The show focuses on investigating and exposing the dubious work practices of tradespeople and businesses who have received complaints against them from their customers, often through the use of hidden cameras and rigged situations, sometimes sending members of the show's research team undercover to secretly record any training methods taught to a business' employees that is suspicious or unethical.

For each episode of Rogue Traders, Allwright seeks to expose individuals who have come to the attention of the research team, usually for one or several reasons, including being unethical with sales, aggressively pursuing a customer for money, creating unnecessary work, selling something that is not wanted, or committing a criminal offence/breaking the law during a job.

In rare cases, traders may aggressively force the host and his camera team to leave, even intimidating them with the support of close friends.

[3] On 10 May 2009, a plan was announced by the BBC to relaunch Watchdog;[4] as part of the plans for the relaunch, it was decided that to extend the length of each episode to one hour, the format of Rogue Traders would be merged into the consumer programme, with both Allwright and Penteado retained to present it under the same name, with the former given the bonus of being a host alongside Anne Robinson and Anita Rani.

[5] He later appeared in Bournemouth Magistrates' Court on 25 June, where his solicitor, Terrence Scanlanm argued the fraud took place between 2008 and 2012 when he was working part-time for the BBC and had made the "very poor judgement not to interrupt the flow of housing benefit".

[6] He admitted eight offences of dishonestly or knowingly claiming housing and council tax benefits totalling more than £24,000, while he had been paid more than £56,000 for his work on Rogue Traders from 2008 to 2011[7] and was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison on 17 July 2012.

[8] 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.