Episode 2 My Worst Deal

We all like to think we're getting a fair deal for our money,

whether buying, selling or taking out a loan,

and when times are hard it matters even more.

But many of the deals on offer could cause you real problems.

Some could even wreck your life.

On today's programme.

The ex-soldier whose deal with his bank left him over £100,000 in debt.

-You got a pound coin on you?

-No.

-50p?

-No.

-So you haven't got a penny on you?

The woman who took on her bank and won.

I've got a new nickname. It's Bankslayer!

We head out with the UK's Illegal Money Lending team

as they crack down on the worst deal in Britain, loan-sharking.

And the victim who did a deal with a loan shark

and paid the price for 19 years.

I was laid up ill on the settee once and he started knocking into me.

My mate come around and tried sticking up for me and he actually beat the living daylights

out of my mate in front of my kids.

Alan is 31 years old, homeless and penniless.

He now stays at his brother's house, all because of

the worst deal he ever made, with his bank, Northern Rock.

Alan joined the army when he was 18 and served his country for 10 years.

He was part of the peace-keeping force in Kosovo

and also fought in Afghanistan.

That's what I wanted to do, I wanted to fight for my country.

That's why you join the Army.

You sign your oath of allegiance, and that's a proud moment.

Even though the Army was his childhood dream,

for the sake of his marriage, Alan decided to leave.

But it wasn't easy for him in civvy street.

I struggled because when I decided to come out, the world just

went into financial meltdown.

As Alan tried to find a decent job, his marriage fell apart.

When he became single, he was left with £20,000 worth of debts

made up of a loan, credit cards and all the basics -

phone, electricity and gas bills.

The stress was starting to show.

Stopped sleeping. It's almost like I'm allergic to sleep. You don't get a good night's sleep.

You fall asleep a little bit,

and something will trigger your brain, a bill or a phone call that you've had, or anything.

And it stops you...

it stops the way you normally are as a human being.

The stress just takes over.

In March 2011, the nightmare he dreaded actually happened.

Northern Rock repossessed his home.

When they resold the house at auction,

all they got for it was £67,000.

The shortfall against the mortgage was a massive £83,000.

This was money they expected Alan to pay quickly.

This was a terrible deal for Alan.

The veteran's debts were then a whopping £102,000.

It was almost too much to cope with.

I carried on, just feeling more depressed and more depressed

and then I got to the beginning of May and that's when I was - depending on your point of view -

selfish, silly, foolish and reckless.

That's when I tried to commit suicide.

Former policeman Mike Thomas is a registered debt counsellor

with 17 years experience.

He runs a website giving free advice to people with money worries.

He fights for the consumer rights of those who have taken up deals

they now regret.

Today, he's responding to an SOS call from Alan.

It would appear that the debts are getting too big an issue.

I've got to go in, find out what's going on, get to the bottom of it,

and see if I can find a way forward.

Today, Mike Thomas is meeting Alan for the first time.

To start, Mike works out Alan's budget, and he's quite shocked.

What do you spend on food?

-About 30.

-For the month?

-I'm not kidding.

Look in my cupboards.

That's my fridge. They're not mine, they're my brother's. Been there since he was last here.

I'm stunned. I've never seen anything like this.

I can't believe a bloke at 30 years of age in this country is living on £30 a month and surviving, on food.

Following such shocking evidence, Mike returns to Alan's budget.

Alan currently has a job in a parking lot -

but nearly everything he earns goes to pay off his debts.

Mike thinks he could negotiate with the creditors to leave him more to live on.

What if I said to you I could give you £50 a week?

It would properly, properly change my life. It just would.

As of this moment, no matter what solution we come to,

you're going to have £50 a week to spend on food and toiletries.

And there's no way a creditor or person that you owe money to

is going to get away with making you live on £30 a month. That's going to stop as of now.

Unfortunately, Mike's increased food budget has come too late to

save Alan's best friend, Henry.

I couldn't afford to feed him, so I had to let him go.

I had to make a choice, it was horrible.

He was the last thing that I lost,

the last thing, he really was - the last thing that... It broke my heart.

As the meeting continues, Mike learns more and more about Alan's lifestyle.

If I asked you now to find some cash, how much could you put your hands on in a couple of minutes now?

Nothing. There's nothing in the house.

-Nothing. Never any...

-Have you got a £1 coin on you?

-No.

-50p?

-No.

So you haven't got a penny on you?

Alan then explains to Mike the action that Northern Rock took.

-This is the Northern Rock...

-Yes, the outstanding Northern Rock.

What do you think your house was worth?

Someone said 112, then the property sold at auction, I think, for 67.

£67,000?

Someone's bought themselves an absolute bargain, at your expense.

-When did they buy that?

-It must have been around four weeks ago.

And already Northern Rock are writing to you asking for methods of repayment.

This is ridiculous.

Alan says Northern Rock offered him no advice or sympathy

and little time to pay.

We asked Northern Rock to comment.

They told us -

You've got £96 a month left over, give or take,

and that is to pay nearly £102,000.

After checking all the facts and figures, Mike has come to

the conclusion that there is only one sensible thing for Alan

to do to escape the consequences of his mortgage deal.

I've been with you now a number of hours

and I can clearly see what a hell of a time you've been through.

I see lots of people in my life, but you're in one of my top ten.

I just cannot believe how you've managed to survive and do things.

The option for you that is screaming is bankruptcy,

and it is the only way forward.

What it will do, it will ring fence all your other creditors,

it will stop these people from telephoning you, taking court action,

attachment of earnings.

You will deal with one authority,

which is the OR, Official Receivers Office, who are there to support you

provided you'll be an honest bankrupt, which is what you are.

You are an honest consumer bankrupt, I don't foresee any problems whatsoever.

And it's designed, it's legislation to rebuild your life,

because you're paying taxes, you're paying national insurance,

you're contributing to society, but you're getting dragged down by this debt that you can't deal with.

You've had triggers in your life.

For goodness sake, you've had a separation, you took a pay cut when

you came out the Army, it made you ill, it made you very unwell, you've

lost an awful lot of things, it's about time you started to rebuild.

But we've got a problem, how are you going to get the bankruptcy fees?

Going bankrupt costs £700 in fees, which Alan simply couldn't afford.

But Mike believes he can get an Army welfare organisation to meet those costs.

If he can, bankruptcy could come very quickly.

What if I said to you that if I can get these fees paid for you,

you could go bankrupt in the next three, four weeks,

and put an end to it all.

That's like a winning lottery ticket.

As the day ends, Mike leaves Alan to think about what he's been told.

This means more to me than I could simply put into words.

Every day it's always on my mind, every day I'm expecting someone to knock on my door.

Every day I'm expecting phone calls, every day I'm worrying how I'm going to make ends meet.

Every single day this is always on my mind.

Later, we'll see if Alan can end his mortgage nightmare.

But first, with people living on less, unsure of their jobs,

and their credit ratings pushed to the limit,

more of us are relying on stores that offer less stringent

credit checks and pay-weekly terms to buy household essentials.

But do these deals represent good value?

We've had a look at the deals from the UK's three most successful

pay-weekly stores.

Since the recession, business has been booming.

These stores allow people to buy items like cookers,

fridges and sofas, by paying in weekly instalments.

'At BrightHouse you can pay weekly for the things you need.'

'You'll want somewhere with

'the lowest weekly payments on the biggest brands.'

'There's something for everyone at Buy As You View.'

Sally doesn't want us to identify her, so it's not her real name.

She lives with her four children,

so when she needed a new cooker,

it was an essential she couldn't do without.

Unable to work, she thought pay-weekly was the most sensible option,

and visited her local Perfect Home store.

I went to Perfect Home to get the cooker

because they don't do credit checks, you have to give three references.

But, as simple as it was to buy the cooker,

the actual cost was a little more confusing.

She signed an agreement for a cooker which cost £927.99.

On top of that were three years of interest, totalling £404.25.

She was also sold maintenance vouchers costing £647.61,

with interest payable on those over three years of £280.59.

She was also to pay £3.09 per week for insurance.

That totalled £482.04.

And finally, she paid £105 to have the cooker installed.

So her £900 cooker was going to cost her £2,847.48.

Sally was to pay £17.58 a week.

To be quite honest, I went in with my eyes closed, to be fair.

Although the cooker would cost her over £2,800, because she was

only paying £17.58 a week, Sally thought it was affordable.

The same cooker was recently on sale in several leading high street stores

for under £700.

Damon Gibbons is the director of the Centre for Responsible Credit

and he thinks these types of deals are very bad news for people like Sally.

Our biggest concern about this sector of the credit industry is the cost.

The fact that they are targeted to people on low incomes and for whom

many people will have had problems repaying credit in past.

Once you've added in some of the optional service covers

and insurances it's a huge amount to pay.

It really is a problem of the poor paying the most for essential items

which anybody really needs in their home in today's day and age.

Damon's been investigating

whether the deal Sally got was typical or unusual.

On the same day in the Midlands, he visited BrightHouse and Perfect Home,

and spoke to a salesman about what deal he could expect on a typical

home necessity, a fridge freezer, one that was stocked at each store.

He also checked out the same fridge freezer on Buy As You View -

who don't operate on the high street, so he went onto their website.

The mid-range fridge freezer we chose was widely available

in other stores for around £600.

So I'm on the Buy As You View website,

and I've found the fridge freezer.

It gives the headline price, the cash price of the item,

and then it gives the weekly rate.

Doesn't really talk about any additional covers, or insurances which might be required.

Damon couldn't actually find all the information

he wanted on their website so we rang them direct to get the details.

'There's something for everyone at Buy As You View.'

The Buy As You View deal works out like this -

the fridge freezer costs £799.99.

The interest would be £589.87.

A total of £1,389.96.

But if the optional maintenance

and insurance is taken,

the new total is £1684.80

Then Damon visited BrightHouse.

I think BrightHouse were fairly up front with regards to pricing,

and the way that was composed of the cash price of the goods,

the optional service cover, and damage liability cover.

But Damon had a problem finding out

the full details of the deal in the store.

We were asking for a copy of the terms and conditions to

be given to us, and there was a real reluctance to do that.

We both love our weekly payment store!

The BrightHouse deal works out like this -

the fridge freezer costs £724.97.

The interest would be £318.67.

A total of £1,043.64.

But if the optional maintenance

and insurance is taken,

the new total is £1,845.48.

Next up, Perfect Home.

I think with Perfect Homes it was difficult to get

the information that most consumers would want from a salesperson.

There were some missing key bits of financial information on the actual fridge freezer itself.

So, for example, it didn't tell you about the insurance aspects of it,

and it was a bit vague when it came to exactly how much money that was going to cost.

'If you want the perfect home, then come to Perfect Home.'

The Perfect Home deal works out like this -

the fridge freezer costs £799.99.

Total interest would £295.13.

A total of £1,095.12.

But if the optional maintenance and insurance is taken,

the new total is £2,168.40.

So the worst deal on that fridge freezer,

that you could buy elsewhere for £600,

was Perfect Home at £2,168.40,

if you include optional maintenance and insurance.

Even beyond the issue of price alone, there's a question mark here

around the terms and conditions, the transparency

how these things are sold to people,

and whether or not they're really in a position to exercise choice.

We asked the companies to comment.

Buy As You View told us -

BrightHouse made this statement -

Perfect Home did not respond.

If you've got money troubles, then the type of deal you do with

your creditors is critical. Get it wrong and you could lose your home.

Mandy Farmer is on the brink of becoming one of the 100 people

every day who have their homes repossessed.

Mandy had worked for many years with no money worries.

When her father died, she moved in with her mother to

the old family home.

I've lived with my mum because once my dad passed away she didn't want

to be on her own. It's been the family home for 55 years.

I've lived here,

I've been brought up here, I've grown up here, all the memories are here.

Back in 2008, Mandy made what would become a disastrous deal.

She consolidated her unsecured debts with her mother's,

and secured them against the family home.

I was finding it was costing me

more to pay it all separately than it was to get it all paid

in the one payment, and it was easier each month to do it that way.

Mandy had a regular salary, so there were no problems with repayments.

But in 2009, her mum had devastating news.

About a year ago, year-and-a-half ago, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

I had to wash her, I had to clean her, had to feed her. If we went out,

she had to be put in a wheelchair, I was literally doing everything.

I then had to give up my full-time job

because she needed 24-hour care.

So, with her mum dependent on her at every turn,

and now with no income, Mandy had no choice but to claim benefits.

She called the finance company who had given her the loan straight away.

I explained the situation and that I would only be receiving

Carer's Allowance until whenever,

and sort of tried to make an agreement with them

and sort a form of payment out.

But the finance company was adamant.

They wanted the full amount due to be paid every month

and they wouldn't renegotiate a smaller amount

while Mandy was in difficulties.

Once they said to me they needed

the full amount, I just couldn't afford it.

Being on Carer's Allowance,

it was more than what I was getting for Carer's Allowance.

There wasn't a lot I could do, just panic, basically,

because I knew I was going to get this debt.

For the next 12 months, Mandy gave her mum the best care she could,

until one day she was admitted to hospital.

I went in to see her, I walked into the ward, and said hello,

gave her a kiss, turned away, turned back, and that was it, she was gone.

So within five minutes, if I was five minutes late, she'd have been gone.

Mandy contacted the finance company to let them know of her mum's death.

She told them she was no longer entitled to Carer's Allowance.

In short, she was living on even less money.

My mum passed away end of April.

The first letter I got was about the end of May, beginning of June,

to say they'd be going to court and taking possession of the house.

Mandy had found herself in the same awful position

as tens of thousands of other people.

Due to circumstances beyond her control,

she was unable to repay a loan that was secured on her home.

That deal meant she now risked repossession of the property

that had been in her family for 55 years.

The house where she grew up.

I think I just burst out crying.

That day, as soon as I read the letter, I thought, that's it,

I've failed, I've lost the house.

I was sort of still grieving for my mum.

I just collapsed in tears.

Later, we'll find out if Mandy can save the family home.

It's an early morning start in Hull for the Illegal Money Lending Team.

They target the loan sharks who prey on people with poor credit histories.

A deal with a loan shark is the worst deal imaginable.

Today, with local police, they have a warrant to search

the home of Lee Bates, a man they suspect of illegal money lending.

The officers knock on the door. There's no answer.

The team are ready to force entry.

Then one of the officers spots Lee Bates in an upstairs window.

Open the door!

Just as the police prepare to make their way into the property,

someone answers the door.

Once inside, the search begins.

DOG BARKS

Tony Quigley is the head of the national Illegal Money Lending Team.

What he wants is evidence of the loan shark's victims -

perhaps a loan book listing people who have borrowed money,

computer records, or cash.

His team deal with the victims of loan sharks on a regular basis

and some of their stories are harrowing.

Mike, which is not his real name,

says borrowing from a loan shark was his worst deal.

He wants to remain anonymous because he still fears for his safety.

He paid a loan shark for 19 years and suffered intimidation and violence.

It all started with a £300 loan to buy a car from

someone he thought was being helpful - a deal he would live to regret.

When I couldn't pay him, he increased what I owed him.

Then he'd increase the payments and it just got right out of control.

He never once told us what interest he was going to put on, never told us how much we owe him.

If we ever asked it was just, "Oh, you owe me a lot."

I was laid up ill on the settee once, and he just started knocking into me.

Me mate came around and tried sticking up for me, and he beat the living daylights out of my mate,

in front of my kids.

And so...

We just continuously paid, because of the intimidation.

He was the very first thing that we made sure we paid, week in, week out.

Weren't bothered about rent, water, food, gas, electric, weren't bothered about none of that,

as long as he was paid first.

Because if we didn't pay him, I was liable to get another hiding.

When he couldn't meet the payments,

Mike often borrowed more money from the loan shark to pay back

the original loan, and it had a devastating effect on him and his family.

It affected me relationship with me wife, at times we split up.

I ended up with depression, I lost me job because of depression.

I tried to commit suicide, the police picked me up one day, well, one night.

I had a rope in the back of the car, was going to hang myself, they stopped me.

I had a heart attack because of the stress.

I collapsed at work, because I was so ill and should have taken time off, but daren't because obviously

I wanted to keep on paying him.

Mike estimates that across those 19 years,

he actually borrowed about £2,500.

But what he paid to the loan shark was an awful lot more.

In excess of 90,000.

That is a rough guess.

The early morning raid by the Illegal Money Lending Team

on the home of suspected loan shark Lee Bates continues.

Head of the team, Tony Quigley, is waiting to see

if his officers have found evidence to warrant an arrest.

Officers are in the property at the moment, examining paperwork and bits and pieces,

to see whether or not there's any evidence to be seized,

and then we'll have a decision on whether or not there's sufficient to effect an arrest.

The search has taken most of the morning.

The officers cannot afford to leave anything to chance,

and work to ensure nothing is missed.

Search every room, and inspect all the documentation,

and we believe that we have found some material

that is worth seizing.

And there's some cash as well that will be taken.

Finally, with the search at an end,

the team believe they have enough evidence for an arrest.

I am arresting you on suspicion of illegal money lending,

collecting, also money laundering between October 2010 to present day.

You do not have to say anything...

The Illegal Money Lending Team are carrying out raids like this

continually across the country.

The next step in this case is to discover who else may be involved

and who may be a victim.

One of the key things is that we move as quickly as we can now

to establish who's involved and what size the operation is.

And it's quite clear, really, that we need to identify people who may have

had loans from this particular person.

Lee Bates was subsequently charged

and convicted of two counts of illegal money lending.

He received a two-year community order plus 180 hours of unpaid work.

Mike, who was a victim of a different loan shark,

eventually contacted the Illegal Money Lending Team

after reading about another of their successful operations.

I see a bit in the newspaper about another loan shark being caught

and there was a contact e-mail on there, so I contacted the loan shark team.

The loan shark texted me the following day saying it was pay day.

I arranged to meet him, and he turned around and said, "If the money's not paid then I'll go after your wife."

That was the final straw. I then contacted the loan shark team again,

sat down and spoke with one member of them.

He was absolutely fantastic, everything he promised and assured me, he delivered.

Mike's loan shark was prosecuted, pleaded guilty

and received a prison sentence.

When I heard he'd been sent down, I mean, I'm a man, I don't admit to nearly crying,

and I did, I nearly cried.

Just with relief.

Mike's case is just one of many that the Illegal Money Lending Team

deal with all the time.

The stories, though tragic, are often so similar.

With most of these illegal lenders, they come across as your best friend.

It's all about trapping you into that spiral of debt.

You know, if they were nasty to you from the start, you would stay away from them.

But they appear to be the knight in shining armour.

You're in financial difficulties and they come through the door and everything they can help you with.

That's how they respond, and it is that relationship, you know, we're best buddies.

Yeah, I'll give you the money, and I'll give you that instant decision.

But it's when you find you have further difficulties, when you see the real side of them.

It's made a massive difference. Me and me wife, we get on so well now, we don't argue,

because there's no money issues.

Before we wouldn't have dreamt of going to Blackpool, or going to Dorset,

but in April, we're going to Blackpool.

In September-time, hopefully, we're going to be going down to Dorset, if I can get time off work.

It's just so much difference.

The small market town of Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire

is the home of an unlikely heroine.

Josie Lewis's worst deal brought her to the brink of a financial disaster.

But it wasn't with a back street lender, or an online loan company.

Instead, she took on her bank, the mighty HSBC.

It was all about these, her bank charges.

None of us like them, but for Josie they led to an extraordinary confrontation at the bank.

I've always been on a low wage so money has been tight.

Once I start getting into financial difficulties, it is difficult to get out.

When she did not have enough funds to cover direct debits,

she incurred bank charges.

She got into a cycle of missing more payments and getting more charges.

It reached a point where the bank was taking nearly

a third of my salary in bank charges,

which then means there are insufficient funds

to pay your mortgage, Council Tax and essential bills.

The deal then got even worse.

Josie had to have an overdraft of £1,000 to help cover

some of the outstanding bank charges on her account.

One day, she was surprised to hear from the bank that they wanted

all the outstanding charges paid off immediately.

She simply couldn't afford it. She was unable to pay.

Far from helping its customer with their finances,

the bank itself had become the problem.

I had 2,440 in bank charges. That kept my account in the red by 2,100.

Worried the bank would use her wages to pay off all the outstanding charges,

and leave her with nothing,

Josie felt forced to open a bank account elsewhere.

She then asked HSBC to put the account on hold.

I wrote to the bank saying, "You will freeze my account.

"It is not to be used. There are no standing orders to go out.

"There are no transactions whatsoever to be going out."

That didn't work. The bank just ignored it.

HSBC continued to draw money from the account,

putting charges on top of charges.

-Josie was desperate for help.

-I wrote to the ombudsman.

He found in my favour. It took ages. It took several months, but he found that bank charges were causing

financial hardship and the bank must deal with these sympathetically.

As a result of her complaint,

the bank offered her £440 to help cover two months' worth of bills.

But that was by no means the end of the matter.

It seemed to Josie that the bank then became

more relentless in pursuing the outstanding charges.

I kept getting hundreds of phone calls,

some of which were threatening.

'Saying to me, "Miss Lewis, you owe was money. When are you going to pay us?

'"These calls won't stop unless you pay us the money."'

It would be on your mind all the time and I can see how people

get suicidal when they've got debts and when someone is chasing them for money.

Josie decided that things had come to a head

and she needed to speak to the bank manager.

Mr Hicks said, "OK, we'll go into the interview room

"and we'll discuss the bank charges."

When we went into the interview room,

he made a big point of locking the door.

He was making it very purposeful, locking the door.

He was making a point of it. That is what I found scary.

He sat down and said,

"We'll go through a financial review for you."

Then he said, "I'm sorry, Miss Lewis. I can't stop these charges."

Josie felt that if he could not do anything about the charges,

the interview was pointless and got up to leave.

Again, he's across the door like this. "No, no, Miss Lewis, it's all right."

By this time, I'm asking to be let out.

The girls have heard all the commotion and they have come through

from the rear door of the interview room to see what is going on.

They could see I was scared. They could see I was in tears.

They could see I was frightened, but I don't think

they had been trained to deal with a situation like that.

The next day, Josie lodged a complaint with the bank.

But the investigation was led by Mr Chris Hicks -

the very man who had locked her in his office.

As she battled to sort out her finances,

with no help from her bank, Josie looked for a way out.

It was affecting my working life, my concentration, my sleep and all

my time was being taken up writing to the bank, dealing with the bank.

I put all my debts with the debt management agency,

that means that the bank and any creditors cannot harass you for money.

They have to deal with the debt management agency.

Whale Josie thought this would be a solution, the bank obviously didn't.

They continued to harass her.

The calls continued. I was getting nowhere with the bank.

I was getting very distressed, having sleepless nights.

The only option was to take the bank to court.

But she didn't have enough money to pay a solicitor for the hearing,

so she represented herself.

I won my case. I won it on three counts.

The judge found that the bank had failed in its care and professional

skill in handling my account.

She found that the bank was guilty of harassment with phone calls, which were threatening.

She also found that the bank manager was guilty of false imprisonment

and that he had caused intimidation and distress during that interview.

After months of fighting with HSBC, they eventually apologised to Josie.

The judge ordered that the bank discharge

over £2,000 worth of charges.

I'm really pleased and lots of other people have since said to me

what a brilliant job I had done.

I had had the strength to see it through.

I've got a new nickname. It's Bankslayer.

Mandy Farmer's worst deal was with a finance company that said

they would consolidate her loans and secure them against her property.

It's a deal that has left her on the brink of losing her home.

Mandy was about to get some help.

She lives in Basingstoke and the local authority

had been startled by the high number of repossessions in the area.

The council employed Mark Fisher, an expert debt adviser.

His mission was simple.

To stop Basingstoke's properties from falling into the control

of the banks and finance companies and keep people in their homes

if at all possible.

This is about the stability of the community.

Homeowners and businesses form the backbone of our community.

What we want to do is keep people where they are.

If we see people moving out of their homes,

they have got to be going somewhere.

If we presume they are not all leaving the borough,

they must be moving in with other people,

so they can be putting pressure on other homes.

It will be difficult with the housing register because people will be

looking to come onto an already stressed housing register.

Because councils have to be informed about repossession orders,

Mark became aware that Mandy was due in court

and on the brink of losing her home.

I'm one of these that tries to sort it out myself,

but it has obviously got to the stage this time where I can't.

I am hoping, relying on Mark.

With just two days until the court hearing, Mark needs

to prepare a concrete defence and he has got something up his sleeve.

Any loan under 25,000 is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act.

That means that you can apply for something called a time order.

A time order means asking the court to change the deal and give you

more time to pay a loan if you have fallen behind with the payments,

irrespective of what the original deal stated.

The judge has absolute discretion to do whatever

he chooses in that case about the repayment.

It is based on the means to pay and the intent to pay.

But getting a time order isn't necessarily easy.

It means Mandy must appear in court and tell the judge about her difficult personal circumstances

and convince the court that she will pay the loan.

If they repossess the house, I haven't got any plans

because, at this precise moment, I've got nowhere to go.

I'll be living in my car.

It's the big day and Mandy drives off to the court.

She leaves her home not knowing if she has a future there.

Mark arrives at the court too and he tries to help Mandy keep calm.

-Feeling nervous?

-Scared.

You won't have to say anything.

All the judge is going to do is ask you who you are.

He will understand you are a bit nervous.

It's just a case of what we can put in front of him

that he's going to be happy with.

I just got it in my head that I'm not going home after today.

Can't tell with the court because it's down to the judge,

not what I think. It's what the court thinks.

I think the best thing is we go in there and keep our fingers crossed.

-Are you all right?

-I think so.

-You won't have to do a lot.

Just follow my lead, all right?

OK.

After an agonising legal battle, finally,

Mandy and Mark emerge from the courts.

Yeah, we got a time order.

It is going to be reviewed after four months,

but we got all the terms that we wanted.

Yeah.

The solicitor didn't know where he was.

-He didn't know where to look.

-We got a good result there.

Excellent. I'm really pleased.

Mark put the case to him about what we would offer and all that.

He just looked through it and agreed with it, basically.

I've got to come back for a review in about four months.

I've still got a home.

SHE LAUGHS

Thanks ever so much. I'll speak to you in four months.

Mandy's time order means she keeps her home,

but must pay the new agreed amount.

The court will review in four months to make sure she is doing what she promised.

They saved my home, they saved me. They saved everything.

I probably see 20-30 repossession hearings every month

that comes to Basingstoke.

Our success rate of keeping people in their homes is about 85%.

We think that's really good.

Most of that is by people picking up the phone, talking to us, turning up at court.

She has gone from an absolutely hopeless situation,

not knowing where she'll be, to being able to remain in her home.

I think we can all appreciate what that would mean inside.

Earlier, we heard about ex-soldier Alan Wilson's worst ever deal

with his bank Northern Rock.

They repossessed his house that was worth £112,000

and sold it at auction for just £67,000.

Only around half of what he owed on his mortgage.

They then chased Alan for the shortfall.

Registered debt counsellor and former policeman Mike Thomas

has advised him to declare himself bankrupt and since his last visit,

an Army charity has agreed to pay the bankruptcy fees.

Today, with his girlfriend and Mike,

he arrives at Stoke-on-Trent County Court for his bankruptcy hearing.

Bankruptcy still carries a stigma for many people.

For someone in Alan's position, who has already lost their home

and has little prospect of ever repaying their debts,

Mike believes it is the only sensible option.

Going bankrupt would mean all Alan's financial

affairs would be looked after by the official receiver or a trustee.

Basically, he would become free from debt.

As a bankrupt, he wouldn't be allowed to do

some things like get credit for over £500 without disclosing bankruptcy.

Most first-time bankrupts are discharged after one year.

I'm nervous. I've never been in this environment before.

I am quite nervous.

I don't know how the protocol works or what is going to be said to me.

I hope they'll look favourable on me and see that I have tried.

I have not just tried to enjoy myself.

And this is how I got there.

Hopefully, they will go in my favour.

An hour and a half later, Alan comes out of the court, officially declared bankrupt.

-Are you all right?

-It's done now.

-His debts are now behind him.

-That's it.

Alan has become one of the 330 or so people who are going

bankrupt in the UK every day.

I don't believe it. Honestly, I can't believe that's it.

Happy?

Yeah, I just can't believe it.

Thanks, Mike. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

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