30/10/2017 Inside Out South

Hello.

We are going in search

of investors's missing money.

Can we have a chat?

We have come to ask

where the money is.

At the time I thought

it was a good return.

I did trust that company.

Could you leave, get the BLEEP out.

This is no different

to handing your life

savings over to a man

in the pub and hoping he will give

it back to you one day.

Leave the camera.

Also coming up, the online love

rats breaking hearts

and busting bank accounts.

It is like part of your 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.

Seven minutes remaining.

There you go!

First, they have been left thousands

of pounds out of pocket with no idea

where their 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 that sure bet

is looking you right in the eye.

And like horse racing,

financial investments

also need a bit of luck

if they are to pay out.

Come on!

But if that investment tip falls

at the first hurdle,

you might find you backed

the wrong horse.

That is exactly what happened

to Stephen Perry from Ringwood.

Stephen was investing for his future

and the current low interest rates

being offered by banks

were not very tempting.

I am virtually retired now and I had

an amount of capital I wanted to put

away and then some income

from custom I have two kids

at school, they will begin

to university before I know it

and they are expensive.

Eager to start investing,

Stephen found a broker online.

They claimed they did

all the due diligence,

they only offered viable 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 my money back.

For Stephen, it sounded

like the perfect investment

and he wasn't the only one

who thought so.

Records we have 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.

To date, they haven't

received a penny.

Others invested lump

sums from the pensions.

"I would like to take this

opportunity to welcome you to Forbes

"capital Ltd as a valued

investor in respect

"of the investment of £40,000."

64-year-old Premath was an 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 was for two years.

Forbes capital promised to return

all of his investment at the end

and pay him £400 every month.

Even I received a payment schedule

from the managing director

to tell me how much I would get.

At the time I thought

it was a good return.

That is the main reason I invested.

And it was a regular monthly income

because since I have retired I am

only getting less money every month

so that was to make it up,

that is the main reason

I invested in Forbes capital.

He only received four interest

payments and then they dried up.

He contacted Forbes capital

to ask where his money

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.

I am extremely worried

about the capital of 40,000

because I worked hard for that.

I am worried about the returns

as well because when I am not

getting it, I am really

frustrated about that.

Because I did trust that company.

So, who is behind the company?

The main shareholder 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,

an unregulated broker,

this is no difference

to handing your life savings over

to a man in the pub and hoping

he will give it back

to you again one day.

With 30 years experience

in the financial services,

Tom specialises in retirement

planning and investments.

You have looked at the detail

of the Forbes capital investment

offer, what do you think of it?

The two things that really

worried me about it well first

of all multiple layers

of uncertainty around Chicago

property markets, the US government,

and overseas investment.

Lots of uncertainty is there

but more than anything the fact

it 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 comeback.

An investment broker,

based in Spain acted as a middleman

between investors and Forbes capital

but even when investors started

reporting they had not

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 it ceased trading 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, have you had

any contact from them?

No, the only contact I had

was the bond certificate and payment

schedule and a covering letter that

came in the post back in April.

Since that time, I have

sent e-mails, left phone

messages and nothing.

When you realised that perhaps this

investment hadn't worked out,

how does it feel, £70,000 is a huge

amount of money.

Well, 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 wanted answers as to what had

happened to this money.

Are you resigned to the fact of not

seeing that money again?

Virtually.

I think I have had to admit that

probability or possibility otherwise

I would not sleep at night

and would spend all 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 is John from BBC Inside Out.

Can we have a chat?

We have come to ask where

the investors money is.

Can you get the BLEEP out before

I phone the police, thank you.

Peter, where is

the investors's many?

Are you deaf?

I said no.

Leave the camera.

You have taken tens of thousands

of pounds, Peter Shuttleworth,

you owe them at least

an explanation,.

£70,000 from Mr Perry,

not a penny paid back.

You can't even be bothered

to talk to them, why not?

They would 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 are quite a hard

man to track down.

And you are a 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's money,

investors have asked him what has

happened to the money,

we have asked him what happened

to their money and he has

nothing to say.

Now, 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 the sites

and the apps is telling the truth.

Here is Emma Thomas.

This is Val.

Having lived alone for some years

after her husband's death,

she decided to give

love another try.

And after venturing online,

she thought she had found it

with a man called Peter.

We were quite a good match

because the site we used did

profiling so we came up as the same.

We would chat for four hours

a night on messenger,

I felt like this was someone I had

a real connection with.

It was that thing about

feeling really connected.

It was like I had found love again.

Her new-found love said

he was a major in the British Army

stationed in Baghdad.

Then one day he went out on patrol

and I didn't hear from him

the following morning and I always

had and so I was really distressed

and 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 then he came back online

to say it had been very harrowing,

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 VAl but needed money

to buy himself out of the military.

He told me where to send some money

to so I sent it and naturally that

wasn't going to be enough money

so I ended up very foolishly sending

two more lots of money

totalling just over £8,500.

This lady runs a dating

agency in Brighton called

South Downs introductions.

She doesn't run an online service

but introduces people face-to-face.

Tara also happens to be a former

detective Sussex Police.

There are some victims that have

lost up to 1.6 million,

others 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 to lose,

some people are bankrupt as a result

of the money they have given to some

of these fraudsters and the sad

reality is there not likely

to ever it back.

Nearly 4000 cases of romance

fraud were reported

to authorities last year.

In fact, this type of crime

is now so widespread,

you can get fraud kits online that

come complete with template e-mails

to persuade people to part

with their money.

Dave Hazell has also

been looking for love.

He enjoys dancing and has always

found it a great way to meet people.

But after a spell as a singleton,

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,

you have become something

"necessary for my soul.

"I dream about the children we will

have in the future, I love you."

So, quite emotive language.

How do you feel when you read that?

I felt really excited and happy

and I thought my life

was going to change for the good.

DAve sent his online lover £15,000

to help with medical expenses

she said she had and to pay

for flights to the UK.

I felt over the moon,

happy and I felt that I had got

the right person in my life.

I was so looking forward to it

and maybe having children.

Neal Masters from Action Fraud

is familiar with many of the common

tricks fraudsters use.

What you often see in relation

to romance fraud is the victim

will be told by the fraud person

that they're coming to the country

to meet with them and they will give

them a better life and they will

sweep them off their feet and this

is what the victim is looking

to see, they're looking for love,

looking for commitment

and they think they have got that

through the fraud person.

Fraudsters will often claim to have

lots in common with their victims.

Mirroring is one tactic

which they find quite effective

because if you say you have been

divorced, they will say

they have been divorced.

It is about looking for that

attachment that they can then use

in order to help reel the victim in.

His profile was that he was widowed

and that he had joined the Army

because of the grief and so it felt

like we had an instant

bond because we had been

through a similar grief experience.

Having parted with more than £8,000,

Val heard nothing more

from her online love.

I did a search on the internet sat

up all night and searched and found

the story of a lady who had been

scammed using the same story,

the same picture and everything.

It is like part of your

world disappears.

And I also felt really quite ashamed

that I could have been so silly,

that is what I felt.

But I couldn't tell anyone, I didn't

tell anybody about the money,

I had not told anyone

about the money before

because because I felt

ashamed of doing that.

Dave was awaiting the arrival

of his new love but then he got

an e-mail saying she was visiting

relatives in Ghana and was

stuck at immigration.

She needed yet more money.

Dave showed the letter

to his bank manager

who immediately smelled a rat.

It was only through the bank he said

that that isn't genuine.

How did you feel when

you heard those words?

I was devastated.

I could not 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 Dave not to

send any more money.

It made me feel really low,

cheap and I could not trust anybody,

even my close friends.

Former detective Tara says

there are people things can do

to keep the online sharks at bay.

The main one is to stay on a dating

site, never move to private e-mails

or private messaging.

There are checks and balances

in place online dating sites

where certain e-mails,

if they are worded in a certain way

then they'll be pulled

to one side and checked,

they may remove that

person if they believe

them to be a scammer.

Be wary of someone keeps asking

you lots and lots of questions

about you and your background

and you suddenly find you are not

getting much back from them.

But you are giving a lot

of information about yourself.

You should never even consider

giving out money to anybody you have

never met or that you do not know.

His enduring love of dancing

is helping Dave get over

his online experience.

I go dancing which helps me to relax

and focus on different things

so my mind is not on it

all the time.

Val says she has learned

from what has happened

and is no longer ashamed

about telling her story.

If it does help someone else,

if somebody is watching this

who is wondering maybe this

is a scam or not, to take a step

back because if someone

genuinely loves you,

they are not going to put pressure

on you to do something that

doesn't feel right for you.

Emma Thomas reporting.

Don't forget you can find out more

about the show on Twitter...

Finally, when was the last

time you climbed a tree.

If you're anything like me,

it has been a while but whether UK

national tree climbing Championships

rolled into town,

guess who got roped in?

There was a time I would spend more

of the day up a tree then down it.

But time has passed.

A lot of time.

If I am to stand any chance

in a tree climbing competition,

I need some serious help.

And that is where Jo comes in.

By day, Jo works as an

arborist or tree surgeon.

But she is also a three-time world

champion tree climber.

Hi, Jo.

You must be John.

How are you.

Yeah, good.

This is your challenge for today.

Get up this beautiful oak tree.

Things have moved on since

I last climbed a tree.

These days it is all about helmets,

harnesses and ropes and first

you have got to get the ropes

up the tree.

For that, you need to throw line.

So, we need to get this

up into the canopy.

It turns out it is more technical

than just chucking it.

Missed.

That is telling you we need to be

letting go when your

arm is more up here.

I hit a branch.

They do get stuck.

In competition, you get points

for safety, speed and technique.

I missed the entire tree.

I am wearing a helmet so one

out of three isn't bad.

But this doesn't bode well.

Good bit of power and height.

Finally, it is up.

Let's go.

Am I using both hands?

After only two hours I am giddy

three feet the ground.

You are using a thigh muscle

more than your arms.

It is not the most elegant.

What is it about trees

that got Jo looked?

I was brought up outside,

I wasn't allowed to sit and watch

telly which I'm thankful for now.

At the time I didn't like it.

It is a lifestyle, I would say.

Some people have a job, go to work,

9-to-5, and that is it

and 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 a 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 am not as graceful as you.

Keep stepping your feet down.

Finally, I start making progress.

I have never been this

high in a tree before.

Nearly there.

It's quite a unique feeling.

Get up to the top.

While I'm still searching

for my inner monkey,

in Surrey one of my rivals is also

preparing for the competition.

Trees are amazing.

They are incredible organisms

when you think about it.

Scarlett 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 thought,

hey, I would be up here

and not on the floor.

I do find it quite scary

sometimes but everyone does.

They would be lying if they said

they didn't sometimes.

Scarlet has been learning

the ropes for two years

and the UK open will be

only her second competitive climb.

The climbing competitions

are fantastic.

You learn so much off

people and it is a fun

way of thinking, hey,

I am not bad at climbing after all.

Because everyone is there

going great, well the annual

alike, OK, brilliant.

I will keep going.

A few weeks later and it is the day

of the UK open tree climbing

Championships in the new Forest.

I am up against 13 other climbers

from across the country.

Jo's husband, John, will be one

of the judges today.

No favouritism, I hope.

This makes you realise how

technical it is and how

professional these guys are.

There was a lot more that goes on,

gone are the days where you just

hang on for dear life

and cut bits off.

There is a progression all the way

through to become world champion

and in the tree climbing world,

that is a big thing.

Jo is three-time

ladies world champion.

Have you been sizing

up the opposition,?

Yeah, quite a few of them.

There are quite a few new faces

which is good to see.

Three, two, one.

Go!

As the competition gets under way,

it doesn't take long for me

to realise what I have let

myself in for.

You are seriously moving up there.

Try to be.

It is a lot of practice I suppose

but there were a few slips

I shouldn't have had.

A few things I could have changed,

I was shaking a lot.

You are trying to be fast but it

ends up slowing you down.

He has got to be on the ground

before the time runs

out and unclipped.

There you go.

That was one for

the crowd, wasn't it?

The tree is too big!

Not what I want to hear.

I am not the only one sharing top

tips with other climbers.

Tony Darbyshire is one

of today's judges and eight

tree climbing trainer.

There has been a lot of talk

about equipment and...

There is so much to learn.

Showing guys different systems

that the guys are using.

We have the best job in the world.

We climb trees.

What could be better than that?

Over on the challenge,

Jo is showing why she is

three-time world champion.

Clear, clear.

Jo, how was that?

It was good fun.

You will enjoy it.

You think you have done all right?

No blood!

Newcomer Scarlet is also

showing off her skills.

Stand up, go on.

Keep going.

I stayed on this side.

Which I think helped because I was

leaning away from my rope.

Unclip!

It was all right, wasn't it?

I can't put it off any longer.

This could all end

in total humiliation.

Out of my league!

Clear.

First, getting a line in.

Just missed it.

Second time lucky.

No.

Third time lucky?

Come on!

With my line in I have

to get my gear on.

I am getting more help than everyone

else but I am going to take it.

It is a timed event.

Halfway through I am

still on the ground.

Ten minutes remaining.

Come on, John!

Hand over hand.

Where am I going?

Over little bit.

You're going this way now.

I am heading for the bell.

Getting there.

Yes!

Next I have to throw

a lock in the basket.

First go, honest!

Time for my speedy descent.

One minute remaining.

The clock stops when

the ropes are down.

I am not catlike yet

in the branches.

Sluglike.

A bit harsh, Tony.

After a long day, the UK open

championship goes to Graham Bird.

Jo has to make do with

runner-up and Scarlet takes

a well-deserved fifth.

As for me,...

In 12th place my

friend from the BBC.

John.

That is 12 out of 14.

Unbelievably not last.

Though the other two

were disqualified.

But technically speaking that means

I am the 12th best tree

climber in the country.

I guess I have quite

a remarkable talent.

Me and trees, I think

we have something going on.

You are right, I won't

give up the day job.

Don't forget the e-mail...

See you soon.

Bye-bye.

Next week, Paul Mayhew Archer,

Parkinsons and stand-up comedy.

My view is make them think something

funny is about to happen and then

just when they realise it isn't,

you have left.

My wife is no longer my wife.

She is my carer and when

I told my wife this,

she said but I don't care!