29/10/2012
A report on the company deceiving elderly and vulnerable people across the country. Why are attacks on guide dogs on the increase? What is the Olympic legacy in the West Midlands?
They're promised prizes that never materialise and when they write to ask for help their letters are thrown away unread - Inside Out goes undercover to find out more about the company deceiving elderly and vulnerable people across the country. Also on the show attacks on guide dogs are on the increase - Phil Upton finds out why. And two months on from a summer of sport, we ask what exactly is the Olympic legacy here in the West Midlands.
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Attacks on guide dogs
Attacks on guide dogs for the blind by other dogs have increased in recent years, with 180 incidents since 2010 according to the Guide Dogs Association.
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Â鶹Éç Inside Out meets Richard Wise from Coventry and Jemma Brown. Both have been subjected to attacks on their guide dogs.
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In another incident CCTV footage captures an attack on a guide dog by a 'status' dog whose owner was subsequently prosecuted under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
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In 2011 six guide dogs were forced to retire because of the physical and psychological damage caused by attacks.
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Now the Guide Dogs Association is calling for an urgent change in the law to help stop them.
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on the Â鶹Éç News website.Ìý
Guide dogs charity: 'Get tough on irresponsible owners'
Guide dog owner Richard Wise is terrified his dog will be attacked for a second time.
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The last time, he said the pair were walking to the post office when a dog "just locked on to Scrumpy, under his neck and it seemed an eternity."
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Mr Wise, of Coventry, said: "Whenever I go out, or particularly into the city centre, I'm living permanently with the fear of being attacked, the knock-on effect of that is affecting my mobility."
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Such attacks are not necessarily a criminal offence and it can be difficult to bring prosecutions.
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The charity Guide Dogs is calling for a change in the law so that the authorities have more power to prosecute the owners of dogs involved in attacks.
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on the Â鶹Éç News website.
Mail order scam
Joan Watkins lives in a London council flat on a small pension. She can ill afford the cosmetics and other mail order goods she has been buying from a mail order company.
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But when the letters started arriving in the post offering her amazing cash prizes she thought she was only a small purchase away from a fortune.
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on the Â鶹Éç News website.
Mail order customers were victims of 'scam'
Inside Out meets the victims of a mail order scam who believed they were the sole winner of cheques worth thousands of pounds.
They received letters from Hampshire-based company Emery of Romsey, congratulating them on winning cash prizes.
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The parent company behind the letters is Agence de Marketing Appliqué, based in Belgium, but it relies on Emery to process the orders.
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Emery collects the cheques and sends out the products - it also disposes of the desperate letters from confused customers.
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The company is run by father and son Nick and David Gebbett. Inside Out's Jon Cuthill asked David Gebbett for his response to the allegations.
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The National Fraud Intelligence Unit says it is keen to take action against third parties who work with companies that operate to deceive members of the public.
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from the Â鶹Éç News website.Ìý
Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Mary Rhodes |
| Reporter | Phil Upton |
Broadcast
- Mon 29 Oct 2012 19:30Â鶹Éç One West Midlands