大象传媒

If you fork out for a brand new car, you鈥檙e paying a lot of money for something you hope will keep you on the road for years.

So we decided to investigate why Margaret Price鈥檚 brand new Ford has been spending so much time back at the garage.

Independent expert Gareth Rees with X-Ray's Rhodri Owen

Mrs Price from Caerphilly handed over 拢12,000 for her C-Max in June 2009, but with the first sign of rain came the first sign of trouble, as she noticed she was getting wet seats and foot wells.

Then in January 2010, after a particularly bad bout of rain she found the inside of her car soaked with water. The seats, the wells, the carpets, everything was drenched. 鈥淭he only thing dry was the boot! This isn鈥檛 right鈥�, thought Margaret.

She called Evans Halshaw in Treforest and asked them to take a look, but several phone calls and four months later they returned her car with mould on the seats.

So she sent it back again. It was returned in June, but the same problem was still happening. Evans Halshaw had now her car for six months. It has spent half its life in the garage and still wasn鈥檛 fixed!

Margaret felt short-changed by the way she鈥檇 been treated by Evans Halshaw. She told us, 鈥淭heir attitude was, well you鈥檝e bought the car, that鈥檚 it. They really haven鈥檛 given me the service I deserve鈥�.

And it鈥檚 not just Margaret who鈥檚 been in contact with X-Ray. Taxi driver Stewart O鈥橲hea bought a brand new Chevrolet from Evans Halshaw in Cardiff last April.

Within weeks hazard lights started to appear on the dashboard. He told us, 鈥淭hat worried me as it means there鈥檚 something wrong with the brakes.鈥�

Stewart鈥檚 car also started flashing the service light even though it wasn鈥檛 due for another five thousand miles.

With the car back at Evans Halshaw they carried out a service anyway and asked him to come back to have the other problems looked at.

Stewart took the car back but again was told that they couldn鈥檛 sort it. In fact Evans Halshaw didn鈥檛 fix his car when he left it overnight for a third time or a fourth time - when he left the car at the garage for a week!

As a taxi driver, Stewart told us it鈥檚 been hard for him, 鈥淔or me it鈥檚 no car, no pay鈥�.

X-Ray asked Gareth Rees, a consultant vehicle examiner to look both cars over.

First he told us about Stewart鈥檚, 鈥淲hen Stewart took it to Evans Halshaw they鈥檝e carried out a ten-thousand mile service at five-thousand miles. They鈥檝e returned the car to Stewart and lo and behold they haven鈥檛 addressed the problems of the illumination of the breaking and antiskid lights.

And then Margaret鈥檚, 鈥淚 looked at the vehicle myself and used a common garden hosepipe and within 10 minutes found the source of where the water was coming in. It wasn鈥檛 rocket science鈥�.

In its response Evans Halshaw says it is aware of the issues raised in both cases, 鈥淲e regret that these situations have arisen but we will continue dialog directly with both customers and we will use our best endeavours to resolve these matters satisfactorily鈥�.

In these tough times, we鈥檙e all looking out for a bargain. And Linda Wright from Chirk is no different. She decided a year and a half ago to update her kitchen.

But months of problems and missing parts have now lead us onto the trail of Britain鈥檚 biggest kitchen conman, could he be a part of the problem?

X-Ray's Rachel Treadaway-Williams with Linda Wright in her kitchen

In November 2009 Linda thought all her Christmases had come at once when Doncaster company, Kitchens 4 Less quoted her just 拢800 for brand new units and doors. She said, 鈥淚've always wanted a house like this but it's taken a long time to save鈥t鈥檚 the worst thing I鈥檝e ever done鈥�.

She says that because 18 months on, it鈥檚 still not finished.

Linda told us the units had to be cut down because they were too big for her kitchen - despite it being measure up by the company聽 beforehand, the legs they sent for the bottom units snapped, she鈥檚 missing drawer fronts and 21 door handles, and some of the doors have expanded because they weren鈥檛 watertight.

So of course she complained, 鈥淓very time I was ringing up they were saying 鈥渃ut the cupboards down鈥� or 鈥渢here is nothing we can do鈥�.

鈥淭he only way I could get through was to put on a posh voice and say I would like to buy a kitchen. Every time I would say who I was, my post code and my address, the line would just go dead鈥�.

At this point, we got involved. We wrote to Kitchens 4 Less at their Doncaster address, but the letters were returned to sender.

So we called the Customer Services line and were told their Head Office was actually based in Oldham, at Maple Mill.

That rang alarm bells, because Maple Mill is owned by Britain鈥檚 biggest kitchen conman, Vance Miller.

Mr Miller was issued with a Stop Now Order back in 2002 by the Office of Fair Trading after his customers complained about shoddy kitchens and missing parts. It means he could be sent to jail if he鈥檚 found doing the same again.

In fact in 2003 he was jailed for breaching the order after a further 180 complaints were made against him. He then received a suspended sentence and a 拢90,000 fine in 2008 for more breaches of the order.

And when we called Mr Miller鈥檚 sale number from his website and asked for Kitchens 4 Less, we were told they were the same company.

All of which is bad news for Linda, 鈥淚'm just too scared to ring up the company and be fobbed off with something else鈥t's just wore me out, 18 months of constant ringing and not getting nowhere鈥�.

Neither Vance Miller nor Kitchens 4 Less has formally responded to our investigations.

Retired shop owner, Madhukant Amin pinned all his hopes on a revolutionary technique after a stroke lead to him losing part of his sight.

But thousands of pounds later and after months of effort, he鈥檚 no closer to regaining his driving licence.

Madhukant described what happened when he had a stroke during a visit to family in Indian last year, 鈥淭hey took me to hospital, there was no movement on the left hand side. At the end of the day I found out I had lost my vision鈥�.

Madhukant Amin

When he returned home to Wales, Madhukant realised life would never be the same again.

He told Rachel Treadaway-Williams, 鈥淢y vision at the moment is like a tunnel, you know, everything I have to see I have to keep on moving my head, you can just see straight and that's it鈥�.

Around 7,000 stroke patients a year in Wales will experience problems with their vision and often one of their biggest concerns is the fact they can no longer drive.

Madhukant described how he felt, 鈥淚 was losing my temper all the time. The worst effect was that I was house bound 24 hours a day鈥�.

So he turned to the internet and researched a company called Sight Science, which claimed to help people regain their sight after a stroke. It was going to cost him 拢2,500 but as Madhukant said, 鈥淚 was very desperate I didn't care about how much it was going to cost me鈥�.

Sight Science asks patients to sit at a computer and respond to patterns on the screen which they say stimulate the injured area of the brain. It looked like the miracle he needed.聽

But unfortunately Madhukant鈥檚 vision didn鈥檛 get any better. After months of following the Sight Science regime, he hadn鈥檛 experienced any improvement.

And three months later an eye test confirmed his suspicions. His optician had to break the news 鈥� that Madhukant hadn't regained his sight sufficiently to be able to drive.

So Sight Science offered him a further six months treatment for an additional 拢1,500. Madhukant turned them down, 鈥淚 lost confidence in them said I don't want any more of your treatment鈥�.

Sight Science claims around three quarters of people who've undergone its therapy have reported improvements in their abilities to manage day to day activities, and 10 per cent regained their driving licences.

And they say although they can never guarantee the extent of recovery, they insist their clinical data shows Madhukant's visual field has indeed improved.

We showed Madhukant鈥檚 results to Doctor Charlotte Lawthom, one of Wales' leading consultant neurologists. She told Rachel: 鈥淗e's now picking up some visual things that perhaps he couldn't before.

鈥淔rom a practical point of view that doesn't translate into anything terribly meaningful for him and certainly won't have any bearing on the driving restrictions. I would not have recommended him to go ahead and pay for this treatment鈥�.

And we asked her what she thought about their offer of a further six months treatment for 拢1,500, 鈥淚 think ethically that is questionable really. If there has been no improvement at six months there is no reason to think they're going to have a late improvement鈥�.

With little chance of regaining full sight, Madhukant is resigned to the fact he may never get behind the wheel again.