A trader who offering to clean householders' carpets in Devon and Cornwall for rock-bottom prices before hiking his charges by up to 5,400 per cent, has been sentenced for seven offences.
Last month, just before a three day trial was scheduled to start, Mark Dudley of Humber Road, Ferndown, changed his pleas to guilty on four offences under the Fraud Act and three offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.
This week Mr Dudley has been sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, and also to do 180 hours Community Service.
He was also ordered to pay compensation to his victims totalling £885 and contribute £3,000 to prosecution costs.
All the offences related to either dishonestly failing to disclose consumers' rights to cancel or inviting them to purchase the services at one price before substituting a different, vastly higher price – a practice known as "Bait and Switch".
Mr Dudley variously traded as MD Cleaning Services Limited, Compact Cleaning Services and Dudley Cleaning Services from addresses in Dorset in 2014.
The court heard that he travelled around the country including Devon, Somerset, Cornwall and Gloucester operating a carpet cleaning business.
Consumers were telephoned out of the blue with an offer to clean their carpets at a very low price of £20. But when Dudley came to call the offered price was not available and instead far higher prices of up to £1,100 were charged.
In one case Mr Dudley charged an elderly lady who had dementia around £400, even though her carpets had been cleaned the previous day by another trader.
Consumers were not adequately told of their rights to a "cooling off" period during which they could cancel the contract.
The court also heard that the work was not professionally done, with items of furniture not moved, while Dudley worked around them.
The Court said that the case crossed the custody threshold as Mr Dudley had been given advice by Trading Standards on trading rules on more than one occasion, but instead of complying had abused his victims' trust.
Protecting vulnerable consumers and cracking down on scams is a high priority for Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Service.
Cllr Roger Croad, Devon County Councils Cabinet Member with responsibility for Trading Standards said:
"This trader was more concerned with extracting as much money as he could out of his victims than actually cleaning their carpets.
"I'm pleased that thanks to the consumers being prepared to give evidence, we've been able to bring him to justice."
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