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MERSEYSIDE FOOTBALL FANS URGED TO GET IN THE RUNNING FOR A RNID
GREAT NORTH RUN PLACE
RNID is
calling on football fans in Merseyside looking for an alternative
Saturday activity to put on their running shoes and make a dash for
one of the charity’s guaranteed Great North Run places.
The world’s biggest half marathon takes place on Sunday 5 October
2008. The charity’s places are available on a 1st-come, 1st-served
basis to prospective fundraisers who pay a £38 registration fee and
raise a minimum of £300.
Caroline Jupe, RNID Events & Community Fundraising Manager, says:-
“With the English football season ending, why not sign up for
RNID’s Great North Run team and make it your summer goal to get fit
and change the world for the UK’s nine million deaf and hard of
hearing people?”
Money raised by fundraisers pounding the 13-mile route from
Newcastle to South Shields will help fund RNID projects and services
that improve the everyday lives of deaf and hard of hearing people.
For more information about joining RNID’s team, contact Caroline
Jupe on telephone / textphone 0845 634 0687 (local rate) or email
events@rnid.org.uk.
Final call for debt recovery company
A Birkenhead-based company which
made a number of misrepresentations to induce clients to sign up for
a commercial debt recovery service has been wound up in the High
Court following an investigation by Companies Investigation Branch (CIB)
of the Insolvency Service.
Initial Credit Support Limited recruited client businesses by way of
telesales cold-calling, with each client paying an advance fee of up
to £750 for the service as well as a commission on any debts
successfully recovered. In persuading clients to sign up the company
claimed a success rate of close to 100% in debt recovery when, in
reality, it was only able to recover around 15% of client debts; it
wrongfully stated that charges paid for the service by clients would
be recovered from debtors when there was no basis for doing so; it
wrongfully stated that individual directors would be pursued for
corporate debts; and the company represented that it would refund
fees paid by clients if it was unable to recover debts, when no such
refund policy was operated.
Having solicited business on the basis of these misrepresentations,
Initial Credit Support Limited then retained and used as working
capital the monies it collected on behalf of its clients instead of
paying these over. The inadequate nature of the company's accounting
records meant that the true position could not be established, but
the company had received an income of at least £362,000 and had made
payments to clients totalling just £90,000.
In making the winding up order the Court held that Initial Credit
Support Limited had misled and acted against the interests of
clients and had used client funds in an inappropriate manner. |
NEW
LAWS MEAN ROGUE TRADERS HAVE NOWHERE TO HIDE
ROGUE traders
who dupe, pressurize and cheat the public will have nowhere to hide
now as the biggest shake-up to consumer law in decades gives
council trading standards teams tough new powers.
LACORS, which coordinates council trading standards work across the
UK, is warning scam artists, cowboy builders and doorstep criminals
that loopholes in the law which they have exploited in the past are
now closed for good. The Consumer Protection Regulations,
which replace many existing consumer protection laws as a result of
a Europe-wide shake up in trading practices, will apply to
businesses trading directly with consumers, from hoteliers and
builders to retailers and 2nd hand car dealers, and will for the 1st
time establish a catch-all duty for businesses not to trade
unfairly. The CPRs will also specifically ban 31 types of unfair
sales practices outright, including:-
* Bogus ‘closing down’ sales
* Prize draw scams
* Offering bogus free gifts
* Displaying false accreditations (such as wrongly claiming to be a
CORGI-registered plumber)
Practices that mislead the consumer will also be against the law,
such as false claims about a product’s effectiveness or failing to
reveal to a customer that a contract has to run for a minimum
period.
The new legislation will also make it against the law for aggressive
practices to be used. These include the hard, pressurized selling
tactics adopted by some doorstep traders who force customers to pay
cash immediately for home repairs or traders who insist on giving
customers a lift to the bank to withdraw money.
Businesses who do not comply with the new laws face a range of
penalties from a written warning to, in the worst cases, criminal
prosecution. Depending on the severity of the offence, these
penalties could include fines and lengthy prison sentences.
Cllr Geoffrey Theobald OBE, chairman of LACORS, said:-
“Councils are committed to putting local people first and will use
every tool in their arsenal to catch the rogue traders, cowboy
builders and doorstep sellers who prey on the vulnerable and the
elderly.
This shake-up represents the biggest change to consumer
protection laws in decades and gives councils new powers to crack
down on unfair and illegal tactics.
All consumers have the right to be treated fairly whether shopping
on the high street, at home, through a catalogue or online.
These
new regulations will help people feel safer and more secure when
making a purchase and make it much tougher for the small minority of
rogue traders who operate dishonestly.” |
