03/03/2014 Inside Out South

Welcome from Stonehenge to Inside Out with more of your stories from

where we live. Here is what's coming up tonight.

Has Stonehenge been giving its secrets quite? Is sound the key to

Wiltshire's world Heritage site? And we investigate the bank trying to

First tonight: it's a world heritage site: Stonehenge.

For generations it's puzzled everyone as to what it means. Well,

now a new theory says we shouldn't be bothered with how it looks, but

rather how it sounds. Stonehenge, the ultimate archaeological riddle.

Body in order to try and solve it, I need to take a road trip. I'm going

to Wales, almost as far West as you can go, because that is where the

Bluestones of Stonehenge came from over 4,000 years ago. Fellow! Thank

you. They must have been something really special to Stone Age man.

These lumps of rocks well they weighed four tonnes each. That's the

same as a fully loaded transit van ` but of course they didn't have an

engine! So why lug such massive stones all that distance? I'm

meeting Paul Devereux an archaeologist who has recently made

a very intriguing sounding discovery that suggests an answer to that

mystery ` sound being the key word...

Hello, you must be Paul. Hi, Jon, good to see you.

We meet below Carn Menyn ridge in the Preseli Hills, 183 miles from

Stonehenge. Got my microphone. Oh, you'll need

it! Paul is the leading investigator of

a project sponsored by the Royal College of Art looking for evidence

of a pre`historic landscape. How might it have looked and sounded to

Stone Age man? So why have you brought me to this

desolate spot, then? Well, because it is desolate,

really. We wanted a pristine landscape one that would be much the

same as Stone Age as now and what we wanted to do was to try to record

what Stone Age eyes and ears would have seen and heard. Most people

think of landscape in a visual term, but we also wanted to think of it in

acoustic terms. And this turns out to be an acoustic landscape.

But it's not just a case of keeping quiet and listening, it's about the

noises that Stone Age man might have made.

I'll bring out my trusty hammer stone. Normally if you hit a rock it

sounds something like that. THUD. But a percentage of the rocks here

are what are called ringing rocks and here's one of them. RINGING

SOUND. One of many ringing rocks up here on

Carn Menyn. Want to give it go? That's incredible!

Quite a lot of them here. Give it a good old...

It sounds like a bell. Just like a bell. Lots of different

tones. You could play a tune. In fact, we've had percussionists up

here who've played proper percussion pieces off the rocks. It's rock

music! RINGING SOUND. But how do we know that Stone Age

man was aware that these bluestones rocked?

There's a boundary along here, Neolithic walling that sealed off

the neck of this promontory here. Now, as you hear some of these rocks

are themselves ringers or potential ringers, so when Stone Age,

Neolithic people built this boundary they must have been aware of the

sounds the stones made. Beyond the wall there's yet more

evidence of the link between the rocks of the Preseli Hills and the

Bluestones of Stonehenge. Up here you see this jumble of

fallen, broken rocks? This is probably a Neolithic quarry,

actually the place where perhaps some of the Bluestones came from.

And this rock here may have been intended to be a Bluestone to go to

Stonehenge. So, if you like, a Stonehenge off

cut? Sort of. For whatever reason it was

abandoned. But we did a quick test of it and it's clearly a resonant

rock. Paul and his team have tested

literally thousands of rocks across these hills and have discovered

hotspots, like this quarry, where up to 40% of them ring.

Do you think they took the stones because they had this ringing

quality? There had to be something special

about these rocks. Why the hell would you take them from here all

the way to Stonehenge? The one thing that hasn't been considered until

now is the idea that sound might have been an important factor.

So, for too long do you think we've concentrated on how Stonehenge looks

and not how it sounds? Very much so. For so long

archaeology has been a silent movie. Now we're looking for the

soundtrack. But is the theory rock solid? Or

will cracks appear when I put it to the test. RINGING SOUND.

That's one. RINGING SOUND. That's another. There's two notes, two

definite notes. RINGING SOUND. That one and... RINGING SOUND.

I need one more chord and I can be Status Quo!

We know Stone Age man brought rocks back from Carn Menyn. So I've

brought back the sounds. Now this really is quite exciting.

It's 7:30 in the morning and we're amongst the stones at Stonehenge and

not only that but English Heritage have given us permission to sound

the Bluestones. So I've got the sound equipment. Let's give it a go!

Chances like this don't happen every day and Paul's co`investigator Jon

Wozencroft and their team of advisors have jumped at the

opportunity to test the stones for themselves. If the theory's right,

if you hit Stonehenge it should sound similar to the rocks up the

mountain. But hold on... They're set in the ground, some of

them are set in concrete, so any sound they have, any resonance will

be damped down. They'll be slightly muted. Now what

about the protocol here? Can we just be whacking World Heritage sites?

No, you certainly cannot. I'm a bit concerned. So for that very reason

I've brought some plastic membranes so we don't actually directly hit

the rock. Great! Let's give it a go, then.

Nothing very special there. Oh, that's better!

So this is, what, Stone 62? OK, well, I would think if this was a

free stander or supported with air space all around that would probably

ring. I tell you, there's something else interesting here are these

marks, pieces have been knocked out ` look. They must have been detached

by hammering at some time in the past. Now, they're not as old as the

original working cos they've cut through that surface, but clearly

they are of some antiquity. The fracturing qualities here are

very different from the fracturing quality here ` it's quite clearly

been tapped. So do you think it flaked because people could have

been sounding the stone? It's possible. And it's in that segment

where there's more resonance than at the top, isn't it? And this is the

area where the chunks are missing. Where they've been hammering in the

past. I never thought I'd say this, but

let's go and hit more of Stonehenge. I think it might be this one, you

know. Let's go and try this one as well.

So, how might the ringing rocks theory strike a chord with what we

already know of Stonehenge? We know Stonehenge is very special

for all sorts of reasons, so it's quite likely that the stones had

properties besides the obvious ones, the visual ones, so it's quite

likely they had acoustic properties. This building, this site, is a

theatre of performance where ritual is going on, symbolism is going on,

astronomy ` all those important parts of a symbolic life is going on

here, and sound and colour plays a vital role in how that building

functions. The weak link in this whole story is

the fact that they could have just brought stones that made funny

noises by mistake. How do we know that they specifically said: "right,

we'll have that one." We don't of course know that they

moved them because they rang. What we can say is of course prehistoric

attitudes to stone must have been very different to the sort of

attitudes we have today. And we often think of stone as permanent,

very long term, very inert, yet we talk about in a strange way as the

living rock ` we talk about stone as if it's got a life to it. It's got a

sort of presence in the landscape which is a little bit more than just

a rock. You get sounds which are like bells,

some of them are like bamboo, some like tin drums. Ringing rocks are a

prominent part of many cultures. You could almost see them as a

prehistoric glockenspiel, if you like. You would knock them and you

would hear these tunes. The soundscapes of pre`history is

something we're only just starting to explore.

Oh yeah! There it is! That sounds good! That's really good, that one

there. That sounds brilliant! I'm going to get my recording of Wales

and we can compare them. So, with this we can play the sounds of Wales

and if the theory is right and I can switch it on it should sound fairly

similar. RINGING SOUND.

You're getting resonance there that this stone can't give you.

But you can hear... Oh, yeah. You know that it's in there, as it were.

RINGING SOUND. That's a bell`tone. We know these have been re`set and

they're not going to ring. Not only that, they've been set in the

ground. These stones and that allowed them to resonate freely.

These cannot resonate freely. Do one more.

RINGING SOUND. It's that one, isn't it? That's the real... Here we are.

We got the Bluestones of Wales and the Bluestones of Wales, and they

both ring! Not so much Stonehenge and Tonehenge. Remember the time you

could get a bank loan at the click of your fingers with hardly any

questions asked. Could it be back then Laing banks would lend you

money to invest in an international fraud?

Doesn't make sense. Elizabeth Watson is about to lose her Bournemouth

home. 13 years ago she went to the Bank of Scotland for a loan to

invest in a scheme which promised high returns. She says she was told

the scheme had the backing of senior people at the Bank of Scotland and

the bank was keen to offer her ?345,000 secured against her house.

But the investment turned out to be a huge fraud, and we think the bank

should have known that at the time. I've become obsessed. The fight for

justice is so enormous. I've been wrestling with the courts. I don't

know how to put it in words, other than to say it's ruined my life. The

biggest cost has been our health, our happiness, our family life. It's

wrecked my business, it's wrecked my health, it's wrecked my marriage.

It's been really, really tough. Really, really horrible.

Liz applied for her loan before the global financial crisis, when banks

seemed to want to lend money to practically anybody ` and there were

big bonuses for those who brought in the most customers. Having made a

trial investment, Liz says the conmen directed her to a Bank of

Scotland manager, Fraser Mackay, so she could get a loan to invest more.

Mr Mackay was so taken by the scheme he even invested funds of his own.

Liz says his enthusiasm meant she got other family members involved.

Do you feel bad about introducing your family members to the

opportunities that were dangled in front of you?

Terrible. I feel absolutely terrible about that. I was in such anguish

over that I had a breakdown, I suppose. At the time, I couldn't

function, I became a recluse. I wouldn't go out. I was crying all

the time. I felt this terrible guilt, I felt this terrible burden.

Regret, remorse? I didn't know how to put it right. Now, 13 years on,

the bank is going after her home and that of her sister Rosemary. An aunt

lost everything and Liz's parents lost their life savings. The whole

family was cynically reeled in through a vulnerable daughter

because of their apparent wealth. It's almost destroyed my husband

because he can't believe that he was? could ever have done so foolish

a thing, but then we just didn't know. It upsets me to see him upset.

I'm trying to help my daughters, both of them. I've written to all

sorts of people ` Theresa May, Mr Cameron, even the Queen, saying the

way I feel about my two daughters in danger of losing their homes. It's

something that I think any mother would empathise with.

It all began with an accountancy firm formerly based in Nottingham

and Leicester called Dobb White, whose partners Alan White and Shin

Gangar targeted wealthy families with the promise of returns of up to

160%. The pair got close to one of the

managers of the Bank of Scotland, Fraser Mackay, offering him

hospitality at champagne receptions and football matches, and

introducing him to potential investors as the man who could sort

out loans. There's NO suggestion Fraser Mackay knew it would turn out

to be a fraudulent scheme, but there were plenty of signs that should

have made him wary, not least the lies told and extraordinary returns

promised by one of the fraudsters Shin Gangar.

I mean, total temptation. He made it sound amazing. He said we can

generate returns on a best efforts basis. The main thing is your

capital is safe. He said it's risk free, and he made it sound

watertight. He said that he had a fantastic new opportunity that was

opening up a new area of the financial markets, and that he had

the backing of Bank of Scotland, and he had a fantastic relationship with

them at board level, and that he could arrange loans to invest in

this special bond underwriting scheme that they were running. He

showed me lots of references from high profile people.

He showed me a contract with Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Really Useful

Theatre group, saying that through the dividends and yields from this

scheme that they'd enabled the funding of the Sunset Boulevard

tour. I mean, it really impressed me, you know. He said if you weren't

happy, all you had to do was give 30 days' notice ` and it's a no brainer

` he said you can take your money out.

By promising fantastic pay outs and using names like Andrew Lloyd Webber

and David Frost, who had never been connected with the investment

scheme, Shin Gangar set out to dazzle clients like Liz. The reason

he was offering returns too good to be true was because he was a crook

operating a fraudulent scheme which collapsed. He was sent to jail and

the scheme's investors were left hundreds of thousands of pounds out

of pocket. That isn't the half of it. Shin Gangar already had a

criminal record, and his dodgy accountancy firm had long been

banned by the Financial Services Authority from handling client

money. Fraser Mackay and the Bank of Scotland should have known this but

they didn't check. Financial journalist Ian Fraser is highly

critical of the Bank of Scotland's actions, both in making loans to

invest in what turned out to be a fraudulent scheme and in now

pursuing numerous victims of the fraud for their homes. How would you

characterise the way banks were lending in 2001 Insaid `` insane,

they were lending to anyone with a pulse. They didn't care if there was

fraud, if people made up the ininformation. Some banks including

Bank of Scotland, they wanted to put the money out the door and they did

not care about all the proper work that should go on round that,

including authentication of dock yueps. The whole attitude was like

the Wild West, we had almost like a Wild West situation, in UK banking,

at that time: Controls, risk management, where credit checking, a

lot of these things were inadequate, and you know, we are reaping the

consequences of that. Let me put this to you, this is what

the Bank of Scotland are saying about what happened they never

endorsed the Dobb White scheme, all the loans they issued were according

to the relevant processes The Bank of Scotland had an obsession with

growth at that period, because it had just merged with Halifax and it

wanted to rally grow its loan book and it was determined to be as big

as other bank, like Barclays or HSBC, or RBS. And so it was going

hell`for`leather as a lender, and it was lending in a reckless or

cavalier manner, on the corporate side, which is to bids and on the

retail side to individuals. It was so obsessed with growth, it lost

sight of the fundamentals of banking, which are can the borrower

pay the money back? One of the risk of taking out a loan secure against

hurt your home is if you don't pay it back the bank can repossess your

property. To protect homeowners from making decisions that could leave

them homeless any leoparder has to be satisfied you have the means or

capacity to pay back the money you are borrowing aside from the equity

on your house. Under Fraser Mackay at the Bank of

Scotland if 2001, the victims we have spoken to claim this was not

being properly done. For many of them, their only real

source of income was the returns from the Dobb White scheme.

From what we have been able to find out, at least seven people lent

money by the Bank of Scotland have had their homes repossessed is or

been forced to sell them to avoid repossession. Others had to give the

bank their life savings. To save their homes some signed a legally

binding gagging order to stop them speaking out about how the bank has

treated them. By talking to us anonymously these people could be

breaking the gagging order but they realise staying silent means the

story can't get out. Why did the Bank of Scotland lend you money? The

only ground that was given to me was the grounds of the income from the

Dobb White scheme, because I had no other income whatsoever. The bank

knew that? Correct. Because if someone is going to offer you money,

secured against your home as a loan, there has tb a certain source of

income coming in? That is right. And that is what I was offered and that

is what happened. Do you think you were being foolish?

If you have a bank that is happy to fund you, and give you an unlimited

credit card, happy to give you an overdraft, an extra loan, all on the

basis of income from this particular scheme, why should I ask questions

about the bank's knowledge? If they are happy, why shouldn't I be?

When Shin Gangar's scheme collapsed more than ?100 million disappeared.

Many people lost their live savings, only a fraction of cash was

recovered. The whole world collapsed round us.

We just saw a big black hole. Everything wefr had, all gone and

lost. It was a matter of selling our house, selling our car. Selling

everything we could lay hands on and trying to keep going.

Having lent you the money for this fraudulent investment, what did the

bank say when you lost everything? They wanted their money back, full

stop. Absolutely, and the solicitors they put on to us, to repossess the

house were very aggressive. How are things now? My credit status is

zero. I am in a rented house. I am on state pension. With Pension

Credit. Nothing left. The bank say first of

all they did not recommend this Dobb White scheme, secondly, that the

loans were eschewed correctly. And thirdly if their customers can't

re`` repay their loans that is not their problem. So the bank is saying

they are justified in seeking to evict these people from their homes.

That is, you know, that is in my view wrong. They are in denial. They

are trying to pretend that they have done absolutely nothing wrong. They

are doing it in order to preserve value for their current

shareholders. We have been in phone and written

communication with the Bank of Scotland for months now, but they

haven't answered questions such as whether it was right for their

manager Fraser Mackay to accept hospitality from Shin Gangar and

whether they were wear that the Dobb White firm was under investigation

by the financial authority at the sign of the so`called investments.

The Bank of Scotland have refused to give Inside Out and interview, I

spoke to a representative who denied the bank gave customers any

recommendations about the Dobb White scheme, he also said that all loans

were issued in accordance with the relevance processes but refused to

explain whey they were. `` what they were. You might think a

fool and their Monday are easily parted. If something appears to be

good to be true it usually is. This isn't some pub scam. Fraser Mackay

was a senior manager at the Bank of Scotland. For the victims we spoke

to, he was the face of the bank, and he was a figure of authority. His

department's willingness to loan them money to invest in Dobb White

was for them an endorsement of the scheme. Since retiring from the boss

box, Mr Mackay has led an active life, jetting off to Marrakech,

Moscow and Nepal and detailing his adventures on line. We tracked

Fraser Mackay down. He was happy to chat to us at length off`the`record,

and said Knight irhe nor the bank had done anything wrong. But he

suddenly went quiet when he asked him to put his point of view on

camera. We have had no joy from the phone calls or letters we have sent,

so we will try the direct approach. I am heading to Chester where he

retired to after he left the Bank of Scotland and we are going to see if

we can get some answers. He told us he was back from his

latest trip, so we waited for him to turn up. No response again. We have

been buzzing his apartment for the last two days and there has been no

sign of life in. So it looks like he has gone away or he has decided the

lie low for a while. Our expert believes the refusal of

anyone from the Bank of Scotland to properliance our questions fits a

familiar pattern of behaviour. In this case and in almost every

case I am aware of the banks never admit they have done anything wrong.

Because they prefer to stone wall, they prefer to be in denial, they

prefer to try to divide the victims, there is very strategies they and

other banks have used over the year, the hope is if they just stone wall

for long enough, the customers who have lost money will go away, die,

commit suicide or whatever, so the bank won't have to pay anything

back. It is just an astonishing, I am not, saying this particularly,

the bank's behaviour has been abhorrent. Most banks have been

behaved in an abhorrent manner. They haven't admitted they have done

anything wrong. Some have admitted they have made mistakes but

generally, they have been in a state of denial, believing they can carry

on, behaving in more or less the same manner. The banks should be

brought to task. A lot of them have spent, well they have ruined

people's lives. I don't want, they have ruined our

lives in the sense for 12 years we have had it round our heads, but I

don't want to see both my daughters, who are still relatively young

compared to me, loose their homes. They don't deserve to.

But there has been some movement. Since Inside Out has been in contact

with bank about this investigation, they have written to Liz offering to

stop repossession proceedings but suggesting both parties it is down

with an independent immediate Yao for to sort thingsous. We have been

in contact with the Financial Conduct Authority, which has the

power to issue multimillion pound fines to banks who break the rules,

they have taken a keen interest what we have uncovered and promised to

look closely at the evidence. Meanwhile, the Bank of Scotland

continues to claim they did nothing wrong in depositing customer's money

with an accountancy firm banned from taking it. Nor would they comment on

whether Frick Fraser Mackay's contact with Shin Gangar make the

scheme look he Egyptian mat. They make no apology for going off

customers when the scheme collapsed. If you end up losing your home

because you took out a loan you didn't have the means to repay, that

is not the bank's problem. That is just business.

Right, that is it for tonight, and indeed for the series, thanks for

watching, and don't for get, if you have a story for us, do get in

touch. We will see you later in the year.

Hello. The 92nd update. The Oscar Pistorius trial has begun in South

Africa. He pleaded not guilty to murdering his girlfriend at his home

last year. A neighbour said she had terrible screams on the night.

Russia sends more soldiers into Ukraine and will stay there until

the crisis comes down. A corporal killed herself and her Wiltshire

barracks, today a coroner said bullying and an alleged rape were

two factors. A good night for the bit at the Oscars, Gravity won an