All language subtitles for Wonka.The.Scandal.That.Rocked.Britain.2024.1080p.WEB.H264-CBFM

SOBBING: This is what I wanted,
and this is what I got.

Willy's Chocolate Factory in Glasgow
failed miserably.

This is... This is illegal.

This is illegal,
what youse are doing.

NARRATOR: It was billed as
the ultimate Wonka-like experience.

A golden ticket
to a world of pure imagination,

just like in the movies.

But the reality was a horror show.

We're just like... what?

So, where's all this
Willy Wonka stuff?

I felt like
it was an abandoned place.

Oh, look, it's the chocolate river!

And it's just a sheet
of brown flooring

with some patterns on it.

This is where dreams went to die.

We didn't get any sweets,
no, we didn't get any chocolate,

and we certainly didn't get
an "everlasting gobstopper".

It's a scam.
You've scammed children.

The police were called.
It was... It got pretty serious.

The story gripped the country...

It seems the Chancellor's
been taking lessons on marketing

from the Willy Wonka Experience
in Glasgow.

..then blew up across the world...

Some angry parents and kids
were left with a sour taste...

When they found this, basically,
a big empty warehouse

with, um, vinyl backdrops
tacked to the wall.

..and broke the internet.

I am the viral Oompa Loompa meme.

Now, for the first time,
the man responsible for the chaos

gives his side of the story.

I'm not a scam artist,

I'm not a con man,
I'm not anything like that.

So who, or what, is to blame?

Clearly, AI has played
an important part in this process.

How does it compare
to other infamous events?

BLEEPING

And just how serious could
the fall-out be for Wonka-gate?

Could be fraud, and then
we're talking criminal behaviour.

This is the real story behind
the scandal that rocked Britain.

I was one of the actors, so I can
tell you everything that went on.

We didn't have any preparation,

there's no rehearsals,
there's no nothing.

I feel...

that people are owed an explanation.

So, Jude is seven, he's my son.

He's kind of developed
a bit of a special interest

in all things Wonka.

He was asking
to visit Wonka's factory.

D'youse want a treat?
Close your eyes.

No peeking.

So I thought, "Do you know what,
I'm actually gonna get tickets

"and take the kids along."

Wonka bar!

Made up Wonka bars,

got golden tickets inside them,

gave them to the kids,

let them open them
and find the golden tickets.

What does it say?
Let's see, let's see.

"Please present this golden ticket

"at the gates to the Willy Wonka
Chocolate Factory Experience

"on Saturday 24th February

"at 10:30am."

How good is that? Whoo!

I can't wait to go to the factory.

We have two kids - a boy who's five
and a girl who is seven.

Told them they were going to
the chocolate factory,

they're going to meet Wonka,
it would blow our socks off,

and this was going to be
something spectacular.

Jensen had been
to see the Willy Wonka a few times,

and he was just obsessed
with Willy Wonka.

So I thought,

"Let's surprise him
with some tickets."

You were excited, weren't you?
Mm-hm.

Coming up
for my daughter's 18th birthday,

and she's a big fan
of Willy Wonka,

as most kids are.

I thought that would be
an amazing way to, you know,

kick-start her birthday.

Drawing all these families in
is an impressive website,

promising an exhilarating
immersive event.

But it is not linked with
the official Willy Wonka brand.

Over 800 tickets are sold
at £35 a head.

"A serial journey
where boundaries between reality

"and fantasy harmoniously merge."

"Mysterious looking sculptures,"

I mean, it sounds fantastic,
doesn't it?

"Enigmatic sounds
and surprising turns

"that will immerse you in suspense
and excitement."

"Brace yourself for an adventure
that will leave you spellbound."

But this website isn't the work

of a brilliant
digital marketing agency...

These are clearly
computer-generated images.

We're seeing something
that looks really impressive.

The organiser did it all using AI.

And you can create a picture
by just typing in some words.

So, I'm going to ask it to generate

a blonde woman advertising shampoo.

Within seconds, it's generated
this pretty glamorous image.

But these AI images
are promising a lot more

than just a hair-cleaning product.

Did this guy think he was going to
create an event of this level?

People expect more now when
they go to these kind of events.

You think of Disneyland
or Harry Potter experiences.

People want that bit more.

Just a few days before
the doors opened to the public,

a casting call goes out,

requesting actors
to take part in the event,

from a mysterious company
called House Of Illuminati.

I needed to get a job.

I'm thinking to myself,
"You know what?

"I would be a great actor
if I really, really tried."

It seemed pretty legit.

All I needed to do
was I sent in my CV.

There was no auditioning,
which was really strange,

but I was one of the lucky few
to get through. Ha-ha!

Another first-timer out to land
a role is 16-year-old Felicia.

I've never done
paid acting before,

and I thought
I could finally get myself out there

and do something that I really love.

I was so, so happy about it,
and I was telling my friends.

It's now just one day
before the doors open to the public.

And the actors are called
to the location for the first time.

I look around,
it's a massive drab, grey warehouse.

There's, like, random props that
are just scattered about the place.

I was like,
"Where is the theatre stage?"

I expected it to be this really big,
grand thing,

with loads of props and all this
amazing sweets and stuff.

There was, like, a couple of props
in the warehouse itself,

but barely anything was there.

At this point, I was like...

"This is opening tomorrow morning."

I get my script,

and it's 15 pages of AI gibberish,

and I'm given 15 hours,
including my sleep,

just to memorise the script
for the concurring Saturday.

Trying to learn over the lines
and look at it,

and it's 15 pages
of basically pure monologue.

I was like,
"I can't learn this in a night."

I was kind of panicking,
and I was talking to my mum,

and she was like, "You can do it!"
I was like, "I can't."

The night before,
the kids are going to bed.

They've been counting down
the sleeps.

"Just one more sleep
to Wonka's factory."

You're tucking them in,

you're saying,
"Right, you need to stay in bed,

"go straight to sleep."

We're drawing, like, pictures
to give to Willy Wonka and stuff.

Like, we were all really excited,

like, singing Willy Wonka songs,
and...

Yeah, it was... it was a vibe.

Back at the venue,
the actors are getting stage fright.

We didn't have any preparation,
there's no rehearsals,

there's no nothing,
so I was really, really nervous.

Me and mum were like... "Oh, God."

GROANS
It wasn't gonna turn out well.

The place looked like
where dreams went to die.

Well,
I don't really know him personally.

I just kind of know of him.

Billy Coull, he's...
I don't know much about him.

I just know he's a bit of a...

The only way I can describe Billy...

erm, fascinating man.

Now the plot really does thicken.

Now, in a world first...

CLAPS

..the man behind the event
speaks out.

My name is Billy Coull,

and I'm responsible

for Willy's Chocolate Experience
in Glasgow.

I feel...

..that people are owed

an explanation.

Willy's Chocolate Experience
promised immersion

in a wonderful Wonka-like world.

"A serial journey between reality
and fantasy."

It sounds fantastic, doesn't it?

It was going to be a mind-blowing,
immersive event.

But it became a scandal
that shocked the world.

Some angry parents and kids
were left with a sour taste.

It's a scam,
you've scammed children.

In Glasgow, it's the opening day
of the Chocolate Experience.

For actors Michael and Felicia,

it's the first time
they see the finished set.

I was a nervous wreck,

and then when we walked in,
we seen, like, the finished product,

and I was like, "Oh, my gosh."

There was not much there at all.

It was just too big of a space,

it looked really bare,
and it looked really bad.

The whole place
was really, like, barren,

and it's a massive,
drab, grey, warehouse.

I got given the costume.

It was just the mask
and a black cloak, and that was it.

and I was like, "What?"

The physical side of the costume,
it was drab,

it was really bad fabrics.

All I had was a jacket,

a really sad plastic cane
and a top hat.

Over 800 tickets,
costing up to £35 each,

have been sold for the event.

We get to the Box Hub Warehouse,

and there's this huge queue
down the street.

The kids are so excited,

you know, and there is,
there's a buzz about the place.

And the queue was still growing.

The queue was growing
while we were in it,

and it added to the anticipation

of getting in here
and the excitement and stuff.

So, we're all going in,
go up these stairs,

we get to the top of the stairs,

and then...

we're just like... "What is this?"

It's a practically empty warehouse.

It didn't feel magical.

You could look up and you could see
the rafters above us,

like, you could see
it was a warehouse.

What did you think
when you walked in?

I felt like it was
an abandoned place.

We get taken up to this
sort of, like, waiting area

with benches and things.

There's the chocolate factory gates.

You can see through the gates.

You can see how awful it is.

It was partitioned off,

but we could see it wasn't really
going to be as expected

once we get into the gate.

Beautiful, wonderful,
fantastic and magical.

It's not any ordinary chocolate.

This right here...

Before the gates can open,
it's like,

"Welcome, this is
the Garden of Enchantment,"

and then I'm like "Has anyone
brought an extra pair of socks?

"Oh-ho-ho, because your socks
might get knocked off."

An extra pair of socks?

Put your hand down, you don't have
an extra pair of socks.

Willy Wonka was saying something,
but we couldn't hear anything.

Ugh, it was ridiculous.

Willy Wonka opened the gates,

there was really, honestly,
nothing there.

It's like, "So, yes," you know,

"wander round my Enchanted Garden."

There's like,
maybe like a four-foot flower

and toadstool, mushroom.

That's basically it.

Oh, look, it's a chocolate river.

There's, like, the little bridge
going over the chocolate river,

the cardboard chocolate river.

It was, you know, laughable.

To be fair, some of the props
and the bridge, they were decent,

you sort of got the sense that in a
smaller space with better lighting,

there could have been something
salvageable from this event.

The factory itself
just didn't lend itself well

to what we were sold.

WILLY WONKA: And now give me
a nice big reaction for the camera.

Three, two, one...

So, Jude is my son. He has autism.

Kids with autism tend to sort of
feed off other people's reactions,

especially kind of
in social situations,

you know, they look to their peers
and their grown-ups for cues,

as to, you know,
"How should I react here?"

You don't want them to see
that you're angry or upset.

It's almost as if you're trying
to kind of tell yourself

you're having a good time.

So they were smiling, but when
I look back on the pictures...

..I think you can see
that they're disappointed.

Possibly inspired by
the iconic Chocolate Riverboat ride

in the original 1971 film,

after the Garden of Enchantment
is the Twilight Tunnel.

It's meant to be this tunnel
that's full of twilight, but...

it was a black-and-white striped
hallway thing.

It's essentially just...

you know, a...

a 12-foot, if that?

It's just really sad curtain drapes
all over the place, with mirrors.

And then there's
this creepy creature

who we now know as The Unknown.

The only direction I was told
was to be creepy.

At first, I thought,
"This is gonna be terrifying

"to little five-year-olds."

ACTOR: Oh, my gosh, what is that?

It's The Unknown!

CHILD MOANS: No...

This guy
just popped out of the mirror,

and then I just...

You jumped out your skin.
I jumped out my skin.

You did.
SHE LAUGHS

Kids ran off everywhere.
There was tears.

Erm, no-one really knew
what was happening.

And I'm thinking,
"This is terrifying."

My line for The Unknown is:

"Hm! And I feel a sight chill
in the air."

And then, all of a sudden,

The Unknown pops out
from behind this mirror.

These kids are like...
HE GASPS

Like, "What just happened?!"

Because this isn't
what they were expecting AT ALL.

At first, I was just
trying to have fun with it.

I was like, "I'm here now,

"may as well just
try and do the best I can,

"give a performance to the people
that paid to come here."

But some people were like,
"What is going on here?"

Some people were scared,
some of the children were crying,

and I was like,
"That wasn't my intention!"

I felt so, so bad for it.

And then I'm like,
"But worry not, my dear children!

"With the power
of creativity and imagination,

"we can overcome any barriers."

And then I go through the doors,
and I'm like,

"The Imagination Lab!"

Some kids just ran out
into this other area,

which is, you know,
the Oompa-Loompa meth lab.

There's a table with a few
test tubes of jelly beans.

The Wonkidoodles,
or Oompa-Loompa-type characters,

are being played by Kirsty Paterson
and Jenny Fogarty.

After the event,
they went on breakfast television,

where Kirsty gave
an interesting insight

into her thought process
during the experience.

The other actors were amazing,
and...

I didn't want to let them down.

But then I started seeing
the kids coming in,

and they were all dressed up,
and they were all so cute,

and I didn't wanna
let them down, I just didn't.

So I did, like, cartwheels,
I was happy, I was...

I just like to make the best
of any situation.

We thought that there was going to
be an experiment, or something.

But basically, walked through,
got a jelly baby.

They'd been told, you know,
one jelly bean per kid.

So the kids went over
and got a jelly bean in their hand.

There you go!

Some kids didn't get any sweets
at all,

and then, on another table,

plastic cups of lemonade.

I'm talking one eighth
of a cup of lemonade.

There was just
literally so little of it.

It was that bad, it was funny.

We came through to the next part,
which was...

took us back to where we started,
and that was the...

the complete experience
of Willy's Chocolate Experience.

All the adults
were kinda giving each other

that sort of look,
as if to say, "What is this?!"

You know,
you're standing there thinking,

"Have I just paid 35 quid a head
for this?

"I mean, are you being serious?"

You know,
"Beyond your wildest imagination"?

Really?!

It's rubbish.

And I'm, literally, I'm livid.

I'm absolutely livid
at how terrible this has been.

WOMAN 1: There's literally nothing.

WOMAN 2: Smallest bouncy castle
in the world.

People... At first,
they were just like, "Ugh."

Just a bit weirded out. But...

after that, they were getting
really, really angry.

WOMAN: Paid £40 a ticket for this.

What a waste of money.

Babies were crying.
No-one was having a good time.

And you could really tell
these people were mad.

The event was organised by a company
called House of Illuminati.

Set up and run
by a man named Billy Coull.

He hasn't given
his side of the story...

until now.

Billy isn't getting paid
to appear in this film.

The first couple of run-throughs,
there had been no complaints.

People were enjoying
their experience.

I believed that everything
was going to go smoothly.

It started going wrong when...

I had been approached
by a very angry parent.

Before I knew it,

it was just absolute chaos,
absolute nightmare.

WOMAN SPEAKING ANGRILY

I did not even see
where the anger had come from,

from one person complaining

to three, four, five.

MAN: So, what's your name?

Sorry, I think...
I don't care.

We've paid money.
So, what's your name?

And before long, I was engulfed
with angry parents.

You're here to represent a company

that's taken money off parents,
grandparents, for children.

It was more like
a mob type of mentality.

You've scammed children.

It was absolute carnage.

At that point, I said,
"OK, enough's enough.

"We have to shut this down."

Billy's concerns began
before the doors even opened.

The venue itself was too large
for what I had wanted to do.

At the time,
although I wasn't happy with it,

I thought that it wouldn't
make that big of an impact.

Billy claims key visual equipment
for the event wasn't delivered.

We use projection systems,

and it creates
a fully immersive space.

However, it didn't arrive.

I was gutted.

But I believed
that we could push on.

He has also been criticised for
using AI to generate the script.

The script itself was created
and written by myself.

However, let me be
very, very clear on this matter.

I suffer with dyslexia
and had run it through AI

to be able to check spelling,
grammar, and continuity.

The event may have closed early,

but things for Billy
are about to get a whole lot worse.

The police were called.
It got pretty serious.

It just went global phenomenon
overnight.

I don't know how it got this big,
I really don't.

It's, like, Willy Wonka,
and then it's angry Scots.

You can't mix all of these together

and not expect, like,
some nuclear bomb to happen.

In Glasgow,
the amazing Wonka-like world

that Willy's Chocolate Experience
promised

has turned out to be
pure imagination.

Just a few hours
after first opening,

the event is shut down.

We arrived at the event
all excited,

to be told at the door
that we were not getting in.

"What do you mean,
it's gonna be cancelled?

"We've paid for this,
we've travelled."

I was quite annoyed.
It's the start of my 18th.

I'm excited, I'm all dressed up,
glitz and glam.

You don't expect to pay £35 a ticket

to be told at the door
you're not getting in.

Event organiser Billy Coull takes
the decision to cancel the event.

The last thing that I wanted to see

was children being upset by,
you know, frustrated parents.

Inside, the actors claim
they are the last to know.

I realised,
when people did start coming in

in little straggles,
that's when I knew

something's been said,
or something...

That's... That's when I realised.

Security guards
are coming around to us.

Is everything OK?

Both of them are like,
"We're getting told

"to shut this place down. We're
supposed to take these people out."

MAN: This is crazy.

One of the organisers just shouted,
"Shut down, shut down!"

And then...

we, as actors,
we all just, like, got up,

went to a little corner,
discussed what was going on,

And then they came up to us,
like, "We're shut down."

We didn't get any sweets, no.
We didn't get any chocolate.

We certainly didn't get
an everlasting gobstopper!

The actors are faced with
breaking the news of the closure

to the upset parents.

We were all
in this whole thing together.

And it was just about
making that clear

to these parents, to these kids,

and making sure that they knew

that we really did try our best
for the day.

We couldn't actually
do anything more than what we did

with what we were given.

Despite the actors' best efforts,

there's little they can do
to console their younger guests.

You just don't do that to children.

There were kids
that were blatantly upset.

To see all these kids crying...

Everyone was really angry.

Outside, more ticketholders
are arriving.

More families and more cars started
to park and approach the building,

getting sent away again.

Emotion was starting to build
as people were turned away.

MAN: You've scammed children.

At this point, a few of the parents
were really upset,

you know,
were saying that it was a scam.

Where is all the stuff

the kids were supposed to be seeing
in the first place?

Lots of angry parents
kicking up a stink about...

the event being cancelled.

WOMAN: Don't walk away, then!

Almost a mob mentality
at that point because

everyone's in their little clusters
saying, "I've paid money for this!"

We paid money. So, what's your name?
Right, there's children here.

And people were firing questions
at the organiser

and weren't getting much response.

Taking money off parents,
grandparents.

The organiser, I think,
tried to talk back to people,

but his voice was completely gone
by this point.

As I said, we're going to issue
full refunds as of Monday morning.

I have.

So, the House of Illuminati
guarantees...

The House of Illuminati tells lies.

I was fearful
because I'm not confrontational,

I don't deal well
in those sort of situations.

So youse are a fake.
No. Youse are a fake.

That's why you don't advertise
exactly what the thing is about.

It shows me as somebody who's...

not compassionate, who doesn't care.

Full refunds as from Monday morning.

It shows the worst version
of myself.

But this isn't the first time

35-year-old Billy Coull
has faced controversy.

In 2021, Billy was criticised for
cancelling a Santa's grotto event

after toys and gifts for children
had been donated.

I was involved in a charity.

The charity's sole purpose was to
help with the Santa's grotto event.

Which had to be cancelled
as a result of...

a local Corona increase.

By no means
was this supposed to be a scam.

Every person got their presents
from Santa.

Billy wound down the charity
in 2022.

Also that year,

Billy attempted to win a seat in
the Glasgow City Council elections.

What I was seeing, I...

People who had been
asking for change.

I believed that I could do that.

But what I learnt from that

was there was always somebody

going to be looking
to stab me in the back.

Billy is also an author,
publishing 17 books in a year.

Which some claim were written by AI.

I used AI for the purposes
of helping with

grammar, spelling
and, you know, continuity,

as a result of dyslexia.

He fits into a long tradition
of showmen and hucksters

who have just got overexcited
at what they're trying to achieve.

For his Willy's Chocolate Experience
event,

Billy had set his sights high.

I was hoping for an event

that would be joyful, happy.

I wanted people
to experience happiness.

It's families,
and children were crying.

And the police were called.
It was... It got pretty serious.

MAN: I'm gonnae call the police.

The police did arrive.

FELICIA: There's this mob outside
the doors, screaming to get in.

There was police cars.

We're like, "How did this happen
in the span of two hours?"

Some of the other parents
were explaining,

"Oh, yeah, this is...
We're filing a complaint."

And I was like,
"Well, I was one of the actors,

"so I can tell you
about everything that went on."

In similar cases to this event,

organisers have faced
serious criminal charges.

On the 28th November 2008,

Lapland New Forest opened its doors
to excited families.

They billed it
as the next big thing.

Everyone was so excited about it.

50,000 people forked out
around £25 a ticket

to see "Hollywood special effects"
and a "magical tunnel of light"

in a place where
"dreams really do come true".

It was absolutely appalling.

I don't think I've ever been
somewhere quite so bad.

If you'd paid £5 to get in,
you think you'd paid too much.

The magical Tunnel of Light

was just a few fairy lights
strung up in some trees.

I didn't know I'd even gone through
it, until I said,

"Oh, there's the Tunnel of Lights.
Yeah, we've been through that."

This was the Nativity scene...

and the husky dogs
were in such a sorry state

that the RSPCA was called.

For the money,
it was absolutely appalling.

Just six days later,
Lapland New Forest closed its doors.

Tell you what, Santa's BLEEP dead!

Unsurprisingly, Trading Standards
received 2,000 complaints.

They took lots of people's money,
promising this magical experience.

If they take their money

and they don't deliver
what was promised -

and never intended
to deliver what was promised -

then that's outright fraud.

The organisers,
brothers Victor and Henry Mears,

were found guilty of eight charges
of misleading customers

and each sentenced
to 13 months in prison.

Although the sentence
was later quashed.

The judge made it clear
he thought they had no intention

of ever delivering
what they'd promised,

and the two men ended up in jail.

Back in Glasgow,

although the doors to Willy's
Chocolate Experience remained shut,

the event quickly finds a new life
online.

Within a couple of hours,
there was a Facebook group set up -

you know,
more of a survivors' group.

There was about 200 members
when I seen it.

I was like, "Oh, my gosh!"

The story starts getting shared
on social media.

TEARFUL WOMAN:
This is what I wanted, OK?

And this is what I got!

A few people actually said,

"I don't know what's worse -

"the experience
or the sound of that girl's voice."

And this is what I got!

The first time
I kind of clocked onto it

was when my friend messages me,
going,

"You popped up on my page."

So, this just popped up
on my For You page,

and it's gone absolutely,
like, viral. It's insane.

And I'm like, "Oh, no."

This is an experience
that was advertised.

And people showed up to this
with their children.

But they got this.

Even though you'd been to it,
you became quite obsessed about

what was the fallout and watching
everything happen on social.

Fantastic and magical!

Even Scottish actress Karen Gillan,

of Doctor Who and Marvel fame,
comments on it.

It was so memeable.

Willy's Chocolate Factory
in Glasgow

failed miserably,
and the results are hilarious.

There was a Willy Wonka event
that was so bad,

the police got called.

It's full of wondrous,
beautiful things.

Yes, those are my own shoes.

'A video of me gets posted.'

It's got two million views.

It's me saying some of
this AI-generated script.

And it was insane.

Show of hands, show of hands.

And then it keeps rolling,
keeps rolling, keeps rolling.

Hundreds of clips are racking up
millions and millions of views

across social media.

I woke up the next day,
and my phone had just erupted.

It promised to be
a magical chocolate experience.

And then the story
hits the mainstream media.

Police were called

to an immersive Willy Wonka
experience in Glasgow.

One parent even wrote on Facebook,

"Sold a dream
and delivered a nightmare."

Just had to laugh about it cos
no idea it was gonna be this big.

It was just wild.

It's mentioned in Parliament.

It seems the Chancellor
has been taking lessons on marketing

from the Willy Wonka Experience
in Glasgow.

LAUGHTER

Never in a million years did I think
that it would be on local news.

Alana...
Alana, sorry...

It wasn't a "world of imagination"
when you arrived.

What was it like?

Never mind international news!

Our first low goes to the
Willy Wonka-inspired event for kids.

Some angry parents and kids
were left with a sour taste.

What they found is basically
a big, empty warehouse

with, uh, vinyl backdrops
tacked to the wall.

The New York Times interviewed me.

You know, I mean, seriously?

Enraged parents,
they're calling it a rip-off.

And some even called the police
to complain.

The internet calling it
Willy Wonka's Fyre Fest.

I woke up one morning to see
ten different people ask me,

"Can I please get an interview
with you?

"I would love to hear
your side of the story."

NEWSREADER:
Oompa-Loompa dupety-duped?

There's almost a bit of privilege

in the fact that you were one of
the few that got to experience

the beautiful nightmare that was
Willy's Chocolate Experience.

But as the story grows,
so do the negative comments.

There's a lot of angry people
out there.

You know, there's a lot of people
with their kind of virtual...

pitchforks, and...

The most vicious comments
are aimed at event organiser Billy.

BILLY: It's not a nice feeling
to be under the microscope.

Hundreds.

And hundreds.

Calling me the most awful names.

"You look like a villain", or...

"The Devil", or...

saying that I'm a horrific dad,

that I'm better off dead,

I should kill myself.

My life has been turned upside down.

My life is... is ruined.

I genuinely hope he's OK.

And I genuinely do
kinda fear a bit

for his mental health
and his state of mind.

But as the dust settles,
Billy faces a new challenge.

I got some legal advice.

Do some form of civil lawsuit

to ensure that Mr Willy Scam Wonka,
whatever you want to call him,

will not be doing it again.

Since the 24th of February,

Glasgow has been at the centre
of this viral sensation.

Over the last few weeks, organiser
Billy Coull has been struggling.

I was...

devastated.

And I was regretful.

I was sick to the pit of my tummy.

I had a whole host of emotions.

Many of the visitors to Billy's
event are still out of pocket.

And some have spent a small fortune.

They were charging a lot of money
for the tickets.

It was £155 altogether.

I spent £165 on the seven tickets.

I mean, that could have
taken my kids

to somewhere like Alton Towers.

I just felt like I'd been scammed.

Like, I just felt like
I'd been robbed.

There was a lady,
and she came from Newcastle.

She'd actually booked a hotel
overnight.

That's an expense, for lots of kids.

You're booking a hotel,

and then the tickets,
and then the food...

You know, it's a lot of money.

On the day of the event,

Billy reassured everyone that
they would get their money back.

As I said, we are going to
start to issue full refunds

as from Monday morning. Thank you.

MAN: Right, so where's my guarantee?

I'm not a scam artist.

I'm not a conman.

I'm not anything like that.

We guarantee a full refund,
starting from Monday.

'I set up and did the transactions
individually.

'They're still ongoing.'

If people haven't received a refund,

I have gone through many emails

and said to people,

"Look, if you've not
had your refund yet,

"please contact your bank

"because they may have processes
in place to be able to help it."

MAN: Youse have scammed kids.

I have genuinely done what I can.

There are various
consumer protection laws

which would give you your right
to your money back.

And I think Willy
Chocolate Experience is covered

by the Consumer Rights Act of 2015,

which is,
it just was not fit for purpose.

It was not as described.

It was not of satisfactory quality.

I think that's pretty cut and dried.

Consumers were badly let down.

WOMAN: Paid £40 a ticket for this.

Billy did share a post

with a screenshot saying
there's been, like, you know,

800-something refunds processed
of 900-something.

But I think
if the money's not in the account

for when those go through, they're
not gonnae pass through, so...

So I don't think anyone's
got anything yet.

ACTOR: I'm glad to see
so many enthusiastic young...

Families featured in this film

say they're still waiting
to receive a refund from Billy.

I got some legal advice.
Hopefully we'll be able to,

you know,
do some form of civil lawsuit,

in some way, to recover the funds

and ensure that Mr Willy Scam Wonka,
whatever you want to call him,

will not be doing it again.

The fact that Billy Coull turned up

to his own
Willy's Chocolate Experience,

first of all,
suggests it's not a scam.

If he was a pure scam artist, he
would have taken the money and run,

and he would now be in Bermuda.

Er, and he's not. He's still
facing the music in Glasgow.

Billy claims
it was always his intention

for the event to be a success.

In my mind, it was the perfect venue

because it was
so industrial-looking,

and I believed the size was ideal.

The lights and technical stuff
that started to come in...

There was initially problems

with the electrical workings
at the venue.

I thought that we could
deal with the situation.

However, after all
the sort of stuff we put up,

it wasn't what I imagined.

The failure and fallout
of Willy's Chocolate Experience

has had a massive impact on Billy.

Because of everything
that had happened...

it... it ran into...

my personal life.

I have lost...

..a lot of my friends.
I've lost the love of my life.

I was made out to be
the face of all evil.

And genuinely,
that's really not the case.

Hello, it's me, Felicia,
AKA The Unknown...

In the aftermath of the event,
some of the performers

have decided to make the most
of their new-found fame.

If they have the right people
behind them,

they could stand
to make quite a lot of money

and have a lot of brand deals,
things like that.

I am here to do your personalised
videos and all your requests.

I got, like,
a DM a couple days ago,

saying if I'd be interested

in performing at the Clapham Grand
down in London.

It's... Oh, it's been
so, so wonderful.

That's the end of the Q&A,
but make sure to stay tuned

because there is
some exciting stuff!

ACTOR: Oh, a scary face!
MAN: Oh, my God.

WOMAN FILMING:
Oh, my God. This is terrible.

Glasgow's not known
for a lot of things,

and now it's known for
this whole scam experience,

and it's just insane.

Oh, look, it's the chocolate river!

I don't know how it got this big,
I really don't.

What a waste of money.

Poor wee Glasgow is on the map!
SHE LAUGHS

For the families who visited
the Chocolate Experience,

it's been an education.

100% would do
more kind of research into it,

but it would definitely
make me think twice about...

for one, licensed events.

Is it an official event?

The greater use
of AI-produced images

is causing problems for consumers.

AI is not just being used
to create the marketing,

but to market things better to us,
to get our attention better.

We, as people, are going to
have to start asking ourselves

what we should trust.

And that could end up meaning
that we don't really trust anything.

There is a rich, long tradition
of terrible events

put on by entertainers massively
out of their depth in the UK.

And we love them.
We love to laugh at them.

Britain being Britain,
as night follows day,

there WILL be another one.

Next Christmas, there will be
unhappy, miserable elves

fighting in Santa's Grotto,

and we will all laugh
and secretly love it.

If there's any justice,

the Willy Chocolate Experience
in Glasgow

would put an end to all of these
hubristic, terribly managed events.

But is this really
the end of the story

for Willy's Chocolate Experience?

Maybe not.

An online petition has been started,
demanding it reopen.

It currently has
over 7,000 signatures.

I think, in hindsight, I would
probably pay double for the ticket.

If they opened it tomorrow,
it would sell out.

People would fly in to be
part of this and experience it.

It's just become so big.