Neath based Company Director jailed!

A director of a Neath based company has been jailed and another made the subject of a community service order after a Neath Port Talbot Trading Standards Investigation found that they had misled elderly and vulnerable consumers over the Government’s Green Deal initiative.

The scheme involves the consumer taking out what is in effect a loan. The householder must pay the cost of the measures back over time via the energy bill attached to the property.

The Pearts and their companies acted as ‘introducers’ to the Green Deal scheme from their premises at 34 Alfred Street, Neath.  However, their organisation persistently and deliberately mis-described the workings of the scheme.

Consumers were falsely led to believe that the work being done under the scheme was free.  The consumer was often then given false information that the Surveyor attending their property would charge £360 for doing so.

In fact, the defendant’s hired a Surveyor who charged £100-£120, and the company pocketed the difference.

Consumers would also be charged VAT, despite the fact that none of the businesses operated by the Pearts were VAT registered. They were also not told that the scheme involved the securing of the amount against their property, potentially affecting its resale value.

Money would be taken from consumer’s accounts, despite promises not to do so.  When consumers complained or sought to cancel, the defendant’s rarely responded, even more rarely would the consumer receive a refund.

After a long and complex investigation by Neath Port Talbot Trading Standards Service, including the taking of 48 witness statements, the defendants pleaded guilty to offences under the Companies Act 2006 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.  On 15th June at Swansea Crown Court, Vaughan Peart was sentenced to 6 months in prison and David Peart received a 12 month community sentence with an unpaid work requirement of 120 hours.