Episode 16 X-Ray

Had he been ripped off? We are here to fight for your rights. Spotting

the latest scams and making sure you make the most of your money. They've

got you over a barrel as it were and you're obliged to say yes because

it's got to be done. Confronting the conmen, we are here to help you

fight back. Tonight, the problem that is filling

up our in tray - the cold calling firms that offer you a free green

deal boiler. I haven't had anything. I still have my orignal boiler and I

haven't had anything. Now we turn the tables and ring them up. You are

actually qualifying for this boiler. I qualify? Yes for the boiler, you

actually do qualify for the boiler. Why is Josh's love affair with this

Italian sports car heading for a break up? There's a lot of noise, a

lot of juddering, the smell of burning. We discover the tricks

criminals are using to get your money out of the cash machine.

For months we've been inundated with complaints about the green companies

that claim to get you free boilers or insulation. Some of you have paid

them up to ?400 and they're not going away. Rachel's been looking at

the latest batch trying to take your money. They said I was coming out to

the countryside to sort out the Green Deal, this isn't quite what I

had in mind. The Green Deal's keeping me busy for all the wrong

reasons. Within months of its launch we were getting complaints about

people being ripped off by Green Deal rogues. Now, we've been

inundated! It's difficult to know where to start with this lot. We've

had hundreds of complaints about 19 companies who cold-call and try to

persuade you that the Green Deal is right for you. Some have already

featured on X-Ray. We had more than 80 calls about the now defunct Eco

Green Deal Solutions. And more than 100 about Becoming Green. But what

about all the rest? Dozens and dozens of calls about companies that

you've told us don't deliver what they've promised. We've taken a

closer look at two of the most complained about companies. First up

- Swansea based Green Deal Network, run by 33-year-old Gareth Meloni,

former director of a controversial PPI reclaim company. And second -

Green Deal Direct, also in Swansea. It's run by this man, Mohammed

Pasha. He also does PPI reclaim. So what do these companies tell their

customers? I was promised a new boiler and that I wouldn't have to

pay any more money. Only the one off payment. They were offering free

boilers and windows with a government scheme. They asked me

would I like a free boiler, which at the time my boiler had just broken

down so I said yes. They all paid hundreds of pounds for assessments

after getting cold calls. But did they get the full story about the

Green Deal? Nobody ever mentioned the word loan. And yet when I had

the paperwork back, I went through it and thought, they're not giving

you anything. This is a loan which you have to pay back. They never

told me it was a loan. They never mentioned no loan, no nothing. It

was definitely a free government scheme. Everyone's had a survey, but

what about the free boiler? I haven't had nothing. I still have my

original boiler and I haven't had anything. I hadn't received anything

and phoned them on many occasions but couldn't get through. And they

just said, you had paid for the survey. I was definitely

misinformed. The Green Deal's not a hard thing to understand. We take

out a loan to pay make your home more energy efficient. We pay

interest on that loan but unlike a normal loan, the repayments are

added to your energy bills. Now in theory, those repayments should be

covered by the savings we make on our bills. So why are so many of us

failing to understand when we're cold called? Is it perhaps the cold

calling companies not telling the whole story? To find out, we posed

as customers. And guess what, there were lots of misleading statements.

At number three - some interesting claims about how safe you'll be if

you pay by debit card. We use a Visa and debit card. The reason we do

this is because it protects you against any type of fraud.

That's rubbish. The consumer credit act won't protect debit card

payments. And just because a company can process payment cards, that

doesn't mean it's legit. At number two, they say law demands we have a

survey. That is so misleading. You only need

a certificate like this if you sell or rent your home! But the winner

is, the more energy efficient you are, the less council tax you are

going to pay. They're making it up. Your council tax has nothing to do

with energy efficiency! But are these just mistakes or could these

companies be breaking the law? I've asked consumer law expert Huw Evans

to take a look. First he hears claims about the potential savings.

Your energy bills are going to be reduced as a result of this.

The clip seemed to imply that because the gas boiler was more

efficient, you would use less gas. That is clearly not the case. You

pay for the gas you use. OK, so for the next clip.

They cannot say that. That is the assessor's job. There is no

guarantee until such time as the assessor says there is an

entitlement. In parts of the tape they say it is subject to

assessment. But at the same time they're saying that there are

guarantees. There is an underlying impression and listening to it, I

can see why a person might think they are entitled. But finally, can

they be straight about the key financial questions?

Yes, yes, yes, it is a loan. And it's repayable with interest over a

period of time, it's maybe as long as 25 years. And it is also a debt

on the house. Sum up then what you feel about what you have heard? I

think it is unacceptable, it's mis-selling. It is not telling

people the nature of the products. Are they breaking the law? On what I

have heard, there are breaches of the regulations as far as misleading

information is concerned. Well, we've tried to speak to both of

these companies. But the Green Deal Network has refused to make any

comment on the allegations or to do anything for its unhappy customers.

Greeen Deal Direct, on the other hand, have promised Julie, who you

saw in the film there, a full refund and they have offered Neil a ?100

part refund. What do they have to say about all that inaccurate

information that their call handlers gave to us? Well, apparantly if we'd

been real customers we'd have spoken to a senior advisor and a quality

control team. They would have given us the correct information. They say

the call handler had no intention of misleading us. She was either

explaining things badly or was unsure of the relevant processes.

But the good news is that they have suspended their Green Deal marketing

activities until staff have been retrained. And the longer that

takes, the better for everyone! Now, every second, around ?6,000 is

withdrawn from one of these but it's not just you that could be trying to

get your money out of the hole in the wall. Last year the total cost

of cash machine fraud in the UK came to nearly ?30 million. Criminals are

constantly coming up with new ways to get their hands on your money as

Dawn Andrew-King from Llandeilo knows only too well. In March this

year, Dawn was withdrawing some cash from a machine in the town when she

noticed two suspicious looking men sat in a nearby car. It was first

thing in the morning and you don't normally see a lot of people around

at that time. When one of the men approached Dawn, warning bells

started to ring. I used the cash machine and then I turned around. He

was behind me and I spoke to him, and he asked me if it was

Easter-time and I said, no, it's next week, and I just thought it was

very suspicious. Realising something wasn't right, Dawn wrote down the

car's registration number and handed it over to the police. It turns out,

the machine had been tampered with, and a device fitted into the card

machine slot. It was very upsetting and quite scary really because you

don't want your details brandished here, there and everywhere. I didn't

know if they had taken my money, whether they had circulated my

details anywhere because they can do some awful things. Dawn put a stop

on her card and thanks to her tip-off, police were able to track

the car - catching the culprits. Earlier this year, they both pleaded

guilty to fraud and were jailed. I'm so glad I had the foresight to jot

down that number plate down and not just ignore the matter - a lot of

people could have been defrauded out of a lot of money.

Wow, pretty scary stuff. A big well done to Dawn for her quick thinking.

Tony Blake is part of a specialist police team in London dedicated to

cutting cash machine fraud. Tony, what exactly were those guys doing?

It's called card skimming. Here's a skimming device here. Something

similar to this we would have used. And this looks like part of the ATM

and they go in through the card throat there. They download the

details onto the card magnetic stripe on the other cards. So what

would they then do with those details? They get another card and

put your details onto that card. But to use that card they would need

your PIN number, wouldn't they? They would, and if you look at this

machine, it's a dummy machine. If you enter a four figure pin as you

would normally do. This isn't part of the machine. This is made to look

like part of the machine but inside we've fitted a camera which actually

looks down onto the pin pad. So if you look up under there. You would

never know that is there? This is one we took from a criminal. It's

just a mobile phone and there's the pin hole there. That is absolutey

tiny, isn't it? It's just a mobile phone and they'll set that on video

and they record and capture your pin details. Anything else we need to be

aware of, Tony? Yes. They also use one of these little devices, which

is to trap your card. Now, again, you won't see these. They're really

cleverly disguised. This piece of metal goes inside the machine and

what happens is you put your card in, you enter your pin, it's again

captured by a camera. That device there doesn't allow your card to be

returned to you so, eventually, you have to walk away. You don't have

your card or your cash. The criminal comes along, pulls this device out

with your card attached to it. They've now got your chipped card.

They've got your pins as well. So, effectively, they've now got control

of all the money in your bank account. It is pretty clever stuff,

isn't it? So what can we do to be one step ahead and protect

ourselves? They do something which we call shoulder surfing, which is

effectively just looking round your shoulder. So you should be aware of

people behind you or they can film you. Perhaps make sure you're nice

and close to the machine and you're not allowing anyone to look over

your shoulder. But the thing to prevent both skimming and card

trapping is to cover your pin properly and by that I mean really

use your wallet or your purse. That's the most effective way, I

find. So I use my wallet. I put it over the keypad and I can still see

it at the front but even if the cameras are there or there, which

sometimes they are, then it's going to be hidden from view because of

the wallet. Really good advice, Tony. Thank you.

Still to come. We reveal the rogues behind a

driveway scam that cost elderly victims thousands of pounds.

He really did a good selling job when he came because I believed him.

But first, Rachel's been to meet one viewer whose dream of owning a shiny

Italian sports car has started to tarnish.

Italian style combined with a place in motorsport history. For just over

a century, Alfa Romeos have promised glamour and brute engine power.

Easy, then, to see what made Josh Hobbs, an RAF engineer living in

Cardiff, fall in love with this car. The name Alfa Romeo, they're

beautiful cars. I'm a young lad, so I wanted a sports car, really. I

guess Alfa Romeos are just small Ferraris, really. Good looks aside,

this car should have been what they might call in the trade "a nice

little motor" or "a sporty little run-around". That's how it was sold

to Josh. A year old and 6,000 miles on the clock. The price? Nearly

?17,000. Reassuringly, it had only had one owner, the garage itself.

This car was their top of the range demonstration model.

Tell me what it was like to drive this car for the very first time.

Just driving second hand cars, I'd managed to scrape together the money

for, to actually be able to treat myself to this. The first time I

drove it, it was phenomenal. Just unbelievable. He bought it from an

Alfa dealership in Cheltenham in May last year, but within eight months

he was having problems. Everything from the electrics to a nasty

screeching noise. Nothing glamorous or stylish about that.

The first hitch I had was actually driving down the M4 motorway on my

way back here to Cardiff. The electric windows decided they were

going to just go down on their own, so I was obviously doing about

70mph. With that kind of airflow coming in the car, it was quite

horrifying. I had to drive all the way home with my fingers on the

buttons, holding the windows up until I got home and managed to turn

the car off. The windows were finally repaired under warranty, but

no-one seemed prepared to deal with the other issues Josh was having. An

odd whining noise on corners which no-one seemed able to fix, until it

turned into something much more serious. In the middle lane of the

motorway in quite busy traffic, and suddenly the brakes make this

horrible squealing, screeching noise. The handbrake warning light

comes on as if the handbrake was on. There's a lot of juddering, a lot of

noise, the smell of burning. The car felt like someone had yanked the

handbrake on. Were you scared? Was it frightening? Yeah, it was very

scary. I was in busy traffic and suddenly, at that speed, how it

would feel to have the handbrake yanked up all of a sudden. Josh

limped along to the nearest services before calling out a recovery

vehicle. The driver told him there was corrosion in his back brakes.

The car comes with a manufacturer's three-year warranty, but that didn't

seem to count for much when Josh got in touch with Alfa Romeo.

I just get fobbed off, told it's not covered under warranty and different

excuses arise for why it's not covered under warranty. As well as

it's calling a premium rate number in Italy because that's the only way

you seem able to get hold of Alfa Romeo. In the end, his finance

company paid for the brake repairs, but there were plenty more wrong

with the car. There's been panels coming apart, window seals popping

out when you're driving down the road and just falling off. There's

also quite a bad crack along the back boot lid where the metal has

just come apart - split. OK, time for a pit stop. We need to

get an expert opinion on all these problems Josh has been having.

Gareth Rees is an independent vehicle inspector. He's agreed to

take a look at Josh's car. OK, Gareth, let's tackle corrosion

issues first, then. What can you see? First of all, Rachel, this car

has just turned two years old and, basically, we wouldn't expect to see

the amount of corrosion on the underside as we're seeing. You can

see these points here. To me, that's poor sealing from manufacture. You

can see the corrosion is starting to go there. We can also see there's

corrosion going on on the drive shaft on there. And the brakes, of

course? The handbrake cable has been replaced recently, as well as work

doing to the brake system on this side. For a vehicle of this age and

mileage, we wouldn't expect that to have taken place. OK, that's the

underside. Shall we have a look at the exterior? What do you make of

that? Well, that looks pretty serious, doesn't it? We've got

delamination and fracturing on the bodywork. Now that I can see is

letting in water already, so I'm clearly of the opinion this was

there at the date of manufacture. This is going to devalue the vehicle

and I'm suggesting Alfa Romeo should address this ASAP. That verdict will

come as no surprise to Josh. His love affair with this Italian car is

well and truly over. I'm just waiting for other things to go wrong

with it, really, and Alfa Romeo to say they're not paying for it or not

covering it under warranty. I'm just standing by, really.

Well, Alfa Romeo say they take every customer complaint very seriously.

They've told us they're investigating Josh's case and will

be sending out an engineer to inspect his car. We'll keep you

posted with what they find. On X-Ray we pride ourselves on never

giving up on a case.Tonight we've got some great news about a few

we've been following for a while. You might remember this man - John

Cory Gould - the owner of Vale Caravans. Last year we sent Rachel

to investigate after his business went under, taking with it ?70,000

worth of caravans he'd promised to sell for other people. I went down

to the premises to find it was chained up. The yard was empty. To

this day I don't know where my van is and what happened to it.

I actually looked him in the eye and asked him how he slept at night and

he couldn't answer me. It also turns out he'd been trading

whilst insolvent and lying to his customers. He's now been

disqualified from being a company director for nine years. Now, this

face might ring a bell with you. It's Paul Delamare. Back in 2011, he

ran a company here in Swansea called Aurora Logistics. They pretended to

be an official firm selling Sky warranties and lots of you were

conned into buying one you didn't want or need. Well, he's just

pleaded guilty to fraud and we'll let you know more early next year

once he's been sentenced. And we can finally reveal the rogues at the

centre of an investigation we featured more than a year ago.

It's hard to understand why you believe in rogues, but I did believe

him. Last summer, we were poised to

reveal the identity of two rogue traders who'd just conned an elderly

couple out of ?15,000. But just as we were preparing to act, so were

the authorities. Trading Standards had also caught up with them. I

certainly felt that we had to pursue this case to its Nth degree because

we didn't want them visiting any more elderly people and committing

the crimes they did because it was a particularly nasty incidents. So who

were these men? Meet John William Price. And this is Steven

Lavercombe. Together they made up National Landscapes Ltd, a

maintenance and driveway firm that promised its customers expert work

using trained professionals. Price and Lavercombe had perfected a

classic driveway scam and it turned out they'd been ripping people off

across South Wales. All of the methods that Mr Price used in this

case were exactly as we see on a regular basis rogue traders. Very

often the leaflets have photos of wonderful driveways, none of which

they have worked on, so that's the start of the scam. Then, having read

the leaflets, people phone them, they come out and offer a fairly low

price job power wash the drive and then there will be some lose stones.

They end up digging up the driveway and increasing the price to as high

as they can get. So how were they finally brought to justice? Through

the determination of two key witnesses. First to the stand was

David Ormrod from Neath, who'd contacted X-Ray last year after

Price agreed to lay a new driveway at cost of ?6,000. He really did a

good selling job when he came, because I believed him. But just two

days into the job, David came home to find a huge hole in front of his

house. National Landscapes had dug up the foundations of his driveway.

Then came a knock on his door. John Price demanded another ?8,000. In

fact, he told David that without the extra money to rebuild the

foundations, National Landscapes wouldn't finish the job. I was

marooned. I was just flabbergasted. This was not on the plan at all. We

had to have access to the house. If I tell him to go, I would have to

get someone very quickly in to do something for me. Between stone and

hard place. With a huge hole in his driveway and no way of fixing it

himself, David had to hand over the extra money. It all came to ?15,000.

After we featured his case, we knew we had to alert Trading Standards to

David's story. It wasn't just poor business practice, it wasn't just a

little bit misleading but not really intended to deceive, there was

clearly fraud here. There was dishonest representations to take

his money off him and take as much money as they could off him. David

and his wife weren't alone. 20 miles away in Price and Lavercombe's home

town of Bridgend, Mike Davies was watching X-Ray whilst National

Landscapes worked on his driveway. I thought, "Oh, God, I've been caught

here". I mentioned to them that they had been on X-Ray and they said it's

just one of those things - people are always complaining. You always

get complainers. So I assumed by his attitude if he's not worried why

should I be worried, but obviously I should have been. But, sadly, Mike's

story was almost identical to David's. Price had initially quoted

him ?5,800 to lay a new driveway and build a wall. But just days into the

job, yet again, the price shot up. This time by ?3,000. I always said,

"Oh, that'll never happen to me. But it does, it's quite easy. They have

got you over a barrel and you're obliged to say yes because it's got

to be done. Together, the evidence was overwhelming. Price and

Lavercombe were summoned to court. I think in this case there was no

question in our minds that there had been serious fraud offences

committed at the outset. In the distribution of the leaflets, in the

quote and then the increased price. Just how bad were these guys in

relation to other cases? They were extremely serious, extremely

difficult people to deal with. Not only did they show no remorse, but

they would respond or reply to any questions that we put to them. I

don't think they had any respect for anyone that they dealt with and that

came out in court. After a five-day trial, the jury took less than an

hour to find John Price guilty on nine charges of fraud. Steven

Lavercombe had previously pleaded guilty to five of the charges. And

justice prevailed. Price was sentenced to five years in prison

and banned from cold calling or pricing driveway work for eight

years afterwards. And Lavercombe got just over two years in jail. The

company was set up to commit criminal offences and the punishment

fitted the crime in my opinion. Just deserts in the end. Obviously, I

still lost the money, but at least no-one else will. I have now got a

few more shots in the armoury and will hopefully not get caught out by

the likes of Mr John Price again in the future.

Great to end the year with such good news. Well, that's it from us until

February. While we're off air, we'll be keeping busy fighting for your

consumer rights. If you have a problem you'd like our help with,

get in touch.