News Advertising scam victims to receive compensation Forty-fivevictims in a multimillion pound advertising fraud case are to receive compensation, following court action led by Nottinghamshire Trading Standards. Nine directors of Derby-based Wyvern Media have been ordered to pay 163,390.38 in compensation to their victims, who will receive between 50 and 31,000 part of 1.6m confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The remaining money will be paid to the government, the courts and National Trading Standards (NTS) for use in further criminal investigations. Wyvern Media employed around 250 people, and had approximately 18,000 customers per year and an annual turnover of 7m. The criminal investigation into the company was the largest ever led by the NTS Regional Investigations Team (East Midlands), which is hosted by Nottinghamshire County Council and funded by NTS. Managing director Jonathan Louis Rivers, from Coleshill, Birmingham, received the largest order of 1.2m earlier this year for his part in the operation. The latest confiscation order of 114,494 was handed to publication director Joanne Soen, from Slough, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. It will have to be paid within a three-month period, otherwise she faces a default prison sentence of 12 months. Gordon Wheeler, vice-chairman of Nottinghamshire County Councils community and place committee, said: This compensation will, hopefully, help the victims to rebuild their lives and is extra punishment for the leading figures, whose greed led them to deceive and harass individuals on a huge scale. James Delaney, manager of the NTS Regional Investigations Team (East Midlands), said: Some victims lost their homes and businesses over their involvement with Wyvern Media, and this result goes some way to helping them to rebuild their lives. See the July 2017 edition of TS Review for a full feature on the case. online retailer fined for false advertising online as being made of goodquality leather, it smelled of plastic, rather than leather. Trading standards officers visited the business premises, in Baird Court, Northampton, where they found that labels inside the wallets stating that they were, in fact, made from PVC had been cut out before sale. The company admitted two charges relating to unfair trading at Northampton Magistrates Court. It was fined 3,000, and ordered to pay legal costs of 1,960 and a victim surcharge of 120. ISToCk.Com / NIColA fErrArI An online retailer has been fined more than 5,000 after admitting to selling wallets falsely advertised as genuine leather. Northamptonshire Trading Standards began investigating PGS Gifts Ltd, of Wellingborough, after a number of test purchases of the wallets were analysed by the British Leather Technology Centre and found not to be genuine leather. Officers were also made aware of a customer complaint about a wallet that had been bought as a gift. The customer reported that, despite the item being described Camden wins appeal against lettings agencys admin fees Camden Council has successfully appealed against Foxtons Ltd using the term administration fees in its letting agency work, leading to a penalty charge totalling 18,000. In 2015, Camden Trading Standards officers (TSOs) undertook enforcement action after establishing that Foxtons was charging an administration fee of 420 for tenants and landlords in its lettings agency work. The council advised Foxtons about its new legal requirements under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to provide a breakdown of fees that enable customers to clearly see the services provided. The company, however, continued to use the term without undertaking thisclarification. In early 2016, TSOs issued four Notices of Intent each for the maximum penalty of 5,000 to Foxtons for using the term without the required clarification. The company responded that it had modified its literature to explain that the fees can cover certain services, but still failed to explicitly state the full breakdown of the fee. The council considered that this did not provide sufficient clarity and issued four Final Penalty Charge notices in April 2016. Foxtons appealed these notices to the First Tier Tribunal of the General Regulatory Chamber in October 2016. The judge decided that, when the council served its final notices, Foxtons had revised its literature to explain a number of the services provided, and consequently each penalty charge notice was reduced to 3,000. The council decided to appeal to the Upper Tier Tribunal in June 2017, because it considered that the First Tier Tribunals decision did not give clarity to those using letting agents. It also felt that Foxtons was still not giving an adequate description of the services provided by its administration fees. The Upper Tribunal stated that the First Tier Tribunal had failed to consider what services the administration fee might not cover and revised the penalty charge notices to 4,500 for each breach. Pat Callaghan, cabinet member for housing at Camden, said: This judgment gives clarity to TSOs nationally when enforcing fees, and helps to ensure the marketplace is consistent for all letting agents and their prospective clients. Takeaway death sparks allergen advice project New advice on allergens is being launched by Warwickshire Trading Standards and the district and borough councils environmental health teams. This follows a Warwickshire Trading Standards food safety project, which revealed that some Indian, Chinese, Italian and fish-and-chip takeaways were failing to adequately warn consumers about potentially dangerous allergens in their meals. The project was prompted by the death of a takeaway customer in North Yorkshire, who suffered a fatal anaphylactic shock after eating a curry containing peanuts. The owner had claimed the product was nutfree, and was subsequently jailed for six years. Trading standards officers visited 18 takeaways across Warwickshire and discovered that some owners were not preventing cross-contamination. They were also unable to supply accurate information to customers about what allergens were in their meals or tell them where allergenic information could be found. Further information on allergens can be obtained by visiting the Food Standards agency website.