Episode 8 X-Ray

You're watching X-Ray, the programme that fights for your rights. If you

have been scammed or dealt a raw deal. We are on your side. Exposing

the truth and tracking down the rogues and we won't take no for an

answer. On tonight's programme -

justice at last for victims of this Basically they threw

the car together just to sell it. My wife, I bought her

a car that could potentially have These six families thought they'd

booked a New Year getaway. But their plans were ruined

by heartless hackers. I got

a phone call back to say she didn't She just immediately said

to me you've been scammed. And Christmas is the season

of peace and goodwill - unless you're fighting over

a bargain on Black Friday! First tonight,

he's one of the worst car dealers we've ever come across, but finally

a rogue trader from right here in Five names in as many years -

the signs over this garage in Barry change, but the man

behind it stays the same. Nasser Asfi - the most complained

about car dealer in town. For years he's been trying to give

his customers - and The business name was changing very

often, this was a way of trying to escape investigation or

obviously prevent us, trading standards, from looking at them and

tracing who was behind the company. But the law has finally caught

up with this slippery trader. He could now be facing jail -

after admitting selling dangerous It shouldn't be on the road,

it was absolutely a death trap. This isn't the first time

Nasser Asfi's been in trouble. Four years ago this court ordered him

to pay back ?11,000 But he didn't stop

and customers who'd been ripped off by his garages began asking us

to expose his dodgy dealings. Linda Savory told us how she paid

eighteen hundred pounds for a Renault Scenic from what was

then Trade Price Cars. But it still had an unpaid

loan against it - which meant If I'd have known then what I know

now, I would not have touched After we got involved,

Nasser paid her back. We then discovered his garage

was selling insurance write offs But when we visited,

we didn't get a warm welcome If I get out I promise you,

I'll smash down your The following year,

we heard more horror stories from Harriet Jenkins, Richard

Aboulachouaq and Garreth Gilbert. All of a sudden my power steering

died going around a roundabout. I was coming off the motorway,

off the slip-road and Driving round about between 50

and 60 miles an hour with We said the car's unsafe,

all of these should have been picked up when the car entered

your dealership, and he just kept saying to me 'I don't sell unsafe

cars, why would I sell unsafe cars. At the same time X-Ray was

investigating, Trading Standards were building a prosecution against

Nasser Asfi and his brother Asghar, Their key witness was Mike Smith,

from Briton Ferry - My wife heard a noise coming

from the back brakes. It was supposed to have just

passed its MOT, and the back of the Mike's car should never have been

on the road. The brakes and suspension were

worn and there was a mysterious And how's this for a quality

repair job - the exhaust had been It looks like it had been standing

in a scrap heap for two years and basically they threw

the car together just to sell it. My wife, obviously, I bought her

a car that could potentially have Mike's case gave Trading Standards

the evidence they needed, There were five vehicles found to be

an unroadworthy and dangerous condition,

these were serious defects which included corrosion, oil leaks,

and issues surrounding tyres. Clearly they were bringing cars in,

and just putting a sales ticket on there without carrying out any

checks whatsoever. But getting Nasser Asfi to admit

them was far more difficult. His story didn't add up at all,

So he denied all knowledge He talked about his brother being

the person in charge and how he gave advice in relation to running

the business with his brother. And when we visited

the garage last year, He's no longer here he's

got nothing to do with us. He has got something to

do with this company. Earlier this year,

Ashgar admitted 10 charges But his brother Nasser was

a harder nut to crack. He insisted the business was owned

by someone else called Jamal Asfi. But that's Nasser's middle name -

which became clear in court. Mr Asfi was granted bail,

and produced a passport which was in the name of Jamal Asfi, which again

pointed back to the director of the company, and eventually he pleaded

guilty to the charges he was facing. Two weeks ago,

Nasser Asfi finally admitted six The garage,

is still open for business and signs claim it's under new management -

but we're not convinced. Shortly after we started filming

here someone did drive on to the forecourt who we believe

was Nasser Asfi. Staff quickly locked the gate,

but we think we spotted Nasser He might have to get used to being

locked up though - he's due to be sentenced next month and could well

be spending Christmas behind bars. We'll let you know what happens

to Nasser Asfi in the New Year. And if you've come

across any cowboy car dealers - or if there's anything else you want us

to look into, then give us a call on The doors are about to open on

another Black Friday - the day when They were acting like animals,

David Attenborough should have been Now Christmas

and New Year are fast approaching! But Rachel's been to meet one group

of friends who aren't feeling The best of friends - this bunch

of mates from Bridgend love to spend Our husbands all went to school

together, then the wives came into it and then

we've had children, so basically we What's it like

when you all get together? Can be chaos, but also a lot of fun,

we love spending time with each other and then as often as we can we

try to get weekends away! And seeing in the New Year together

has become a tradition for New Year's obviously our annual

thing which the children really These get-togethers are

a big deal then, and - as you can imagine - it's not easy

finding somewhere that can cope with This year, it was Gemma's turn

to arrange their festive fun. And in September she spotted

the perfect place in the Usk Valley It was close to home,

not far for us to go and it had enough rooms for us - everything we

were looking for really! Keen to seal the deal, Gemma sent

an e-mail through the booking site, Had a response to say the dates were

unavailable to start with and then within 45 minutes I had another

e-mail to say please ignore the last e-mail, I had the dates mixed up,

we are actually available. Just quickly glanced at it,

obviously was ecstatic that it was Yes, quick book it now - she offered

us a discounted rate if we were to The three night break would

cost ?1,500 and had to be One by one,

the six families sent their money. But when Gemma phoned the owner

of the holiday home to check some final details,

she was in for a horrible shock. I got a phone call back to say she

didn't know what I was talking about - she had sent me an e-mail to

say they were fully booked and she just immediately said to me you've

been scammed - you could imagine, Everybody contacted their banks

but it was too late really cos we Group Accommodation told us there

are no security problems with their website and the breach must

have happened through They quickly removed it

from their listings. But the hackers had already done

the damage. The first e-mail Gemma received

was from the real property owner. But the rest came

from a fraudster who'd hacked They were sent

from an e-mail account with a which suggests

the hacker is based in Spain. To make it look convincing,

the fraudster even copied Gemma's We also spoke to someone else who

was targeted by the same hackers Luckily they spotted

the dodgy e-mail address They will sit there and they

will look at the e-mails they They're looking

for the moment the vulnerability Take this example, 24 people wanted

to have a holiday, very difficult to get a house for 24 people,

and they jumped at it , because it And

when it came to the bank transfer, They used the real property

owner's name, but the account Something Tony has seen

many times before. Really the only thing

the bank are looking at is the sort We traced those details back to

a branch of Natwest in Nottingham. The bank told us

the account is under review, but said it's up to the person

making the payment to check it's Bank transfers are risky, but

if you have to send money this way, always ring the person or company

first - on a landline if they have That way you'll also know

if they're expecting the payment. The National Fraud Intelligence

Bureau estimates that more than two million pounds were lost through

scams like this last year - making online security more

important than ever. We haven't got one key for

everything we do in our life, we can't afford to have one password,

because if that one password is compromised it's compromised

on every single thing we do. Back in Bridgend, Gemma's friends

are angry at what's happened, We've never blamed Gemma,

it was no-one's fault. Be extra careful,

make sure you make that phone call - They're still hoping that the 24

of them can get away for New Year, but at the moment it's not looking

hopeful. This will be the first time in

about six years we haven't gone and we started going when I was about

four years old. holiday booking scams like this are

on the rise - so we've put information on our website

for you on how to spot the signs. And, hacking hit the headlines

on a massive scale last month, when criminals stole the details

of more than a hundred and fifty thousand Talk Talk

customers - including the bank Now, if you're a Talk Talk customer,

the company should have already told you by now whether or not YOUR

details have been compromised. If you haven't heard

from them then you need to call But if your details have been

stolen, what can you do? Well, Gwen Evans is

a solicitor representing a number Gwen, this must be a very worrying

time for people? the people who've contacted me are

understandably very distressed about the matter, they're worried about

matters, they're changing their internet passwords for example,

checking their bank accounts daily, sometimes more frequently than

that, looking for strange activity So very worrying then,

but Talk Talk are saying that if customers have been affected,

or not, they should have received Well as I understand it, there are

a range of categories of data that have been taken from names,

addresses and dates of birth on the one hand through to the top end, the

more serious end of the scale, where credit card and bank account

details have been stolen. Whatever may have been compromised

though, people are going to be Well, of course people can contact

Talk Talk directly and discuss the matter with them.

Alternatively they can contact the Information Commissioner's

office which is an independent body And if people are distressed or

concerned about the matter and their details have been stolen, the

data protection act provides for compensation in these circumstances

so it's important that they seek independent legal advice

from a specialist solicitor. Really useful advice there,

Gwen, thank you very much. And Talk Talk have told us that

if anyone has lost money as a result of the data breach, they

should contact them immediately. They're also offering all customers

free upgrades from next week - and So head to their website

for more information. Next, I've been to Carmarthenshire,

to try and solve the mystery The best slate

in the world comes from North Wales Welsh slate is a huge part

of our history. And it's been used in some of our

nation's most important buildings. More than 1,300 tonnes of slate,

from quarries across North Wales, were used to build the iconic

Wales Millennium Centre. Many of us have slate on our roofs,

but it's In fact,

there's a whole industry built on it, from cheeseboards to placemats,

clocks, even photos on slate! John Tustin from Llangynog

in Carmarthenshire is a big fan of the stuff and knew exactly how he

wanted to use it in his new home. The previous owners had a

South African connection. So they had called

the house Randburg. Now we were coming back to Wales

having travelled the world for over 35 years so we felt it would be more

appropriate to rename the house Nant-Y-Ffin, which actually means

bordered by the stream, and if you look outside the window behind me

there is a little stream that In rural areas

like this there aren't any house numbers or street signs

so a name plaque is very important. Most of the houses have slate signs

so we thought let's follow suit, let's

be part of the village, so we ordered a Welsh slate sign,

which was on a Welsh house, in a John looked online and found a sign

he liked on a website called Bespoke You could design your own slate

sign, the size of the sign, the colour of the font and they promised

they could deliver the slate to you Bespoke Slate boasts that clients

will receive their goods on time, But weeks after ordering it, there

was still no sign of John's sign. We kept ringing and ringing

and getting a message on an answer phone, I left my message

asking them to call me back. Eventually, John had an email

which said there had been Bespoke Slate reassured John that

his sign had been made Just one snag -

he'd have to pay all over again! I thought, are you taking me

for a fool. What do you think I am? Stupid!

I said, no, I'm not paying again. So I emailed them back

and said Thank you very much but as you've got the sign and

as it's ready then send it to me. In the end,

John gave up and luckily, his credit So financially,

his slate was wiped clean. John now has a new sign

from the local market. But he's not

the only one who's had problems with Bespoke Slate. Online there are

dozens of very similar complaints! Rhondda Cynon Taf Trading Standards

have told us that in the last six months they have received 64

complaints about Bespoke Slate. Then in September the website

mysteriously disappeared. It seemed Bespoke Slate

had stopped trading. When we did some digging,

we found this from 2010. An identical looking website called

Prestige Slate - it even has And you might recognise

the man behind it, Alex Mills, a former Apprentice candidate with

amazing eyebrows, but not such 140 customers complained

about Prestige Slate to Trading Standards. I don't think

Lord Sugar would have been impressed Alex Mills sold Prestige

Slate two years ago. But a former employee later bought

the website and rebranded it. His name is Gareth Jones

and he is also the man behind three Premier Slate -

which was also closed recently. And Trading Standards have

had plenty of other We spoke to one customer of

Quality Slate who did actually receive her sign, although it was

anything but quality! We decided to pay Gareth Jones

a visit, at the address listed on the websites of Quality

and Luxury Slate. And according to the neighbours,

there hasn't been for two months! Well, we finally got hold of

Gareth Jones and he denies changing his company

names to avoid paying back customers Gareth Jones admits he has made

mistakes, but blames his payment As a gesture of goodwill,

he's offering to make him Trading Standards told us they're

keeping a close eye on Mr Jones's Now there are just 31

days until Christmas and the shops So what's your strategy for getting

a good deal on your presents? Let's see what people here in Barry

are doing this year. How are you doing on your Christmas

shopping? First day. Any tips

for getting good deals? Um,

online is a very good idea I save I get loads through petrol

and stuff like that, so we tend to shop with them and it's really good,

the kids get to choose, I give them the vouchers. I bought the wrapping

paper 2 days ago and it's all done, What about all the presents though,

when do you buy them? I start in the January sales and I

finished yesterday, I've been looking at car boots

and charity shops, really, Is she a pretty savvy shopper,

is she? That's a secret, innit,

between me and Santa. Well,

this week sees the busiest shopping But is it the best day to bag

a bargain? A man of courage who'll stop

at nothing to get what he wants. Right, let's go Christmas

shopping! Black Friday is an American concept.

On the day after Thanksgiving, shops offer dramatic discounts to

boost profits and get them The idea has now caught on here,

but it's led to frenzied scenes Last year we spent more than ?800

million on Black Friday. Experts are already predicting that

this Friday's bargain bonanza will be the UK's first ever ?1 billion

shopping day. John Swan was swept up

in last year's Black Friday fever. He fancied a new games console

at his local Tesco superstore in I was really overwhelmed with

the amount of people who turned up there and how stupid it all got -

all to save a couple of pounds. There was old people stood in front

of me and when the clock hit 12 they There was nowhere near enough for

the amount of people who turned up. They were acting like animals

and David Attenborough should have In the end, the police had to be

called in to control the crowds. Definitely not one

for me this this year, I won't be going, I'll probably be better off

just waiting for the January sales. Asda,

which led the charge in bringing Black Friday to the UK - has said it

won't be doing it this year. Plenty

of shops will still be slashing prices on everything from fashion to

fridges - but not necessarily Sometimes you'll find that

the retailers are looking at the end of line stock,

or there are new versions come out. So they may have just

a limited set of televisions, for example, of 30 for example and

300 people are queuing for them. Now, the excitement is:

will you get that deal? But if you plan, and the stores

hopefully this year are being more security conscious and organised,

then it can be a great experience If you decide to brave Black Friday,

it's worth having a wish list, and a budget to avoid those impulse

buys. Aw, Lucy is going to love

this jellyfish mood lamp. But if you miss out on those

Black Friday deals, don't panic. Because three days later,

on November 30th, another bargain It's called Cyber Monday, and no,

it doesn't mean we're going to be It's another retail ritual imported

from the States that's led to It's the day

when internet shopping reaches its pre-Christmas peak, with a wave

of online only deals and discounts. So will people here

in Cardiff be grabbing a festive Yeah,

but what about things you want to I just like being able to walk

into a shop. Hold something.

If you want to try something on. You get a better understanding

of what you're buying I come in and I'll have

a look round and then probably go I just went to look at aftershave

and I can get it ?8 cheaper online. Yeah, that's a lot of money. So

everyone's having aftershave As consumers we have more choice

than ever of how and when we shop. But on Cyber Monday don't click that

mouse Remember, if you haven't

purchased in the store before, you That's your name, your address

and register to join their site. Now, if you're sitting there

at midnight and thinking, I'm going to purchase this and you've still

got to fill out all the details you So what can we do

as shoppers to make sure that we get Looking at the add on delivery cost,

just check that by the time you've got the ticket discount item,

that the delivery costs, for you, are not going to bring that item

back up to full price. You could do a way

of actually ordering online and then click and collect,

so that you can collect in store. The benefit is that you can inspect

the goods straight away and you can return in store straight

away if it's the wrong item. So there you have it,

a few festive tips on how to spend Talking of which, I've still got

to buy all of Lucy's presents. But where

on earth am I going to find That's all we've got time

for tonight! Remember, if there's anything you'd

like us to investigate, do get in touch - the number is 03703 334 334,

drop us an email [email protected], Steve and Elena wanted to be

in their dream family home But instead,

their new house looks like this. The quality of workmanship

that's been carried out on this It's no more than

a DIY job gone wrong!