Former nurse Jacqueline Banks didn’t know what was happening when sheriff officers turned up at her home early in the morning.

“I had a knock at the door, and I thought they were police detectives and something had happened to a member of my family,” she says.

Instead, they were there to deliver legal threats from a care home operator for speaking out in a BBC documentary.

Sheriff officers enforce court orders and pursue debts on behalf of the court. They can also be hired by solicitors to deliver legal letters.

“They handed me this letter,” said Jacqueline. “I thought: ‘What the hell is this’?

“I was a bit scared to be honest. It was upsetting.”

Jacqueline, 70, from Denny near Falkirk, had spoken to the BBC about her aunt’s care at Oakeshott House in Stirling, which is run by Morar Living.

The care home operator says it never sought to prevent anyone from participating in the programme and that using sheriff officers was the most reliable way to deliver the letters.

Caitriona MacMillan, a former primary school teacher, died in Oakeshott House in 2023 after spending the final years of her life there.

The Care Inspectorate upheld eight complaints about her care.

In an interview for the documentary, Jacqueline said the problems with her aunt’s care were compounded by financial concerns after she died.

She told the BBC it took almost a year for her aunt’s deposit of £9,600 to be returned.

Caitriona’s family is one of 10 who say they had to wait months, and in some cases more than a year, to recoup refunds due to them or their late relatives at four Morar homes in Scotland.

The BBC contacted the care operator to seek a right of reply prior to broadcasting the documentary.

In order to allow the operator to respond fairly to a raft of care and financial allegations, we disclosed the names of the residents involved, with the families’ permission.

A week later, 10 families received letters, many via sheriff officers at their front doors.

After receiving the letter, Jacqueline says she sat at the kitchen table and read it over several times.

“I calmed down a wee bit and then I was really, really angry,” she said.

“It was intimidatory, disproportionate, and aggressive. I assumed that if you get sheriff officers at your door, there’s something gone badly wrong somewhere, that you are actually in the wrong, which I’m not.

“Everything I’ve done up to this point has been the truth. It made me more determined to see this through.”

The letter said the allegations were very serious.

“Not only do they infer that our client failed in its duty of care, but they also imply financial impropriety and indeed criminality,” it said.

“We are likely to be in contact with you further regarding these allegations in the event that they are broadcast and once our own enquiries are complete.”

The investigation, Cashing in on Care, was broadcast on Monday.

Families described how they had to instruct solicitors, threaten court action and, as in Jacqueline’s case, hire debt collectors to recoup money owed to them.

Victoria Hogg, whose husband Keith had been at Harbour House care home in Musselburgh, says she waited 18 months for £19,000 to be refunded by Morar.

She described receiving the letter, also delivered by sheriff officers at her front door, as “intimidating”.

“I was obviously shocked and surprised,” she said.

“You immediately feel as though you’ve done something wrong. But I absolutely haven’t. I’ve told the truth.

“I think they were trying to stop me taking part and I think that’s probably made me more determined.”

The letter from Morar said the allegations were “clearly very serious” and that “if they are broadcast, then they are likely to cause serious harm to our client”.

But Victoria said: “That’s not my problem.

“If they’d have behaved in an appropriate way in the first place, none of us would be in this situation.”

A spokesperson for the operator said it had written to the relatives “to address our legal and regulatory obligations regarding confidentiality and the handling of such sensitive personal medical information.

“We have a duty of care to ensure we have formal receipt of correspondence to confirm proof of consent to share such sensitive personal medical information,” it said.

“The short timeframe specified by the BBC required using sheriff officers as the most reliable way to achieve proof of receipt and protect the residents whom the contributors represented.

“Despite several inaccuracies throughout, it is very important to highlight that at no point did we ever seek to prevent anyone from participating in dialogue with the BBC or participating in the programme.”

The spokesperson also said it had submitted a formal complaint to the BBC about the documentary.

Morar denied residents faced unnecessary obstacles in getting their money back, and said:

“Before any refund can be issued, we must follow a process to ensure any funds are paid accurately and to the correct party.”

“We have a clear, written policy that explains each step, including the necessary legal checks needed to confirm that a third party is entitled to receive the funds.”

The care operator added that the “safety, dignity, wellbeing and care of our residents is always our absolute priority.”