Swansea Trading Standards : Boss of Swansea call centre jailed

Rhodri Rees, 37 from Sandfields, Port Talbot, was the managing director of the Swansea company which traded under a number of names, including, HES Synergy Limited and HES Savings Audit Ltd.

The company dealt with Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims and promised thousands of pounds would be refunded to victims after paying an upfront fee.

Mr Rees appeared in Swansea Crown Court on Friday October 20 for sentencing, following a lengthy investigation by Swansea Council’s Trading Standards, who had gathered large amounts of evidence that was used to highlight the company’s illegal activity.

The fraudulent behaviour took place over a number of months between September and December 2015, when more than 53 million automated calls were made to the public across the UK.

Those calls resulted in many individuals calling the company back to enquire about the offer of compensation relating to PPI and were later conned into parting with hundreds of pounds.

The Council’s Trading Standards were alerted to the fraudulent business following initial investigations by the Ministry of Justice Claims Management Regulation Unit, which had received a complaint and had looked into the validity of the named directors of the company.

After establishing that the two directors listed (Rhodri Rees and his brother Aled Rees) had never been authorised by the Claims Management Regulator to undertake any regulated claims management activity, Trading Standards carried out an unannounced visit of the business premises – Castell Close, Llansamlet.

Officers’ unearthed scripts at the premises which provided evidence that customers were being misled into parting with hundreds of pounds on the promise of large financial claims they would never actually receive.

Sixteen members of staff at the company, including the directors, were cautioned and interviewed and subsequently charged with offences relating to fraud.

The defendants previously pleaded guilty to the offences at Swansea Crown Court earlier in the year.

While Mr Rees has received an immediate prison sentence, all other defendants received suspended prison sentences for their role in the dishonest business.

David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Performance at Swansea Council, said: “Our Trading Standards team has worked exceptionally hard to unearth this business’s dishonest behaviour and I am very pleased we have been able to shut them down and take action against all those involved.

“This case is a worrying example of individuals intentionally setting up companies to purposely defraud the public out of their much needed finances.

“They clearly prayed on the vulnerabilities of the public, who may have been in need of extra money for themselves and their families.

“Unsolicited automated calls are something we have become used to in our daily lives and we have all most likely received a call on our personal phones. My advice is to ignore these calls, where companies make promises to offer large sums of money.

 “Our advice is always the same – if it’s too good to be true, it is likely to be exactly that.”

Images from  Petr Macháček & Arlington Research found on Unsplash.com