:00:00. > :00:15.You are watching the programme that fights for your rights. If you have
:00:16. > :00:20.been scammed or dealt a raw deal, we are on your side. Exposing the truth
:00:21. > :00:23.and tracking down the road works, and we will not take no for an
:00:24. > :00:42.answer. -- rogues. On tonight's programme: the Barry
:00:43. > :00:49.shop open the spelling some incredibly sounding slimming pills.
:00:50. > :00:58.He is not happy when he challenged his claims. Don't manhandle me. And
:00:59. > :01:01.there is a nasty shock in store after he throws aside. Karl and his
:01:02. > :01:04.partner thought they had found their dream flat but they were not
:01:05. > :01:09.expecting to share it with another couple. Here is my tenancy
:01:10. > :01:15.agreement. It was exactly the same as mine. Signed and dated. And Sadie
:01:16. > :01:19.couldn't wait to use the hover board she had for Christmas but her
:01:20. > :01:24.grandmother will not let her. I do fear that it could catch fire.
:01:25. > :01:31.Hello. Welcome to a brand new series of X-Ray. It is great to be back and
:01:32. > :01:34.we are kicking off the New Year in a place you may have spent some time
:01:35. > :01:39.in the recently, particularly if you've been trying to lose some
:01:40. > :01:42.weight. But Rachel has been investigating one Welsh company
:01:43. > :01:44.whose slimming supplements promised rheumatic results. And you don't
:01:45. > :01:59.even have to break a sweat. New Year, new start. Losing weight
:02:00. > :02:05.can be hard work so the promise of a trick -- quick fix is tempting. Some
:02:06. > :02:12.companies claim you can jack in the gym and lose weight simply by
:02:13. > :02:17.popping a few pills. But the boom in diet tablets is causing concern.
:02:18. > :02:20.Wales's leading obesity expert believes they offer false hope to
:02:21. > :02:27.patients like his. I would challenge any of them if they could provide me
:02:28. > :02:30.with a scientific and clinical trial, proper trial. Have you had
:02:31. > :02:37.people come to your clinic who have tried these sort of products? Yes,
:02:38. > :02:43.of course. I discourage them. Some of these products were absolutely
:02:44. > :02:46.useless in relation to weight loss. So I believe in lifestyle
:02:47. > :02:51.modification. If you want to lose weight, you've got to do it
:02:52. > :02:55.physiologically. That is what Karen Dawson did. After joining a slimming
:02:56. > :03:02.club, she lost a massive eight stone over two years. We get fed up with
:03:03. > :03:08.the humiliation and you've got to do something about it. I didn't want my
:03:09. > :03:13.three young children having an unhealthy mother. But others were
:03:14. > :03:18.cashing in on Karen's success. She got in touch with us after finding
:03:19. > :03:25.heard before and after photos being used to promote slimming pills. Sold
:03:26. > :03:30.by a Barry -based company, sculpts extreme. I've never taken slimming
:03:31. > :03:37.tablets. I don't agree with slimming tablets and I was raging. I was so
:03:38. > :03:43.annoyed about it. So what about some of the other pictures posted by the
:03:44. > :03:49.company? Well, some of these are not what they seem either. Apparently,
:03:50. > :03:56.this is Becky from Cardiff but we found the same photo on a blog by
:03:57. > :04:01.Steph from Sydney. And how about this chap, Dave? He is plastered
:04:02. > :04:08.across the shop in Barry but he told us he had never heard of the company
:04:09. > :04:11.or taken their pills. We decided to pay the shopping visit, wearing a
:04:12. > :04:17.hidden camera, to find out what they tell customers in person. The owner,
:04:18. > :04:36.Lee shows Nick, greets us. Sounds promising. Next, our
:04:37. > :04:41.researcher asks about the man in a window, who we know is called Dave.
:04:42. > :05:04.Next, Lee gets all scientific honours.
:05:05. > :05:15.We showed these claims to obesity expert, Professor Hobley B. There is
:05:16. > :05:20.no fact that you cannot lose, providing you address it in the
:05:21. > :05:28.right way, which is exercise, correct diet and changing your
:05:29. > :05:29.lifestyle. Lee recommends our research tries his top of the range
:05:30. > :05:38.diet pills. So, what is so great about them?
:05:39. > :06:02.Well, they contain orange peel. That doesn't make any scientific
:06:03. > :06:06.sense. There is no way that a peel or orange extract can shed away the
:06:07. > :06:21.fat from the wall of the stomach. So, it is fantasy. Yes.
:06:22. > :06:28.Dangerous. That is a very dangerous statement. He desperately needs to
:06:29. > :06:34.go to the gym. Everybody needs to exercise. He gave our researcher a
:06:35. > :06:39.diet plan and sold him a month's supply of tablets for ?65. We asked
:06:40. > :06:45.our expert what he thought of the ingredients in these miraculous
:06:46. > :06:49.pills. This extract has been studied, whether it causes worked
:06:50. > :06:58.lost ten, and the evidence is that it doesn't. Brazilian cocoa extract,
:06:59. > :07:06.I am not aware of any study that shows this can cause weight loss.
:07:07. > :07:12.There are a few clinical trials on green tea which shows some not very
:07:13. > :07:18.significant weight loss. The rest, I've never come across them. These
:07:19. > :07:23.work in tandem to liberate fat from fat cells? Does this make sense?
:07:24. > :07:31.This doesn't make sense. It's rubbish, absolute rubbish. We asked
:07:32. > :07:38.a lab to test the pills we bought. A daily dose contains more than 800 mg
:07:39. > :07:41.of caffeine, twice the recommended daily limit. And there is another
:07:42. > :07:46.problem. By law, they should have an expiry date on here, a warning to
:07:47. > :07:52.keep them away from children and clear information about the
:07:53. > :07:57.manufacturer. But they don't. Any health claims must also be
:07:58. > :08:01.authorised by the European Food Safety Authority. Unsurprisingly,
:08:02. > :08:07.the rating fat from fat cells isn't a recognised claim. When we
:08:08. > :08:13.contacted this man about our findings, if he had plenty to say.
:08:14. > :08:17.He admits they were labelling errors with a few parts but he will be
:08:18. > :08:23.putting that right. He says that many weight loss supplements contain
:08:24. > :08:27.high levels of caffeine. He also told us he has lots of happy
:08:28. > :08:37.customers, many of whom have lost weight without exercising.
:08:38. > :08:41.Lee claimed he removed all these photos but some are still on the
:08:42. > :08:53.company's Facebook group. We don't think that is good enough. I have
:08:54. > :09:02.come back to their shop in Barry to find out myself. Hi, there. We are
:09:03. > :09:06.from X-Ray and want to speak to you about the pills you are selling. If
:09:07. > :09:11.they are so brilliant, do you want to tell us why you have been lying
:09:12. > :09:16.and using fake photos? The fake customer photographs were used by
:09:17. > :09:24.one of our colleagues who has now been fired. You only took one
:09:25. > :09:32.photograph down because we told you. Yeah, with regards to that one, we
:09:33. > :09:36.changed the printer. You didn't think to check when you are putting
:09:37. > :09:44.something as prominent as that that he was a customer of yours. All
:09:45. > :09:49.companies across the UK different -- use different photos. You know that
:09:50. > :09:58.is false advertising. That is why we took it down. So you aren't happy
:09:59. > :10:03.that you were advertising falsely? Do you want to leave the shop then,
:10:04. > :10:10.guys? You don't want to tell us. Don't manhandle me. You are in my
:10:11. > :10:14.shop. Get out of my shop. Excuse me. You don't want to tell us about the
:10:15. > :10:22.ridiculous claims that you have been making on your products. If you wish
:10:23. > :10:29.to speak to our customers, you can... Medical experts don't rely on
:10:30. > :10:32.stories. They rely on clinical trials and you don't have any. So,
:10:33. > :10:39.that was the end of that. Also thought.
:10:40. > :10:46.Can you believe that? He has just chucked a bucket of water over us.
:10:47. > :10:58.That is what you get when you ask him about his tablets. That is
:10:59. > :11:01.really, really grown up, isn't it? Trading standards have told us they
:11:02. > :11:05.will be looking into our findings. If there is anything you would like
:11:06. > :11:12.us to investigate, get in touch. Here is the number:
:11:13. > :11:21.still to come: hover boards, the craze that is sweeping the nation
:11:22. > :11:25.that after spending hundreds of pounds on them, some customers are
:11:26. > :11:30.scared to take theirs for a spin. Alarm bells are ringing with this
:11:31. > :11:35.and I would certainly not use it. Finding a new place to live can be
:11:36. > :11:43.stressful and expensive as the best of times. What has been to visit and
:11:44. > :11:49.the dash and lucky tenants who have been targeted by a cruel scam.
:11:50. > :11:52.They are called generation rent, the young people of Wales who just
:11:53. > :11:56.cannot get on the housing ladder. They don't have too just deal with
:11:57. > :12:02.sky-high rents and hefty charges from letting agents, the scammers
:12:03. > :12:11.are after them, too. I am heading to a flat at the centre of one cruel
:12:12. > :12:14.con. Karl Dinis and his partner were over the moon when they've found
:12:15. > :12:19.this desirable resident in the Adamsdown area of Cardiff just a few
:12:20. > :12:23.weeks ago. I felt great because I thought my life was sorted. We were
:12:24. > :12:33.fine, moving back down to Cardiff. He spotted the Fat on gumtree and
:12:34. > :12:38.went to meet the landlord. He was a nice guy, chatty. He knew where
:12:39. > :12:41.everything was. We didn't assume anything was different other than he
:12:42. > :12:46.was the landlord. They decided to sign on the dotted line and handed
:12:47. > :12:55.over almost ?1200 in cash for a deposit and a month 's rent.
:12:56. > :13:03.We were really excited, we got up in the morning and we were ready to go.
:13:04. > :13:06.But when they arrived the flat was full of junk. Everything was still
:13:07. > :13:11.left in the kitchen, the cupboards were full of food, your workloads,
:13:12. > :13:16.cleaning stuff, dirty dishes in the sink. A bed and these parent room
:13:17. > :13:22.wasn't made, the where kids toys in there. But there was a bigger shock
:13:23. > :13:35.in store. Another couple were on their way to the flat. Martin and
:13:36. > :13:41.his wife Eva thought they were moving into. I asked him what are
:13:42. > :13:51.you doing here and he just said I moved yesterday. They claimed they
:13:52. > :13:56.were moving in. They said the paid him ?550. He was like, either as my
:13:57. > :14:01.tenancy agreement. It was exactly the same as mine, signed and dated.
:14:02. > :14:08.They realised they had given their cash to the same man who had no
:14:09. > :14:13.vanished. I tried to phone him. He had switched off the phone. It turns
:14:14. > :14:18.out the man who had run off with their money was not the landlord, he
:14:19. > :14:28.was the former tenant. His real name, Mike Dawson. He is now wanted
:14:29. > :14:35.by the police. This was the rule corn but not an uncommon one. Action
:14:36. > :14:45.Fraud recorded 3000 rental scams last year. -- Democrat. So how do
:14:46. > :14:50.you avoid being ripped off like this? Firstly think about using the
:14:51. > :14:55.letting agency which may be less risky than going direct to a
:14:56. > :15:02.landlord. You would be able to attend their offices and ask
:15:03. > :15:06.relevant questions about the property and carry out online
:15:07. > :15:12.searchers to see if there had ever been any bad reviews about that
:15:13. > :15:15.agency. If you are going through a landlord on the Internet make sure
:15:16. > :15:22.you know who you are dealing with. Beat to the landlord, ask questions
:15:23. > :15:25.about the property, ask questions about the companies who supply the
:15:26. > :15:30.electricity for example, if they are the person who let this property
:15:31. > :15:35.they are going to know this. Check they have the right to let out the
:15:36. > :15:38.property. The belt and braces approach would be to obtain
:15:39. > :15:43.confirmation who actually owns the property you are looking to rent. A
:15:44. > :15:47.simple registration with the land Registry for under ?5 will give you
:15:48. > :15:54.the immediate result. New laws are coming into force in Wales which
:15:55. > :15:56.mean landlords will need to be registered and sometimes even
:15:57. > :16:02.licensed which means there are even other ways to check. At this is cold
:16:03. > :16:06.comfort for Martin, with no money for another deposit he and his
:16:07. > :16:17.family have had to stay in their cramped flat. It is important
:16:18. > :16:24.because we are on benefits. Karl and his partner have had to find a new
:16:25. > :16:27.place to live, too. We basically skinny ?1200 together to get down
:16:28. > :16:33.here and we literally used practically everything of what we
:16:34. > :16:38.had. We have actually find something else with an estate agent this time
:16:39. > :16:44.luckily. We have had to borrow money to pay the deposit and now we are
:16:45. > :16:47.broke, literally. Such a nightmare for those tenants and South Wales
:16:48. > :16:54.Police have confirmed the are looking for a 35 Grove man, I call
:16:55. > :17:01.Dawson, on suspicion of fraud. Nash the 35-year old man. If you know his
:17:02. > :17:07.whereabouts get in touch with the police or get in touch with us. You
:17:08. > :17:13.can e-mail us. We have advice on how to avoid letting scams on our
:17:14. > :17:20.website including details of the Welsh government scheme to license
:17:21. > :17:24.and register by the landlords. Hugh on X-Ray did is nothing be like more
:17:25. > :17:30.than to see a conman brought to justice. Even if it takes the law a
:17:31. > :17:37.little while to catch up with them. 2010, the year we went gaga for Lady
:17:38. > :17:46.Gaga. David Cameron moved into number ten and the iPad was
:17:47. > :17:56.launched. On X-Ray we were fighting for justice for this man who was
:17:57. > :18:01.cutting grooves in concrete wall planes which he had been advertising
:18:02. > :18:05.in a local farming magazine. I thought they were to do with the
:18:06. > :18:10.farm. He caught me looking to advertise. But they were not and
:18:11. > :18:15.Dylan soon started to get bills for hundreds of pounds from a series of
:18:16. > :18:20.companies he had never heard of. I hadn't got a clue who they are. I
:18:21. > :18:25.hadn't got a clue where my advert was supposed to be. I don't know.
:18:26. > :18:31.Like thousands of other people, Ellen had been run by a firm based
:18:32. > :18:36.in this Liverpool office. Weinstein Williams associates Limited run by
:18:37. > :18:42.this snappy dresser, George Williams. When police raided the
:18:43. > :18:46.company they found the had been busy scanning innocent victims including
:18:47. > :18:50.many Welsh firms with promises of adverts in magazines which few
:18:51. > :18:56.people ever got to see. When unhappy customers refused to pay the
:18:57. > :18:58.received threatening phone calls. This recording seized by police
:18:59. > :19:28.shows the tactics they used. Threats like bees persuaded Dylan to
:19:29. > :19:32.part with more than ?2000. I thought they would take me to court and it
:19:33. > :19:39.would have gone badly. You feel that if they take you to court you got no
:19:40. > :19:44.legs to stand on, they are going to win and things will go bad. So, when
:19:45. > :19:54.you played the first few do you think you got wind of the fact that
:19:55. > :19:59.you were... Gullible? Yes. Yeah. Rachel is with me now, this has been
:20:00. > :20:04.rumbling on for a long time, what is the latest? Police and trading
:20:05. > :20:07.standards have been investigating this for five years but finally
:20:08. > :20:10.company boss George Williams has found himself in court along with
:20:11. > :20:21.six other people including seals wrecks. Just how big was there
:20:22. > :20:27.operation? -- sales representative. The victims together where corn note
:20:28. > :20:32.of more than ?5 million. A lot of the scams involve persuading victims
:20:33. > :20:37.to advertise in magazines that they were taught where associated with
:20:38. > :20:43.the police or emergency services at this was a pack of lies according to
:20:44. > :20:48.emergency services. What happened in court? We are not always happy with
:20:49. > :20:52.the entrances handed out to these conmen but he did get what he
:20:53. > :20:57.deserved, a seven-year Yale sentence. His sales manager was
:20:58. > :21:02.jailed for a year and three seals wrecks together got 750 hours
:21:03. > :21:12.community service, almost six months full-time work. Justice for Dylan,
:21:13. > :21:15.late but better than never. On a birthday you always want your
:21:16. > :21:20.child's present to be just perfect but for some Welsh families their
:21:21. > :21:31.choice of gift turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
:21:32. > :21:39.It was the must have toys of 2015. Officially the art electric powered
:21:40. > :21:45.self balancing scooters. But everyone knows them as hoverboard
:21:46. > :21:49.'s. They can take a while to get the hang of and I am definitely not
:21:50. > :21:56.there yet but they have really taken off in a big way with around half a
:21:57. > :22:02.million sold in the UK. Hoverboards have had a bumpy ride. In December
:22:03. > :22:09.15,000 of them, mostly from China, where seized by trading standards on
:22:10. > :22:16.safety grounds. Tom had faulty chargers and plugs which could and
:22:17. > :22:23.sometimes dead, catch fire. -- sometimes did catch fire. Beverley
:22:24. > :22:27.from Carmarthen bought one back in November as a birthday present for
:22:28. > :22:31.her 11-year-old granddaughter. What did you think when you're
:22:32. > :22:34.granddaughter said she wanted the hoverboard for her birthday? It was
:22:35. > :22:37.a concern because there had been a few things in the press about
:22:38. > :22:44.hoverboards but I made sure I did my be search. I went online and looped
:22:45. > :22:48.into a company. They looked very professional. The aware warranties,
:22:49. > :22:53.good customer service, everything that you could have looked for was
:22:54. > :22:58.there on the website. When it arrived CD was thrilled and at
:22:59. > :23:08.almost 300 towns Beverley was expecting a top quality product but
:23:09. > :23:12.then she noticed the charger. What was it that first major start to
:23:13. > :23:18.worry about it? When I looked at the writing on the charger you can see
:23:19. > :23:30.quite a lot of spelling mistakes. Look at the word before.
:23:31. > :23:40.Expose to green. That was when I realised something was not right
:23:41. > :23:47.with the charger. I would not let my granddaughter rider because I do
:23:48. > :23:53.fear it could catch fire. Breeze Board Pro is based in Warrington and
:23:54. > :23:56.calls itself a trusting UK seller. We spoke to others who do not trust
:23:57. > :24:04.the hoverboards they have bought. This couple from Carmarthenshire
:24:05. > :24:07.bought one of the boards as a Christmas present for their
:24:08. > :24:13.14-year-old son. It is not something we would usually spend that amount
:24:14. > :24:16.of money on but my husband had been quite broadly over the last 12
:24:17. > :24:20.months and had been in hospital five times. We thought we would try to
:24:21. > :24:25.get something extra special this year because he seemed to have
:24:26. > :24:31.missed out on a lot. But when hoverboard safety hit the headlines,
:24:32. > :24:39.Lisa and David took a closer look at the board they plan to give your
:24:40. > :24:43.son. The CE mark was not right, the English on the charger as well it
:24:44. > :24:48.was just obvious ones I took a close look that it wasn't right. We sat
:24:49. > :24:53.and David had to tell their son he wouldn't be getting the gadget he
:24:54. > :24:57.had set his heart on. We had spent a lot of money, that was the main
:24:58. > :25:06.gift. It was a complete waste of time. So, art Breeze Board Pro
:25:07. > :25:09.products safe? Trading standards are not convinced. They have banned the
:25:10. > :25:15.company from selling hoverboards until they can prove they are up to
:25:16. > :25:21.scratch. We took Beverley 's product to a specialist in appliance testing
:25:22. > :25:25.to see what he made of it. The plug on first inspection seems to be OK
:25:26. > :25:30.but it is missing the British standards logo. If I opened the club
:25:31. > :25:35.B would be expecting a brown live wire and the blue neutral wire and,
:25:36. > :25:40.as expected, you can see the brown wire is missing altogether. The blue
:25:41. > :25:45.that you would he to the neutral in fact connected to the lives and we
:25:46. > :25:51.have a black wire that we would not expect to find in the UK. The wire
:25:52. > :26:01.is very thin as well as expected and the fuse is not a British standard
:26:02. > :26:09.views. I can see that the BS 1362 is printed on the but the British logo
:26:10. > :26:15.is not the. This fuse has the logo and rated at 13 amp, you can see on
:26:16. > :26:21.the counterfeit fuse that the wire has been bent over and the end caps
:26:22. > :26:25.slept on. Richard passed through the fuse and be soldered on in the
:26:26. > :26:30.centre as you can see with a genuine fuse. The most important part of the
:26:31. > :26:34.test is the visual inspection and for me all alarm bells are ringing
:26:35. > :26:38.with this and I certainly would not use it and would not get as part as
:26:39. > :26:44.carrying out an electrical test on it. So the birthday present goes
:26:45. > :26:50.back in the box. Beverley has contacted Breeze Board Pro Ford
:26:51. > :26:56.times to ask for at refund but all the e-mails have been ignored. For
:26:57. > :26:59.the safety is the most important thing of anything that Dubai and
:27:00. > :27:06.especially when you have got children using them, I think it is
:27:07. > :27:12.absolutely diabolical. Well, we did manage to get through to Breeze
:27:13. > :27:18.Board Pro and we got the result. Beverley will be getting a full
:27:19. > :27:21.refund, almost ?300. David and Lisa Jones have already had their money
:27:22. > :27:25.back and the company is promising the same for all customers whose
:27:26. > :27:30.boards are of unsatisfactory quality. Breeze Board Pro say they
:27:31. > :27:35.are working with trading standards to make sure their products are
:27:36. > :27:38.safe. Remember if you have bought a hoverboard from any company never
:27:39. > :27:44.leave it charging unattended, especially overnight. And be careful
:27:45. > :27:48.where you use it, it is against the law to ride it on public roads or
:27:49. > :27:57.pavements and the lease good hand you a fine. -- police. That is we
:27:58. > :28:05.have time this week. If you have any stories please get in touch. You can
:28:06. > :28:11.e-mail us. Or follow us on Twitter. Next week the residents of this
:28:12. > :28:19.Rhondda estate are fighting back against a property company. People's
:28:20. > :28:24.lives are on this, I am 70 next year and I want to get this sorted for my
:28:25. > :28:30.family. We will see you next Monday, goodbye.