Archives for February 2012

Drain near the residents' homes

A family and their neighbours in Hengoed near Caerphilly have been plagued by rats despite the ongoing efforts of their local authority.

Some residents of Hawthorne Avenue claim they have been living with the vermin for many years and they are fed up with them.

Leanne Meredith, her husband Darren and two young children have been sharing their council house with rats, on and off, for ten months.

They first noticed something was wrong in May 2011 when an unpleasant odour filled the house.

“We had a horrific smell in the bathroom of a dead rodent which was confirmed by a pest control officer,” said Leanne. “We had maggots actually on the carpet. We had flies everywhere. It was just horrific.”

Leanne contacted the council straight away but nearly a week later council workers found an infestation of rats in the family’s attic.

The vermin were there in sufficient numbers to have produced enough urine to stain the ceiling of eight-year-old Jamie Meredith’s bedroom below.

Rats were nesting in the insulation so Council workers removed it as well as leaving traps and bait.
This seemed to do the trick because the tell-tale signs, scratching and bumping from the attic, seemed to go away for six months.

But when the insulation was replaced the rats came back and the family and Council has been fighting them ever since although a recent visit from a Pest Control Officer suggested the attic might now be free of rats.

One of the Meredith’s neighbours, Terry Farr, says Hawthorne Avenue has had a problem with rats all the time he’s been there – 13 years.

“They’re full in the sewers around here,” he said.

Another neighbour, Hayley Knight, said: “I’ve seen the rats out in the garden myself.”

And private tenant Mike Matthews has been finding them in his attic. “Well I’ve killed five at the moment - I’m talking, just under kitten size,” he said.

The law is very strict when it comes to rats and mice because of the diseases they can spread so all local authorities have a duty to keep their district free of infestation.

Caerphilly Council has defended its efforts on Hawthorne Avenue to clear the street of rats and dismissed anecdotal evidence pointing to a prolonged period of infestation.

A spokesman said: "We understand how distressing this issue has been for the family and wish to place on record our sincere apologies for this difficult situation.

“Having successfully treated the initial infestation we regret the fact that the problem recurred, but the Council has acted with diligence to investigate and address the problem.

“We would like to thank the Meredith family for their patience and understanding and can confirm that we have now identified the potential access points into the property and remedial works have been undertaken to address the issue."

Rhodri catches up with Les Thomas

A woman from Malpas near Newport is fighting to get thousands of pounds back from a builder who did substandard work at her home.

Linda Vokes paid Leslie Thomas of Maindee, Newport £5,600 to lay a block-effect driveway, erect two walls and build a flight of steps in December 2008.

But within a year the driveway’s protective concrete layer had started to disappear, render on the walls was flaking and coping stones were loose.

Mr Thomas returned to the property at Mrs Vokes’ request and she says he promised to carry out repairs as soon as the weather was better.

“We were grateful that he said he would come and do it but when nothing materialised we became very disgusted with him,” said Mrs Vokes.

She continued to pursue Les but he still didn’t fix the wall and driveway so Mrs Vokes obtained quotes from other builders on how much the repairs would cost.

Mr Thomas disputed the amount but when Mrs Thomas took him to court he was ordered to pay her £4,299.

But he didn’t paid up so in June last year bailiffs visited his home to try and reclaim the money.  But Mr Thomas still hasn’t paid Mrs Vokes.

“Since court nothing has happened other than we’ve got an even more deteriorated driveway than when we started,” she said.

X-Ray wrote to Mr Thomas to ask for an interview about the driveway but he didn’t respond.

Presenter Rhodri Owen confronted the builder as he was leaving his house on Christchurch Avenue and asked him why he hadn’t paid.

He said that he was in the process of “sorting it out” and would pay “as soon as possible”.  We’ll be checking to see if Les keeps that promise.

Chris Phillips and his wife Caryn chat to Rachel

Rachel Treadaway-Williams has met some unhappy SCS customers, who bought new sofas which failed to live up to their expectations.

Chris Phillips and his wife Caryn, from Carmarthen, decided to invest in a sofa which they could enjoy for years to come, after making do with hand-me-downs in the past.

Chris said, “We decided the time was right to invest in a new sofa - our very first new sofa.” When they visited the SCS store at Trostre in Llanelli he said, “We sat on every one.”

The couple eventually they settled on a ‘cuddle sofa’, a separate chair and footstools - and their final purchase amounted to more than £2,000.

But their idea of a cosy sofa where the family could cwtch up together, turned out to be a real disappointment.

Chris showed Rachel the sagging cushion of the cuddle sofa.  He said, “It's very dipped down and if you look underneath it, this just seems so slack, and you can feel the wooden base of it.” He said, “You're basically sinking right into it it's not a natural position to sit in.”
 
After they complained to SCS, the company sent an upholsterer – but he said there was no fault with the sofa, leaving Chris and Caryn frustrated and unhappy.

Fellow SCS customer, Cheryl Brekke from Llanedeyrn in Cardiff, paid almost £1,000 for her suite, which she bought from the company’s Cardiff Gate store in April 2010. 

She said, “We wanted something that was manageable to use, that didn't need a lot of attention, something that was going to last.  Because I've got five children and because I'm big myself I wanted something quite sturdy.”
 
But Cheryl didn't get the low maintenance sofa she wanted and now there’s a regime she and her family have to do daily to plump up the sofa.

The frame has had to be repaired under warranty but Cheryl says the problems have been on-going.

She said, “They've been to repair it, for about the fourth or fifth time, and it's still not right, it's not 100%.  All the sagging material at the back, the frame's coming through, it's not what you expect from a sofa that's 18 months old.”     

In January last year, Tracey Evans from the Rhondda, chose two three-seater recliner sofas, also from the Cardiff Gate store. She paid over £1,500 but when the sofas arrived on April 1st last year and she says there have been problems.

Tracey contacted SCS who sent representatives out to try and fix the mechanism on a number of occasions, but months later her recliners still don't work properly.

She explained one engineer tried to get the recliner to work by “jerking” the mechanism.

“I don't want to have to go through that process every time I want to put my feet up,” she told Rachel. “Do that with a cup of tea in one hand, doing that jerking motion and end up scalding myself, so obviously not ideal.”

X-Ray have been in touch with SCS who tell say Chris and Caryn's "cuddle sofa" sofa is designed with a 'casual sit' in mind.

They claim the couple could have paid more to have a foam cushion - but Chris says they weren't offered that and insists they thought the one they bought would be identical to the one they had tried in the shop.

SCS say they are in the process of repairing Tracey's faulty recliner and they will contact Cheryl to look into her problems with her sofa.

Maria Hamilton

 Maria and Mark Hamilton thought redeveloping a property would give them the perfect home. They bought a house in Swansea in May 2009 and knew it would be a long term project.

Maria said, “We knew it was going to take a while to renovate the house but it was the right decision.”

Mark works abroad so it was difficult for mum-of-two Maria to organise building work.

But as no-one was living in the house, she did expect that the electricity bills with British Gas to be low - approxiametly £40 a month.

She said,” Nobody living in the house, for us it was a good deal.”

But after having a new electricity meter fitted Maria was surprised to find the bills doubled.

“Suddenly we started paying £86 per month. We were concerned because no one was living in the house. There was no way we could be using all that electricity,” she said.

The family complained to British Gas, who tested the meter. A fault was eventually found and a replacement meter was installed.

Maria thought that was the end of the problem but instead of going down, the bills just kept going up and they were suddenly being charged more than £380 a month.

Maria complained to British Gas, but couldn’t get to the bottom of the problem. By now the Hamilton's had paid more than £3,000 in electricity charges, in just over a year.

“It's incredibly frustrating for us. We're not getting any help from anyone at all. You can call as much as you want but no help at all,” said Maria.

Lucy got on the case for Mark and Maria and discovered that if a consumer struggles to get an answer from an energy company, they can take their complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.

The Ombusman will look at issues and complaints regarding energy companies, but only if they've already had eight weeks to sort it out.

Last year more than two thirds of cases ended with customers getting refunds.

British Gas said that in Maria's case they've been sending estimated bills that were unfortunately based on readings from a faulty meter that they changed.

They have now apologised for taking so long to sort out the Hamilton's billing issue and say they will refund what the family are owed since the faulty meter was installed in September 2009.

Mark and Maria Hamilton have now been sent a cheque for £2,500 and have a credit of £400 on their electricity account.

Tom Cayless

An Iraq war veteran has been left with an uninhabitable home after a two-month renovation job turned into an eleven-month nightmare.

Army doctor Tom Cayless, from Newport used £30,000 he received in compensation for injuries he sustained in Iraq to fund the renovation scheme.

In April 2011 he engaged a local building company called Build Tech Construction 33 Ltd, which was run by Stephen Roberts, to completely renovate his house.

“They came back quite quickly with the quote”, he told X-Ray, “It looked very professional the way it was all presented”.

They quoted him £22,000 and said the work would take around two months to complete. The cost of the work later increased because re-plastering the house was not included in the original quote.

Work started well but 16 weeks later Tom had handed over £28,800, and work had ground to a halt. He called a meeting with the builders.
 
He was met with some devastating news: “Mr Roberts and his son Kyle they told me that the company Build Tech Construction 33 Ltd was going to be dissolved. They were shutting it down was the exact words he used”.

And when he asked about where all the money had gone that he’d given them – money he’d presumed would cover the complete renovation – he says he was told it had simply gone: “When they told me that I just felt sick really that that money had gone, I didn’t believe how money could just disappear”.

But they came up with a solution. Mr Roberts told Tom he was setting up a new construction company called Enterprise Build, with his son Kyle as a Director, and they would finish the renovation work. They would charge only for outstanding materials – they quoted a completion price of £7,200.

Tom asked another builder to quote for the remaining work who said it would cost around £20,000, "I had no choice. I either carried on with Mr Roberts for £7,000 or paid £20,000 for someone else," he said.

“Mr Roberts said he had a good reputation and that he was willing to do it free of charge but that he was under no obligation to do so, so I felt I had little choice.” 

So Tom handed over another £4,750 to Stephen Roberts and work began again in August. But work soon ground to a halt again.

“I tried first of all getting in contact via email, just a polite reminder of the work that was outstanding”, said Tom. “There was no response to that so I wrote a letter of concern, no response to that, so I wrote a formal complaint and there was no response to that either.

“I got back an email in November saying that they had been working away and saying that they were going to come back and do the kitchen, this didn't happen until eventually in December [when they came] to fit the kitchen units.”

Tom now paid out nearly £34,000 to Build Tech and Enterprise Build and is still living with his parents – eleven months after work had first started on his house.

After X-Ray got in touch with Stephen Roberts he hired a quantity surveyor to look at the property. He says the work is near completion and will be worth over £35,000. Tom, though, disputes the figures. Another builder has quoted him £20,000 to finish the job.

“I can't move into the house in the state that it’s in at the moment. The electricity hasn't been completed, the central heating hasn't been completed, there's no bathroom fitted so it is completely uninhabitable at the minute.

“So I'm paying out for a mortgage every month for a house I can't move in to”.

He has also discovered that the original company, Build Tech, was never dissolved. Instead the company is now based in Stoke on Trent and has a new director called Salim Rahman. He has not responded to our letters and it is not clear how the company was transferred to him.

“Had I been told that truth that that company was still trading I would have acted in a different manner. It's just been a big shock really and it has taken over the whole of my life for the last ten months and especially the last six months since I was told the company was being dissolved.

“It's been difficult to focus on anything else really.”

Stephen Roberts’ accountant has responded to X-Ray. He says Stephen is "displaying a supportive and diligent attention to his clients".

He blames business difficulties for the delays and last week he said he would complete the work within two weeks. But in another letter he now says he might not finish the job.

X-Ray will be going back to Tom's house to see what happens.

Sharron Taylor chats to Rhodri Owen

When you get a new roof on your house, the last thing you expect is your home to be as wet on the inside as it is on the outside.

But that’s exactly what happened to Sharron Taylor from Ogmore-by-Sea, whose house has suffered from damp since flat roofs were replaced.

Sharron and husband Chris decided their home needed modernising in 2009, so they found a local roofer in Bridgend.

Malcolm Butler from MJW Roofing Services, also known as ACE Roofing, said he'd carry out work to roofs on the property for £1,500.

But within a year of the job finishing, Sharron started to notice a damp problem.

“We'd be sitting here and there'd be brown dirty water running down the inside of the wall,” Sharron told X-Ray presenter, Rhodri Owen.

“We had an issue with damp on the wall and we said it's got to be the roof so we went outside.  My husband took the fascia off and had a little look and the roof was absolutely soaking.”

As the problem got worse, Sharron decided to ask Mr Butler to come and see if there might be a problem with the roof.

“He told us it was coming in under the fascia and it was nothing to do with the roof.”

Sharon then got in touch with her insurance company, who sent out an independent surveyor to inspect the property back in November 2011 – and the surveyor's findings didn’t reflect well on Malcolm Butler's roofing skills.

The inspection revealed that fibreglass on the roof above the lounge was not sufficiently applied and as a result water was penetrating the roof. It also concluded that sections of roof were of poor design and detail and that damage was the result of poor workmanship.
The surveyor also thought the roof should be replaced under guarantee.

“I was horrified,” Sharron said.

“I knew we had a problem there and he said we needed to get the roofs re-done.”

X-Ray asked Chartered surveyor Kevin Thomas to inspect Malcolm Butler’s work.

“That is absolutely soaking wet,” he said.  "You can already see you've got algae growth in amongst the matting and in a marine environment like this, it's not going to last any time at all."

And with winter closing-in and Malcolm Butler refusing a refund or to carry out repair work, Sharron employed another roofing company.

“We had to shell out nine hundred pounds just before Christmas out of our savings, which has pretty much wiped us out now.”

But, after X-Ray contacted him, Mr Butler has now promised to repay the full £1,500 within 30 days.

* Kevin Thomas offered some valuable advice to X-Ray viewers who are looking to replace flat roofs.

“You're well worth paying someone to write a small specification for you of what you have priced by the relevant builder,” he said.

“The other thing you need to have from anyone who's quoting for this sort of work is the guarantee and it really should be an guarantee underwritten by an insurance company.”

Jeff and Marian Walters

Jeff and Marian Walters got in touch with X-Ray after their dream holiday to Croatia was marred by a last-minute change to their travel plans.

The couple booked a week-long break with holiday company SAGA and, as Jeff suffers with arthritis, they ensured there were short transfer times to and from the hotel.

“Sitting for long periods I find it hard,” he told Lucy. “But we choose to do things which will suit.”
Just days before they were due to travel, SAGA got in touch to say the flights had changed.

“They rang about 6.30 in the evening. I'm very sorry but Croatia Airlines had pulled the flights. This is how they put it.” Jeff and Marian were told they would have to fly to Zagreb, adding an extra 240 miles to their coach trip. The couple were devastated but SAGA refused a credit voucher - or a refund.

“They said there was no way they would refund it, it's a minor change and we're allowed to do it.”
The couple felt they had no choice but to travel and, as expected, the coach journey from Zagreb was uncomfortable. “I think the journey overall was about  four and a half hours,” said Jeff. “It was pretty horrendous, not what we wanted at all.”

Lucy got on the case for Jeff and Marian and discovered customers can register complaints with the Association of British Travel Agents, which offers a service to help deal with disputes.

ABTA advise that customers put complaints in writing to their holiday company, even if they intend to travel as Jeff and Marian did. A letter of protest will make clear that a customer may want to complain on their return.
In Jeff and Marian’s case, SAGA say they found the best possible alternative after the original flight was cancelled.

They added that Jeff and Marian were offered three other holidays, all of which were turned down. But after reviewing the case, SAGA did issue a £450 refund to Jeff and Marian. Jeff said: “We're pleased to get this sorted and now we can book another holiday.”

Motorcare Elite Waranties

Former customers of a collapsed south Wales car warranty company could be in line for compensation, X-Ray has learned.

The programme has revealed how customers were left out of pocket when Llantwit Major based Motorcare Elite (2008) Ltd collapsed last year.

The firm was run by former prison officer Harby Panesar who flaunted his wealth on TV in 2009  when he spent a reported £20,000 on his daughter’s birthday party

Two victims of the collapse of the company were Adrian and Beverley Reynolds from Cwmcarn – who bought a £700 life-of-ownership policy when they bought a Nissan pick-up at auction.
 
But when Adrian tried to claim for repairs costing more than £1,200 he found insurance underwriters, Alpha Insurance had no record of the policy he had paid for. They said they had never underwritten life-of-ownership policies.

His wife Beverley said, “We are furious thinking that we have not got something that we have paid for and worked hard for.”

Another customer, Andrew Rafferty from Hirwaun, said he faced long delays when he claimed on his warranty in January 2011. When the company collapsed in March he was told that Motorcare records showed his claim had already been paid.

Mr Rafferty told X-Ray, “It makes me very angry to think there are people like him out there taking money from working class people who have worked for this money.”

Mr Rafferty’s case was not an isolated one. Alpha insurance said they had evidence that: “Motorcare administered claims which, whilst marked as paid in their recovered records, are stated to be outstanding by claimants.”

The Financial Services Authority are investigating the company. In a statement the FSA said, “If you were a customer of motor breakdown insurance firm, Motorcare Elite, there is the possibility you were sold a policy which has now turned out to be worthless.

“Information we have seen suggests that when Motorcare sold some policies to customers, it may have failed to properly register their details and premiums.”

But the hope of compensation comes from Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The FSCS is the UK's compensation fund for customers of authorised financial services firms - like Motorcare Elite - and they may pay out compensation if a firm is unable to pay claims against it. The FCCS is currently investigating Morotcare to see if customers will qualify for compensation.

Once you’ve contacted them they will look into your claim and decide if you’re eligible for compensation. Once you have contacted them it will take a maximum of six months to decide your claim.

You don't need to claim through a solicitor or accountant and bringing a claim direct to the Scheme will not cost you anything.

If you'd like more information about how to make a claim your can contact them by telephone 0800 678 1100 or 0207 741 4100 or by visiting their website www.fscs.org.uk or you can write to them at the following address: Financial Services Compensation Scheme, 7th floor, Lloyds Chambers, Portsoken Street, London, E1 8BN

The FSA have also urged Motorcare customers with invalid policies to contact them and the Financial Ombusdman Service.

You can call the FSA Consumer Helpline Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm by calling 0845 606 1234. You can also email them consumer.queries@fsa.gov.uk

You can get in touch with the Financial Ombudsman Service either by phone  0800 023 4567 (free for people phoning from a "fixed line") or 0300 123 9 123 (free for mobile-phone users who pay a monthly charge for calls to numbers starting 01 or 02). You can also use email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk or you can write to them at the following address: The Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR.

When confronted by the programme, Mr Panesar said now was "not the right time" to explain the issues raised by the programme, although he did say policies were properly underwritten.

The IFAS machine

Last March we brought you a shocking investigation into alternative Carmarthenshire 'therapist' Reg Gill. He is not a doctor and was falsely claiming he could treat cancer, an offence under The Cancer Act. Evidence gathered by X-Ray, together with the testimonies of two new victims, has now led to the successful prosecution of Gill and his wife Leila.

In 2004, Gill was jailed for fraud after falsely claiming he could cure a Flintshire man of pancreatic cancer. However, prison didn't stop him from preying on desperate people. Early last year, X-Ray discovered that 77 year old Reg Gill and his new wife, 35 year old Leila Gill were still selling bizarre pills and treatments to sick people at their clinic in their bungalow in Cwmduad, Carmarthenshire.
 
Our researcher phoned Reg Gill with a cover story, that she feared she had bowel cancer. He advised her that this was 'easily dealt with' and invited her to his home. Two members of our team secretly filmed the consultation, where he told our researcher, "if you let me treat you, you'll walk away from here without cancer, today".

Judith Green was one of his patients. She explained, "He'd said he'd been a medical officer in the war, he seemed to be experienced, very knowledgeable." In fact, Reg Gill had been in the army catering corps and had no formal medical training.

Judith went to Reg Gill because she was suffering from an infection. She described how he made a shocking diagnosis, telling her she had cancer, "He said I was in a very bad way, he asked me to get undressed".

Judith was subjected to an uncomfortable, invasive treatment using a device called an IFAS machine, which the medical profession condemns as dangerous and unproven.

Gill claims it kills cancer cells, by releasing high frequency waves and ozone into the body through various attachments. The machines aren't licensed to treat any illnesses, but Reg Gill sold them to vulnerable patients for up to two and a half thousand pounds a time.

Judith explained, "He was the practitioner, I was the patient with basically nowhere to turn because I've now been told I've got cancer. I knew he was being inappropriate but I was trying to dismiss that at the time just to get a cure."

Reg Gill persuaded her to stay the night at his bungalow and to return for another appointment. Alarmed by his behaviour, she reported him to the authorities. "He was referring to his own sexual experiences with women that threw themselves at him because he'd saved their lives. I personally believe he's a sexual predator and he disguises that, creates a smokescreen, tells people they've got cancer when they haven't got cancer, so that can completely shake people's worlds and create this dependency."
 
In April, a month after X-Ray's report, another woman, who can't be named went to the Gills home in Cwmduad. She too became a victim not just of fraud, but of sexual assault.

She described her ordeal. "Reg was looking at me. He started moving the palm of his hand over my midriff area and he said 'you have big problems'. He said you're going to have to take your clothes off for me to have a proper look. He started to press my lower abdomen then he moved his hand up from my tummy and started to feel my breasts. He said 'well my dear I'm sorry to say but you have cancer'. It was a massive shock. In the same breath he said don't worry I can fix that. This machine doesn't just diagnose cancer it treats cancer. It was like the same person had told me I'm going to die then told me I could live."

Reg Gill used the IFAS machine on the woman in an intimate way and his wife Leila assisted him. The woman went to see her GP who, shocked at her story, was able to confirm she didn't have cancer. She searched the internet and after seeing X-Ray's report on the Gills, she went to the police.

Dyfed Powys Police investigated the claims made by both women and trawled through X-Ray's damning undercover footage. In May, officers swooped on the Gill's home to arrest them both. Detective Constable Nicola Williams lead the investigation and told X-Ray, "This isn't a case you come across every day. Its very unusual to tell someone they've got a disease in order to sexually abuse them. The X-Ray programme helped us because it put into pictures what was going on in the Gills household."

"Both complainants had come to us and given us their versions of events but this corroborated everything they were saying. Mr and Mrs Gill are a danger to the public, because they are telling people not to have conventional treatment and are also sexually abusing them."

The jury at Swansea crown court was unanimous in their verdict. Reg Gill was found guilty of three sexual assaults, six assaults by penetration and two counts of fraud. Leila Gill was convicted of one sexual assault and one count of fraud. The couple will be sentenced in the next few weeks. 

Nick Smith MP at the Walk car park in Blaenau Gwent

In December 2011 X-Ray highlighted problems at The Walk car park in Ebbw Vale where dozens of people complained to us after receiving parking charge notices from Excel Parking Services Ltd. 

The town's MP Nick Smith received complaints from his constituents about the situation and agreed to look into the issue further.  Nick met Councillors Mostyn Lewis and John Rogers from Blaenau Gwent CBC, who told him the council's received more than 90 complaints. 

John told Nick, “Disabled people have been treated disgracefully.”  While Nick was filming at the car park people approached him with more of their experiences of receiving parking charge notices they felt were unfair. 

The council's Head of Planning told Nick they're still in discussion with Excel because signs and cameras were installed without planning permission. 

Nick had concerns about the positioning of some signs, as well as the clarity and the amount of information drivers need to take in.  Since X-Ray first looked into problems at The Walk, and Nick and the council started writing to the company, the landowners of The Walk have got involved.

There are some new signs at the car park, but many people feel the changes aren’t sufficient.

Nick wanted to know how many notices have been issued, and who's making the money.  Excel wouldn’t release that information.

Though it does seem the company is making a substantial profit.  According to company accounts, the director Simon Renshaw Smith paid himself a £100,000 bonus last year, on top of nearly £400,000 salary.

In last 6 years the DVLA has given Excel the details of 200,000 registered keepers of vehicles using their car parks. The DVLA say they have to provide this information to those with a valid reason to ask for it.

That includes parking companies although they claim there are strict controls on who’s eligible to get the data.   Excel abides by the British Parking Association’s Code of Practice. 

A code which was in part decided by Simon Renshaw Smith, the Managing Director of Excel, because he sits on the Approved Operators board of the BPA. 

In their letters, Excel say people could face court proceedings if they don't pay the parking charge notices.  One person brave enough to go to court, rather than paying up was Martin Cutts from Stockport.

He won his case, but doesn’t think other people should have to face the experience.  Martin told Nick, “It's not just me, it's tens thousands of people.  It's an extremely unpleasant business for people to go through; it causes a great deal of chaos and misery.”

Martin’s experience shows that by going to court consumers can challenge parking companies, but in his case the judge was willing to visit the car park in question to appreciate his argument that he should not be bound by the terms on signs Excel had displayed because they were unclear.
 
At the moment, people who feel they've had an unfair parking charge from a private company like Excel can only appeal to that firm. The British Parking Association won't get involved in individual cases.  But there is another way appeals could be run and it's a model council owned car parks have to follow. 

An independent adjudicator, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, decides whether appeals are justified.

Nick met Linda Sparks from Port Talbot who successfully appealed against her local council when they tried to charge her for not paying to park in a disabled space, despite the fact she'd displayed a valid blue badge. 

Linda said, “The adjudicator accepted the point that I made that the signs were unclear in their wording.  They said there were no concessions, when there clearly were some concessions. 

She accepted that the signs didn't have the blue badge logo on them in order that people would know it was relative to them.”
 
Nick feels that many of the people who’ve come to him for help when faced with parking charge notices are very happy to pay to park.  They feel they’ve been caught out and unfairly treated. 

So Nick’s keen for more clarity for consumers when they are using car parks, “That way everybody is doing the right thing - people pay to park and the landowner gets money for people parking on their land.”

Excel Parking Services insist that they've always acted properly, but clearly there are lots of people who aren't happy with the system as it stands.

The good news is that’s set to change later in the year, with a new appeals system overseen by the British Parking Association.  Patrick Troy of the BPA explained how it will work, “It will be very similar to the way that members of public who get parking tickets from local authorities are able to appeal now. 

 So in simple terms, if you get a parking ticket and you're not happy with it you will write to the person who's issued it to you, just as you would to the local authority, they will consider your case and either cancel your ticket or ask you to pay it.  If they ask you to pay it then they will tell you to whom you can go to have your case independently considered. 

It's a free service, so your case is heard by the independent adjudicator, and their decision is final.  It's so important that they’re independent so they can make that final decision.”

That scheme should come into being in October.  In the meantime, lots of X-Ray viewers have commented that people who receive parking charge notices should just rip up and ignore them.

 Christopher Rees, a barrister, gave us his opinion on the letters private parking companies send. He says, “It's not a fine, it's a charge - which means Excel would have to take you to court if you didn't pay.

Most parking companies don't bother, but they could if they wanted to.  So it’s up to the individual to decide whether they want to take that risk.”

Until the new appeals scheme comes into force, Chris’s advice is that people who feel they’ve received an unfair parking charge should keep any tickets or evidence they have as proof that they have not breached any parking conditions.

They should write to the company which has issued the notice, providing copies of the evidence and stating why they feel they were not bound by those conditions and do not feel they should pay the charge.

Then if the parking company does take the motorist to the small claims court, there’s proof that the driver tried to do the right thing. 

As in the case of Martin Cutts, the judge can find in favour of the motorist, although every case is different and the decisions of civil courts are not binding on future cases.

Mike Thane with his Peugeot.

Mike Thane from Cardiff got in touch with X-Ray after his car kept losing power when he was driving and the garage couldn’t seem to fix the problem.

He’d paid £7,000 for the second-hand Peugeot, hoping it would be a reliable car for long trips to visit his family, “I've got to travel quite a lot because I go and see my family up north. My daughter is in Nottingham.”

Lucy discovered how Mike’s car would suddenly cut out, including a frightening experience on the motorway.

“It just cut out like somebody switched the engine off. There was no power in the engine. There was cars behind me but they missed me luckily.”

Mike had a Peugeot warranty so took his car to the Griffin Mill dealership in Pontypridd. The garage tried on several occasions to diagnose the problem but Mike’s car kept losing power when he was driving.

He told Lucy, “I want a car that's safe to drive and not be frightened when I go out that it's going to cut out on me and cause an accident.”

Lucy got on the case for Mike and discovered customers can register complaints with a motoring trade association if they feel problems are not being dealt with properly.

Motor Codes is Government-backed and has a free-of-charge service to help deal with disputes.
In Mike’s case, Griffin Mill said they wanted to take the car in for more testing but that Mike refused their request.

But, as Mike had a manufacturer's warranty, he could have reported the problem directly to Peugeot.
And after X-Ray contacted them, Peugeot did offer to take the car away to carry out extensive tests at their main Technical Centre in Coventry.

They also offered £580 to pay for a hire car so Mike could continue to visit his family while the work was carried out.

Happily, Mike’s car is now fixed, “I'm driving again and now I feel safe.”

That’s another case closed!

Do you need Lucy's help? Get in touch with the team

The now empty site at Vale of Glamorgan Caravans

Customers of a failed caravan business have lost their vehicles, and thousands of pounds – but they still have no idea what's happened to their property.

Vale of Glamorgan Caravans, run by Llantwit Major businessman, John Gould, was an agency that sold caravans on behalf of their owners.

But when the business collapsed last year there was no sign of some customers’ caravans. None of them has had any explanation for what happened to their caravans or the money the business may have got for them.

Grandmother of eight Linda Davies, from Cardiff, took her caravan to the company in 2010 but it did not sell until the end of June 2011. The company should have paid off the finance on her caravan and given her more than £5,000 from the sale. Owner John Gould promised payment within 14 days. But it never arrived.

“My son got a little bit suspicious. And decided to pay him a visit. When they got down there the place was locked up and all the caravans were gone,” she said.

“I was just absolutely devastated. I couldn’t believe it. No caravan, no sign of any caravan, nothing.”

Mrs Davies – who is still paying £115 a month on a finance deal for the caravan – has had no explanation for what's happened to her money.

Chris Callaghan from Caerphilly also lost out when the company was dissolved in July last year.

“All of a sudden around about July the phone wasn’t answered and it went straight to answer phone message,” he said.

“Eventually I went down there to find it was chained up and the yard was empty. To this day I don’t know where my van is and what happened to it.”

Creditors did have a chance to ask owner John Gould about the fate of their property at a creditors' meeting last year. But they say they got no answers.

Chris said: “All of us were surprised at how casual he seemed to be. He just didn’t seem to care.”

According to a liquidator's report there are eleven individual creditors who are owed more than £70,000. The business owes a total of £244,000 according to the report.

Mr Gould was running two companies from his base on the Vale Business Park near Cowbridge. The company which collapsed was called Vale Of Glamorgan Caravans Ltd. He also had another company – Vale of Glamorgan Caravan Sales Ltd. – which was registered as a non-trading company at Companies House.

But customers’ contracts were in the name of the non-trading company. Both companies have outstanding court orders to pay thousands of pounds in debts.

Mr Gould has refused to speak to X Ray about the collapse of the business and about what happened to customers' money or caravans.

His lawyers say he's been advised not to speak at this stage because liquidators are investigating his affairs and because of threats of legal action.

Tesco Finest Home Insurance customer Sally Pritchard

The world of insurance policies can be a tricky one to negotiate, and it can often be hard to work out if you’re getting the best option for your money.

For customers of Tesco’s Insurance, they’ve decided to help you out and have created their range to match their famous food labelling.

There’s the value insurance, standard and finally finest.

And when nurse and mum-of-one Sally Pritchard was looking to insure her family home in Ponthir she decided to go for the best, with Tesco's Finest.
 
And when she came home to a flooded kitchen last May she expected the service to live up to its name.

She told X-Ray, “All the tiles on the kitchen floor were soaking; I could see water coming down the walls - both sides of the walls. I was frightened because the electrics were there, I didn’t know what was going to happen, whether it was going to blow up.”

After calling Tesco Insurance she was advised to call out a plumber to source the leak and take out the kitchen units and thought it would all be sorted in a few weeks.

And with the kitchen stripped bare, Sally and her son needed to move back in with her parents.
She said, “It’s so much pressure for them to take on me, my little boy, my two dogs, my cats and my chickens and my ducks.”

But Sally's hope of a hassle free and quick fix was not to be as the leak kept coming back. And things went from bad to worse when Tesco sent in the builders to try and get to the bottom of the problem.
    
“When I was in work my mum rang me”, Sally told X-Ray’s Rhodri, “She said the builders just contacted her and said the house was structurally unsafe because they’d made a hole in the wall during taking the plaster off.

“I was devastated because I was on shift, you can't leave the ward when you're working. So I had to work the rest of my shift thinking that my house might fall down.”

Sally called out a structural engineer. Tesco also sent out someone to check out the property. It was declared safe but Sally refused to have the builders back.
 
The confusion carried on for months. Eventually Tesco asked Sally to submit quotes from two new builders – which they then refused.

Then in December 2011, Sally was offered a settlement of £5,650 by yet another new claims management company employed on behalf of Tesco’s Finest Insurance.

But this time there was no offer of a builder to carry out the work as promised in her policy.

Sally said, “The settlement wouldn’t even cover the builder and a whole new kitchen.”And Sally was certainly not happy with the service she was getting. She told us, “The stress has been unbelievable with people constantly calling, me having to arrange my shifts to meet people.”

Nine months on, Sally and Ben seemed no nearer to getting back into their home but after we got in touch with Tesco Insurance they had some good news. Tesco said they were sorry for the distress and inconvenience this complex claim has caused our customer. They have offered Sally a settlement of around £8,000 for a new kitchen, and currently just over £5,000 for accommodation costs for the period that Sally and her son have been out of their property.

A number of people meet with X-Ray at the Ebbw Vale Institute

After another raft of complaints X-Ray is back on the case of Excel Parking.

Last year our reporter Rachel Treadaway-Williams visited The Walk Car Park in Ebbw Vale where a new parking management firm had left a lot of drivers very unhappy. 

Local residents felt the changes had been brought in without enough notice and there wasn’t clear information for blue badge holders. Parking charges hadn’t been enforced against disabled drivers in the past and many badge holders didn’t realise they now had to pay to park at The Walk. 

The company which sent the letters, Excel Parking Services, insists it follows the British Parking Association’s rules on signage and how to run its car parks. But many drivers were shocked to receive parking charge notices through the post - demanding £60 a time - with the threat of court action if the payment wasn’t made.

After X-Ray showed how many vulnerable people felt unfairly treated, the landowners made Excel improve the signs. They wanted to make it clearer that all drivers had to pay to park and they promised that blue badge holders who'd received charges before the 23rd of November 2011 would have them cancelled or refunded.

But since then X-Ray received more complaints from people who claimed those promises hadn’t been kept and Excel was refusing to refund some blue badge holders who’d received letters demanding money for parking without paying - when they hadn't had a chance to get used to the new system.

X-Ray’s Rachel arranged to meet a number of people at the Ebbw Vale Institute to hear about their complaints. Raymond Dicks - a blue badge holder who’d paid the charge after receiving a letter from Excel in November - told Rachel, “I applied to be refunded my £60, they sent me a note back saying no. Because I didn't have multiple charges, they would keep my £60.”

Bob Price’s – whose son is a blue badge holder - claimed, “It doesn't matter what position you're in, if you're a blue badge holder then every blue badge holder should have their money refunded.”

And Suzanne Phelps told us why she’d paid Excel, even though it seemed to be an unfair charge, “I was afraid that it was going to go up to £90 and they said if you didn't pay the £90 it would then go to court. And I was frightened - just I didn't know what to do.”

Some of the people who received the notices didn't even use a parking space at The Walk.  David Williams is a driver for GAVO - the Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations, transporting people with mobility issues in specially adapted vehicles. In November the charity received a letter from Excel demanding £60 because David had taken too long dropping his passenger off.

David asked, “Why should we pay it? I've been doing it four years and never had it like this before. I think it's just disgusting.”

X-Ray also heard from disabled drivers who insisted they bought a valid ticket to park but still rceeived a letter from Excel. David Hambly, who is a double amputee, takes at least 20 minutes to get in and out of his specially adapted car. He made sure he put the right details in the machine when he bought his tickets to park at The Walk in December, but received two letters demanding payment from Excel.

Julie Hallford’s son four year old Ryan has cerebral palsy. She has a blue badge because he needs help getting around. She tried to pay Excel’s charge after they demanded money from her, but was shocked when she realised they’d taken two payments from her debit card.

People who don’t have blue badges have also had problems parking at The Walk. Anthony Davies told us he’d definitely bought a valid ticket, and displayed it in his car, but he still got a letter demanding cash. He complained to Rachel, “As soon as I knew I had the right ticket, I was straight onto them, email, copy of the ticket, and we're just waiting now for a reply. It must be a fault at their end.”

Excel admits that on the day Anthony parked at The Walk - the 10th of November - there was a problem with the machines at the car park which led to some people, like him, who had bought valid tickets getting parking charge notices. They're apologising and will cancel the charges. 

In David Hambly's case, Excel's cancelled the charges. David will now have up to an hour to buy a ticket. They've also granted the GAVO minibus extra time to drop people off at The Walk. But they're not changing their rules for all disabled people - they'll only make allowances for people with mobility issues on a 'case by case' basis.

Julie Hallford's payments will be refunded and Excel has confirmed that any blue badge holders who parked at The Walk before 23rd November 2011 will now get their refunds. Admin charges paid by some people will also be refunded. 

So if you've been charged the advice is get in touch with the company straightaway and send proof of your claim. We’ll be monitoring the situation.

Spam texts - many of us are being plagued by them, some of us on a daily basis.

Often they claim to be able to get us a cheap loan or help with a personal injury claim if we’ve been in an accident. But how do they get our number and what should we do when we receive them?

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 cover the way organisations send direct marketing messages by text.

Under these rules a company isn’t allowed to send you marketing texts you didn’t agree to unless they have your details from a previous sale or negotiation and are offering a similar product or service; or you were given an opportunity to refuse texts when your details were taken.

That’s all well and good when dealing with legitimate companies who follow these rules.

But of course it’s often more difficult than this. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) believes that many of these texts aren’t coming from single businesses. Instead they’re coming from Lead Generation Companies. These people send out texts to thousands of randomly generated phones numbers with the hope that a handful will respond. Then these details are sold on to other companies to use for marketing purposes.

That’s why our number one piece of advice is never to respond to the text – no matter if it says text STOP to stop them coming. Effectively all you’re doing is telling someone that they’ve texted a genuine number and there is a real person there they could try selling something to.

Sometimes they even put a name on the text…and sometimes they even get it right. Many people find this quite disturbing and sinister as they don’t recognise the number it’s come from - “Hi Shirley, get your £100-£1000 funds today only. No checks, no fees” or “Hi Tom here’s that site I was telling you about. Made £630 in the last week already.” The Information Commissioner’s Office says these appear to break the law because they’re being sent to people without their prior consent and without identifying the sender.

The difficulty for the regulators is that they’ve discovered many of the texts are being sent from unregistered pay as you go sim cards. So tracking down those people responsible for them is incredibly difficult.

X-Ray spoke to Anne Jones, the Assistant Information Commissioner for Wales. She says they’re trying to do all the can to put a stop to it: “We think it’s a really big problem, there’s thousands and thousands of these things being sent out because what their doing really is trying to generate leads, so they send out thousands in the hope they’ll get hundreds back that they can then sell on for profit.

“We are the regulator - we have got powers to fine up to half a million pounds now for serious breaches so we are doing what we can.

“We are trying to firstly educate the public basically to say to them that when you get one of these things don’t reply to it just delete it - we are trying to cut off the supply, if you like, for the guys who are doing this.

“And at the other end of the scale we are trying to reach the businesses who are buying all these leads to tell them they need to be aware that actually we can take action against them if they are using this kind of lead. And then of course the guys in the middle who are actually doing this we are trying to shut them down.”

The ICO and X-Ray advices that you should:

• Ignore the message – never respond, not even to text STOP
• Report the message to your network operator who could prevent more spam coming from the same number.
• Watch who you give your mobile phone number to and where you’re writing it down.
• Never advertise your number on the internet, for example on Facebook.
• Check privacy policies and marketing opt outs on forms carefully when you are signing up to products or services.
Useful Reporting numbers:
Orange, O2, T-Mobile and Three: Forward the SMS to 7726
Vodafone: Forward the SMS to 87726

Further information on spam texts is available on the ICO website.

Colette Chilcott from Bridgend got in touch with X-Ray after she ordered a new computer for her son that never turned up.

She’d paid almost £1,800 for the high-tech tablet she bought  ten months ago from Surrey Stores in Dorking, “We hoped that it would arrive whilst was home for Easter, so he could take it back to Milan with him.”

Lucy found out Colette’s son desperately needed the state of the art computer for his studies,
“He's always wanted to be a car designer so this is one of his dreams come true.”

But Easter came and went and the computer didn't arrive so they emailed Surrey Stores. Colette said they were getting nowhere, “They're made in Japan and they said that it was something to do with the tsunami they've had out there.”

After this they told them it would be September but it still didn’t arrive, “[My son has] emailed them since, we're still waiting for an answer. I just want my money back now.”

Lucy got on the case for Colette and discovered that under Distance Selling Regulations she could have cancelled the order as the computer hadn't arrived.  Furthermore when she did cancel in September she should have had a refund within 30 days. So, where's her money?

Well after X-Ray contacted them to find out, Surrey Stores said they’d issued a refund in September but, after having checked, they now realised the transaction wasn't completed. The company says it didn't know the refund hadn't been received as they didn't hear from Colette or Chris.

Surrey Stores has now apologised and refunded Colette her £1,798 as well as a £50 credit voucher as a gesture of goodwill.

That’s another case closed!

Do you need Lucy’s help? Get in touch with the team.

BBC1 Wales X-Ray programme welcomes today's verdict in the case of bogus cancer therapists Reginald and Leila Gill in Swansea Crown Court.

77 year old Mr Gill was found guilty of three sexual assaults, six assaults by penetration and two counts of fraud against two women who had been treated by him at his alternative health clinic. His wife, 35 year old Leila Gill was found guilty of one count of sexual assault and one of fraud.

Evidence gathered by the X-Ray programme was instrumental in the arrests of the Gills. Last March, a member of the programme team telephoned the couple's clinic at their home in Cwmduad, Carmarthenshire and told Reginald Gill she was concerned she may have bowel cancer.

Reginald Gill told her that cancer was “easily dealt with” and urged her not to have a biopsy because it would spread the disease, saying “you’ll probably end up with ovarian cancer as well. Don’t do it, come and see me”. He said that if she spent three days with him she would be both educated and ‘treated’.

X-Ray sent two members of the production team to gather undercover footage of his fraudulent claims that he could diagnose and treat cancer. Gill used an unlicensed ozone therapy machine, known as an IFAS machine, on one of the researchers – the same one used on the victims in the recent trial. He told the researcher that because the device lit up, she did have cancer – which was untrue.

Despite his claims to have been an army doctor, Reginald Gill was in fact in the catering corps and has no medical qualifications. He was committing an offence under the Cancer Act 1939, which makes it illegal for an unqualified person to offer to treat any person for cancer.

Following the broadcast of X-Ray’s report in March 2011, our evidence was submitted to Dyfed Powys Police. Within weeks, two of Gill’s female ‘patients’ were interviewed by police and subsequently, on 24th May 2011, Reginald and Leila Gill were arrested at their home.

The jury at Swansea Crown Court heard how Reginald Gill had falsely told both female patients that they had cancer and he professed to be able to treat them. The court was told that both Reginald and Leila Gill were involved in treating patients which they did “for their own sexual satisfaction by gaining the confidence and trust of their patients to intrusively examine them physically”.

Sentencing will follow soon, date to be confirmed.

A new X-Ray report on the Gill’s bogus cancer treatments will be broadcast on Monday 13th February at 7.30pm on BBC1 Wales.