Episode 10

An X-Ray investigation has revealed how a company selling slimming tablets online and from a shop in Barry, has been falsely advertising their products and making unfounded health claims.

Sculpts Extreme, owned by Lee Szuchnik, has been advertising their diet pills with ‘before and after’ photos of people who have never used their products.

Karen Dawson, who lost over 8 stone after joining a slimming club, felt “violated” after she discovered Sculpts Extreme used her photographs in one of their adverts. “I was absolutely livid that somebody would do such a thing, I’ve never taken slimming tablets. I don’t agree with slimming tablets”.

But we discovered Sculpts Extreme have been using photos of other people who haven’t used their slimming pills, in adverts on their website, Facebook group and in their shop window. So BBC researchers went undercover posing as customers to find out more about their health claims.

Sculpts Extreme claim their customers can “lose 4-8lbs a week” by using their slimming pills. On the label the tablets say they can ‘liberate fat from fat cells’, but Professor Nadim Haboubi, Chair of National Obesity Forum Wales, dismissed this claim as “absolute rubbish”. By law any such health claims must be authorised by the European Food Safety Authority and these were not.

Mr Szuchnik of Sculpts Extreme also told an undercover BBC researcher that one of their ingredients, “bitter orange peel”.. “peels the fats from the walls of your stomach” and that you “don’t have to go to the gym” to lose weight if you take their tablets. Obesity expert Professor Haboubi disagreed saying the claim about orange peel “doesn’t make scientific sense”. He also added that “everybody has to exercise”.

Mr Szuchnik has replied to X-Ray’s claims by admitting there were labelling “errors” on the pots that will be put right, the photos in question have been “removed” and the “staff member responsible” has been “dismissed”. Mr Szuchnik also says he has lots of happy customers and many of them have lost weight without exercising.

Trading Standards say they will be looking into X-Ray’s findings.

A fake landlord has conned house hunters out of nearly £2,000.

Michael Dawson rented a flat in the Adamsdown area of Cardiff and then advertised it on Gumtree pretending to be the landlord.

His first victim was Karl Dinis and his partner Dru Maidment – who had been living in Caerphilly. They paid £1,150 to move into the flat in January.

Karl told X-Ray: “He was a nice guy. He was chatty. He knew where everything was basically. So we didn’t assume anything different other than he was the landlord.”

When the couple moved in they found the flat still full of junk left by Mr Dawson.

“Everything was still left in the kitchen. All the cupboards were full of food. There was clothes, there was all cleaning stuff. There were dirty dishes in the sink,” Karl said.

But they had a bigger shock the next day when another couple, Martin Geci and his wife Eva, walked in. He had paid £550 and signed an identical contract.

Karl said: “There was a couple at the door and they claimed they were moving in. They showed me their tenancy agreement. They told me they paid £550. We both described this guy we were dealing with and we came to the conclusion that it was the same guy.”

Mr Geci added: “When I found out it was fraud I tried to phone him. He had switched off the phone. And that’s it.”

Mike Dawson has now vanished and police say he is “wanted on suspicion of fraud”.

Rental scams are increasingly common – with more than 3,000 cases reported to Action Fraud last year.

Rhiannon Price from Shelter Cymru says tenants should check landlords carefully before renting. She gave the following tips:

Lettings Agents might be more expensive but you can check them out at their offices or online more easily;

If going direct to a landlord make sure you ask searching questions about who supplies utilities and the deposit scheme they use. A genuine landlord will be able to answer these questions easily. If in doubt you can ask for ID;

If you want to be really thorough you can check who owns the property on the Land Registry website. It will cost £3 to obtain an official copy of the register. Use this link: https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

And if you’re a landlord or an agent, you’ll need to be aware of some changes under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014.

By 23rd November 2016, all landlords and agents must be registered with Rent Smart Wales, the new landlord licensing scheme.

If you manage your property yourself you’ll also have to obtain a license; you must undertake a training course in order to do so.

Fees apply to registration and licensing.

For more details on how to apply and the costs involved, visit the Rent Smart Wales FAQ section.

Or click here to start the process online.