Episode 28 Inside Out

The MP, Charlie Elphicke,

denies any wrongdoing.

Now on BBC News, it's Inside Out

We are going in search of investors

who will ask money is.

I did trust

that company.

This is no different

to hand in your life savings over to

a man in the pub and hoping that he

will give it back to you again one

day.

Leave the camera.

Also coming

up, the online love rats breaking

hearts and busting bank accounts.

It's like a part of the world

disappears and I also felt quite

ashamed that I could have been so

silly.

And learning the ropes. My

attempt to become the UK tree

climbing champion.

Pressure. Seven

minutes remaining.

First, they've been left thousands

of pounds out of pocket with no idea

where that money has gone. Investors

in a property scheme have told us

they want some serious answers, so

did their top tip turn into a non-

runner?

A flutter on the horses can be

tempting. Especially when Matt

Schaub bet is looking you right in

the eye -- that sure bet. And my

course racing, financial investments

also need a bit of luck if they are

to pay out.

Come on!

But if that

investment pitfalls that the first

hurdle, you might find you backed

the wrong horse. That's exactly what

happened to Steve Perry from

Ringwood. He was investing for his

future and the current low interest

rate offered by banks weren't very

tempting.

I am virtually retired now

and I had some I wanted to put away

and some income. I had two kids at

school. They would be going to

university before I know it and

that's expensive.

Eager to start

investing, Stephen found a broker

online.

They claimed they did all

the due diligence and only offered

reliable products, so I trusted

them.

The broker introduced him to

Forbes capital. It was offering a

secure two-year investment in social

housing scheme based in Chicago. It

was promising high returns. So

Stephen invested £70,000. Records

we've seen show investors have paid

£440,000 to Forbes Capital. This

man, Tony, and his fiancee invested

£5,000 to help pay for their

wedding. The date they haven't

received a penny. Others invested

lump sums from their pensions. Be

64-year-old was in NHS nurse for

many years and has recently retired.

He did into his pension pot to

invest with Forbes Capital.

I

invested £40,000 and that investment

was for two years.

Forbes Capital

promised to return all of this

investment at the end and pay him

for 100 pounds every month.

Even I

had a payment schedule from the

managing director to tell me how

much I was going to get. At the time

I thought it was a good return.

That's the main reason I invested.

And it was a regular income, monthly

income, because since I retired I

was getting less money every month.

So to make it up at the main reason

I invested in Forbes Capital.

He

only received for interest payments

and then they dried up. He contacted

Forbes Capital to ask where his

money was but they didn't return his

calls or respond to his e-mails.

After a lifetime of helping others,

he hoped this investment would help

him and his family financially.

An

extremely worried about the capital

of £40,000. I've worked hard for

that.

So who is behind the company?

The main shareholder of Forbes

Capital is this man, Peter

Shuttleworth. He previously was a

director for colonial capital, which

offered an almost identical

investment opportunity. That firm

went under, owing millions. Forbes

Capital is unregulated and for

investors that can mean risky

business.

If you are dealing with an

unregulated broker this is no

different to handing your life

savings over to a man in the pub and

hoping that he will give it back to

you one day.

With 30 years

experience in the financial

services, Tom specialises in

retirement planning and investments.

You've looked at the detail of the

Forbes Capital investment offer.

What do you think of it?

The two

things that really worried me were

first of all multiple layers of

uncertainty around the Chicago

property market, the US government,

it being an overseas investment. At

more than anything the fact that it

is an regulated investment scheme,

so the UK regulator, the financial

con the authority, has no control

over it. It also means if anything

goes wrong you have no comeback.

And

investment broker template invest

based in Spain acted as a middleman

between investors and Forbes

Capital. But even when investors

started reporting that they hadn't

received their monthly payments from

Forbes Capital, the company in Spain

continued to sign people up to the

scheme. Templer invest is currently

being investigated by the Financial

Conduct Authority. It says it has

ceased training and it too was

misled by Forbes Capital. But that

is of little comfort to Stephen,

when the company he invested in

isn't paying out what they promised.

Since you invested the money in

Forbes Capital, had any contact from

them? No. The only contact I had was

the bond certificate and the

covering letter that came in the

post back in April.

Since that time

I send e-mails, left phone messages

and nothing.

When you realised that

perhaps the assessment hadn't worked

out, how do you feel? £70,000 is the

huge amount of money.

Well,

obviously I was upset. And I tried

everything, I contacted the

Financial Conduct Authority, the

financial ombudsman, the serious

fraud office, my MP. I just wanted

answers as to what happened to this

money.

Argue resigned to the fact

that you may not see that money

again?

Virtually. I think I've had

to admit that probably or

possibility. Otherwise, I wouldn't

sleep at night, I would spend all my

days worrying about it.

After weeks

of searching, we finally found Mr

Shuttleworth hears, this caravan

park, in Essex. Time to get some

answers. Halo, Peter Shuttleworth.

Can we have a chat? No.

We've come

to ask where the investors' money

is.

Could you leave before I phoned

the police?

Peter, where is the

investors' money? Leave the camera.

You've taken tens of thousands of

pounds. Peter Shuttleworth, you owed

at least an explanation, don't you?

£70,000 from Vista Perry, not a

penny payback. You can't even be

bothered to talk to them. Why not?

It really like to hear your side of

things. Anything at all? Tens of

thousands of pounds of investors'

money and you can't even be bothered

to talk to them. Nothing to say?

Last chance. You are quite a hard

man to track down. And you are very

hard man to talk to.

Well, clearly Peter Shuttleworth

doesn't want to talk to us today.

Tens of thousands of pounds of

investors' money, investors have

asked them what happened to their

money, we've asked what happened to

their money and he's got nothing to

say. Now, a bit of an update for you

on that story. Since we confronted

Mr Shuttleworth he sent us an e-mail

stating that all investors would

receive a full refund by the end of

November. We will keep you posted.

Still to come... I quickly regret

trying to become the UK tree

climbing champion.

Seven minutes

remaining.

Next, online dating is more popular

than ever, but would you believe it?

Not everyone using their sites and

apps is telling the truth.

This woman lived alone for many

years after her husband's death and

decided to give love another try.

After venturing online, she thought

she had found it with a man called

Peter.

We were quite a good match

because the website that we used did

such profiling, so we came up as the

same. We would chat for four hours a

night on messenger, felt like this

was someone I had a real connection

with. It was that thing about

feeling really connected. I had

found love again.

Her newfound love

said he was a major in the British

Army, stationed in Baghdad.

One day

he went out on patrol and I didn't

hear from him the following morning

and so I was really distressed. I

didn't hear from him for 48 hours,

which felt like a lifetime because

it triggered all the memories of my

husband's death and everything. Then

he came back online to say he had

lost a couple of men in battle and

he wanted to get out of the Army.

Peter said he wanted to start a new

life with bowel but needed money to

buy himself out of the Mira --

military.

He told me where to send

the money, so I sent it. Naturally

that wasn't enough money. I ended up

foolishly sending two more lots of

money, totalling just over £8,500.

This woman runs a dating agency in

Brighton. She doesn't run an online

service, but introduces people

face-to-face. She also happens to be

a former detective for Sussex

Police.

There are some victims that

have lost up to 1.6 million, others

that have lost £800,000. They are

life changing amounts of money to

lose. To some people 8000 could be a

life changing amount of money. Some

people are actually Bancroft because

of the money they've given to some

of these fraudsters -- bankrupt. The

sad reality is they are not likely

to ever get it back.

Nearly 4000

cases of romance fraud were reported

to the authorities last year. In

fact, this type of crime is now so

widespread you can get fraud kits

online that come complete with

templated e-mail is to persuade

people to part with their money.

Dave has also been looking for love.

He enjoys dancing and has always

found it a great way to meet people.

But after a spell of being single,

Dave thought he had found his

special someone online in Canada.

The pair exchanged countless e-mails

and phone calls.

I miss you so much,

Dave. You've become something

necessary for my soul. I dream about

the children we will have in the

future. I love you.

It's quite

emotive language. How did you feel

when you read that?

I felt really

excited and happy. And, you know, I

thought my life was going to change

for the good.

Dave said his online

lover £15,000 to help with medical

expenses she said she had. And to

pay for flights to the UK. Neal from

Action Fraud is familiar with many

of the common tricks fraudsters use.

If you say that you have been

divorced they will say they've been

divorced. It's about looking for

that attachment that they can then

use in order to reel the victim in.

His profile was that he was widowed

and that he joined the army because

of the grief and so we felt... It

felt like we had an infant bond

because we'd been through a similar

grief experienced -- an instant

bond.

Having parted with more than

£8,000, she heard nothing more from

her online love.

I did a search on

internet and found the story of a

lady in the United States and had

been scammed by a person using the

same story and the same picture.

It's like a part of the world

disappears and I also felt really

quite ashamed that I could have been

so silly. That's what I felt.

Dave was awaiting the arrival of

this new love but then he got an

e-mail saying she was visiting

relatives in Ghana and was stuck in

immigration. She needed yet more

muggy. Dave showed the letter to

this bank manager, who immediately

is not a rat.

It was only through

the bank, who said that isn't

genuine.

How did you feel when you

heard those words?

I was Devon

devastated. I couldn't believe it

had happened.

The fraudster had sent

Dave these photos to encourage him

to hand over the cash, but the

police confirmed it was a con. The

photos could have been stolen from a

genuine dating profile, they told

they've not to send any more muggy.

Former detective Tara McDonald said

there's things people can do to keep

the online sharks at bay. The main

one is to stay on the dating site,

never move to private e-mails or

private messaging.

There are checks

and balances in place an online

dating sites where certain e-mails,

if they're worded in a certain way,

they will be pulled to one side and

it will be checked. They may well

remove that person if they believe

them to be a scammer. Beware of

someone who keeps asking you lots of

questions about you and your

background and you find you're not

getting much back from them but

you're giving a lot of information

about yourself. You should never

consider giving out money to anyone

either you've never met and that you

don't know.

Fizz in during love of

dancing is helping Dave get over his

online experience -- his enduring

Love.

I go dancing, which helps

Mirallas and focus on different

things so my mind is not on it all

the time.

Val says she's learned

from what's happened and she's no

longer ashamed about telling her

story.

If it helps somebody else,

anybody watching this, who's

wondering maybe this is a scam,

maybe it's not, to take a step back

because if someone genuinely loves

you are not going to put pressure on

you to do something that doesn't

feel right for you.

Emma Thomas reporting there. Don't

forget, you can find out more about

the show on Twitter:

Finally, when was the last time you

climbed a tree crazy if you're

anything like me, it's been a while.

But when the UK national tree

climbing Championships rolled into

town, guess who got roped in? There

was a time I'd spend more of the day

up a tree than down it, but time has

passed. A lot of time. If I'm to

stand any chance in a tree climbing

competition I need some serious

help, and that's where Joe Hedger

comes in. By a day Joe works as an

arborist, or tree surgeon, but she's

also a three-time world champion

tree climber. Why, you must be John?

How are you, all right?

This is your

challenge for today. Climb this

beautiful victory.

Things have moved

on since I last climbed a tree,

these days it's all about helmets,

harnesses and ropes and first you've

got to get those ropes at the treat.

For that you need a throw line. We

need to get this up in the canopy.

Turns out it's a bit more technical

than just chucking it.

Missed. What

that's telling you is you need to

let go more up here.

Oh, I hit a

branch.

They do get stuck.

In

competition you get points for

safety, speed and technique. I

actually missed the entire tree,

though. I'm wearing a helmet, so one

out of 38 bad, but this doesn't bode

well.

Good bit of power there, good

fight.

Finally it's up, let's go --

one out of three ain't bad. We using

both hands. After a mere three hours

I'm a giddy three feet off the

ground.

You're using your thigh

muscle more than your arms.

Not the

most elegant. What is it about trees

that got her hooked?

Some people

have a job, they go to work, 9-to-5

and that's it, they have their own

sports they want to do and my sport

happens to be what I do for a job.

In fact tree climbing means so much

to Jo that she even had her wedding

ceremony in this very tree complete

with the vicar in a cherry picker.

Lovely.

Lean back.

During the

competition, not only will I have to

climb a tree but also complete a

series of tasks against the clock.

I'm not as graceful as you.

It's

your first go.

I'm on the wrong

wrong.

Keep stepping your feet down.

This is the one I pull on?

No, the

other one.

While I'm still searching

for my inner monkey, in Surrey one

of my rivals is also preparing for

the competition.

Trees are amazing.

There in credible organisms when you

really think about it.

Scarlet

English works at the Royal

Horticultural Society's garden at

Wisley where she is training to be

an arborist.

I worked in gardens and

saw the team working in the trees

above me and I thought, hey, I want

to be up there, not on the floor. I

do find it quite scary at times but

I think everyone does, they'd be

lying to say they didn't sometimes.

Scarlet's been learning the ropes

for two years and the UK open will

be only her second competitive

climb. A few weeks later and it's

the day of the UK open tree climbing

Championships in the new Forest. I'm

up against 13 other climbers from

across the country.

Climber,

climber. You get extra points if

you've got to hands on the saw, one

point if you've got one hand on the

saw.

Macro a two's husband John will

be one of the judges today, no

favouritism I hope. It shows you how

technical bases and how did these

guys are -- macro a two's husband.

Gone are the days when you climb and

cut things off, progression has come

through to be a world champion --

macro a two's husband.

-- macro a

two's husband. Have you been sizing

up the opposition?

There are quite a

few new phases, which is good to

see.

...

As the competition gets under way,

it doesn't take long for me to

realise what I've let myself in for.

You are seriously moving up there.

Tried to, it's just a lot of

practice I suppose. There's a few

flipside shouldn't have had.

30

seconds left.

A few things I could

have changed, shaking a lot, you try

to be fast with the pressure on and

people watching you but it slows you

down.

He's got to be on the ground

before the time runs out and he's

got to be unclipped. Here we go.

Tony Dyer Beshara is one of the

day's judges and a tree climbing

trainer.

There's been a lot of talk

about equipment and... -- Tony

Derbyshire. You need to show guys

different systems that the guys are

using.

You've got the best job in

the world when you climb trees, what

can be better than that? Over on the

Kendell challenge, Jo is showing why

she's three-time world champion. --

ten Dell challenge. -- Bell. How was

that, Jo?

It was good fun, you'll

enjoy it.

You think you've done all

right? No blood. Newcomer scarlet's

also showing off her skills in the

expert tree.

Stand-up. That's it, go

on. Keep going, keep going. Go on.

I

stayed on this side, which I think

helped because I was leaning away

from my rope.

It was all right, wasn't it?

Right,

can't put it off any longer. This

could all end in total humiliation.

Man alive! Out of my league. Clear.

First, getting a line in.

Just

missed it.

Second time lucky... No.

Third time lucky?

Cutting those

fingers.

Come on! With my line in

I've got to get the gear on. OK. I'm

getting a bit more help than anyone

else but I don't mind, I'm going to

take it. But it's a timed event.

Halfway through I am still on the

ground.

Ten minutes remaining.

He's

up!

Come on, John.

Work that

pressure, pressure.

I'm heading for

the Bell. Next I've got to throw a

lord in the basket.

Go on.

First go,

honest. Time for my speedy descent.

Feet on the ground.

One minute

remaining.

Clock stops when the

ropes are down.

I'm not catlike in the branches. I'm

clublike. Bit harsh, Tony. After a

long day the Ukip Championship goes

to Graham Bird. Joe has to make do

with run-up and Scarlett takes a

well deserved fifth -- UK

Championship. As for me...

12, our

friend from BBC, John.

12 out of 13,

unbelievably not last, although the

other two were disqualified. But

technically speaking that does me

I'm the 12th best tree climber in

the country. I guess I've got quite

a remarkable talent. -- does mean.

Me and trees, I think we've got

something going on.

You're right, I won't give up the

day job. Don't forget the e-mail:

I'll see you soon, bye-bye.