麻豆社

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 鈥榖efore and after鈥� photos of people who have never used their products.

Karen Dawson, who lost over 8 stone after joining a slimming club, felt 鈥渧iolated鈥� after she discovered Sculpts Extreme used her photographs in one of their adverts. 鈥淚 was absolutely livid that somebody would do such a thing, I鈥檝e never taken slimming tablets. I don鈥檛 agree with slimming tablets鈥�.

But we discovered Sculpts Extreme have been using photos of other people who haven鈥檛 used their slimming pills, in adverts on their website, Facebook group and in their shop window. So 麻豆社 researchers went undercover posing as customers to find out more about their health claims.

Sculpts Extreme claim their customers can 鈥渓ose 4-8lbs a week鈥� by using their slimming pills. On the label the tablets say they can 鈥榣iberate fat from fat cells鈥�, but Professor Nadim Haboubi, Chair of National Obesity Forum Wales, dismissed this claim as 鈥渁bsolute rubbish鈥�. 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 麻豆社 researcher that one of their ingredients,听 鈥渂itter orange peel鈥�.. 鈥減eels the fats from the walls of your stomach鈥� and that you 鈥渄on鈥檛 have to go to the gym鈥� to lose weight if you take their tablets. Obesity expert Professor Haboubi disagreed saying the claim about orange peel 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 make scientific sense鈥�. He also added that 鈥渆verybody has to exercise鈥�.

Mr Szuchnik has replied to X-Ray鈥檚 claims by admitting there were labelling 鈥渆rrors鈥� on the pots that will be put right, the photos in question have been 鈥渞emoved鈥� and the 鈥渟taff member responsible鈥� has been 鈥渄ismissed鈥�. 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鈥檚 findings.

A fake landlord has conned house hunters out of nearly 拢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 鈥� who had been living in Caerphilly. They paid 拢1,150 to move into the flat in January.

Karl told X-Ray: 鈥淗e was a nice guy.听 He was chatty. He knew where everything was basically. So we didn鈥檛 assume anything different other than he was the landlord.鈥�

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

鈥淓verything 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,鈥� 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 拢550 and signed an identical contract.

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

Mr Geci added: 鈥淲hen I found out it was fraud I tried to phone him. He had switched off the phone. And that鈥檚 it.鈥�

Mike Dawson has now vanished and police say he is 鈥渨anted on suspicion of fraud鈥�.

Rental scams are increasingly common 鈥� 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 拢3 to obtain an official copy of the register. Use this link:

And if you鈥檙e a landlord or an agent, you鈥檒l 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 , the new landlord licensing scheme.

If you manage your property yourself you鈥檒l 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 .

Or click to start the process online.

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