Safestyle fined £120,000 for threats, lies and other ‘improper business practices’
17th July 2018

Safestyle UK has been fined £120,000 plus £52,000 costs after a Crown Court heard of a catalogue of ‘unlawful and improper business practices’ around the UK including telling an 86-year-old he would be ‘in trouble’ if he cancelled a contract.

In another case, a man feared he may be attacked by a door-to-door salesman after he asked him to leave and in other instances, homeowners were told the company had a contract with the local council and had access to government funds.

The company had admitted 13 counts of breaching consumer protection from unfair trading regulations at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Ayesha Smart said: "These improper business practices were not limited to a small geographical area or just one rogue salesman but were repeated across the country over a period of around 17 months.

"In other words, systems failures allowed these offences to occur in either the recruitment, training, employment practices, supervision and/or monitoring of those who worked for the company."

The court heard offences took place in Coventry, Shipley, Southampton, Bristol, Maldon, Barrow-in-Furness, Rochdale, Selby and Rotherham.

A spokesperson for the company said: "Safestyle UK has agreed that the behaviour displayed by the relevant independent canvass and sales agents was unacceptable. Customer service is of the utmost importance to us and these cases do not represent the vast majority of our staff or independent sales and canvass agents".

Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, who has helped to provide joint funding for the specialist Trading Standards Financial Exploitation and Abuse Team later said: “The behaviour consistently demonstrated by SafeStyle UK employees fell well below what is expected of any company, let alone an established brand. I welcome the substantial financial penalty imposed and the strong message this sends out that using aggressive, misleading behaviour and banned practices absolutely will not be tolerated.

Dave Lodge of West Yorkshire Trading Standards, added: "The case and the level of fines imposed illustrates the seriousness with which the courts view companies who flout the laws designed to protect the public in general and the elderly and vulnerable in particular.

"I hope the case will serve as a warning to those sectors of the home improvement industry who put the pursuit of profit before ethical, commercial standards."