Rogue Traders Matt Allwright and Dan Penteado went undercover to catch dodgy tradesmen in the act. It was good news for us, but bad news for the traders.

In this article

Driveways Fly-tippers Cars Plumbers

Scaremonger salesmen Gardeners Roofers Solar panel salesmen

About the programme Matt Allwright Dan Penteado

23 October 2006

Matt and Dan are on the trail of two driveways companies known to trading standards for their shoddy work.

First up is Solihull-based Natural Stone Paving. It has been wreaking havoc in front yards by building dodgy drives. But when we tried to get customers to talk to us, they wouldn't because they were too afraid.

When Rogue Traders invited the company out to do some block paving in Stourbridge, it was true to form. It didn't dig the foundations deep enough, it put the drains in the wrong place, and blocked up vital airbricks which allow the house to breathe.

Matt donned his prosthetics to become Bob, a middle-aged nosey neighbour, and then confronted the boys about the job. Charlie, who had overseen the work, denied anything was wrong and scarpered. Following the filming, Natural Stone Paving claimed it had subcontracted the work out to Charlie. It claimed that this had been a mistake and it wouldn't happen again.

Meanwhile in Nottinghamshire, Matt and the team caught up with Distinctive Drives Ltd. Run from a rundown office in Kirby in Ashfield, this company falsely claimed to have maintenance contracts for 40 per cent of England's motorways. When it came to our house to do a job, it was clear the workers weren't up to scratch.

Another of Matt's alter egos Joe, the twentysomething rocker, confronted the company's boss Simon Docherty, but was told to 'get lost'. Something several its own customers wish would happen to the company.

16 October 2006

Every hour in the in the UK, we throw away enough trash to fill the Albert Hall. And some of this rubbish ends up fly-tipped - dumped in country lanes, pretty woods, industrial estates, and even driveways.

Around 90,000 fly-tipping incidents take place in the UK every month, and this costs local authorities £50 million a year to clear up. But don_t worry! Matt and Dan are on the trail. With their exciting James-Bond style tracking devices and hand-held computer systems, it won't take them long to expose and confront the perpetrators.

In this week's Rogue Traders we're after two particularly unappealing offenders. First, there's John from Barnet. He operates a company hilariously titled 'Tree-mendous', which ostensibly tends your garden, but actually tends to knock on doors offering to clear any waste hanging around in front gardens.

John's very cheap, but that's because he doesn't pay to offload the stuff at a licensed site. Instead, he drives around with it in his truck until he sees a house that seems to be empty. Then, in an instant, he backs into the drive, tips up the tipper, and offloads all the rubbish. That's right, he takes the rubbish from one front yard and dumps it in someone else's.

Our second offender lives in Kent. Alan Yarlett is a familiar figure with the Environment Agency. He has already stacked up an ASBO for burning rubbish, 240-hours community service and £11,500 worth of fines for fly-tipping and generally getting rid of rubbish in the wrong way.

When we called him out, he was again reluctant to pay to offload it legitimately, so he took the rubbish and dumped it in some ancient woodland, a place designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty.

But things are changing. The Environment Agency and local councils are extremely pro-active on fly-tipping, with many areas - including Kent and Barnet - employing specific enforcement officers to catch the offenders. Convicted fly-tippers can be fined up to £50,000.

So how do you do your part? The Environment Agency has a list of registered waste carriers. If you have some rubbish to be collected, make sure you employ a company registered with them.

It's in your interests too, as new legislation says that if you employ an unregistered fly-tipper, and the rubbish is traced back to you, you could be fined £5,000. So look up any company you're employing on the Environment Agency's website at www.environment-agency.gov.uk. Or call 08708 506 506 and it'll let you know whether your rubbish collector is naughty or nice.

9 October 2006

Matt and Dan hit the road and check out a company in South London that hires out cars with faults so dangerous, they could have life-threatening consequences.

We call in the Vehicle and Operators Services Agency (VOSA) responsible for vehicle safety to check the cars over. Out of the five vehicles we hire, three get prohibition notices banning them from the public highway until the problems are fixed.

The programme also exposes a West Sussex garage that likes to spend more time cleaning your engine than doing the vital safety checks. When we book three cars in for a service, instead of getting 'the works' we get an 'overspray of bulls**t spray', which gets your engine nice and shiny to make you think you've had a good job done.

2 October 2006

Matt and Dan flush out rogue plumbers. This time, they're after two big companies based in North London and Bedfordshire.

These two companies spend tens of thousands of pounds on Yellow Pages advertising, but we've heard from some of their customers and ex-employees who say if you call them out, you could end up getting charged for parts never fitted and time not worked.

Marvel at the master timewasters who string out jobs for so long that customers ending up paying double.

Then there's the plumber who steals his boss's identity so he can work on a gas boiler. The boss who gives a prospective employee a crash course in how to stretch time and big up a job: "We change taps not washers."

And witness what happens when Matt's alter ego Joe catches a thieving heating engineer red handed.

25 September 2006

This week, Matt and Dan send in the forces to find out what really goes on behind the scenes at an exterior wall coating company.

As new recruits, we see how all the trainee salesmen are taught to scare homeowners by learning a script which always says the same thing - your house is soaking up too much water.

Rogue Traders then exposes the salesmen who go to any lengths to hit their monthly targets. By offering free house inspections, we see the six-figure salary salesmen get into the homes of the old and vulnerable, and lie and scare homeowners into parting with thousands of pounds for wall coating paint they don't need.

18 September 2006

Matt and Dan are on the trail of cowboy gardeners and root out a couple of companies happy for us to dig deep in our wallets for shoddy work.

William Chapman of Chapman Tree & Garden Maintenance in Eastbourne has already been threatened with an antisocial behaviour order because of his history of ripping off elderly customers and harassing them for cash by taking them down to the cashpoint.

So Rogue Traders invites Chapman out to a garden to lay a patio and he quickly gets a sniff of the green stuff - and our granny is soon marched down to the cashpoint. After being overcharged £800 for a badly laid patio, it's time for Matt to don the prosthetics and make-up to become eco-warrior Bob, who tests our gardener's knowledge of all things green.

Meanwhile, up in Solihull, we call in Martin Smith, who offers all sorts of gardening services. With a reputation for taking people's money and not coming back, we put him to the test when our old lady who'd like a pond in her garden hands over £500.

True to form, Smith takes off with the money, not to be seen again until we invite him out to meet 22-year-old Joe, another of Matt's disguises. Joe has had a party in his mum's house and has woken up to discover something sprayed on the patio, which she's not going to be impressed with. Of course, a quick call to Smith with a promise of more money and he miraculous reappears. But when Smith is reunited with Joe's grandmother - our old lady without a pond - he quickly takes off again.

11 September 2006

Matt and Dan swing into action and take on two troupes of roof monkeys, one in Oldham and one in Surrey. Both scamper over our roofs running up bills for work that isn't necessary.

Our Oldham roof is left in a worse state after the roofers attack it and then try to patch it up. Health and safety is certainly not their strong point.

In Surrey, we call out a company who has ripped a pensioner off to the tune of £7,000. Surprise, surprise, our £150 job turns into over £1,300. But Stan, Matt's older-ego, isn't paying out. When Stan arrives on the scene, the roofer scarpers, leaving his lackey to carry the can.

4 September 2006

In the first episode, Matt and Dan take on free energy. Well, they take on the companies that offer it. With everyone worried about rising fuel prices, certain companies and salesmen are targeting people who want to do something for the planet and their pockets by installing solar heating systems for hot water.

The trouble is certain companies are using scare tactics such as 'we've run out of gas' or 'we'll have a three-day week this winter' to persuade people to pay double what they need to for a system. And when one company cashes the cheques and doesn't install the system, Matt goes on the trail for one man's money - his £4,600 pension.

In the new series of Rogue Traders, Matt Allwright and sidekick Dan Penteado team up again to take on the rogues of the trade world.

We'll see plumbers caught red-handed, charging for parts they haven't fitted. Driveways so bad that their ten-year guarantee won't last the summer. Gardeners who literally take the money and run. Rubbish collection companies who pick up from your driveway, only to dump on someone else's property. Roofers who leave your roof in a worse state than when they started. And car hire companies whose cars are so dangerous they could leave you with six points on your licence.

Matt takes on new disguises in this series, including Stan, a 75-year-old retired winkle picker from Kent, eco-warrior Bob the slob and 22-year-old nu-metal nut Joe.

Matt is one of the UK's top consumer journalists and the leading exponent of doorstep confrontation. In the 2005 series, the intrepid reporter had a secret weapon to get closer to roguish escapades. With the help of prosthetics and make-up, Matt became a 75-year-old Welshman called Roger, to see first-hand what old people targeted by rogues experience every day.

Dan's worked on Rogue Traders now for five series. Other than co-presenting with Matt and riding the big black bike, Dan's also involved in some of the production of the show, where he's honed his surveillance and filming skills to a fine point. When not working on Rogue Traders, he works on other filming and investigations assignments in the UK and abroad.