13/02/2017 Inside Out South West

Heard, and dwelt on June Inside Out. Tonight, going undercover at

Britain's biggest supermarket, Tesco. I've just bought this bag

full of shopping, all of those things are on offer but none has

come off. They want people to come in for the deals and spend more

money in the store than what they meant when they came in. Also, it's

fastest fruit trigger in the west. fastest fruit trigger in the west.

Mucky, smelly. It is not the best of jobs you want a bit of incentive.

And we catch up with the Cornwall letting agent accused of pocketing

tens of thousands of pounds in deposits. What have you done with

everyone's money? All those things you have not paid? Was reviewed on?

Do you want to tell us? I'm Gemma Woodman and this is Inside Out

south-west. Renting is on the up

? and only last week, to help take the hassle out

of finding decent digs. But in the meantime,

why not get an agent They have a raft of

properties to choose from, they deal with the landlord,

they take care of the paperwork In other words, they

bring us peace of mind. But what happens when the very

people we have trusted to protect our money seem

to have a big problem when it She runs letting agency Premier

Property Management of Truro. Pictured here enjoying

a night out with friends. But for some of her clients,

affording a social life has become Because Anne Treneer's been ripping

them off on a big scale. And doesn't seem keen

to talk about it. New dialled an incorrect number.

Please check the number and try again.

I've just tried to call Ann and the number's now been cut

off ? I'm just fed up with it now really.

Hannah's been trying to get her money back for five months.

She's had to put the deposit for her new flat on a credit card ?

It is so frustrating. It is so frustrating. They keep telling me it

has gone in and they have paid it. It's not just tenants

who've been stung. Landlords too have seen

the money they trusted Landlords like Steve

and Lorraine Emery-Wright. So, Steve was a Methodist

minister for 12 years in Cornwall but now works

as a missionary in Korea so I'm going to call him and

Lorraine online now. Hello. Hello to you injury. -- in

Korea. So how much money has

Ann taken from you? For a missionary's salary, it's

around half of what I earn every year.

Anne emailed them elaborate excuses ? saying

the money was on its way, that her internet was down,

that she was unable to access her account and that she had bank

statement proof she'd sent the money.

For 18 months, the excuses kept coming but the money never did.

She would avoid us, she would tell us intentional lies

- I've paid you and no pay has gone in.

She would send us cheques and the cheques would be cancelled.

She charged them ?750 for a repair when the real cost was just ?75.

They went to an Ombudsman who ordered Ann to pay back

all the rent she owed them at that time plus compensation

At what point did you think, enough is enough,

Just before we went to South Korea, we doorstepped her and said,

And you can make all this go away and they asked right now. She said

she would do it. She sat for an hour, shaking the all-time,

pretending to good money into her account and I'm giving him money --

giving her numbers, but no money ever went in.

We were saying we'd believe when we see it when it goes

Ann Treneer's trail of out of pocket clients doesn't end there.

We've spoken to nine tenants and seven landlords

who are collectively owed nearly ?35,000.

We've also spoken to three tradesmen owed ?1300.

We found out that one of the organisations which insures

tenants' deposits has so far paid out ?36,000 to 36

people who all failed to get theirs back from Anne.

There's also the ?35,000 awarded by the courts to other disgruntled

Premier clients ? none of it so far paid.

For landlords of rental properties, there are few safeguards

But for tenants, it should be different.

their money is supposed to be tightly protected by law.

Since 2007, landlords and their agents have had a legal

requirement to place every tenant's deposit in a Government-backed

scheme ? like the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.

These schemes protect the deposit in case there's a dispute.

Deposit money can be held in a so-called custodial

Or surprisingly, it can held in a bank account

controlled by the landlord or letting agent.

An account they can access at any time.

An average small independent agent would probably be

managing about 200 properties which would equate to ?300,000

?300,000 sat in an account is probably too tempting.

And we think this is the sector's dirty little secret where they can

dip into this account when they see fit.

Scrapping deposits altogether and instead insuring properties

There's no need to take cash deposits and, if anything,

there's definitely no need to take cash deposits in this

If you do want to take deposits then I would insist that it has to go

But even then its money doing nobody any good.

We're much better to mitigate risk against an actual insurance product.

So just how dirty is this little secret?

Last year, a total of 14 letting agents in the UK were prosecuted

for helping themselves to tenants' deposits.

Between them, they'd stolen more than ?1 milliom.

Between them, they'd stolen more than ?1 million.

Two of them were based in the sout-west.

One MP who's campaigned for tenants' rights says it's time to get tough.

I think this is appalling and clearly there needs

some action to be taken on all of this and I think

there should be some fines placed on people if they misappropriate

those funds and potentially go to court and to prison

It's a legal requirement for agents to protect deposits.

But the tenancy deposit scheme told us that,

none of the deposits held by Premier have been properly insured.

We joined the long list of people trying to get

but she didn't get back to us either.

Hi, Ann, Jemma Woodman BBC Inside Out.

I've come to see what you've done with everyone's money?

What have you done with everyone's money, Ann?

All those deposits, the rent you haven't paid?

It's a lot of money and a lot of people that we're looking for?

How dare you take people's money, Ann.

Well there you go, Ann didn't answer any of our questions.

She's fobbed us off just as she has lots of people

who trusted her with their rents and deposits.

But a little while later, we had a phonecall.

Well, I've just spoken to Ann and she says that she hasn't

lied to anyone and that the money is safe and sound in a ringfenced

account and she promises to pay everyone back every

Although we have heard that plenty of times before.

Anne did apologise and said she'd not been well.

Although she still hasn't told us why she's failed

Those who want their money back no longer trust her -

or the system that was supposed to protect them.

The fact that someone can do this with impunity,

Next to tonight, when is a bargain not a bargain? Our reporter has been

investigating Tesco where those special offers are not so special

after all. That's why the shelves at Britain's

biggest supermarket are full of special offers -

money off this, buy two and we all take it for granted

that the price we see on the shelf is the price we'll pay

at the till, right? But what if things don't quite add

up when you get home I've just bought a few bits at Tesco

and I'm sure these items were on special offer -

that's why I bought two of each - but, according to my receipt,

I've paid full price. I've paid 60% more than

the deal on the shelf. At another Tesco store,

I spot two for ?2 on ice cream but, at the till, I'm charged

the full price again, Martin works for trading

standards and says the rules They must put a price on goods

so you know what you're going to pay and that price must be accurate

so you don't get charged more than you thought

you were going to pay. Sounds simple enough

and, with 3500 stores nationwide, Tesco needs

to be getting it right. That's what I want to find out so,

armed with my phone and some secret cameras, I want to see how

many offers on the shelves don't go through at the till

and, here in Plymouth, Can I just check, mate,

that the offers have The Nutrigrain bars and on the tea

bags as well they're They actually ended on the 13th

but they're still out. Offer prices are being left

on the shelves after the tills have At another store, at Callington

in Cornwall, the deal on the shelf says ?3 but the till says ?4,

so it's off to customer We try not to let it happen

but at times like Christmas and summer we unfortunately

take on a lot more is an out of date label, it should

have been taken off by one of us. And at this Tesco store back

in Plymouth, yet more problems where the shelf price is cheaper

than the till price. Is it all right if you come

with me have a look? Yeah, I can show you

where they are mate, I get the difference back but this

time the worker doesn't remove the out of date labels so,

when I return two dates later, the I've started making a list

of how many offers are out And I want to find out

if what's happening in Devon and Cornwall is also happening

across the country. Because if it is, it's not just

a problem for Tesco, it's a problem At this Tesco Express in Liverpool,

sauce marked ?1 on the shelf It says on the shelf a pound

and it's coming up ?1.79. But the more places I go,

the more confused I'm getting. In this store some offers

are completely different In fact there's so much difference

between the shelf price and the receipt price, I'm not even

going to bother to go back and try If there are just too many offers

changing too frequently so that store staff can't really be expected

to understand them, comply with all the change,

then that is something that Tesco And there's plenty to think

about at this store in Leeds. Hi, I've just bought this

bag full of shopping. All those things are on offer

but none of it's come off. I knew I shouldn't have

been standing here. The person who does this job did

leave so we've been waiting should have done hours,

days, weeks' ago. So it's a serious message

but is everyone taking it seriously? Oh, there's been lots

today have there? And as I head around the country

the same thing keeps happening, I have to tell the compliance

manager that his men It doesn't seem a terribly difficult

or perhaps that long a job just to walk around the store

assuming everyone knows what day it is, you know,

to go round and tear off anything And at some stores old and new

promotions end up side by side. The longer the offer has been wrong,

the bigger the failure of diligence In that case, he's not

going to like what's coming up next. At this store, I tell the cashier

the offer isn't working. She refunds the difference

but leaves the label on the shelf. So when I go back a week later it's

still on the shelf and when I return a month later, it's

still on display. The fourth worker

finally removes it. It's pretty basic that, if one

customer has shown something wrong, then it's put right to stop other

customers being misled. But at 33 of the 50 stores I went

to, the till price was more If Customer A has come back

and complained and been refunded, that doesn't mean

there weren't 20 other customers who didn't spot it

and didn't complain. There were obviously major problems

with their control of the special offers and it's the special offers

that bring people in, make people reach for more

and perhaps spend a little more than they meant to when they came

into the store so that is The company wouldn't provide

anyone for interview but, after reviewing our evidence,

told this programme: As a result of our investigation,

Britain's biggest supermarket says it's now double checking

the accuracy of every price in every store - that's more than 3500

stores across Britain. Spare a thought now

for the humble cow. She spends her day trudging through

muddy field looking for grass, any milk parlour, with all that walking

about, who's looking after her feet? Tonight on Inside Out goes out

on the road with a man whose job it is to make sure

they stay that way. Early morning on a dairy

farm near Truro. Not just any old dairy farm ?

a state of the art facility where cows choose their own time

of milking ? and it's done by robots which seldom venture out

into the fields ? and with water As befits ladies of leisure,

some of these girls Although they might not

quite see it that way. The girls are getting top class

treatment by one of the go-to outfits in the field of cattle foot

care, Charlie Davey and his trusty Rebound have a wall sense of humour,

which unique in this job. It can be wet, muddy, smelly. . It's not the

best of jobs, so you want a bit of a warped sense of humour. This will be

a routine trim. All four feet. Just to keep her walking advocate. Keep

an functional. Stop her from going lame rather than waiting for her to

go lame. I don't know what I'd do without him, he has transformed our

cows' feed. They don't get big problems, it is key to having happy

cows. It's no different to ours cutting our toenails or thumbnails.

If you go too deep, there is a discomfort, of course there is. It's

like you cutting back into the quick.

There are only two rigs like this in existence and Charlie designed

them both ? one for himself, the other for his son.

He describes most of his work on Robert's farm as routine,

putting the relatively healthy state of his cows' feet down

to their staying inside most of the time, a somewhat

People who really complain about dairy cows being kept inside 20 47

don't know what they're talking about. They are looked after for the

better than dairy cows that go out. It is consistent, 365 days of the

year, they are looked after better. No matter how many farms

he might visit in a day, Charlie's rig has to be washed down

every time as a precaution He's always worked with cattle

and previously ran a big herd I always said I wanted to calm

down at 55 and always We all will yes. -- there we are.

Yes. Their next port of call

is a dairy farm near St Agnes. The cows here spend most

of their time outside. Some of Martin Brown's animals

are afflicted with conditions more A big problem nowadays, which we

never used to see is digital dermatitis, which lives in axles

flurries, so once you get it on the farm, it is hard to get rid of it.

Another thing is cows walking on tracks, where the tracks pick up

small stones and they will damage the soul of the move. That leads to

problems that way. -- sole of the hoof.

Charley and Lisa will be treating both those complaints today,

It's a bacterial thing that is quite easy to cure all on the Cal, but

it's impossible to cure all on the farm. -- cow.

Charlie treats the wound with Martin's anti-bacterial spray

The wound will smart from the spray but Charley expects a full

If you're squeamish, you might want to look away now. It's a case of

relieving the pressure around the also, trying not to make it lead,

but sometimes it's very not to. Basically, I'm just taking out all

of the dead tissue around the ulcer. Treatment includes a kind

of platform sole being fitted The block on the good digits, which

then takes the weight of the bad digits, giving its to heal. The

block just wears off by itself. By that time, the food is healed.

who worked in a vet's practice before going on the

I am not the job, working with the animals, but I just wanted to be

outside a bit more and my favourite animals are scos. So I did want to

work more with them. -- cows. It is so satisfying when you have a lame

cow, you treat it and then it is not a lane any more. Job satisfaction is

high with that. Their last job today

is different again. Lionel Pascoe keeps South Devon beef

cattle, near Leedstown and Claudius, his prize winning

bull, requires neither routine nor He needs to look his best

at the livestock show. His nails need to look fabulous. I'm

correcting the way he walks and also, you will see in a minute, I'm

making his digits in the same, so that when they come down, they would

to get there. You will see the difference in a minute.

trimming but for now Charlie insists she watch and learn,

and practice on the Charalais cattle she and her husband

Some of these share animals are very expensive and get into these

shadows, Sir I would rather practice on my cows first before going on to

anyone else's. Look at his feet, you can see how even they are. That is

show trimming. Basically, it's cosmetic. I don't really do cosmetic

but I like doing it to make them look nice. It is job satisfaction.

Because I'm the age I am, I class hardware as having a pick and

shovel. That is hard work. -- hard work. My son said this is hard work

because I'm always tired. Next year, at some point, I should

have my own van and I will go off on my and, and just take some of the

work of Charlie. It will be brilliant.

shotgun for the fastest foot trimmer in the west.

And that's it from Inside Out tonight. We're taking a break next

week because of the football but we'll be back in a fortnight where

you can meet the old this trolling the Dorset sea bed. An animal so I

like us, it's almost an alien. Eight arms, three hearts and, in my

experience, a massive personality. You can tell she's interested but

not at all worried. We'll have that and much more in a couple of weeks.

I'll see you then. Hello, I'm Alex Bushill

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