Episode 9

Buying a pony is a big and costly commitment for any parent and you’ll want to be certain that the pony is safe for your child to ride.

When Ruth Burchell decided to buy one for her 14 year old daughter Katie, she thought she'd know more than most. She and her husband Dai train racehorses at their yard in Ebbw Vale.

Katie had been badly bullied at school and Ruth hoped that buying her a pony would help build her confidence to get over her ordeal. Ruth was very sure of the kind of pony she wanted.

She told X-Ray, “It had to be bombproof quiet. By bombproof I mean you could put your grandchildren on it or your grandmother and it would look after them just the same.”

To find the perfect pony, Ruth turned to a family friend she’d known for years, jockey and horse dealer Byron Moorcroft. Katie explains, “He knew exactly what situation I was in with my riding so we thought he was quite an obvious person to go to.”

Byron soon got in touch to say he’d found a quiet pony which would be ideal for nervous rider Katie. Confident in Byron’s judgement, Ruth paid him £900 for the pony which was called Libby. Katie was thrilled, but the first time she rode Libby, she had a terrifying experience.

Katie recalls, “As soon as I touched her back she just went mad. She just wouldn't give up, there was no let-up in her bucking.” Mum Ruth told X-Ray, “She was like a rodeo pony on the telly, there was nothing I could do to help”. Katie needed hospital treatment for her injured arm but it took much longer to mend her shattered confidence.

Realising Libby wasn't the bombproof pony she'd been promised, Ruth contacted Byron who initially agreed to replace her for another pony. However, then texted Katie trying to persuade her to get back on the dangerous pony – something she wasn’t prepared to do.

Ruth demanded her money back from Byron under the Sale of Goods Act, because the pony wasn't fit for purpose. However Byron insisted there was nothing wrong with Libby.

Ruth even sought advice from two independent experts who agreed that Libby was so nervous, she'd be dangerous and completely unsuitable for a novice rider like Katie. A county court judge then ordered Byron Moorcroft to pay Ruth more than a thousand pounds

However, nine months later, Byron hasn’t paid a penny and it seems he’s still selling horses to other people through a Facebook page called Bridgend Equine.

When X-Ray contacted Byron Moorcroft he still insisted there was nothing wrong with Libby. However, he has finally apologised to the Burchell family, he’s collected the pony from them and paid them back in full. About time too!

A Newport couple who were paying a company to help sort out their debts were left angry and confused when a debt collector called at their door.

Helen and Les Clifford survive on a very low income but were determined to tackle debts they’d built up 10 years ago while furnishing their home.

By 2008, their debts had risen to almost £11,000 so Helen turned to the Citizens Advice Bureau who recommended a debt management plan. Usually, this involves making one monthly payment to a debt management firm, who then divides up your money and pass it on to your creditors. Most companies charge a fee but Helen joined a free scheme with Pay-plan.

Helen said: “It was going really well. Debts were being paid, it was like as if I was worry free.” In three years, the Cliffords cut their debts to just £3,600. However, in August 2011, Helen says she was cold-called by a company called One Debt Solution who promised they could wipe her debts in half – although the company denies making this guarantee.

Helen agreed to pay them £100 a month, but admits she didn’t read the paperwork. She was shocked when X-Ray told her about the company’s fees. They included a charge of almost £500, a £75 documentation fee, an admin fee of 15% of each payment to creditors and a one-off 25% fee taken from any money recovered or written off.

One Debt Solution had also promised regular updates. The company insists they sent two but Helen disputes this. Several months after joining One Debt Solution, the Cliffords started to receive worrying letters from creditors saying they weren’t being paid.

Then, six months after joining One Debt Solution, there was a bigger shock. A debt collector called saying she was there to recover money because no payments at all had been made towards a store card debt.

Helen said: “I was mad. Why is a debt collector coming when we're with a debt management people?” She complained to One Debt Solution and says the company promised a refund at first, but later told her she wasn’t entitled to any money back.

And it seems Helen is not the only unhappy customer. X-Ray discovered similar complaints online from other disgruntled One Debt Solution customers.

One Debt Solution admits that none of Helen’s money went to paying off what she owed. They say that’s because the company was challenging her debts, which can take a long time. They also say they can't stop debt collectors calling.

However, after X-Ray contacted the company, they returned all the Cliffords’ money – more than £500. The couple have now returned to their free debt management plan.

If you're thinking of buying a car or a van online, we've uncovered a scam you really need to know about.

Three X-Ray viewers have contacted us after online criminals conned them out of thousands of pounds each, in strikingly similar scenarios.

Matthew Palmer from Cosheston in Pembrokeshire wanted to buy a campervan. He explained, “I had big plans for it. I was going to drive to the beach at sunset and ask my girlfriend Sarah to marry me in the camper van.”

He saw a 1978 VW van advertised for sale on Autotrader for £3,400. The advert said the campervan was in South Wales, but when Matthew tried to view it the seller’s story changed.

Matthew said, “She was on an army base in Dundee in Scotland, which made it very hard for me to go up and have a look at the van. I suppose I used my heart not my head and we just went for it really.”

The seller then sent Matthew a link to pay via Google Checkout, a secure payment site. It looked genuine so he paid the money upfront, not realising that that the payment site and the advert were both fake. He waited for the van to be delivered but it never arrived.

Days later, Peter Bradley-Watson from Manorbier had a very similar experience. He’s been looking for a campervan on Ebay and saw a pop-up ad from Autotrader.

Like Matthew, the seller told Peter that she was in the army in Dundee and persuaded him to pay £3,500 through a payment site which looked genuine, but it wasn’t. Peter told X-Ray, “ I've been very naïve but only in retrospect do you see the mistakes that one made.”

And it's not only campervan criminals who claim to live in Scotland.

Arwyn Isaac from Ceredigion works as a maintenance manager on a caravan park. When he saw a mini-digger advertised on Ebay, he thought would be useful for odd jobs in his spare time.

Again, the seller said they were in Scotland but could arrange delivery if he paid through a secure Ebay payment link. Like the other victims, Arwyn didn’t spot the fake website address – a mistake which cost him his life savings of £5,500.

Matthew, Peter and Arwyn all asked their banks to stop the payments. However, it was too late - and because they'd paid by bank transfer, they couldn't get their money back.

There were tell-tale signs of a scam :
- The price was far lower than its real value
- The location was too far away to visit. Scotland seems to be the scammers favourite!
- Photos and description were copied from another online advert
- Emails contained spelling mistakes and strange grammar
- There was no phone number, just an email address
- And scammers want to be paid through a fake link which they send you.

Online criminals are often based abroad. In these three cases, the police say they are pursuing leads in the UK but warn there's little chance of recovering the money. So if you're buying online, keep an eye out for scammers and make sure you’re always the one in the driving seat!

Rosemary Cole, from Llanelli, was looking forward to her trip to Spain in May, but a mix-up with her flights left her seriously out of pocket.

In February, she booked her 10-day trip to Barcelona online through Travel Republic, but in April she received an email to say airline Vueling had cancelled her return flight on May 19th and she’d now be coming back on May 22nd instead.

Rosemary extended her stay to take the later flight home, but when she arrived at the check-in desk she was told she’d been booked on the May 19th flight and had missed it by three days.

She said: “I said I’ve got it in black and white. The ticket says the 22nd. I’m sorry, she said, you’re not on our list and you’ve missed your flight so either you pay for a return flight or you don’t get on the plane. And she turned her back. I felt abandoned.”

Rosemary paid an extra £180 for a flight back to Cardiff but hasn’t had any joy getting her money back from Travel Republic or Vueling and doesn’t know which company is to blame for the problem.

So X-Ray wrote to both companies to find out what had happened. Vueling said Rosemary’s original return flight on May 19th was cancelled and later reinstated, but a computer glitch meant Rosemary was not informed of this. They’ve now offered Rosemary a £180 refund plus £200 compensation.

And there’s more good news - Travel Republic have also offered her a £250 accommodation voucher for her next booking.

Wales is a nation of chewers. We get through 46 million packets of gum every year, but a lot of it ends up on the floor.

That’s why Assembly Member for Clwyd West Darren Millar AM is calling for gum chewers to pay an extra 5p on every packet sold in Wales. If it became law, councils would use cash collected by shopkeepers for street cleaning, education and to crack down on gum droppers.

X-Ray asked Swansea shoppers what they thought. Most felt it would be a good idea, but newsagent Simon Cogger said “I think it’s definitely going to be an inconvenience and hopefully a better scheme could be thought of.”

Andrew Peters, part of Swansea’s cleaning team tasked with removing gum from the streets, said he’d welcome any move to tackle the issue. In the past year, his team has cleaned one million pieces from city centre streets.

Click here to get in touch and let us know what you think – and you can have your say on Jason Mohammad’s programme on BBC Radio Wales programme between 10am and 12pm on Tuesday 22nd. The issue will be debated by the Welsh Government at the Senedd on Wednesday 23rd October.