17/10/2011 Inside Out North East and Cumbria

It's great to be back. In the next half-an-hour, meet the Corus worker

who trusted his redundancy money would be as safe as houses. I feel

like we've been conned, cheated. The mortgage is over �2,000 a month

which is impossible to meet. Just how tough is it to find work

in these hard times. Follow our northern jobseekers. Spaghetti is

80p a tin so no spaghetti for now. Take a fresh look at one of our

best-loved landmarks celebrating its 100 anniversary. The moon is

under the bridge. As a child, looking up at that bridge, it was

higher than the moon. Stories at the heart of life in the north-east

and Cumbria. If you're made redundant you'd want

to be sure any pay-out you get is used wisely. So how mad would you

be if the investment advice you're given turns sour? I've been hearing

from families who claim the deals set up by a Teesside businessman

We're talking mind-blowing figures. A �500 million property scheme. We

feel like we've been conned, cheated. Glossy brochure, catalogue

of problems. We were just fodder. Just another commission and we were

just used. And I'm here to find out how what started out as a cast iron

investment crumbled before their eyes.

It all started on Teesside. And an Independent Financial Advisor who's

meeting Dave and Judy Biggs. I knew I was getting made redundant from

Corus.I wanted somewhere to invest part of my money, the lump sum, in

Cyprus. So they're shown a DVD of St George Hills. Apparently, a new

dawn in investment opportunities. It's a resort being built in Cyprus.

The idea? Buy an apartment off plan, then sell as soon as it's finished.

So after three years you were looking at �60,000 profit. Sit back,

sell it on and make a profit. Simple as that? That's the way it

was sold. Because the guy wasn't a salesman he was Andrew Laird, a

Director of Teesside estate agents Roseberry Newhouse and trusted for

giving sound financial advice. been our financial advisor for 10

years. And it looked like a good investment, low mortgage, for us to

afford, good rentable properties and we liked the sound of it.

Andrew Laird was arranging the sale of all the apartments under the

name of Roseberry Overseas Property, or ROP UK. They would do it all for

you, hassle-free. ROP UK sold apartments for a developer in

Cyprus, Alpha Panareti, and to shift hundreds of properties,

Andrew Laird had an army of Independent Financial Advisors

across Britain. I just wanted to find another way of paying off the

mortgage until I was 65, but instead, during this conversation,

he brings up the subject of investing in overseas property,

None of the risks, were mentioned at all. It was all very confident

and you really should get involved in this, otherwise you're going to

be left in the cold. So all the building blocks were in place. The

investors, the financial advisors, all selling under the banner of

Teesside-based company ROPUK. that's where we get it right.

Getting it right means engendering trust. And to gain that trust ROP

UK had one trump card. The phrase due diligence came up again.

diligence. And again. Due Diligence meant they thoroughly investigated

the potential investment. Great! But what happened next, might make

your toes curl. I've come here because buyers who dealt with

Andrew Laird and his company ROP UK say they're tied to paying

crippling amounts of money, for properties that they might not ever

own and are not even finished yet. When were the builders last here? I

wanted to start at the beginning, with the information brochures ROP

UK gave to buyers. And I've arranged to meet a leading local

surveyor. He's agreed to look at a ROP UK buyers guide. Now I can

understand why all these overseas people were coming to Cyprus and

buying! It looks great. I would buy one. It may look great, but, he

says, he's found questionable calculations, exaggerations and

even a tax added that they don't have to pay. Yet in a document

given by an independent advisor, what he's struggled to find, is

independent advice. If I'm making a reasoned investment in something I

want to be told the good and bad things about it, I want to know the

risks. I think it's a very optimistic brochure and a brochure

that fails to highlight the various that fails to highlight the various

risks involved. One risk is that you might end up paying double the

original ROP UK estimate for your mortgage. How? Many of these

mortgages were in a foreign currency, Swiss francs, and there

was no explanation of how fluctuations in that currency may

increase payments people needed to make on a monthly basis. There's

more. Our buyers all say the bank in Cyprus is charging them far more

interest than they'd been led to expect by ROP UK. So, why sign up?

Well, the investors say they didn't. It was their lawyers in Cyprus,

that ROP UK had recommended who signed the deal. We didn't see the

terms of the loan, no details of the mortgage whatsoever. So you've

been lumbered with a mortgage you don't understand. Absolutely don't

know anything about it, nothing at all, and it certainly isn't

anything like Andrew Laird told us it was going to be. How stupid are

we? What have we done? But when we've talked to everybody else and

there are 200, 300, 400 people who have been told the exact same story.

And the result of all that? A nightmare they can't escape from.

What are you in for now, in terms of owing? About 350,000. On a

property which cost us 200,000. The mortgage is over �2,000 a month,

which is impossible to meet. There's another problem. In Cyprus,

it's notoriously difficult to get hold of your title deeds the bit of

paper that says you own your house. Let's assume this is the property

you've bought and it's on this bit of land and the developer has also

a number of other properties he's building here. You sign the

contract, you hand your money over and you move into the property.

Right, so give me my deeds. Sorry, can't have them. Why? You can't

have these deeds until this complete development, which could

have 200 apartments, is completed. I've known people who've waited 20

years for their title deeds. that's bad, because it means it's

much harder to sell your property. All our buyers say this was never

explained to them. You think it's ROP UK's responsibility to have

done this rather than the individual buyers? Oh yes,

Absolutely. You don't buy a new car from somebody and then ask have you

put any oil in it, do you? So when it says In Cyprus, property

conveyancing is almost a mirror image of the English conveyancing

system? That's very, very misleading. The buyers are already

down around �30,000 - their deposits. And now the bank is

asking for mortgage payments from some of them. So what have they got

to show for it? First stop, a resort buyers thought would be

finished nearly two years ago. There's the swimming pool. The rest

is still a building site. And up there is the penthouse Dave and

Judy Biggs are waiting for. ROP UK gave them an update in 2009. Even

in the global crisis, the resale value was 410,000 euros. It makes

you laugh? It makes me laugh because it's completely off the

mark. So, what's it worth today? think you'd be looking at 130,

140,000 euros. Remember - they say their mortgage is �350,000 and

rising. The mortgage was taken out against our property. So you could

lose your home in the UK? Definitely, there's a possibility

we could lose our home. In a statement, the developer told us

it's the buyers who had a personal responsibility to understand the

terms of the contract. To do their own due diligence. It said the

decision to buy was based on information passed on by the UK

advisor and that some buyers insisted everything went through

the agent. The developer said it was ROP UK that allocated the

Cypriot lawyers who had a duty to point out problematic issues. Alpha

Panareti said it couldn't be responsible for the impact on

buyers' ability to pay caused by the global financial crisis. What

about where Olwyn Harrison from Stockton bought? Alpha Panareti has

had nearly all her mortgage money. I would expect for that, apart from

the furniture, ready to move in I'd have thought. Wouldn't you? I don't

know how to break this to you. So what has Alpha Panareti done with

her loan money, because it hasn't been spent here. When were you

expecting to be handed the keys? September 2010. Oh! Well, you can

have the keys but there's no door to put them in! If it were finished,

and it's a big if, you'd be looking at 70 to 80,000 euros at best.

mean her mortgage is going to be in the 200 to 300,000 bracket. For a

property worth 70 now. Yes. What you're telling us is what we

suspected. Gutted. I know she almost has a laugh in her voice,

but that's because she's been through this for so long. She'd

probably have been more amazed if I said it was ready, to be honest

with you. Alpha Panareti says all payments it had from buyers'

mortgage accounts were authorised by the bank's surveyor, based on

how much of the whole development was completed. We didn't see any

evidence of ongoing building work here, or here, but Alpha Panareti

insists work has never stopped. It doesn't deny delays in completion.

It blames the world financial crisis, strikes, government

interference, poor winter weather, the local electricity supplier, and

some buyers who have withheld payments. The situation's getting

political. MEPs have asked the European Commission if it can act

against what one has even described in a parliamentary question in

April as a fraudulent property scheme. The Commission is

investigating with the Cypriot government. Alpha Panareti

vigorously denies the MEP's claim and says it will respond to the

commission, from whom it has yet to receive any communication

whatsoever. So what does ROP UK say? Their big message is it's

nothing to do with us, guv. I think that in reality it was clear that

what they provided was a very influential part in the whole

business. I've been doing a bit of digging and found out Andrew Laird

has bought a property, only this I came here to speak to Andrew

Laird but apparently, he doesn't want to talk because he's involved

in legal action. He might be keeping his cards close to his

In almost a quarter of households in the north-east, no one has a job.

That's the worst figure in the UK. But what is life really like for

the people behind the statistics? Over the next few months, we'll be

following a group of jobseeker's through the ups and downs of trying

I've just come because I saw a dishwasher job. It's not really

what I'm looking for directly, but I really want to get off job-

seekers. Thanks for coming down. Tell me a little about yourself.

like music. All sorts of music actually. You're looking for full-

time work. Hopefully, I'm flexible. Matthew did great. You can tell he

is keen to get back to work I liked him! I always feel hopeful, I'd

rather go home thinking I said something and maybe they'll call me

something and maybe they'll call me up. We have had a phenomenal

response 2,000 people for 150 jobs. I graduated with a degree in

economics. Last year I finished a Masters in management leadership

and learning. Redundancy came as a bit of a shock. The hard part was

thinking what would I like to do next? It is almost like a full-time

job itself chasing work! Probably this week I have applied for 15-20

posts. The type of work I'm looking for is very limited in the North

East. In the time I have been looking, I can honestly say there

have only been a handful that I could say, yes, that is what I

want! We're off down to Bradford. Job looks really positive. My

daughter is eight. Her name is Cherise. It is hard with the money

I am on at the minute. It's awful living on the dole. She asks for

stuff every day that I don't have the money to give her. I am trying

really hard to find a job. I am reading papers trying to find jobs,

asking around shops, sending off application forms. It is really

hard at the minute to find a job. I am determined to find a job, turn

my life around, then I could take my daughter out to places she wants

to go. I am sick of having no money. I want to shout to the roof-tops,

look, I have these qualifications, this experience or whatever but you

have to complete this diary and it is so humiliating. It is illegal to

be ageist but it does come into it. Age is a factor trying to prove

that is near impossible. I have come to help promote an

organisation called Shared Interest. Volunteering is important to me

because I learn social skills, problem solving. I'm willing to

give most things a try if I'm given the opportunity and a decent wage.

I had an autistic son. He got to 20 and day services ended for him.

Richard got terminal cancer. He needed 24 hour care so it was

impossible to work. We were in and out of hospital, hospices, and all

of a sudden, Richard died. He only lasted six months from beginning to

end. I'm not bothered what the job is as long as I'm capable of doing

it. I'm not expecting a job with mega-pay. I'm happy with basic pay.

It must be my age, but if you think about it, but if you think about it,

I'm not going to leave to have children. I am not going to take

time off to look after children with measles, chicken pox. This is

the best time for me to work. I was getting into trouble with

police, causing problems, offending quite a lot. It ended up with me

being homeless. Fairbridge has changed me round, got me how I want

to be. Heading towards a job I want to do. I have just moved out of the

homeless hostel into my own flat in Middlesbrough. It is brilliant.

Spacious. Perfect for getting started again. I am taking part in

a course with the Princes Trust on placement with Newcastle United. I

am hoping to get the skills to become a youth worker. I have just

66p in the bank and I need to buy some food. This is my cupboard. It

would be nice to stock my own cupboard. It would be nice to have

spaghetti, haven't had spaghetti in a long time, but it is 80p a tin,

so no spaghetti for now. It's like I'm always asking for a handout and

I don't want a handout. I'd like someone to give me a job. My sister

treats me all the time. It would be nice to treat... Treat her for a

change. My name is Letricia and I am phoning up to see if my

Jobseekers money has gone in today, please. I have to phone Friday?

They will call me back, last time I left it and they didn't. Oh God,

why? I am very happy. Very settled. I am really enjoying it working

hard! I am in the dish washing area but I could end up working in the

kitchen. I could end up supervisor here. It is not about

qualifications but what you bring as a person. It is nice to be

appreciated and wanted. Please don't give up hope. It is about

what you bring as a person. There are places opening and changing.

There will be things coming soon. Congratulations go to Aiden, who

has got a new contract with a credit card company. Well done. If

you are looking for work and would like to share your story, why not

add your voice to my blog. 100 years ago today, this was

opened. Since then, the gondola of the Transporter Bridge has made a

fair few trips across the Tees, when it's not closed because of

wind! But really, these days, what does the Transporter Bridge mean to

Teesside? Kirsten O'Brien's come home to Middlesbrough, to re-visit

a landmark that just maybe we take for granted.

The worst part is if you're doing house insurance or something like

that and they ask you for your job. What do you mean you drive a

bridge? Well, we have this bridge in Middlesbrough that we drive,

that moves. What do you mean it moves, a bridge can't move. Well,

ours does. Well, you say you work for the council? Yeah. We'll put

you down as a council worker then. I says that'll do, local authority.

Fine. Absurdly brilliant. And typically

Teesside. This is a look at the Transporter from another angle, a

different perspective. What's the point of it? What do we need it for

these days anyway? Why's it that blue colour? What does it

symbolise? What does it mean to people? And, what does the future

This was one hundred years ago today. The reason it was built so

tall was to allow sailing ships up. The river was so busy as well and

those ships had to have free passage up and down the river all

the time. So you're saying that would be moving and ships just

dodging it as it was going along? Well, I like the word dodge and it

probably was in the early days, given the number of ships. Now, a

picture that illustrates this perfectly has just been discovered

at the Teesside Archives. This is 1912 and this is an impression of

how the river Tees might've looked soon after the Transporter first

opened. Just before the Transporter was built there was a study

revealed that there were 70 different types of vessels going up

the Tees every day. Yet they had millions of people a year that were

crossing from their homes on the side of the river to north side of

the river where most of them worked on the iron and steelworks and

shipyards. Its hard to know when I first became aware of the

Transporter Bridge. It's one of those things you just except and it

is massive on the horizon. There is the moon. It's under the

bridge. The bridge is higher than the Moon and as a child looking up,

it was higher than a month. The first time I drew it I was

about eight and there was a school trip. I didn't want to go up it.

All the others wanted to go over the top but I stayed down the

bottom with a little pad and I drew the bridge. It's a terrific

adventure, we always thought it was magical. We used to use it to get

to the seaside so that was always associated, for me as a child, with

going somewhere great. For someone of my generation, the bridge means

just a symbol of home but there's a whole generation of people who

really remember the bridge. Remember it as part of a bustling,

working environment, filled with men with their bait boxes, their

bikes, scruffy faces. I worked at bikes, scruffy faces. I worked at

Port Clarence, in the Calor Gas factory. We used to get the trolley

bus to the old exchange, then run like hell to jump on here, get

across. You will know that this symbolises what Teesside's all

about, hard work, strong. granddad used to tell me that it

was threepence, according to his story, to get the gondola on the

bottom across the river, but only a penny if you wanted to walk with

your bike across the top and down the other side. Most importantly,

Alastair, have you been up the top carrying a bike? Ha! You're joking,

aren't you! Will you buy us a Parmo if I do it? Oh definitely I'll have

a ladies parmo too in celebration. And of course, back then, the bikes

were much heavier! For many, the Transporter was almost the symbolic

heart of a British Empire. Teesside steel was building some of the

world's most iconic structures. The Tyne Bridge, made in Teesside. The

Sydney Harbour bridge, made in Teesside. The Transporter Bridge,

made in Glasgow? It actually went to a Scottish company to build the

bridge. And therefore, much of the transporter is actually Scottish

steel. Slightly galling, isn't it? It's an incredible decision. It may

be Scottish, but take it away and you'd soon feel the wrath of

Teesside. I'm the creator of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. I'm responsible

for taking the transporter, from Teesside to Arizona. But when it

went out as a programme, everybody panicked?

People would ring or write and really be annoyed - you've got no

right, it's our heritage. So, power of TV, I'm afraid. Normally, you

say no animals were hurt in the making of this programme. We had to

say no bridges have been taken in the making of this programme.

grandad must have been a very fit fellow doing this a very day. What

have you. So Ali Brownlee's seeing the bridge

from a different perspective. And so am I. On the other side of the

Transporter. Port Clarence is one of the most cut off communities in

the region. It has a Middlesbrough postcode.Yet if the Transporter

isn't running, it's very hard to get to the town centre. If you are

dependent on public transport, it's not reliable. It's frustrating

standing on one side, seeing where you want to be but you just can't

get there. There are over here going, we physically need that for

a livelihood and a lot of cases. When I first started, it was a lot

busier but there's no work anywhere and it's like everywhere it's just

dying off. The bits all around are a bit, I think play into the hands

of the stereotype that everybody outside this area tends to think of.

It's bleakly industrial, it's run down. We've got this amazing bridge,

this amazing structure and it's stuck in a corner somewhere.

There's nowhere to get a coffee or to stand and admire the view. That

is in many ways quite typically Middlesbrough. Yeah, it's there, go

down and have a look if you want. The bridge has had a fair few paint

jobs. It's re-invented itself many times before and to survive it has

to do it again. More than �2 million in Lottery funding will

build glass lifts to the top, a new visitors centre. And many are now

seeing it from a different perspective. Treasure it because it

is one of the most beautiful and dusty objects in the world. Each

town has something that specify is what it is about, this is ours.

never going to do this again. Howdy get down?

I've gained more of a respect for this bridge, in the way that you

have an elderly relative that you never knew what they went through

in the war. When they tell their stories, you realise what happened

and I have that with the bridge now. For a generation of people, this

bridge enabled them to get home. Well, I for one love it. That's it