30/10/2017 Inside Out East

When Monarch Airlines crashed,

what happened to its staff?

Nearly a month after the budget

airline Monarch went under,

we catch up with the former

employees who lost

their jobs in Luton.

I feel all of that hard work that

myself and other people then

training had and put into it,

it's sort of just disappeared.

We track down the man behind

a property investment scheme that's

left savers thousands

of pounds out of pocket.

We've come to ask where the...

Where investors' money is?

Could you leave?

Could you get the BLEEP out

before I phone the police?

Thank you.

And Finn, the police

dog who was stabbed,

is awarded Animal of the Year award.

We follow him from injury

to recovery and the road to stardom.

He kind of went from being my police

dog to very much being my therapy

dog during those early weeks.

Revealing the stories that

matter closer to home.

That's tonight's Inside Out.

Hello, this is Happisburgh

on the Norfolk coast.

It's the favourite beach of a very

special retired police officer

who we'll meet later

on in the programme.

It's almost a month since

the collapse of Luton

based airline Monarch.

The company employed 2,000 people,

600 of them at its Luton HQ.

The collapse shocked the town.

Now, Inside Out has been back

to meet some of those

who lost their jobs and to find out

if anything could have been done

to save the airline.

Here's our reporter.

Flying has been a lifelong

passion for Joe Mwamburi.

He recently got his

private pilot's licence.

Bit of a blowy day.

That was a lovely takeoff.

I just got the bug since I had my

first aircraft experiene

I just got the bug since I had my

first aircraft experience

going on holiday when I was back

in Africa flying to Zimbabwe

and the takeoff was a great feeling,

and since then I've always

had the interest.

The feeling of flying

is just absolutely amazing.

For the past year and a half,

Joe's worked as cabin crew

for Monarch Airlines.

But what he really wanted to do

was fly one of their planes.

Sadly, that's not going to happen

now and his dream of becoming

a professional pilot is on hold.

Joe was one of over 2,000

people who lost their jobs

when Monarch went bust.

It took me a couple of days

to get over the shock

and actually realise,

well, Monarch has actually gone

under, haven't got a job

at Monarch any more.

And then it was disappointment,

and then it went into stages

of anger at some point.

From small beginnings back

in the '60s, the Luton based firm

grew to employ nearly 650 at its HQ

in the town.

A further 1,500 staff worked

at other bases around the UK.

Terrorism, Brexit and the falling

value of the pound were all

blamed for its demise.

It's fair to say that Monarch's

collapse really shocked people

living here in Luton.

The company was one of the town's

major employers, and it started

right here 50 years ago.

And since it's gone,

there's been a real sense of loss

that's swept over Luton.

People had genuine

affection for this airline.

Danielle Kelly-Keener was another

of those who lose their job

Danielle Kelly-Keener was another

of those who lost their job

when Monarch grounded its jets.

She worked as cabin

crew for the airline

and flew all over Europe.

I sat in Starbucks one morning

waiting for a shift,

and I saw a plane go over the head

of the building I was in.

I really, really love

working with customers

and talking to people,

and I felt that maybe put

two and two together,

so I saw a Monarch advertisement

on Facebook and I applied.

Wow.

And you did it.

I did, yes.

Fantastic.

And I can see here,

is this your uniform?

Yeah, that's my uniform, yeah.

That was the pride and joy,

the Monarch pride and

joy, with our scarf.

I would make sure, I would try

and look immaculate every single

shift, every flight,

to represent the company.

I loved the colours as well.

And the wings.

Our wings badge, in which all

the training was successful.

How did you feel when you heard

the bad news that unfortunately

Monarch was no longer to be?

I was absolutely distraught.

It was four o'clock in the morning.

I was potentially

going to fly to Rome.

My friend text me saying,

"Don't go into work,

turn on the news now."

And some breaking news

in the past few minutes,

the UK's fifth largest

airline Monarch has gone

into administration.

And it was headlines, "Monarch have

gone into administration."

I was absolutely...

I was confused, I was upset.

But at the Sam Braye time,

I didn't know what to do.

-- same time.

Do you feel angry and let down?

I feel absolutely gutted, yes.

I feel that all of that hard work

that myself and other people

within training had and put into,

it's sort of just disappeared.

Sam Bray knows this

journey through Luton

like the back of his hand.

It's a trip he's made most days

for the past two and a half years.

Sam used to fly planes for Monarch.

What I loved about being

a pilot for Monarch,

especially with Monarch,

the people really made the airline.

No matter how long a day you had

at work, whether it's to Tel AViv

and back or whether it's a really

short Balearic island hop,

it was always really good fun.

You'd always have a

laugh with everyone.

Luton being such a small base

as well, it was like

flying with your family

or your best friends.

On 2nd October, Sam was on holiday,

blissfully unaware of the news

he was about to receive.

A shock e-mail would confirm

that the company he worked for,

for the past two and a half years,

had gone bust.

Sam, you've recently found out that

you have lost your job with Monarch.

How did it feel when

you heard the news?

Gutting, really.

Losing a job you've worked so hard

for, for a number of years,

it does tear you apart a little bit.

But then you realise

what Monarch was and how

it was made by the people.

It was heartbreaking

more than anything.

Just knowing that you won't work

with the majority of those people

again and those friendships,

and I will keep them,

but you won't have the relationship

you did when you went

to go flying together.

On a positive note,

though, you're a pilot.

Surely people are crying out

for pilots at the moment?

Will you get another job?

Thankfully, to be redundant,

it's not a bad time.

Airlines are recruiting

for next summer, mainly.

Hopefully, fingers crossed,

there won't be too much of a wait

for all of us to get new jobs.

The collapse of Monarch

shocked a lot of people.

How on earth did this happen, Sam?

How did a company

like Monarch go bust?

I think, I mean, it's been

in the news for a couple of years

that Monarch's financial situation

hasn't been great.

Being such a small business as well,

it really was affected by last year

and this year's terrorist attacks,

especially when so much

of our business was made up in Egypt

and Turkey and Spain.

Do you think they could have done

anything differently?

I think potentially looked into cost

saving a few more years ahead.

It's no secret in the company

that it was haemorrhaging money.

If we'd have done it a few

years earlier, who knows?

If we'd look to maybe be proactive

rather than reactive

to things in the world,

then, yeah, who knows?

As well as significant job losses,

more than 3,000 people

lost their holiday bookings.

In the biggest repatration since

the war, the government chartered 30

planes to collect stranded tourists.

Monarch was the UK's

fifth biggest airline

and the largest ever to collapse.

Local MP Gavin Shuker believes

a change in the law could help.

We need to look at what happens

when an airline goes

into administration.

In other countries,

they continue to operate.

Here, they haven't.

If we can fix that part of the law,

I think they'll be a brighter future

for our other aviation industries.

What do you feel should be done now?

In the long term, I'm sure those

that have got aviation

skills will find work.

But it's those without those

direct aviation skills

where I'm the most concerned.

What have you called

for government to do?

I've spoken to the Civil

Aviation Authority,

the Aviation Minister,

the unions, the administrators,

to see whether or not we can get

a hub together to make sure there's

a simplified process for getting

people back into work.

The Department for Work

and Pensions told us that

Jobcentre Plus are working closely

with former Monarch employees

to help them find alternative

employment as quickly as possible.

And that they'd sourced more

than 6,000 vacancies

across the major UK based airlines,

which should help former

Monarch employees remain

in the airline industry.

There you go.

You're very welcome.

The loss of a company

like Monarch Airways

is a big blow to Luton.

And of course to those

who lost their jobs.

A month on from losing her job

as cabin crew, Danielle has found

some temporary work at a sports

bar in Dunstable.

But it's not what she wants to do.

She's desperate to get

back flying again.

Hasn't this experience

put you off it?

I mean, the airline industry

can be so precarious.

Yeah, it can be, but unfortunately

there's risks in everything

you do within life,

jobs, hobbies, anything.

So it hasn't put me

off in the slightest.

If anything, it's pushed me to want

to do a career that I do love,

and hopefully with other

airlines who will hopefully

sweep me up and take me back

into the skies again.

Back at North Weald Airfield,

Joe Mwamburi also refuses

to give up on his dreams.

Despite the setback,

he remembers his time at Monarch

with great affection.

For me, I was only there

for a year and a half.

Everyone welcomed me

into the company and

made me feel at home.

I'm still young, I've still got

quite a bit of time in front of me.

But for people who gave their whole

career towards Monarch,

my thoughts are with them,

and hopefully they can get

the support they need.

End game for me is definitely

to get back up in the air

and get back flying,

because I can't get enough of it.

Good luck to those

guys for the future.

Now, if there's something you think

we should be doing a story

about here on the programme,

you can get in touch

on twitter @david-insideout,

or send me an e-mail,

[email protected].

This is Inside Out for the east

of England, right here on BBC One.

Later on, we find out how

police dog Finn recovered

after saving his handler's life.

Not only had he saved my life

on that night, but he then went

on to continue to do that over

the next coming weeks.

They've been left thousands

of pounds of out of pocket

and with no explanation about what's

happened to their money.

Investors in a property scheme

have told us they want

some serious answers.

Has their top tip turned

out to be a non-runner?

Jon Cuthill investigates.

A flutter on the horses

can be tempting.

Especially when that sure bet

is looking you right in the eye.

And like horse racing,

financial investments also need

a bit of luck if they're to pay out.

Come on!

But if that investment tip falls

at the first hurdle,

you might find you've backed

the wrong horse.

That's exactly what happened

to Stephen Perry from Ringwood.

Stephen, hi.

Jon.

Stephen was investing for his future

and the current low interest rates

being offered by banks

weren't very tempting.

I'm virtually retired now and I had

an amount of capital that I wanted

to put away and earn

some income from.

I have two kids at school.

They're going to be going

to university before I know it

and they're expensive!

Eager to start investing,

Stephen found a broker online.

They claimed that they did

all the due diligence,

they only offered reliable products,

so I trusted them.

The broker introduced Stephen

to Forbes Capital ? it was offering

a secured two year investment

in a social housing

scheme based in Chicago.

Forbes Capital was

promising high returns.

So Stephen invested £70,000.

They were purchasing property,

so there were assets

against which if things went wrong,

at least I would get some,

if not all, of the money back.

For Stephen, it sounded

like the perfect investment

and he wasn't the only one

who thought so.

Records we've seen show

investors have paid

£440,000 to Forbes Capital.

This man, Tony Belli,

and his fiance invested

£5,000 to help pay

for their wedding.

To date, they haven't

received a penny.

Others invested lump sums

from their pensions.

I would like to take this

opportunity to welcome

you to Forbes Capital Ltd

as a valued investor

in respect of your of £40,000.

64-year-old Premnath Nunkoo

was a NHS nurse for over 40 years

and has recently retired.

He dipped into his pension pot

to invest with Forbes Capital.

I decided to make some investment.

I invested £40,000 and that

investment was for two years.

Forbes Capital promised to return

all of his investment at the end

and pay him £400 every month.

Even I've 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, as since I'm retired

I am getting less money every month.

So to make it up, that's the main

reason I invested in Forbes Capital.

Premnath only received four interest

payments and then they dried up.

He's contacted Forbes Capital to ask

where his money was but they didn't

return his calls or respond

to his emails.

After a life time of helping others,

he hoped this investment would help

him and his family financially.

I'm extremely worried

about the capital of £40,000

because I have worked hard for that.

I'm worried about the returns

as well because I was told

I was going to get that.

I'm really really frustrated

about that because I did

trust that company.

So who is behind this 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're dealing with

an unregulated investment

scheme, if you're 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 again one day.

With 30 years' experience

in the financial services,

Tom McPhail specialises

in retirement planning

and investments.

You've looked at the details

of the Forbes Capital offer

investment, what do you think of it?

The two things that really

worried me about it were first

of all the multiple layers

of uncertainty around the Chicago

property market, the US government,

the fact it's an overseas

investment, so lots of

uncertainties there,

but more than anything the fact

that is an unregulated

investment scheme.

So the UK regulator,

the Financial Conduct Authority

has no control over it,

it also means if anything goes wrong

you have no come back.

An investment broker,

Templar Invest, based in Spain acted

as a middle man between investors

and Forbes Capital.

But even when investors

started reporting that they

hadn't received their monthly

payments from Forbes Capital,

Templar Invest continued to sign

people up to the scheme.

Templar Invest is currently

being investigated by

the Financial Conduct Authority.

It says that it too was misled

by Forbes Capital and that it has

now had to cease trading.

But that's of little comfort

to Stephen when the company

he invested in isn't paying

out what it promised.

So since you invested the money

in Forbes Capital have you had

any contact from them?

No, the only contact I had

was the bond certificate

and a payment schedule

and a covering letter that came

in the post back in April.

Since that time, I've sent emails

left phone messages and nothing.

When you realised that perhaps this

investment hadn't worked

hadn't worked out -

how do you feel?

£70,000 is a huge amount of money.

Obviously I was upset and I tried

everything I contacted

the Financial Conduct Authority,

the financial ombudsman,

Action Fraud hotline,

the serious fraud office, my MP,

I just wanted answers

as to what happened to this money.

Are you kind of resigned to the fact

of not seeing that money again?

Virtually, I think I've had

to sort of admit that

probability or possibility,

otherwise I wouldn't sleep at night

and I'd spend all of my days

worrying about it.

After weeks of searching,

we finally found Mr Shuttleworth

here at this caravan park in Essex.

Time to get some answers.

Hello, Peter Shuttleworth, it's

Jon Cuthill from BBC Inside Out.

Can we have a chat?

No!

We've come to ask where

the investors' money is.

Do you mind leaving please?

Could you leave?

Could you get the BLEEP out

before I phone the police?

Thank you.

Peter, where's the investors' money?

Are you BLEEP deaf?

I said...

Leave the camera.

You've taken tens of

thousands of pounds.

Peter Shuttleworth, you owe them

at least an explanation, don't you?

£70,000 from Mr Perry,

not a penny paid back.

You can't even be bothered

to talk to them, why not?

I'd really like to hear

your side of things.

Anything at all, Mr Shuttleworth?

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're quite a hard man to track

down and you're a very

hard man to talk to.

Following our confrontation

with Mr Shuttleworth,

he sent us an e-mail saying that

investors would be receiving a full

refund by the end of November.

Police dogs are at the forefront

of the fight against crime,

whether they're sniffing out drugs

or tracking down suspects.

But for one dog, a seemingly

routine patrol left him

fighting for his life.

German Shepherd Finn almost died

in the line of duty.

He was attacked last October

in Stevenage, protecting his

handler, police

officer Dave Wardell.

I owed Finn my life.

And the flashbacks were horrendous.

The crime fighting duo were chasing

a 16-year-old suspect.

They had no idea it would result

in a horrific attack that

would change their lives forever.

I had to make a decision,

either let him get away

or send Finn to stop him.

He continued to run,

I unclipped Finn and sent him

and Finn grabbed him

by the calf muscle,

pulled him down off the fence.

Then what happened the next two

seconds lasts about 20

minutes in my mind.

In a bid to escape arrest,

the teenager drove a knife

deep into Finn's chest.

He started to pull away from Finn,

it's at that point that I notice

what looks like a knife,

a very big hunting knife,

and he starts to pull it out

of Finn's chest, and it keeps coming

and it keeps coming.

It's about a ten inch blade.

I get to see the full extent

of it, having just come

out of Finn's chest.

He's just potentially

mortally wounded my buddy.

Because I'd seen that size

of the knife and where it had been

and I've now seen where the entry

wound is, I expected Finn to have

almost been dead before I got him

to the van.

Dave took an injury to his hand,

but Finn's stab wound

is life-threatening.

Bleeding heavily,

the police dog is taken

to a specialist vets in Hitchin.

The knife has punctured a lung

and goes close to his heart,

but the surgeon will try

to save Finn's life.

At that point, I was then told

by my supervisors that

I had to leave and go

and have my own injuries

sorted and documented.

Something that I wasn't interested

in doing right then,

but I had no choice.

But before I left, they allowed me

to go in and see Finn.

And say goodbye.

Finn does pull through,

after four hours of surgery,

but the next few days are critical.

Dave, having had his own wounds

tended, makes his bed

on the floor at the vets,

refusing to leave his buddy's side.

The bedside vigil continues

upon returning home.

But as Finn's injuries heal,

Dave is in turmoil.

The guilt was awful.

Finn had the physical injuries,

but my God, I had the mental ones.

And so emotions were very high,

there was many occasion

where I would break down in tears.

But all the time, Finn was there.

He went from being my police dog

to very much being my therapy dog

during those early weeks.

Not only had he saved my life

on that night, but he then went

on to continue to do that over

the next coming weeks.

Attacks on police

dogs are still rare.

And Finn's case shocks the public.

An online petition calling

for tougher sentencing

for crimes like this had more

than 127,000 signatures.

It is known as Finn's Law.

The result was a revision

to the Animal Welfare Act.

Which means that offenders can get

stronger sentences if they attack

dogs in public service.

The importance of their role has

always been clear to Dave.

They are wonderful creatures,

they have amazing talents

that we use for our advantage.

Their hunting abilities,

their fierce, protective qualities.

His protection, his want to protect

me, is enormous and of course we use

that on a Friday and Saturday

night when things are

getting out of control.

After nearly three months

of recovery, the pair return

to the beat just

before last Christmas.

But the festivites are marred

by the upcoming trial

of the 16-year-old boy

who attacked them.

Forcing Dave to relive the horrors

of that night in a Stevenage garden.

It's very difficult.

I had one second to

make an assessment.

I got it wrong.

If I'd have known he had

the biggest knife in the world,

I'd ever seen, I would have done

things very differently.

There's no way I would have sent

Finn into that on his own.

We would have found a different

way to deal with it.

Yeah, the guilt was massive, huge.

How could I have

done that to my boy?

Finn and Dave's teenage

assailant was convicted over

the near fatal attack and given

an eight month sentence.

Finn retired from the force in March

and the life of this heroic police

dog is now very different.

Two days before his retirement,

he represented the force

in the working dog trials,

where he placed very highly and won

all sorts of awards.

And then he went on to retire.

He's taken to retirement

pretty well.

He gets on marvellously with my

family, my three young children,

and he's very much centre

of our house at home.

He's a hero to my

children and to me.

He's had some wonderful

adventures since retirement.

Police dogs can't actually leave

the area where they worked.

He'd never been to the beach.

So, one of his first adventures,

one of the first things I wanted

to do with him was to

take him to the beach.

We went up to Norfolk and we had

a wonderful time together

in the surf and playing.

Dave's now back on the beach

with new German Shepherd hero Diesel

and his sniffer spaniel Pearl.

As they get ready for work,

Finn watches on, ever hopeful that

Dad will take him too.

He gets very excited when he sees me

put my work uniform on,

especially my boots.

And for him, it's just a sign that

we're going to work.

And just as I leave,

I'll see Finn in our bay window

at the front of the house

as if to say, "I think

you've forgotten someone,

Dad!"

When Dave first met Finn,

he was just a few weeks old.

That tiny ball of fluff grew up

to be his constant companion,

fighting crime side by side

for almost eight years.

They now face a new set

of adventures, as Finn gets used

to a near celebrity status,

honoured with hero awards,

public appearances and even

a publishing deal.

So much for a quiet retirement.

Well, that's it from Happisburgh -

Finn's favourite beach.

Next Monday, we investigate

the story behind a yacht used

to smuggle illegal immigrants

onto the east coast.

In the meantime, you can

get in touch with me

on Twitter @david-insideout,

or any story ideas e-mail

[email protected].

But that's it from the

Norfolk coast, bye-bye.

Also next week, the community

village near Bedford

where former homeless people can

rebuild their lives,

but where the rules are strict,

like breathalising at breakfast.

And power boat racing has been

here for more than a century,

but some people believe

new safety rules are forcing

people out of the sport.

That's Inside Out next Monday,

7.30, here on BBC One.