wouldn't expect to see
:18:48. > :18:53.the amount of corrosion on the underside as we're seeing. You can
:18:54. > :18:57.see these points here. To me, that's poor sealing from manufacture. You
:18:58. > :19:02.can see the corrosion is starting to go there. We can also see there's
:19:03. > :19:06.corrosion going on on the drive shaft on there. And the brakes, of
:19:07. > :19:10.course? The handbrake cable has been replaced recently, as well as work
:19:11. > :19:14.doing to the brake system on this side. For a vehicle of this age and
:19:15. > :19:18.mileage, we wouldn't expect that to have taken place. OK, that's the
:19:19. > :19:22.underside. Shall we have a look at the exterior? What do you make of
:19:23. > :19:25.that? Well, that looks pretty serious, doesn't it? We've got
:19:26. > :19:30.delamination and fracturing on the bodywork. Now that I can see is
:19:31. > :19:34.letting in water already, so I'm clearly of the opinion this was
:19:35. > :19:37.there at the date of manufacture. This is going to devalue the vehicle
:19:38. > :19:44.and I'm suggesting Alfa Romeo should address this ASAP. That verdict will
:19:45. > :19:49.come as no surprise to Josh. His love affair with this Italian car is
:19:50. > :19:53.well and truly over. I'm just waiting for other things to go wrong
:19:54. > :19:57.with it, really, and Alfa Romeo to say they're not paying for it or not
:19:58. > :20:01.covering it under warranty. I'm just standing by, really.
:20:02. > :20:04.Well, Alfa Romeo say they take every customer complaint very seriously.
:20:05. > :20:07.They've told us they're investigating Josh's case and will
:20:08. > :20:12.be sending out an engineer to inspect his car. We'll keep you
:20:13. > :20:16.posted with what they find. On X-Ray we pride ourselves on never
:20:17. > :20:20.giving up on a case.Tonight we've got some great news about a few
:20:21. > :20:24.we've been following for a while. You might remember this man - John
:20:25. > :20:27.Cory Gould - the owner of Vale Caravans. Last year we sent Rachel
:20:28. > :20:31.to investigate after his business went under, taking with it ?70,000
:20:32. > :20:37.worth of caravans he'd promised to sell for other people. I went down
:20:38. > :20:42.to the premises to find it was chained up. The yard was empty. To
:20:43. > :20:47.this day I don't know where my van is and what happened to it.
:20:48. > :20:51.I actually looked him in the eye and asked him how he slept at night and
:20:52. > :20:54.he couldn't answer me. It also turns out he'd been trading
:20:55. > :20:57.whilst insolvent and lying to his customers. He's now been
:20:58. > :21:01.disqualified from being a company director for nine years. Now, this
:21:02. > :21:06.face might ring a bell with you. It's Paul Delamare. Back in 2011, he
:21:07. > :21:10.ran a company here in Swansea called Aurora Logistics. They pretended to
:21:11. > :21:13.be an official firm selling Sky warranties and lots of you were
:21:14. > :21:20.conned into buying one you didn't want or need. Well, he's just
:21:21. > :21:25.pleaded guilty to fraud and we'll let you know more early next year
:21:26. > :21:27.once he's been sentenced. And we can finally reveal the rogues at the
:21:28. > :21:34.centre of an investigation we featured more than a year ago.
:21:35. > :21:38.It's hard to understand why you believe in rogues, but I did believe
:21:39. > :21:52.him. Last summer, we were poised to
:21:53. > :21:58.reveal the identity of two rogue traders who'd just conned an elderly
:21:59. > :22:04.couple out of ?15,000. But just as we were preparing to act, so were
:22:05. > :22:12.the authorities. Trading Standards had also caught up with them. I
:22:13. > :22:15.certainly felt that we had to pursue this case to its Nth degree because
:22:16. > :22:19.we didn't want them visiting any more elderly people and committing
:22:20. > :22:27.the crimes they did because it was a particularly nasty incidents. So who
:22:28. > :22:33.were these men? Meet John William Price. And this is Steven
:22:34. > :22:35.Lavercombe. Together they made up National Landscapes Ltd, a
:22:36. > :22:43.maintenance and driveway firm that promised its customers expert work
:22:44. > :22:46.using trained professionals. Price and Lavercombe had perfected a
:22:47. > :22:54.classic driveway scam and it turned out they'd been ripping people off
:22:55. > :22:58.across South Wales. All of the methods that Mr Price used in this
:22:59. > :23:05.case were exactly as we see on a regular basis rogue traders. Very
:23:06. > :23:08.often the leaflets have photos of wonderful driveways, none of which
:23:09. > :23:14.they have worked on, so that's the start of the scam. Then, having read
:23:15. > :23:18.the leaflets, people phone them, they come out and offer a fairly low
:23:19. > :23:22.price job power wash the drive and then there will be some lose stones.
:23:23. > :23:26.They end up digging up the driveway and increasing the price to as high
:23:27. > :23:29.as they can get. So how were they finally brought to justice? Through
:23:30. > :23:33.the determination of two key witnesses. First to the stand was
:23:34. > :23:36.David Ormrod from Neath, who'd contacted X-Ray last year after
:23:37. > :23:43.Price agreed to lay a new driveway at cost of ?6,000. He really did a
:23:44. > :23:53.good selling job when he came, because I believed him. But just two
:23:54. > :23:58.days into the job, David came home to find a huge hole in front of his
:23:59. > :24:06.house. National Landscapes had dug up the foundations of his driveway.
:24:07. > :24:12.Then came a knock on his door. John Price demanded another ?8,000. In
:24:13. > :24:15.fact, he told David that without the extra money to rebuild the
:24:16. > :24:25.foundations, National Landscapes wouldn't finish the job. I was
:24:26. > :24:31.marooned. I was just flabbergasted. This was not on the plan at all. We
:24:32. > :24:36.had to have access to the house. If I tell him to go, I would have to
:24:37. > :24:45.get someone very quickly in to do something for me. Between stone and
:24:46. > :24:49.hard place. With a huge hole in his driveway and no way of fixing it
:24:50. > :24:57.himself, David had to hand over the extra money. It all came to ?15,000.
:24:58. > :25:04.After we featured his case, we knew we had to alert Trading Standards to
:25:05. > :25:07.David's story. It wasn't just poor business practice, it wasn't just a
:25:08. > :25:12.little bit misleading but not really intended to deceive, there was
:25:13. > :25:16.clearly fraud here. There was dishonest representations to take
:25:17. > :25:23.his money off him and take as much money as they could off him. David
:25:24. > :25:26.and his wife weren't alone. 20 miles away in Price and Lavercombe's home
:25:27. > :25:33.town of Bridgend, Mike Davies was watching X-Ray whilst National
:25:34. > :25:37.Landscapes worked on his driveway. I thought, "Oh, God, I've been caught
:25:38. > :25:42.here". I mentioned to them that they had been on X-Ray and they said it's
:25:43. > :25:46.just one of those things - people are always complaining. You always
:25:47. > :25:49.get complainers. So I assumed by his attitude if he's not worried why
:25:50. > :25:53.should I be worried, but obviously I should have been. But, sadly, Mike's
:25:54. > :25:58.story was almost identical to David's. Price had initially quoted
:25:59. > :26:06.him ?5,800 to lay a new driveway and build a wall. But just days into the
:26:07. > :26:13.job, yet again, the price shot up. This time by ?3,000. I always said,
:26:14. > :26:19."Oh, that'll never happen to me. But it does, it's quite easy. They have
:26:20. > :26:23.got you over a barrel and you're obliged to say yes because it's got
:26:24. > :26:29.to be done. Together, the evidence was overwhelming. Price and
:26:30. > :26:33.Lavercombe were summoned to court. I think in this case there was no
:26:34. > :26:37.question in our minds that there had been serious fraud offences
:26:38. > :26:41.committed at the outset. In the distribution of the leaflets, in the
:26:42. > :26:45.quote and then the increased price. Just how bad were these guys in
:26:46. > :26:50.relation to other cases? They were extremely serious, extremely
:26:51. > :26:53.difficult people to deal with. Not only did they show no remorse, but
:26:54. > :26:58.they would respond or reply to any questions that we put to them. I
:26:59. > :27:02.don't think they had any respect for anyone that they dealt with and that
:27:03. > :27:06.came out in court. After a five-day trial, the jury took less than an
:27:07. > :27:08.hour to find John Price guilty on nine charges of fraud. Steven
:27:09. > :27:16.Lavercombe had previously pleaded guilty to five of the charges. And
:27:17. > :27:19.justice prevailed. Price was sentenced to five years in prison
:27:20. > :27:24.and banned from cold calling or pricing driveway work for eight
:27:25. > :27:30.years afterwards. And Lavercombe got just over two years in jail. The
:27:31. > :27:35.company was set up to commit criminal offences and the punishment
:27:36. > :27:41.fitted the crime in my opinion. Just deserts in the end. Obviously, I
:27:42. > :27:46.still lost the money, but at least no-one else will. I have now got a
:27:47. > :27:50.few more shots in the armoury and will hopefully not get caught out by
:27:51. > :27:58.the likes of Mr John Price again in the future.
:27:59. > :28:03.Great to end the year with such good news. Well, that's it from us until
:28:04. > :28:07.February. While we're off air, we'll be keeping busy fighting for your
:28:08. > :28:09.consumer rights. If you have a problem you'd like our help with,
:28:10. > :28:15.get in touch.