If you've been ripped off...
I just feel very cheated. Cheated and conned.
..but are struggling to get back to your hard-earned cash...
Everything that I'd worked for was gone, basically.
..help is at hand from the sheriffs.
Hello. We're a High Court enforcement.
We have an outstanding Writ of Control.
They're back with a brand-new team...
..determined to get you the money you're owed.
And you're wasting our time. I'm now going to call a locksmith.
Acting with the High Court's authority...
He's the one with the court writ, so he's the victim, not you.
..they have the power to remove assets...
We're here to retrieve the full balance.
If not, remove goods otherwise.
..to ensure you're not short changed.
The sheriffs being our last saviour and hope.
Every year, sheriffs in England and Wales
recover your unpaid debts totalling £100 million.
I've got my money back and now we can put this matter to bed.
Coming up...
The sheriffs visit a shopkeeper who's failed
to pay his bills for almost two years.
It's either full payment today or we have to take action.
If you can't do that, then you'll find your shop's been locked up.
85-year-old Dudley Bristow was left drastically out of pocket
courtesy of a door-to-door salesman.
I just feel very cheated. Cheated and conned.
The debtor tries every trick in the book to avoid liability.
It's actually the other way round, sir.
You need to prove to us that it doesn't belong to Roofshield.
He's the director of the company. He should pay their debts.
And when a second-hand car dealer denies responsibility for a debt...
I'm going to ask you again - is this XMC Car Sales?
..Ben puts the sheriffs firmly in the driving seat.
There's a distinctive Fiesta here with red alloys,
and it's there on the website.
We're in the right place.
It's a busy morning in South London.
Enforcement agents Luke Peacock and Grant Bailey
are hoping to settle a substantial debt
that's been owed to a company for almost two years.
We're going to see Sherrys Beauty Limited in Peckham - SE15.
The intel we have, the claimant seems to be a distributor.
Sherrys Beauty Limited is a cosmetics retailer.
It owes £14,500 to one of its suppliers.
It's a sizeable debt given the likely assets on site.
Perfumes, cosmetics, make-up, wigs and weaves,
very small priced items.
So, going by the amount owed to the claimant,
it will be a large amount necessary needing to be removed,
if it gets to that stage, to be able to recover the balance outstanding.
The address the sheriffs have for the debtor leads them
to Peckham's busy high street
and a shop called Jinny's Beauty, not Sherrys.
In situations like these, the sheriffs are eager to iron out
any confusion as soon as possible.
All right, guys. How you doing? You all right?
You work here?
Lovely. Can we speak to Mohammed Najeeb, please?
He's not here?
He's out of the country? Are you able to contact him for us, please?
We are enforcement agents.
Do you know about it?
Lovely.
That's interesting.
Sherry's Beauty Limited.
So it's them. Yep.
The name above the door was actually different
to the company that we were looking for.
So the immediate concern was that there could possibly
be another company operating from here.
But what we've found under the desk here is
a certificate of incorporation
and the name on it is Sherrys Beauty Limited,
which is the company we're actually here to see.
So if we do get told that actually it's another company operating
from here, we know that's not true.
Meanwhile, the staff have managed
to get the company director on the phone.
Hello.
You've been taken to the County Court
and the case has been uplifted to the High Court.
So, we are here to collect £14,519.43.
The debtor says he'd made an arrangement with the claimant
to set up a payment plan
when he returns from Pakistan in a week's time
and can't understand why the enforcement agents are in his shop.
Unfortunately, they've taken it to the High Court.
That's why we're here.
So they've passed all responsibility to us
because they want the full balance.
Insisting that he doesn't have the money to hand,
the debtor asks for more time.
Sir, you keep pleading with me, but you're not letting me finish.
If you don't pay, it's likely that we'll get a removal truck here today
to remove your stock.
I can't tell you how you're going to resolve it.
All I can tell you is that this balance needs paying,
otherwise we're going to clear the shop.
You now need to act upon that.
OK, bye-bye.
Lovely. Thank you. He's going to come back to us. Yeah?
We're just going to take a look around the shop.
With the company director promising to try to find the funds,
the sheriffs begin their assessment of the assets
in case he isn't able to come up with the money.
There's going to be a lot of bottles of lotion.
£5, £13. Very low-value items, but they all add up.
£7.50.
£40.
With more than £14,000 owed
and most of the assets here worth less than 50,
recovering the debt poses a logistical challenge.
Yeah, it's going to be a very big removal if necessary. Mm.
It would be a day just doing inventory.
I think we'd be here till the weekend. Yeah.
The best thing to do on this one would be to do a sale on site.
It's the most sensible option right now. Yeah.
Rather than spending hours and hours and hours packing up.
To actually remove this stuff is going to be a big operation.
One option we do actually have is to arrange a locksmith
to come lock the shop up and then, in seven days, if they haven't paid,
there'd be a public auction held on site.
If we're saying all of these are averaging at £40 each,
say there's ten of each item -
400, 400, 400, 400, 400, 400.
Obviously, they wouldn't sell at £40 each. Not at auction, no.
But, when you've got a whole wall all the way down there...
At least 80-100 ft.
..all the way down here as a whole is worth thousands.
Someone would come and buy it as a whole thing.
Yeah. They'd have to.
And I needed a toothbrush yesterday.
HE CHUCKLES Should have come here first, eh?
99p for a little pink one.
HE LAUGHS
Meanwhile, the debtor calls back.
Hello.
He would like until 2pm tomorrow to pay the full balance?
If by 2pm tomorrow you guarantee to have the full payment
in front of us,
then I could go back to the client and request that.
Right, I will make the phone call.
And if they say yes, they say yes. If they say no, they say no.
OK, stay by the phone.
Luke calls the claimant.
Hello. It's Luke Peacock. How you doing?
And soon has his answer.
All right, lovely, thanks.
Although it's unusual for the sheriffs to walk away empty handed
from a business full of assets,
on this occasion, they're going to be patient.
Considering the time of night now
and the actual manpower that it would take to remove these items,
I think that's the best-case scenario.
They're a fully operational shop,
so I don't think we've got any concern of them emptying
the place so we can't remove the goods.
Hello.
Hi, sir.
They're happy to give you until 2pm.
However, make sure you stay in touch, because if not,
the balance goes straight up to 17.
So you're going to have nearly another £2,000 on the bill.
Don't let it happen, yeah?
All right, take care. Bye-bye.
Thanks a lot. Enjoy your dinner. Take care, yeah?
Goodnight.
But will the claimant, who's been owed thousands of pounds
for the last two years, get their money tomorrow?
Few of us can afford to be left out of pocket.
If you've been let down by faulty goods or substandard services
and are struggling to get your money back, you can use the County Courts
to recover your hard-earned cash.
Around two million claims are made every year in England and Wales
and can be filed by post or online for a small fee.
Both parties in the case will be asked to submit evidence
and you may have to attend a court hearing.
If you win your case, a County Court judgment - or CCJ - will be issued
against the debtor.
If they still don't pay, it's time to call the sheriffs.
Tracking down a debtor company
is not always as simple as you might think.
Today, enforcement agents James King and Mark King are chasing a debt
owed by a company which has been proving difficult to locate.
OK, this morning, me and James are off to Maidstone
to a roofing company called Roofshield Solutions Limited.
We're there to collect today just over £3,000.
Roofshield Solutions Limited were taken to court
by 85-year-old Dudley Bristow.
His dispute with the company began
when he was visited by a door-to-door salesman.
Well, it was a day in May and the weather was fine, you know,
and I was gardening and that.
And there was this knock at the door
and this very pleasant chap, he said,
"I'm not trying to sell you anything," he said...
HE CHUCKLES
That's his words.
"I'm not trying to sell you...
"But I would like to point out
"that your roof is in need of cleaning," he said,
"and we could do it at a very reasonable price."
Removing the moss and coating it with a chemical
so that the moss never, ever came back on again.
That was the service.
And it sounded quite plausible at the time.
They're clever people, these salesmen.
Roofshield Solutions quoted a price of £6,000
and Dudley was initially reluctant, but the salesman persisted.
He started off, naturally, being very pleasant.
As time moved on, you know, I could tell that he was really trying
to push it, sort of thing, you know what I mean?
Sort of start off very smoothly
and carry on till they get a deal.
Eventually, Dudley agreed to the work
and placed a deposit of £2,000.
But he soon started to have second thoughts.
After a couple of days and sitting down with all the paperwork,
working out the cubic metres and everything,
it seemed hideously expensive
for a job that was pretty basic, really, nothing...
No skill attached to it or anything, really.
And at the same time, it did occur to me,
you've got someone on the roof, they can do damage.
You know, they can... I mean, we don't know who these people are
so I just thought, scrap it.
So I picked the phone up, cancelled the deal.
Still well within the 14-day cooling-off period,
Dudley was legally entitled to cancel with a full refund
and Roofshield Solutions seemed to agree.
They accepted it and they said they'd reimburse me.
After a couple of weeks, I phoned them back again.
"Yes, we're putting it in the post now."
Never happened.
And that happened three times.
Every time I phoned, they agreed that they were going to pay me back.
They never said they wouldn't ever.
But, of course, it never happened.
Angered by the company's failure to give his money back,
Dudley began to question whether the work had ever been needed
in the first place.
If you look at my roof now,
you can see it's not in a critical moss state, is it?
I feel very cheated. Cheated and conned.
I began to feel...very depressed about it.
Dudley became determined to get his money back,
even if it meant taking legal action.
I took it to the small claims court, realising what they were doing.
They never showed up in court.
Well, the judge ruled in my favour. It was a very straightforward case.
Dudley assumed that the court ruling would be the end of the matter.
But it wasn't that simple.
I won my case,
they still didn't pay up,
so I took it to the High Court.
I won my case and they still didn't pay out.
And as a last chance, I require the services of the sheriffs
to get the full refund.
Since Dudley went to court,
Roofshield Solutions Limited's website has been taken down,
suggesting that it may have ceased trading.
The sheriffs recently visited an address they had on file,
but the unit turned out to be empty.
They now plan to visit a second address they believe could be linked
to Roofshield Solutions Limited.
Have you ever done a roofing company before?
Uh...
I'm not sure, to be honest.
I've done scaffolding. I've done scaffolders before.
Yeah, I've done scaffolders.
Mark thinks getting Dudley the money he's owed could be tough.
Being outside contractors, if you like,
this site is probably just going to have
a Portakabin or something on it, maybe.
Wouldn't expect there to be a lot of assets there,
other than vehicles, I would have thought. Might be some vehicles.
By the time we get there, if they're any good,
they're going to be out working.
Whoa! Black cat.
Steady, guys.
As the sheriffs reach their destination,
there are more bad omens.
Signage at the gate shows a different company.
It looked like an old sign, though, didn't it?
On the plus side, the address leads to a proper unit...
..rather than the Portakabin Mark had feared.
But are Roofshield Solutions Limited inside?
Good morning, sir.
Looking for a company called Roofshield Solutions Limited.
Roofshield Solutions? Yeah.
Right. Roofshield Solutions Limited?
No? No.
The man says this is a different company.
It's all on the paperwork. There's the paperwork, there.
Look, here you go.
..conservatories, trailers, Weathershield Solutions.
Who's the director of Weathershield Solutions?
Andrew Jordan.
Andrew Jordan. Yeah.
OK.
James looks up Mr Jordan on Companies House.
Andrew Jordan...
..is also the director of Roofshield Solutions Limited.
Is Andrew around?
Can we get him on the phone?
Yeah?
Yeah, it's a High Court writ. Yeah?
We're here today to remove goods to cover this outstanding debt.
Balance is £3,009.34.
Yeah, lovely.
So, looks like Weathershield Solutions Limited
has the same director as Roofshield Solutions Limited,
so there's a good possibility they're both trading from this unit.
So we are at the right price.
Obviously, from our point of view, we need to identify the goods
that belong to Weathershield
and the goods that belong to Roofshield.
James and Mark cast their eyes over the goods piled up
in the warehouse for any clues as to who owns them.
But, at first glance, there isn't much cause for confidence.
Other than a few roof tiles,
there's nothing here that I've seen that relates to roofing.
Everything I can see has got labels on that says "Anglian".
While they wait for him to call back,
James carries out some further online checks on the debtor.
He's certainly got a lot of limited companies, Andrew Paul Jordan.
Roofshield Solutions Limited currently has five CCJs against it.
All similar sort of amounts.
1,500 to three grand.
A few minutes later, Mr Jordan is on the line.
Can I speak to him?
Hello, sir?
He says Roofshield Solutions Limited isn't based in the unit
and can't understand why James is there.
Obviously, this is a County Court judgment that's been transferred
to the High Court.
I'm an enforcement agent.
Now, I don't know if you're aware, but we can go to anywhere in England
and Wales where we believe there's goods that belong to the company.
Now, considering this company is called Weathershield,
and you are the managing director, you're also the managing director
of Roofshield Solutions, then we have reasonable assumption
that the goods here could possibly belong to Roofshield Solutions.
The debtor says nothing in the unit belongs
to Roofshield Solutions Limited, which is the company that's failed
to return Dudley's sizeable deposit,
and says that without proof, James would be unable to remove anything.
It's actually the other way round, sir.
You need to prove to us that it doesn't belong to Roofshield.
If we can just see, obviously, invoices and bank statements to show
that these goods were bought by Weathershield Solutions,
then that's fine, we can be on our way.
Alternatively, sir, as the director of Roofshield Solutions,
would you like to make this payment of this outstanding judgment
that you have?
He's the director of the company,
ultimately he's liable for it, isn't he?
He runs the company,
he should pay their debts.
You pay it now? Can you do a bank transfer?
It seems Mr Jordan has agreed to pay.
No problem.
The amount is £3,009.34.
A bank transfer is made.
There you go, mate. That's all the paperwork.
If you've got any questions, my number is on there. No worries.
Lovely. Take care, mate. See you later.
And the Roofshield Solutions Limited's debt is paid in full.
The director had different companies,
and he was a little baffled that we had turned up at that address.
He was like, "This is a separate limited company.
"It's nothing to do with us.
"So therefore, I don't have to pay."
When James pointed out that he needed to prove the assets
at the address belonged to another company,
and also bank statements to show who paid for them,
I think it was, to be honest,
it was probably more hassle than it was worth, and he decided,
"Yeah, well, let's just pay it and get them out of here."
After a long legal fight,
Dudley Bristow will finally get back the money which
Roofshield Solutions Limited had promised him all along.
I've just received a notice from the sheriffs,
and I'm very, very happy with the result.
It's taken me three years for a settlement.
Being a person, a senior citizen,
I have to bear in mind that if it went on much longer,
I might not be in a position to receive it!
HE LAUGHS
I'm very pleased that it's finally concluded.
And I have a message for the sheriffs -
thank you very much.
Back in London, Luke and Grant are on their way to pay another visit
to Sherrys Beauty Limited in Peckham, who, for over two years,
have failed to pay a small supplier over £10,000.
Last week, when the sheriffs visited, the director
was in Pakistan...
OK, stay by the phone.
..and he asked for more time to pay.
What's he's saying?
He wants 24 hours, till two o'clock tomorrow,
and he can clear the full balance.
But he has not lived up to his word.
With the conversations I had with the director initially,
he sounded pretty genuine and reasonable
and that he was going to make
a reasonable attempt to actually clear it.
But within the following 24 hours, he didn't come forward
with the payment, and requested another week.
So the client's requested that we return and look at
taking control of the goods that are on site.
So today we're heading back to retrieve the balance.
If not, we'll be looking to do a potential lock-out,
take possession of all goods in the property, change all the locks
to secure the premises, and then, if necessary,
an auction will take place within seven days
if the balance isn't paid.
Do you reckon they'll be expecting a revisit this morning?
No.
If the director doesn't come up with the money this time,
then the sheriffs will have no choice but to put the shop
temporarily out of business.
How you doing, boss?
Yeah, you?
Is the guy we spoke to last time about?
Is he back in the UK now?
He's still in Pakistan?
Hello. Hi there, sir.
We've been instructed back here this morning to collect the balance.
No, the request was for you to have until this Friday,
but the client's not willing to accept it.
So, unfortunately, it's either full payment today,
or we have to take action,
because I'm not standing here going round in circles
for the next two or three hours,
as we have done for the past 72 hours.
You now need to do your job, and that is to try and raise
the funds over the course of the next 30 minutes to an hour.
If you can't do that, then you'll find your shop's being locked up.
Thanks for your time.
We seem to be back to square one, and he keeps reverting back
to needing until Friday, therefore we have to take action.
He's been given another 30 minutes.
If he hasn't raised the funds,
or certainly a chunk of those funds,
to show us he's making an attempt,
then we'll have to proceed with getting a locksmith en route.
With no offer of payment on the table, Luke and Grant have
no choice but to proceed with the enforcement,
as commanded by the court.
They begin working out how the premises can be secured.
This one would need to be locked,
but there's no handle on it at the moment.
But that's fine. No, that's not an issue.
So we can lock this one,
and the fire exit will be locked inside.
You can also lock their office.
Which is locked at the moment anyway.
Yeah.
Have you got the key for the office?
Please. Is it these ones?
Yeah?
As they previously didn't get into the office,
it's worth checking out now, just in case.
Is there a safe or anything in here?
Imagine if we found 20 grand in cash.
There could be a potential cash flow back here,
and maybe a float or something, which...
Cash we are able to seize, and knock that off the balance.
Just appears to be receipts, so nothing of too immediate interest.
The debtor's 30 minutes
is nearly up.
PHONE RINGS
Luke Peacock.
When he rings back,
he says he's going to be able to raise the cash by borrowing
from his older brother.
Has your older brother told you that he has 15 grand to give you?
45 to 50 minutes, he's going to come back to you.
Until the point of which the money has hit our account,
then we have to carry on.
We're in the same position.
I'm not going to wait around for another couple of hours.
Sir, sir, sir... I'm...
Sir, quite frankly, you're wasting our time.
I'm now going to call a locksmith. We're going to lock the shop up.
That's it.
Unconvinced by the debtor's promises,
the sheriffs make the call.
Just checking your availability for this SE15 job.
He's changed in tone since the original conversation
this morning, because he's now saying he's trying his best to get the money together.
But, ultimately, we're not getting anywhere as we are.
Yep, that's perfect, mate. Yep, give us a shout. Bye-bye.
About half an hour or so, he said, he hopes.
In the meantime, there's plenty to do.
Although the sheriffs' strategy of taking control of stock on site
has avoided the arduous task of removing it,
they still need to make an inventory of everything here.
Right, wigs. What colour wigs have we got?
Black. Brown.
Grey. Grey.
Purple.
How many of each? You count.
Brunettes?
Two, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12...
..13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20...
I think it's like 127.
What, all the way along?
Brunettes, not blondes or red.
Cos there's a couple of red ones there.
I would just put - "Wigs, all."
How many wigs are there? All of them.
53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60,
61, 62, 63, 64...
And three.
Six. ..75, 76, 77...
..seven, eight. Six.
THEY LAUGH
80, 81, 82, 83, 84...
Although each wig is counted...
185.
Can you write it on the paperwork?
..for everything else, a photographic record
will have to do.
With the paperwork complete, the contents of the shop are now
officially under the sheriffs' control.
SHUTTER CLICKS
Here we go.
Lovely.
Next, every lock must be changed to prevent the debtor or anyone else
from gaining access and interfering with the assets.
It's now the last chance for the debtor to come up with
some money before his business is shut down.
Luke Peacock.
Finally, he calls back.
Hi.
So you're not able to pay anything, no?
It's bad news.
The debtor's brother has been unable to lend him the money.
Right. What do you have today, sir?
So you've got £240 you can offer today.
You've now had from Thursday to Monday,
you've still paid nothing
and you've offered us 240 quid, which, to be fair with you,
is an insult.
So, this is it now, sir.
The man says he still wants to pay off the debt.
You'll have seven days before everything in this shop is sold.
With the debtor's best offer totalling less than 2%
of what he owes, the closure of his shop is now inevitable.
Take care, guys.
Thanks for your hospitality, and hopefully he pays
and you can come back on Friday.
All the best, guys. Enjoy your time off.
I feel sorry for these guys cos they've basically
just been kicked out of their job, and their main source of income
because the director, for whatever reason, is back home in Pakistan
and has not made any attempt to actually pay it.
You know, even if he'd raised a few thousand pounds today,
he could have prevented this.
All done, mate, yeah? Lovely job.
The sheriffs now have the only keys to the premises,
but before they can leave, there's one final matter to take care of.
Got it? Kind of. Just empty that outside.
There's a quite considerable leak in the building.
Obviously, the fact that we've locked the shop up,
it's going to be locked for potentially seven days.
With the rain we've got at the moment, it could start filling up
quite quickly.
So it's something that we need to take into consideration,
with the fact that we've secured the premises.
So, to an extent, we have some responsibility over it.
Four hours after they first arrived, the business is finally locked up.
Paperwork. Keys are on there.
Keys.
Yeah, let's go.
Job done.
We've had to take the most extreme course of action today.
It wasn't one that we'd planned
and it's certainly not one we do very regularly.
But, unfortunately, after all the chances we've given him,
we're left with no alternative.
The director now has a week to come up with the money,
before the contents of his shop are sold via an online auction site.
If you've won a County Court judgment, but are still
out of pocket because it hasn't been paid,
for £66, you can get the case transferred up to the High Court,
which will issue a writ for enforcement by the sheriffs.
Can you please come to the door?
I'm here with a High Court writ today.
We will be executing today, if not removing goods.
These High Court awards have to be paid,
and the sheriffs have unique legal powers
to ensure you get the money you're owed.
I'm here regarding a High Court writ of control.
We can't get off the site today without full payment.
If you shut the door on us, we'll get a locksmith in.
Why are you preventing us access?
And there's no limit on the size of debt they can pursue.
£8,691.22.
£40,386.
You can just do the bank transfer.
If they're successful, they'll recover your money and costs
from the debtor...
Brilliant. Cheers. Thank you.
..as well as their own fees, which are set by the Government.
We'd have to take the case to the next stage,
and we'd have to get removal trucks here to remove your goods.
If the sheriffs can't get your money,
you'll be asked to pay another £90 to cover their costs.
Second-hand car sales are a common source of disputes
in the County Courts,
and many disgruntled buyers ultimately turn to the sheriffs
when a judgment in their favour hasn't been paid.
This morning, enforcement agents Ben Dirom and Myles Whitworth
are heading to Dewsbury, in West Yorkshire.
OK, so we're off to XMC Car Sales.
We're attending with a High Court writ for just under £2,100.
The money is owed to a customer who bought a car
that later developed a fault.
But when the customer asked XMC Car Sales if he could return
the vehicle, he says they became abusive towards him.
We'll go there, see what they have on site,
put a little bit of pressure on
and clamp a vehicle, something like that,
if we need to, and see where we go from there.
The address they have on file for XMC Car Sales
leads them to a back street near the city centre.
I could be wrong, but I'd say this is where the photos are, mate.
There's your picket fence.
But there's no sign of a car dealership here.
Got to be around here somewhere, innit? Let's get out.
Ben and Myles decide to have a look around on foot.
They never seem to have the right signage above the door,
so it always makes it difficult.
This car yard on the next street isn't branded
as XMC Car Sales.
Let's speak to these guys. See if they know them.
But it's worth a try.
Give them a knock.
Hello? Hello, mate.
Hi, mate. We're looking for XMC, mate.
XMC Car Sales.
A young man inside says XMC Car Sales is nothing to do with him.
Right. Well, I'm just here to ask you, mate.
As I say, obviously it's proving a little bit difficult to find,
but... Do you know where they are?
He says he hasn't heard of XMC Car Sales.
What's the address here, mate?
Do you know where Bell Street Mills is?
Nor does he recognise the address.
Right. All right, mate. Cheers, buddy. Cheers.
But the sheriffs aren't convinced they're being told the full story.
What's the number of XMC?
970 799. No.
Ben takes another look at the cars on the debtor's website.
We're in the right place. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you can see there's a distinctive Fiesta here
with red alloys, and it's there on the website -
same registration number.
Also that Peugeot there, mate.
This Merc, and that one with the red alloys, mate.
So we are in the right place.
I'm going to ask you again, is this XMC Car Sales?
Do you work here, mate?
Right. Well, can you get your boss down, mate, please?
Can I have a little look inside, buddy?
Although the sheriffs are entitled to search the premises,
the staff don't want to let our camera operator in,
nor are they happy about Myles rifling through their paperwork.
I'm just looking, mate.
I'm looking for XMC Car Sales.
We're allowed to do that.
You don't have to give us permission.
You said you had nothing to do with XMC Car Sales,
but there's loads of letters here, so that's exactly why I'm looking.
The young worker has now managed to reach his boss by phone,
and hands him over to Myles.
Hello.
But he, too, claims XMC Car Sales isn't here.
Well, I'm inside your office reading a letter to XMC Car Sales,
and you've got cars on your forecourt getting sold online
under XMC Car Sales, so let's not mess about now, pal.
The outstanding balance is £2,092.11.
We're getting to the bottom of it fairly swiftly.
It's a family-run business.
The younger gentleman is the brother of the debtor.
Myles has gone in there,
and he's found paperwork in the company's name straight away.
And, obviously, we've found that at least three vehicles there
are also for sale on XMC Car Sales' website,
so now they're admitting to being part of the same company.
Not overly happy about Myles going through the paperwork,
but we are entitled to do that.
Having now admitted this is the debtor business, the family
members want to know more about the debt, which no-one seems
to be able to recall.
We've got a name for you.
I mean, you'll have an invoice somewhere, no doubt.
But until they know which car it relates to,
the debtors do not want to pay.
Well, you have to, mate. It's as simple as that.
All we can say, lads, is if it isn't paid within the next
sort of ten minutes, it will go up by £594, OK?
No, it's not normally after an hour.
It doesn't have to be an hour, mate.
You said XMC Car Sales weren't here in the first place,
so we are entitled to add those fees.
Finally, they give in...
Account number is 037...
..and ask for the bank details, so they can make the payment.
£2,092.11.
Payment has cleared. That's excellent.
No problem. All right.
Thank you, Emma. Cheers. Bye. Bye.
All right, so it's as easy as that, lads.
We'll get you a receipt and then we'll get away.
And despite the business's identity crisis,
the customer has finally got the money he's owed.
Once I was inside, I was speaking to multiple different people,
actually. One of them wasn't happy, one of them was quite forthcoming,
he was fine and he was quite willing to pay,
but in the background, the other one was kicking off about it.
It's not unusual for garages of this type,
you know, it's clear that there's multiple businesses trading
from there. XMC Car Sales was just one of them.
What saved the day was we did an internet search
and, lo and behold, there was at least three vehicles
in that compound that belonged to the debtor
and was advertised on that site.
So once we had that information, we weren't going to go anywhere
until it was paid. Job well done for the claimants.
Fairly straightforward, apart from a little bit of wrangling.
Yeah, job well done on the day, and a result for the claimant.
It's now a week since Luke and Grant changed the locks
at Sherrys Beauty Limited - a shop that's owed over £10,000
to a small supplier for over two years.
And the sheriffs' strategy seems to have paid off.
We've had a call from the director today and their solicitor,
to say that they've paid the full balance,
bar a couple of hundred pounds,
so he's got the remaining balance in cash,
for when we actually get to the premises.
The reason we need to go back to the premises
is to obviously deliver them the keys.
Do you want to give him a shout, find out where he is?
He'll probably be down here waiting for us.
Making a cup of tea. He might be.
The sheriffs are the first to arrive...
I think this is our man.
..followed shortly afterwards by the director.
Hello, sir. How are you?
Luke, we finally meet.
Yeah, finally meet. Do you need to see my passport?
Yes, please. Yep, some sort of identification. Thank you.
There's mine anyway, so you're aware.
Do you want to see? I see. Yeah?
So have you got the 353? Watch out of the way.
Lovely. Thank you.
355. Check that, mate.
With the handover of the remaining money...
355.
..Sherrys Beauty Limited's £15,500 debt is at last settled.
All right, these are the front door... Yep.
..and then you've got two for the back door... Yep.
..and then you've got two for the very, very back door.
All new locks.
You got something out of it at least.
THEY LAUGH
Thank you. Off to work.
That's it. We're done.
The shop is officially back in the owner's hands,
and can trade once again.
Thanks a lot for your help, guys. Take care, boys.
Take care, guys. See you later, guys. All the best.
So, thankfully, it's our final time back here.
It went a lot smoother.
The director of the company was very forthcoming, he appreciated
that we had a job to do,
and ultimately that makes the whole process a lot smoother.
So, yeah, good result in the end.
We got full payment, and he's now back in the shop
and ready to trade again, which is the main thing.
The client's happy now, he gets his money.
Everybody's happy.
After two long years, the shop's supplier will finally get
the money they're owed.