Episode 9

Harry Yeates and his wife Winnie were married for nearly 70 years and lived life to the full; spending time with their four children and 10 grandchildren and with their circle of friends. Winnie died in 2014 and Harry passed away in September 2017.

Their son Brian said: “He had dementia and it was terrible to see, but that’s life isn’t it, you know he was 90 so he had a good life.”

Amidst the grief though, the family felt there was one thing they didn’t have to worry about. Harry had taken out insurance many years ago, so that he wouldn’t burden his family with the full cost of the funeral.

And he had taken out a product which was a household name: the SunLife over 50 plan.

Brian said: “he took a policy out in 1988… so he’d been paying £4 a month ever since”

After his father’s death, Brian phoned the number on one of the SunLife policy documents and set about making a claim.

Brian told X-Ray: “They sent me a form out, filled the form in then sent all the documents they wanted, the original policy, the original death certificate…sent all that off and just thought they would pay it out.”

Assuming the claim was being processed, Brian set about arranging the funeral his father had always wanted.

He said: “He knew what songs he wanted, he knew everything, he wanted the horse and carriages…and we all walked behind …the road was full, you know it was lovely.”

But this wonderful send off left £6,000 of bills to be paid and several weeks on, there was still no sign of the insurance money.

Brian said: “A month had gone by… so I rung Sun Life, they told me they’d sold the policy on. And I said: How can you sell a policy on? They said: oh we sold it to Friends Life and then Friends Life had sold them to Aviva.”

Brian phoned Aviva – but was sent back to SunLife. Only after several confusing phone calls did Brian manage to confirm the policy was now owned by Aviva.

The insurance industry has experienced numerous takeovers and mergers in recent years and it is not uncommon for policies to transfer over to the new company.

But Brian had already posted the original death certificate and policy documents to Sunlife - and now neither company could find them.

Meaning he couldn’t claim until he’d sourced a replacement death certificate and undertakers’ receipt.

Brian says he complained to Sun Life, but was told the lost documents and outstanding claim were Aviva’s problem - and said the supervisor refused to speak to him!

He said: “My father took this policy out, 29 years he paid in and they don’t want to talk to us, I think it’s disgraceful”

More than 2 months after Harry’s death, there was still no sign of the insurance money.

And Brian is angry about the effort he’s been put through for what feels like a miserly lump sum.

He said: “It was about £1400/1500 he’s paid in but £800 is all they’re giving back – if they give it back…. You know, it wasn’t worth it…he paid into it for 29 years, he may as well as bought a raffle ticket with it.”

And this stressful experience has come at an already emotional time

Brian said: “You’ve lost a parent, you don’t expect to have to go through all of this. And it’s not so much the money, it’s they haven’t apologised …about the delay, the agony they’re putting us through, not one apology.”

With rentals in short supply many people are now turning to the web to help find their dream home. Unfortunately, this has made many house-hunters - like Robert Gillings from Llanelli – a target for fraud. After he was approached by a fake landlord, he lost a thousand pounds.

Towards the end of September, Robert Gillings put an ad on Gumtree for a two-bedroomed home. Within the hour he was approached by someone calling herself Elzbieta Wakeling – he was impressed by the photographs she sent through of the property.

Robert said: “It looked like a lovely home. It was all fully furnished. It was suitable for me and suitable for my daughter when she’d come over to stay.”

The landlord told Robert in an email that she was elderly, deaf, and needed someone to look after her home, as she was moving to Bristol to live with her family.

Robert agreed to pay the £1000 holding deposit and first month’s rent that Mrs Wakeling requested before the viewing of the property later that week. When he turned up to see the house though the person who answered was not Elzbieta Wakeling and the real home-owner told Robert the property was not even up for rent. He had been scammed.

“I was devastated to hear that” he told X-ray, “to lose out on a £1000 is a lot of money. That's when I think my world just sunk.”

X-Ray has discovered that Robert is not the only house hunter who has dealt with the fraudster calling herself Elzbieta Wakeling. Action Fraud revealed that they are investigating some three hundred cases!

Emma Smith - from Wolverhampton - was keen to move to Llandudno with her partner David and were offered a three-bedroomed home in the seaside town. Emma was also asked by a landlord calling herself Elzbieta Wakeling for a months’ rent upfront.

At first Emma refused to send the £500 requested before the viewing but she was persuaded to do so when she was sent proof of Mrs Wakeling’s ID.

Emma said: “They sent me the tenancy and a passport. She said in the email that she's a god fearing woman and that she wouldn't do anything wrong so I trusted her.”

Emma’s finger was poised on the transfer button before instinct told her something was not right. After a last minute search for Elzbieta Wakeling on Facebook she saw other house hunters complaining of a scam linked to the same name.

“I don't really trust many people and certainly after this it’s harder” She said.

Armed with this information and a copy of Elzbieta’s passport, X-Ray tracked Mrs Wakeling down to an address in London.

However, X-Ray discovered that Elzbieta Wakeling was not a fraudster at all. She was in fact a victim of the same fraud but instead of losing money, she’s had her identity stolen by the scammers. Not only has the scam played havoc with her credit rating, Elzbieta was shocked when X-ray showed her the comments being made about her online:

“I can’t borrow any money…I’m fighting an invisible enemy” she said,

“Now they’re messing up my personal life…..its got really scary!”