麻豆约拍

A family from Mountain Ash have been left with big problems in their new home after getting a survey that doesn鈥檛 seem to have been up to scratch.

Jeremy Rees Thomas is a surveyor based in Talbot Green and Bristol. He had glowing testimonials on his website that described him as a Chartered Building Engineer and Surveyor. 聽The only problem is that he was kicked out of the Chartered Institute of Building Engineers last year, and The Royal Society of Chartered Surveyors kicked him out in 2014.

Earlier this year he appeared at Merthyr Magistrates Court and was fined 拢2,500. He鈥檇 been telling people he was still a Chartered Surveyor and a member of the Chartered Institute of Building Engineers.

He isn鈥檛 able to call himself a chartered surveyor, but he is able to carry out surveys.

Paul Down and Eve Marshall went to Jeremy Rees Thomas to get a survey for the house they were buying in Mountain Ash. Their budget was tight and they agreed that if there were any issues with the house then they wouldn鈥檛 buy it.

Jeremy Thomas charged 拢450 for his report. It found no major problems and the couple were delighted. But a few days after moving in they discovered that all wasn鈥檛 quite as it seemed.

Eve said, 鈥淲e started to strip the wall paper and we found a lot of damp underneath it, a little bit of mould, kind of crumbly walls.鈥�

They contacted a local damp specialist who told them that the wall would need to be taken back to the stone to be re-tanked. He also said that the rendering on the outside of the house wasn鈥檛 up to par and that would also need replacing.

The couple were left in shock. Eve said: 鈥淲e never would have bought the house if we had known the extent of the damp.鈥�

Paul and Eve have spent all their money on a house which surveyor Jeremy Rees Thomas had told them was in "generally reasonable condition throughout."聽 He did warn in his report that damp can develop quickly, and pointed out other minor faults.

X-Ray brought in chartered surveyor Kevin Thomas to take a look at the house and Jeremy Thomas鈥� survey report.

He had quite a few concerns and told us: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot been missed that should have been looked at by any competent surveyor going through it in detail.鈥�

He cited the fact that the survey had not spotted that the house had a cellar. Jeremy Thomas鈥� report also said there was 鈥榥o sign of a problem鈥� with the electricity, but Kevin disagreed, telling us he felt there were serious issues with the electrics.

The report also found "no significant patches of hollowness" on the render on the outside walls.

But Kevin Thomas again disagreed, saying of one area of wall: 鈥淲ater is going to get in behind there and sink down.鈥�

Eve and Paul are now facing huge bills as a result of Jeremy Thomas鈥� surveying, having been quoted 拢15,000 to fix the problems.

Paul said: 鈥淚t's been a tough time since we have been in here just trying to deal with everything. You just find problem after problem.鈥�

And Eve added: 鈥淲e never had that kind of money in the first place. And we're stuck with it.鈥�

Jeremy Rees Thomas told us that he has professional indemnity insurance, and his insurers are now dealing with the complaint from Eve and Paul. He says he is a surveyor, has the necessary qualifications to carry out this work and has been doing it for 29 years. He says there is currently nothing misleading about the way he advertises his services, and says trading standards are happy with his website.

Buying a second hand car online can be a pretty daunting process, but one man from Pembroke has lost thousands of pounds when his dream purchase turned in to a nightmare.

Luca Trimarco found the car he wanted, an Audi A5, on Autotrader. He was then put in contact with the seller 鈥� someone calling themselves, Daniel Modric, and claiming to live near Thurso in Scotland.

They agreed a price of 拢5,700, after the seller sent Luca documents as proof of his identity. These included a driver鈥檚 license, passport and a VO5 car document. Daniel Modric then suggested Luca should buy the car through eBay because of its protection scheme and sent him a link to the page.

Luca explained, 鈥楾he eBay page I dealt with looked normal. It had the eBay sign in the corner.鈥�

The seller even promised to deliver the car from Scotland for free. All Luca had to do was to pay by direct bank transfer.

Two days later however, the car hadn鈥檛 arrived and Luca began to get concerned. He rang the delivery firm and was told that they don鈥檛 deliver cars, and that he had been scammed.

Luca said: 鈥業 was absolutely gutted. I just wanted to go home and cry in bed and be left alone.鈥�

X-Ray did some digging into the scammer claiming to be Daniel Modric. We began by contacting the address in Thurso shown on the driver鈥檚 license. But Daniel Modric was nowhere to be found.

Linda Bain鈥檚 son actually lives at the address. She told X-Ray that many people have come to her property looking for cars they believed they had purchased.

鈥楾here were five in total that we know about - who have travelled from London, Ireland, and Manchester,鈥� she said.

Leicestershire Police had also written to Linda鈥檚 address looking for Daniel Modric in connection with a motoring offence.

There鈥檚 no proof that the man in the photo is actually the scammer, or if his name is even Daniel Modric.

Dr Pete Burnap, an expert in cybercrime at Cardiff University, has looked at Luca鈥檚 case. 聽He examined the web page and explained how at first it looks like a real EBay sales page, but upon closer inspection he says there are signs that show it clearly isn鈥檛 genuine.

He says people need to look closely at the URL or domain and keep an eye out for spelling mistakes and random punctuation. Dr Burnap says you should also make sure the padlock appears in the top corner of the page to show the site is secure.

Unfortunately for Luca, he has been left out of pocket and without a car, with no trace of the person behind the scam聽