Rogue Traders (TV series)

Rogue Traders was a prime-time BBC One presenter-led investigative consumer affairs television series starring Matt Allwright, an investigative journalist and presenter and his side-kick, Dan Penteado who also works as a private investigator around Europe and the UK. Rogue Traders began in 2001 and has run for nine series on BBC One.^[1] Allwright and Penteado film and script much of the series themselves, resulting in an improvised, 'on the hoof' feel to the show. An occasional catchphrase used during the show is "We never give up."

The programme exposes dubious working practices of tradesmen such as double-glazing salesmen, second-hand car dealers, gas fitters, mechanics, roofers, plumbers and domestic rubbish collectors.

Since 10 September 2009, a new one-hour revamp of the consumer-affairs programme Watchdog began airing, incorporating Rogue Traders as a segment of the show.

Formula

The pair secretly film unscrupulous door-to-door tradesmen and salesmen using hidden cameras and actors playing the "victim" (often elderly widows) and then use their evidence to confront them at the end of the programme. They usually use an honest tradesman to provide expert knowledge. Using this technique the programme has "named and shamed" many businesses and individuals who had previously evaded sanction.

Among others, they have investigated the dubious working practices of double-glazing companies, second-hand car dealers, gas fitters, mechanics, roofers, plumbers and domestic rubbish collectors.^[2]

Allwright and Penteado originally used a Honda Super Blackbird motorcycle to travel from one place to another, and they are usually wearing biking leathers throughout the programme. The bike has now been changed to a Kawasaki ZZR1400.

In the fourth series, Allwright upped the stakes by using a disguise, being made up as a seventy-year-old Welsh man, Roger. He therefore fooled the "rogues" that he was Roger for some time before revealing his true identity. From the fifth series onwards, Matt Allwright has gone one step further and now has a choice of disguises. He can be made up into 22 year-old rocker Joe, middle aged eco-warrior Bob, the elderly Stan, or Jimmy, a "non-specific Eastern European builder".

On 2 August 2008, a six-part spin-off show was launched called Rogue Restaurants, where Matt Allwright and Anita Rani investigate and secretly film restaurants across the UK in order to expose illegal and dangerous practices by restaurant managers and staff. They were accompanied by Dr Lisa Ackerley, a Food Safety Expert who was able to give an expert opinion to Matt and Anita.^[3]

Arrest of Dan Penteado

On 13 June 2012, Dan Penteado was due in court to face charges of illegally claiming housing and council tax benefit after a council benefit officer had recognised Penteado on television and matched his name to their records. He failed to appear in court and a warrant for his arrest was issued.^[4] He later appeared in Bournemouth Magistrates' Court on 25 June, where his solicitor, Terrence Scanlan argued the fraud took place between 2008 to 2012 when he was working part-time for the BBC and had made the "very poor judgment not to interrupt the flow of housing benefit".^[5] He admitted eight offences of dishonestly or knowingly claiming housing and council tax benefits totaling more than £24,000, while he had been paid more than £56,000 for his work on Rogue Traders from 2008 to 2011^[6] and was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison on 17 July 2012.^[7] The council bringing the case to court sought to recover the overpayments and was successful, with Penteado having subsequently repaid £210 of this by July.^[8][9]

A statement released from the BBC afterwards ended his work on Watchdog "In light of the prosecution, Dan Penteado will not be returning to Rogue Traders."^[10]

See also

• Watchdog

References

External links

• Rogue Traders at BBC Programmes