Nigel Evans, MP for the Ribble Valley, has written to Amber Rudd MP, the Home Secretary, to ask that more is done to combat fraudsters who advertise goods and products but never deliver on their promises.
Mr Evans was recently contacted by a constituent who paid for some farm equipment which was advertised online. After paying for the equipment, however, the company was never heard from again. After some research, it has become clear that this was not an isolated incident and others had also been conned by this same company.
Mr Evans had this to say about the issue:
“There are some completely unscrupulous groups and individuals out there who are stealing money from people by promising to deliver on products but never following through. I think more needs to be done to help stop this. When there is fraudulent activity happening out of a particular bank account, the bank should step in and stop all ingoing and outgoing at least, if not freeze the assets.
“In this particular case, the company, LP UK Plant Sales, have numerous bank accounts with Natwest. They claim they cannot take credit cards and ask for a bank transfer instead. Once this has been sent, they go completely silent and are never heard from again. I’d urge any farmers to steer clear of them and their sales.
“What is more, it is important to only ever buy equipment such as this through credit card where there is protection. It isn’t hard for someone to accept credit cards as a company – if they claim they can’t then this should be a red flag.
“There are procedures and checks that must be gone through to open a business bank account as any business owner will know. I’d like to know how these fraudsters are able to get away with this and to open multiple accounts without this being caught by the banks themselves.”
Mr Evans has written to the Home Secretary to ask what action the Government is taking to clamp down on these practices and what steps can be taken to ensure that banks have the ability and the incentive to prevent these criminals from using their services.