Advice on reporting a rogue trader using fake registrations at Companies House

jevban

Hi

I have had the misfortune to use a professional and legitimate looking company, and after paying them, and when the rains came, discovered faults in their standard of work with leaks to my roof and failure to return an item they removed to reconfigure. I have tried repeatedly to get them to visit me to do remedial work but all promises amount to nothing. When I have dug deeper. Their registration at Companies House is fake and their trade registrations are too. They also show on the fakes and frauds section of trustmark under a previous name. Scammed and angry. Who do I bring this to the attention of please? I cant see me getting any money back. Others have tried and he keeps his bank account empty and has a hire van, so no assets....any advice please,?

Thank you in anticipation.

Johno100

What do you mean when you say the registration at Companies House is fake?

jevban

He has a quote sheet with all his registrations at the bottom, one of which says he is registered at Companies. House and gives his company and company number. Neither are right and give details of an Asian sounding gentleman from the south. We are the NW. On checking on Yelp and Yell and Google reviews, it transpires he has 3 sole trader names and 2 business names, all with negative reviews about him. I have an alternative name. Walter Mitty comes to mind.

wealdroam

If his company isn't a limited liability company registered at Companies House, then you should stand a better chance of getting your money back.

As for reporting him... you could start at Companies House... complain-about-a-limited-company

hollydays

If you want to pm me all the info you have I'll see what I can find.
I'm not sure. Is this an issue for trading standards?

jevban

Tried that and they say they can only act in other circumstances. I paid him in cash....I know , stupid, and also by bank transfer directly to his personal bank account. It's the complete dodgyness of his paperwork which is complete fabrication replete with lie after lie, once you start to look beneath the surface. This needs investigating..but is it a Police matter as it looks like an attempt to portray him as legitimate trader when in fact, he has plucked a companies details out of thin air.

hollydays

You could ring actionfraud and discuss it with them?

hollydays

jevban wrote: »

Tried that and they say they can only act in other circumstances. I paid him in cash....I know , stupid, and also by bank transfer directly to his personal bank account. It's the complete dodgyness of his paperwork which is complete fabrication replete with lie after lie, once you start to look beneath the surface. This needs investigating..but is it a Police matter as it looks like an attempt to portray him as legitimate trader when in fact, he has plucked a companies details out of thin air.

Jevban , you've had problems with another rogue trader already. You should be learning by now!

jevban

Hollydays...I know...believe me I know. This guy was a recommend. The other case went all the way to the High Court and I won, all the way and at each stage, I proved my case....getting my money is another matter. This time, I went on recommendations. Word of mouth. No need to doubt. Looked professional and would not take a penny at first. Lulled into a false sense of security. Roof work done. I can't get up to see the work. You see them working and have no way of physically checking. He showed me pictures of work. I paid. Rains came...lots of problems. Before this though he arranged scaffolding for me and asked for a £250 deposit as it was for the bank holiday period. Ie long term rent. To that time, no need to doubt him. Boy,was I wrong. Since then, the recommends telling me they had problems. There are more and more scam artists out there. He had also built me a canopy. It was wrong Once fitted. He has since removed it to replace it with different style that would fit the space, and simply not come back Ie no canopy.

asajj

Get in touch with your local Trading Standards department, Office of Fair Trading and/or Financial Services Authority.

oneye14

Trading Standards are accessible by the Citizens Advice Bureau, who should deal with both shoddy work and false registration.