Episode 15

It’s early morning in the Welsh capital and X-Ray is on the road with Cardiff trading standards on the hunt for illegal cigarettes and tobacco. Officers have intelligence that fake, bootlegged and ‘illicit white’ cigarettes are being sold to the public in certain shops.

Sniffer dogs will be sent in before the shopkeeper can move any illegal stash.

And almost immediately the dogs are onto something. In the first shop Ozzie – a three year old black Labrador - finds a selection of cigarettes and rolling tobacco, including a small quantity of illicit tobacco. Illicit whites are cigarettes made abroad exclusively for the smuggled market and sold cheaply in the UK.

Onto the second shop and this time it’s sniffer dog Indie on the trail. The Lab scratches at a concealed drawer under the tobacco gantry. Lead trading standards officer Mike Davies tells the shopkeeper: “Ok, we clearly have a problem”. “Yeah I know,” he replies.

But Indie’s nose is twitching again and within minutes she’s sniffed out more.

Mike tells X-Ray reporter Rachel Treadaway-Williams these are fakes – made in back street factories to look like legal cigarettes.“You just don’t know what you are smoking... The tobacco industry is regulated, whereas the people who are making these illicit cigarettes aren’t regulated at all so you don’t know what’s in them.”

As morning becomes afternoon the haul gets bigger. In another part of the city Ozzie locates a truly hidden stash - in a gap in the wall behind a mirror in the shop toilet. It has a street value of about £500.

And as the team heads to another shop Rachel asks Mike who he thinks is behind the smuggling.“You’re looking at organised crime groups that are bringing in the goods across borders in a way that they may have done previously with drug smuggling,” he says. “Now they are turning their sights on tobacco because there are fewer penalties possibly.”

By 5 o’clock, nine retail premises have been raided and four seizures made. Mike and his fellow officers estimate they’ve confiscated more than 26,000 cigarettes and 350g hand rolling tobacco, with a combined street value of around £4,000.

But Mike knows the fight against illegal cigarettes will go on: “Hitting small shops will disrupt the trade – but the team here knows it won’t be stopped until there’s concerted action to tackle the tobacco gangs.”

When you sign up to a new mobile phone deal, you don’t expect to be put on a business contract unless you run a business. But that’s exactly what happened to four X-Ray viewers who used Welsh mobile phone retailer, Get Connected.

We first told you about the company in early November, when Tracey Coombe from Blackwood explained how she had taken out a mobile contract for her teenage son Tom. Tracey was expecting to pay £32 a month. But her first bill showed she was actually paying £43 - and she had been put on a business tariff. Tracey said: “I was so annoyed when I had this. I thought, what have Get Connected done?”

After that broadcast we were contacted by more unhappy Get Connected customers.
And despite visiting different Get Connected shops across south Wales, they all had very similar complaints.

Rose Edwards took out a phone contract at the Abergavenny branch and later discovered she was paying more than she claims had been agreed in store. She was also set up as a business customer. Rose said: “When I was in the shop and I looked over the contract, it didn't mention anything about it being a business contract, or myself being a business owner.”

Aimee Bristow had a similar experience at the Haverfordwest branch of Get Connected. She was also set up as a business customer and was paying more than she says she had agreed. But there was an even more shocking revelation when she went back to the shop to complain.“When I signed up there was just one sheet for me to sign,” Aimee explained.“Yet when we went back to get a copy, they gave us two sheets which had a lot more information. They haven't asked me the information on this sheet (second sheet). I feel really annoyed that they probably filled this in after I'd left the shop.”

Customer number three, Amy Salter, told X-Ray about a similar experience at the Get Connected shop in Porthcawl.

Like the others, Amy had been signed up as a business customer - but it seemed the Get Connected salesman who sold the contract had gone one step further.“They'd put that I owned my own mobile hairdressing business,” said Amy. “I don't even drive my own car and I've never studied hairdressing in my life.”

So that’s four people set up as business customers at different shops and all of them were paying more than they say they had agreed with Get Connected. So why had this happened?
“The main reason why an independent retailer would want to sell a business contract is that they can make more money off it,” mobile phone journalist Graeme Neill told X-ray.“What happen is that their suppliers could offer them one off preferential rates on specific deals, so if they sell more of these business contracts they'll make a lot more money for it.”

X-Ray also spoke to Monmouthshire Trading Standards, who told us they had been receiving complaints about Get Connected for the last few years. In September 2013 the company signed an agreement not to mislead customers, and could face a fine and a criminal investigation if their staff are caught doing that.

We also wrote to Get Connected.

Company boss Damian Cole denied his staff deliberately misled customers in order to make more money, adding that business contracts can be sold to non-business customers. But the company they sell phones for, Orange, seemed to disagree and suggested some retraining for Get Connected staff.

Mr Cole said the number of complaints against the company dropped since working with trading standards.

As for Rose, Aimee and Amy - Mr Cole said they all signed paperwork stating they were self-employed and were told VAT would be added to their monthly payments, although they tell us this was never made clear to them.

Last year almost 1.75 BILLION mobile phones were bought across the world and 94 percent of adults in the UK now own one.

Melissa Ellis from Newport totally relies on her mobile phone as she struggles to get around.
“If I go to my car I’ve got to have my phone on me all the time” She told us “ I just need my phone just in case. At night I need it, I wake up in the night, I could be ill through the night so I need my phone close to me.”

Melissa bought a brand new Samsung S4 phone in June. She’d chosen it as it was easy to use with her disability. A few weeks later she put it onto charge overnight in the kitchen as normal. “I put my phone on charge about 12 o clock at night, fell asleep for a few hours on my sofa “ she said “I woke up in pain, so I thought I’d get my phone and go on a game and also take some painkillers.”

But when Melissa touched the phone she found it was burning in the socket.

“I couldn’t believe it. I just dropped it automatically all I could think was oh my gosh if that had been a bit longer, God knows what would’ve happened.” She said.

Melissa had a small burn on her fingers and her brand new phone was ruined.

“It was horrifying.” She told us “The metal on the USB part was all burnt, you could see in the port that it was all burnt and to melt a phone, to get a scorch mark. I really think there would’ve been a fire”

Every year eight thousand people are injured by electrical fires in the UK. Thankfully mobile phone fires are a tiny number of these, but they DO happen.

“There is a potential that a mobile phone charger is as dangerous as any other electrical appliance” says Richard Hassett from South Wales Fire and Rescue “In order to charge them safely you should only charge them when you’re there, you shouldn’t really charge them overnight.” He said “Like leaving your tumble drier or washing machine overnight, it shouldn’t be done because they aren’t designed to do it. When you’re charging it don’t leave it on a bed or a pillow either” he said “Put it on a surface that is solid so that it won’t catch fire, because as you’re charging they can generate heat and if it’s a bed or a pillow it could be enough heat to catch fire. Also if you’re using an electrical adapter you should ensure the electrical adapter isn’t overloaded.”

Samsung say that they've always employed strict quality control and safety standards. They've now taken Melissa's phone back and they'll be conducting a thorough investigation to find out EXACTLY what happened. In the meantime they've sent her a brand new phone.