What's new at Trading Standards

March 2009

Car clocking scam

Following a lengthy investigation by Plymouth Trading Standards Officers a used car dealer who sold 'clocked' vehicles to wannabe taxi drivers has been jailed at Plymouth Crown Court.

Mark Constantine, who owns the Maritime Car Company of Woodland Terrace, Greenbank, pleaded guilty to 10 charges of applying a false trade description, and asked for 12 similar offences to be taken into account.

Part of Constantine's business was buying and selling cars, and between May 2006 and September 2007 he bought a number of vehicles, usually from auctions, altered the mileages and sold them through a rent-to-buy scheme.

He admitted mileages had been altered, often showing less than half their true mileage, but refused to say how it had been done or whether he had done it himself.

His customers were often people who wanted to be taxi-drivers, (often from the Czech Republic) but couldn't afford to buy a car outright or get normal credit.

He typically took the price of the road tax as a deposit and let them have the car for weekly payments of around £100 to £125, over a year. This meant they could start work immediately and pay for the car in instalments out of their takings.

In one example, a self-employed driver was sold a Citroen C5 with 46,000 miles on the clock for a total price of £6,665 - 52 weekly payments of £125 - though the cash price was £3,995.

The new owner became suspicious, did research on the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) website and discovered that the car had been bought by Constantine at an auction in Saltash for £1,750 with 118,471 miles on the clock.

Judge Ian Leeming QC said that in most of the cases the mileages had been 'grossly distorted', examples including a Mondeo clocked from nearly 96,000 miles to 48,000, a BMW 320 from 117,000 miles to 49,000.

Jailing Constantine for six months, he said: "These are serious offences of fraud."

A confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act will be held later this year.

Illegal money lending

A 68 year old man has been arrested by police following an investigation by experts in illegal money lending.

The man's home was raided by police and he was arrested after the investigation by the South West Illegal Money Lending Team, which is based in Bristol. A sniffer dog, trained to find cash, was also used at the address in Devonport, and officers from Plymouth City Council's Trading Standards department joined officers in searching the man's home. A quantity of money was seized, along with paperwork.

It is alleged the man allowed his money lending license to lapse last summer, but continued to loan money to others, in contravention of the Consumer Credit Act.

He was later interviewed and released without restrictions pending further inquiries.

Chef’s knife sold to 16 year old boy

Bargains Galore (UK) Limited trading as Gordon Bennett in Colin Campbell Court have been prosecuted by Plymouth City Council Trading Standards for selling a 30cm chef’s knife to a 16 year old boy.

The sale of the knife took place in an underage sale test purchasing exercise in August 2008 when 25 premises were visited.  

They pleaded guilty to the charge and in mitigation relied on the fact that they were not aware the law had changed and that they sold very few age restricted products and even fewer knives. They didn't make much profit on the sale of a knife and were not breaking the law with a view to profit. They said new signs had now been put up promoting the 'Think 25' strategy.

The Magistrates advised that they had considered what had been said by the company in mitigation, but still recognised the seriousness of the offence and its relevance to knife crime.

Therefore they imposed a fine of £1500 and ordered costs to be paid in the sum of £783.50 to be paid within 28 days.

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February 2009

Nationwide Scamnesty Campaign

Plymouth Trading Standards took part in a two week nationwide 'Scamnesty' campaign organised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) asking the public to help in the fight against scams which cost the UK an estimated £3.5 billion a year.

As part of Scams Awareness Month Plymouth City Council in partnership with over 80 other local authority Trading Standards Services, asked members of the public to collect any potential scam mailings they had recently received and drop them into designated 'Scamnesty' bins or boxes at public areas across the country.

Plymouth Trading Standards placed a designated bin in the reception area of the Civic Centre and encouraged residents to drop their mailings in it so that the letters can be collated and the information sent off to the OFT at the end of the campaign.

The mailings collected will be vital in helping us gather intelligence on the latest scams and in stopping the worst offenders from bringing misery to thousands of vulnerable people each year.

Counterfeit GHD hair straighteners

Plymouth Trading Standards Officers are warning residents to beware of dangerous counterfeit hair straighteners being offered for sale.

Several people have complained to Plymouth City Council's Trading Standards office about fake GHD hair-styling products which have been bought through internet auction sites or newspaper advertisements. Residents have reported straighteners which burned their hair, melted, smoked and made noises. The most recent complaint came from a Plymouth resident who responded to a newspaper advert for GHD Pink Stylers as a boxed set.

Authentic GHD hair straighteners are only available to purchase from approved stockists and retail at approximately £130. They are much sought after because of their rapid heating capability. The counterfeit straighteners are sold for around £80, sometimes less, and can appear genuine.

Trading Standards recommends that if Plymouth residents have made purchases of these products from a newspaper or the internet, they contact GHD by telephone on 0845 330 1133 and quote the hologram code to check if the product is genuine.

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Januaury 2009

Pornographic DVD’s

Sean Pool of Glenholt has pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Video Recordings Act.

Following a covert operation involving Trading Standards Officers from Plymouth City Council 1,800 pornographic DVDs and computer equipment were seized from his Plymouth address in January 2008.

He told the Court he obtained the pornographic films from an American company and made copies of them to sell by mail order. He advertised them in free publications and in adult magazines.

Customers called him on a mobile number and he would send them catalogues with up to 1,500 films on them. He was earning around £500 a week and probably made about £20,000 over the two years he ran the business.

Under the Video Recordings Act videos must be properly certificated. The DVDs were not certified for supply in the UK. Pornographic videos can only be supplied through a licensed sex shop and must not be supplied by mail order.

Poole was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and told to pay £500 towards court costs.

TV aerial installer fined

Following a complaint made to Plymouth Trading Standards a TV aerial installer has been fined for falsely stating his company had membership of industry organisations in advertisements placed in the Yellow Pages.

Paul Bellman who runs First 4 Aerials appeared before Plymouth magistrates charged with eight offences.

He was charged with making false statements that his company was a member of the Confederation of Aerial Industries (CAI) in January last year and displaying the organisation's logo in an advertisement in the Yellow Pages and on his website.

He also made statements he knew to be false, purporting the company was registered with the Registered Digital Installer Licencing Body and displayed the organisation's logo on his website. The company also showed the digital tick, implying that it had been assessed as able to install and fit digital aerials.

Bellman pleaded guilty to all the charges. The court heard he had applied for membership of the CAI in March 2007, but cancelled three times when the body contacted him to undergo inspections.

The Government is advising people to use registered installers in light of the impending digital switchover.

Bellman was fined £800 - £100 for each offence - and ordered to pay £700 towards the prosecution's costs and a £15 victim surcharge, making a total of £1,515.

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What was new - our activities from previous years

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