Episode 4 Cash Britain

-With money short and banks not lending, we're all feeling the pinch.

-What can I do for you?

I would like to pawn this ring.

In desperation, more and more people are turning to pawnbrokers

to raise money against their precious belongings.

And that's instant cash anywhere in the world.

But many then struggle to meet their high charges.

I'm doing seven nights a week to make ends meet.

We don't know what we're going do.

For six months, we've seen how one pawnbroking business in Birmingham is cashing in.

All we want to know is - does your item have value,

are you who you say you are, and does this belong to you?

Keep warm, be polite and make sure everything you take in is gold.

Jesus Christ, you'll never figure out these women ever, will you?

We meet customers who believe time is money...

I mean, my watch is gold,

I reckon I could get £500 for it.

How can I help you, ladies?

..and those who are the unintended victims of the economic downturn.

We're looking for some stolen items.

It's a pity they can't go out

and earn an honest day's living instead of robbing people.

Welcome to Cash Britain.

Greg is redeeming his most valuable possession.

Hello, mate. You all right?

-Yeah, yeah, fine, yes.

-That's a nice big wallet you got there.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Greg's a catering manager.

He pawned a Rolex watch six months ago when he had a big tax bill.

How you doing now, you all right? You working hard?

It's an emergency loan and using one of my watches,

it's a quick way of doing things cos I have to pay my bills on time.

I can't rely on the banks any more

and I can't rely on my customers to pay the bills they owe,

so I've got no alternative.

-It's helped you out over the years, hasn't it?

-Yeah. Oh, yeah.

That's why it's worth having a Rolex, isn't it?

Because you can always get your money back.

You can always get your dosh for it, anywhere you go, innit?

Saved me life a few times, that watch has.

-617.

-Fair enough, here you are.

You buy a watch you always buy a quality watch

like a Breitling or a Rolex or something,

you know, obviously solid gold,

precious metal, then you, er... you get your money back.

-I suppose you want it back now, don't you?

-Yeah, yeah, that I do, I suppose so, yeah.

Two ticks, mate.

-There you are, my man.

-That's excellent.

-Sorted. One watch.

-Thanks very much.

-There you are. See you later.

Yeah, that's great, excellent service, thanks.

That's the particular item there and that's instant cash,

anywhere in the world.

But they're only instant cash if they're the real thing.

And there's a thriving business in fake watches.

Catherine's got a collection she hopes is worth thousands.

You all right, my love? What can we do for you?

A resident where I work has actually given me some watches

cos he's gone back to China.

He's told me they're real, but I just wanted to double check.

Cor blimey! He's got a collection here, hasn't he?

He didn't want to take 'em back with him either?

No, no, he's said he gave them to me as a present.

I was quite shocked he actually gave them to me, to be honest,

and I thought that there's no way they're real.

But I just wanted to double check if they were or they weren't.

Right, that one, that one isn't, that one definitely isn't.

There's a couple of things that aren't quite right with them.

They're a lot lighter than they should be.

They're automatic, so when you spin 'em round, the rotor spins round

and that winds them up but, at the moment, it doesn't want to.

Looking at 'em, I would say that they're not.

They're very good copies, but I'd say they're not.

There's silly little bits and pieces that you look for,

but if they were, he'd probably left you, I don't know,

probably about 5,000 quid's worth of watches.

You know what I mean? You start thinking.

-He didn't like me that much.

-No, that's what I mean,

It's the way you have to look at it, as well,

but they're, they're made quite well,

it's just bits and pieces on 'em that aren't quite right, you know.

So, I'd say they're not, unfortunately.

Sorry about that - in being the bringer of bad news.

-But if you don't ask, you don't know, do you?

-No, that's it.

-OK, thank you very much.

-Okey-dokey, then, my love.

-Thank you.

-Ta-ta, then, bye.

The only way, really, to 100% is to get the back off

but I think I would have known what was in there, anyway,

that they weren't, they weren't genuine ones.

What she's going to do with them, I don't know.

I like this one, I'll probably keep this one for myself, actually.

But these three, I'll either give to my sister,

sell 'em at the car boot or even as a Christmas present.

I haven't really decided, to be honest.

The trade in counterfeit watches is worth millions every year.

But nothing fools Karl.

What you must always realise is - A, is the watch too cheap? -

when somebody's actually trying to sell something to you.

B, does it feel cheaply made? Feel it, is it?

Does it feel six thousand pounds' worth?

Look at the actual face.

See whether or not the face has got any marks on it,

if there's any imperfections on the face,

if there's anything there, check, to see if the movement sounds right.

You want to hear a high beat ticking.

On a lot of the fakes, they haven't got that.

Tap the glass.

It's not like a plasticky sound. That's a crystal glass.

And the most important thing that I would do,

is to check to see whether this is on the stolen or the missing list

and we have a direct line

and they will tell me

whether or not that watch is stolen or has been lost,

or is perfectly OK.

Pawnbrokers are an obvious target for stolen goods.

And Karl has a visit from Lavinia and her daughter, Anne.

How can I help you, ladies?

We've had a burglary. We're looking for some stolen items.

We think they want to be able to sell them.

Right, OK, so, what are the items?

-There's a TV and a laptop and there's also some jewellery.

-OK.

It's been three weeks since the burglary,

but Lavinia's still coming to terms with what happened.

It was a bit of a shock.

They must have come over the gate, which is just here,

and then they just levered this window

with a crowbar or suchlike and...and came through there.

It was...it was such a shock

when we saw that the window had been forced

and the door was unlocked and we went into the living room

and saw the television had gone and, oh, it was just horrible,

and then it was a case of going upstairs

and saw the jewellery boxes on the bed

and it was just heartbreaking, it's horrible.

And I think I was just speechless, in the beginning

and then it began to sink in.

Somebody's been in here,

they've walked up the stairs

and been in all the...

I don't know, it's just a horrible thought,

when you think about it.

But, to you, when it happens,

it is the worst thing that could happen.

Could you describe what kind of ring it is, please?

-Is it a gold ring?

-Yes, yes.

-It's a gold ring,

-It's gold.

-Eighteen carat and five diamonds on a straight.

-So it's an eighteen carat, five diamond.

And then mine would be same again but three on the cross.

-Would that be eighteen carat as well?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Basically they're sentimental value, you know.

-Absolutely.

Those are your prized possessions, aren't they?

-You can't replace them.

-You can't replace them.

Amongst the jewellery was her precious engagement ring.

We were in the pictures, actually, and that was it.

I didn't know anything about it and he just got the ring out.

Nothing posh or elaborate.

The locket, my husband bought it for me

and there was two photographs in it.

One of him when he was doing his National Service and then... and one of me.

Only small, obviously, but it was nice, you know, to have.

Burglary is something Simon's all too familiar with.

All right, love.

I was burgled on Sunday

and a lot of my children's jewellery was taken but it's distinctive gold.

I want to know if anyone had brought anything in.

Yeah, it's worth trying, I mean, I can jot the details down.

'Because of the trade we're in, we get lots of people, if they've had burglaries or they've lost stuff,'

they tend to come into us and ask if...if any of it has been brought in here,

which, as you can see from the amount here, you know, we get quite a few lists,

quite a few enquiries.

I think this is one of those things,

I mean, people think maybe pawnbrokers,

you know, get involved in buying this stuff.

Well, we don't and we don't want to get, you know,

we've never been known for it.

The burglar took a number of quite high value, distinctive pieces of jewellery

and we formed a kind of inventory for you here.

Yeah, let's a have a look here.

You're well prepared, I'll say that. There's some nice bits here.

When anybody does come in, whether they're pawning stuff or whether they're selling it,

we ask for valid ID,

it's got to be no more than three months' old,

and we scan it into the system,

so we've got a record of it on the system

and we actually take their photograph, as well.

You can replace a gold chain or a ring

but you can't replace the sentiment behind it.

If it's something we can look out for, though,

if we can try and help, we will do.

A month later, there was still no sign of Lavinia's jewellery.

I think about it and I wonder if anybody's wearing it

but you don't know really.

It's a pity they can't go out and earn an honest day's living

instead of robbing people of their sentimental things.

George has worked all his life,

but with only his pension to rely on,

he's now always looking for a bargain.

Look at the price.

That's what you call a bargain, isn't it, a pound each?

You could paint the frame and make it look very expensive.

Here's something that would be ideal for the kitchen,

if they cook, for £2.

In my opinion, the best place to buy good quality things

is charity shops because they sell brand new things as well, you know,

they don't just sell second-hand rubbish.

These are made in Greece, so you've heard of the Greek economy.

The drachma is out now, the Europeans have to bail them out.

This is well worth £2 as well, isn't it?

You imagine if this was silver.

You go to an auction and you can't go wrong.

Righty-o.

I'd recommend this paper to anyone who wants to pick up a bargain.

There's everything you can imagine. TVs, hi-fi, anything that I think

I can make a profit out of. You name it.

That's why some people go, they even sell their own grandfather!

Look at this, people wouldn't know that watches would be so expensive.

Up to 50,000 paid immediately if you have these type of watches.

Everybody would love to have a gold watch.

And George has got one

but it's been in the pawn shop for six months,

funding his money-making schemes.

-Hello there.

-Good afternoon.

I've come to take this out if possible.

To redeem something.

Thanks very much, thank you. It's 72.50 to take out.

OK, 50, 20, 70, I've got to find £2.50 now.

You want to see the watch?

It's all in pieces at the moment.

It's just to get assembled together again, so that's the watch.

It's not that I haven't got enough money

but certain some unnecessary bills come along

and you find yourself broke and the only other option

is to pawn your stuff, you know, but I'm not a thief,

so this is the only way to go about it.

-Nice seeing you again.

-Bye, then.

Bye for now.

With the watch back in his pocket,

George hopes it will be the key to his fortune.

Not all watches are reunited with their owners.

One customer didn't pay back a loan of nearly 10 grand

and Gez is determined to get his money back.

We're going to Fellows auctions at the moment

to get the watches valued.

There is some watches that have come off pawn. Fingers crossed,

we should make some money.

-OK.

-Cartier's famous red box.

18 carat, set with diamonds around the bezel.

Now these are half-set pieces so it would have been bought by someone

and then sent elsewhere to have work done.

It doesn't actually add value, like you may expect.

The quality of the stones used is not up to the standards

of Cartier themselves and additionally, Cartier themselves,

they don't look fondly upon their products

getting after-market additions.

So none of the diamonds in that watch are genuine?

-They're not genuine Cartier-set pieces.

-Right, OK.

So that watch is worth how much?

You would be looking at £2,600 on it at auction.

That's a shame, OK.

Bad news for Gez.

To break even, he needs a lot more from the second watch.

All diamonds this time.

I would expect that to be significantly more valuable.

Again, half-set pieces,

not the quality and not the skill that we'd expect.

Even though we've got a lot more diamonds there,

you would be looking at about £2,800 on that at auction.

Gez is facing a loss of £5,000.

If it was a genuine Cartier diamond-encrusted watch,

worth £50,000.

But the fact is, in reality, we've made a loss on those items.

Food for thought there, I think. We'll see what happens.

Having retrieved his gold watch,

George is going to see if he's sitting on a fortune.

Anything to do with gold is worth money.

When I bought this watch,

I paid the guy £80 for it and he refused to take anything off.

He may have paid £80, but he's got his eyes on much more.

There's no cheap watches here, is there?

The cheapest watch I can see in the window is £985.

To be honest, I'm astonished at the prices.

I mean, my watch is gold, so you imagine this,

this is just silver mount on most of these watches.

The price of gold, as we all know, has increased quite a lot,

so it'll be interesting to see how much they value it at.

Good afternoon.

-Hello there, how are you?

-Fine, thank you.

I've got a gold watch here and I just wanted to know

if you could give me an estimate.

It's in a right state at the moment.

I've lost the second hand, so I don't know how you can restore that.

We'll have a look for you.

I'll get my watchmaker who'll be able to give a little bit of an idea.

Thank you very much.

Paul, this gentleman.

Hello there.

The second hand is missing, I can't find it anywhere.

Oh, no, there's a bit more left. There's the winder.

Just bear with me two seconds while I have a look at it,

is that all right? Thank you.

It'll be interesting to see how much they offer me for it.

I reckon I could get £500 for it,

but if you want quality, you have to pay for it.

Well, I found one of the hands,

the minute hand there was caught in the balance wheel.

It's not a high-end watch as such,

but it's still a nice Swiss movement.

Well, there's the hand removed.

Right, sir, I found your minute hand for a start.

Oh, great.

I mean, the watch is not in too bad a condition

but it's the economics of it. The watch is not really worth

spending the money it's going to cost you to repair it.

So, I mean, I'd imagine you'd say the scrap gold value, isn't it?

I mean, I can give you a rough idea of how much that would be

in terms of just the gold value.

So, basically your gold value there's £75,

but that would be if you wanted to just sell it

for the scrap gold value. That is what it would be.

Could you let me think about it for a while?

You'll most likely see me again soon.

-There we are, sir.

-Thank you very much.

Not quite the £500 he'd hoped for,

but George always looks on the bright side.

Told you you can't lose out when it comes to genuine gold prices,

always will be in the money.

Another £5, I'd probably accept the money there and then.

So maybe, perhaps next month, I'll come along again.

Gold prices could go up,

so that's how to go about wheeling and dealing.

When it comes to wheeling and dealing, Gerry Senior is the master.

I started off with nothing at all and you've got to stick at it,

and you've got to work at it and keep going

and you've got to try and learn as much as you can.

-Hiya, Dad.

-How are you doing?

His latest wheeze is a load of silver that cost him two grand

but he's going to show Sammy how to turn a quick profit.

-I like these ones.

-Some damage on some of them.

-They're unusual, aren't they?

-Don't forget when you're my age,

they're going to be even rarer.

That's a lovely set, that, isn't it? Look at it.

It is nice, it's unusual, isn't it?

The hallmarks are all there, look at them.

It's a tragedy to scrap anything like that.

-Yeah, definitely.

-That's beautiful. Look at the workmanship in that.

How do you know they're silver?

Well, it's all the lovely hallmarks on them.

Gerry knows he can get his money back

just by melting the silver down, but he's aiming much higher.

That won't polish out, I don't think.

Yeah, I've got a guy I know, they've been going 150-160 years.

Barraclough's.

His great-great-great-grandad started it

and they're in the same premises, and they've got the same machinery.

Can you take me there?

Coin collector Eddie is also hoping to cash in on his silver.

I tell you what, they're nice, aren't they? That's lovely.

That's the last Concorde.

-I actually went on Concorde, you know.

-Did you?

I tell you what, that's quite a library you've got of coins.

You've got some lovely ones, haven't you? All pure silver.

-They're all silver.

-Right, you say this is probably valued

-at about what, six grand?

-£6,922.65.

I've had to stop collecting cos when I retired, that was it.

-OK.

-Money dried up and I can't afford to keep collecting.

Well, I'll do my best for you,

see what kind of figure we can get to

-and if we can, we can do some kind of deal.

-Sure.

-That be good?

-Yeah, yeah, but I won't let it go for just nothing.

-No, no, no.

Good man. Give you a bell probably tomorrow afternoon or something.

-Thanks, Eddie, I'll be in touch.

-Thank you. Cheers.

Very nice.

Karl's lined up a buyer, coin expert Keith.

OK, Karl. As you can see, a lot of these coins in these boxes

are all the same sort of size, really.

They'll all be .925 or .99 silver.

To be honest, they're all very, very modern, you know,

so all these US dollars are all 1990s or 2000s.

Same with all these coins, they're all very, very modern

and so really they haven't had a chance to appreciate in value

-and they are produced in very large quantities.

-OK.

I mean, you've got things like this produced by the Royal Mint,

beautifully presented, get a certificate of authenticity,

they look really nice, but this is going to be worth about £100

but I'll guess it's probably cost him 250, something like that.

Personally I wouldn't be paying a great deal more

than the scrap value for these.

We can really ascertain some kind of price very quickly on that, can't we?

He's got 239 silver coins.

-He's told you the weight. 4,669 grams.

-At 54p a gram.

So, we're about £2,500.

-So it's cost him...

-He's paid £6,900.

Nearly £7,000, you see.

He's got a loss of £4,400.

You're never going to make any money out of it

-unless you're going to keep them for 30, 40 years.

-Yeah. What a shame.

Time to ruin Eddie's day.

I've got some news for you on the coins.

OVER PHONE: 'Right.'

And I think it's somewhat a lot less than what you've paid.

Obviously, we knew there might be a certain amount in drop.

'Sure, I never expected to get what I paid for them anyway, like,

'but I didn't want to take too much of a loss on them.'

He's come back at a valuation, what he's prepared to pay,

of £2,800.

'How much?'

£2,800.

'Oh, no, I wouldn't let them go for that, no.'

No, I know that. What he actually did say is to keep it

and within time they would increase in value.

Whether they'd increase in value enough towards the figure

that you would like to take for them, I don't know.

'Yep, yep, all right, then, Karl. I'll see you a bit later, then.'

-Thanks, Eddie.

-'OK.'

-See you soon.

-'Cheers, mate.

'Bye now, bye.'

So there we have it, then. I didn't think he'd accept that.

Not a shock to him. Well, shock to him in price,

but I don't think it's a shock to him, he's not going to sell them.

You win some, you lose some.

Will Gerry's bucket of silver be any more valuable?

Paul, the silversmith, will decide.

We've got a few little surprises here for you to look at.

Yep. It's been repaired quite a few times before.

This is full of solderware where the mount's come away.

It's buckled out of shape and if you look down the piece,

you would not hammer and get that back into a flat.

It's worth £1,000 scrap.

If you spent £500 on it, you'd never get that back.

-It's still only worth £1,000.

-It's still only worth £1,000.

Now, there's one damaged in here, Paul.

I don't know what style these are what are they,

-they're pretty modern, aren't they?

-They're modern.

-Are they?

Extremely modern.

Somebody at college or at night school has done it.

OK, so it's something like that, it's not of any real value.

It's not worth any value whatsoever.

OK, that's one thing now.

Now here we are, I wonder what you think of this one.

-Nicely chased, nicely made.

-When you say nicely chased,

what do you mean by that?

This is the embossed work which is knocked up from the back with a tool

and then chased back with tiny tools,

which was a trade on its own

but now I think there's maybe one part-time chaser left in Birmingham

so chasing is a thing of the past.

Blimey. Right, Paul, we've weighed that up and we know scrap value.

It's about 800 grams so that'll be about 400 quid.

£400 to go in the scrap pot.

-It's one for the pot.

-It's one for the pot.

So far, it looks like Gerry is only breaking even

but his son Gez is facing a big loss.

He lent £10,000 on two Cartier watches

but he can't sell them for more than six grand.

Karl's come along to see if he can do any better.

How are you getting on? You all right?

-This is my brother Gerald.

-Gerald, nice to meet you.

Got two little beauties here for you to have a look at.

Some 18 carat gold Cartiers. That's nice. What have we got here?

-Got a fully-loaded one.

-All the stones.

-After set, not original.

-They are, yeah. Well, no, that's right.

OK, that will reflect the price a little bit.

The setting's all right, but it's not done by Cartier.

They're both fine, though. They're good saleable watches.

What are you looking for, lads?

I want your best.

Come on, tell me the figure. What are we close to?

Between 8 and 9K.

8,500. 8,500.

8,8.

8,7. There we go. Come on, have a deal.

We'll go for another 50 on top of that and we've got a deal.

8,750. Go on, then. We'll have a deal, Karl.

It's a pleasure, you're a gentleman. Cheers, lads.

-Thank you very much.

-Appreciate it.

Can you give us a cheque, then, please?

And we'll be out of here.

-OK, no worries, leave it with me.

-Good man.

I think we did OK. And I'm happy, are we happy?

They're still 1,000 down but it could have been much worse.

Thank you very much. See you, Terry. Thank you. Take care.

-Good day, eh? Let's go to the bank.

-Come on, then.

Meanwhile, back at the silversmith's,

Gerry's pinning all his hopes on a tea set.

I mean, what age would you think that would be?

It's a perfect Art Deco four-piece tea set.

Minimal damage, so yeah, that's saleable.

-That's saleable.

-Yeah, it's worth keeping as it is.

What do you think to get it away where, you know,

somebody would be interested in it.

Anything under £2,000

then it should fly out, you know. It's a collectable piece.

Oh, that's really nice to know, yeah.

That means a £1,500 profit. Not bad for a bucketload of silver.

After your advice, Paul, the way I will go with this,

I'll keep the Art Deco set,

I'll scrap the tray and the tea pot and the goblets.

I thought from looking at it at the beginning

that the teapot and the plate would be the most collectable item

-and it's actually that one.

-Yeah.

You've heard the expert. You can't get better than that.

The daddy of the deals has done it again.

Sammy, that's one of the best educations you'll ever get

from a top expert.

And this is what it's all about, doing your homework.

Next time...

two neighbours with a golden friendship...

I'd had a big operation and Maggie made me laugh and split a stitch.

..one dad in a sticky situation...

My son never had any nappies

so I had to actually get the nappies and get some wipes as well.

..and Karl's on the horns of a dilemma.

She's owing nearer £3,000

and I think we need to get some clarity on what she might be doing.

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