大象传媒

We last featured builder Damon Owens 18 months ago, exposing the fake names he used at his many businesses.

When he met Sam and Laura Hulland, from Cardiff, he used a different name all together. Sam said: 鈥淗e introduced himself as Andrew Hansel. Very chatty and very friendly and said everything I kind of wanted to hear really." Andrew Hansel turned out to be a real person, an old friend of Damon Owens who had sadly died of cancer..

Sam and Laura paid Damon 拢17,000 to build an extension, but he walked off site not long after his workers hit a sewer pipe. He left behind a big hole in their garden and a real mess. Chartered surveyor Tim Davies looked at the work his business had done.聽 He said that the value of the work done by Damon Owens was closer to a few hundred pounds, rather than the 拢17,000 paid by Sam and Laura.

The couple say it cost them 拢35,000 to put right the problems left behind by Damon Owens and finish the job properly.

Sam said: 鈥淲ith the stresses of what we were going through after losing so much money and the house being partly demolished. We had the stress of the new-born coming. We didn't know what we were going to do. It was a tough time.鈥�

The law has now caught up with Damon Owens. He admitted 13 charges at Cardiff Crown Court - including using fake identities and breaking consumer protection laws.

Sam said: 鈥淚t's a relief to know that he has pleaded guilty because I think he's basically been caught out. There was no getting away with what he had done. He couldn't necessarily lie his way out of it anymore. And didn't have a choice but to accept what had come to him.鈥�

Every year we bin 1.4 million tonnes of electrical items. With the rise of cheaper products on the market, it鈥檚 a lot easier to throw away and buy new, than repair. Lucy Owen finds out how you might be able to get those broken electricals repaired, for free! Repair Caf茅s are starting up all around Wales from Cardiff to Machynlleth. Volunteers give up their time, lending their expertise to fix items for the public. They try to repair everything from electrical items, clothing, furniture and ornaments, for free.

We popped along to Swansea鈥檚 first Repair Caf茅 to see what it is all about. We spoke with members of the public who brought a range of items from smoothie makers, antique glass jugs and children鈥檚 toys. One visitor said 鈥淲e've brought a remote control car. There isn't much wrong with it, it's missing a screw". A lot of the people we spoke to said they wouldn鈥檛 want to throw out these items, but they would be left unused if this repair service wasn鈥檛 available.

We spoke with Repair Caf茅 Wales volunteer Luke who explained how he was repairing a visitor鈥檚 vacuum cleaner鈥� 鈥淭here are two tiny cables with spades on the end which join onto the circuit board - just with over time with the amount of yanking they come loose so I just had to take them apart and reconnect the spades.鈥� All volunteers have specialist expertise that they can apply to the items brought in, and all electrical items are PAT tested before they leave the caf茅.聽

While not all items are able to be fixed, the volunteers use the best of their resources to test and problem solve whatever you bring to them. While X-Ray visited one volunteer was making parts using a 3D-printer, they explained that this technology has really helped them repair items that before, would have been thrown out, as it was too expensive to buy the spare part.聽 The volunteers also go above and beyond to try and fix the items. One woman told us that one of the volunteers was going to take her item away and get specialist glue in order for her product to be fixed.

Lucy Owen spoke to Cerys Jones one of the founders of Repair Caf茅 Wales who said 鈥淚 basically saw a social media post a couple of years ago from an individual who had seen the idea, which came out of Holland in 2009, about repair cafes. Went looking into it, and realising that actually people fixed things for free, people share skills. It brings the community together.鈥�

You can find out more about Repair Cafes and their locations on their website

Heart attack victim Geraint Jones had been out of hospital just six weeks when an old friend visited his home in Caernarfon.聽 A few hours later, while he slept, he received a text from his bank, Santander, warning him of unusual activity on his account. As soon as he woke and saw the texts, he rang the bank. The 54-year-old was horrified to discover his bank account had been drained of more than 拢3,000 鈥� all his cash.

The money had been spent in a matter of hours on gambling site Bet365. Geraint believes that when he left the room for a short time his friend had copied the details on his bank card.

A total of 拢3,035 disappeared in 23 separate transactions. Every penny in Geraint鈥檚 bank account had been stolen and gambled away. Geraint was left devastated.

鈥淚t was just a bomb in my life,鈥� he said. He was left struggling to get by on just 拢70 a week.

Geraint said: 鈥淚n less than two hours, my whole life changed.鈥� He says he was forced to borrow money from his family. Geraint had to return to work three months after his heart attack because of his financial problems 鈥搕hree months earlier than doctors had advised. The police did arrest a suspect and a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, but the case was closed due to a lack of evidence.

When X-Ray got in touch with Geraint鈥檚 bank, Santander, it said it was conducting an internal investigation. The bank later confirmed that they would refund Geraint鈥檚 money.