Trader’s £2,000 ‘cooling off’ fine

A TRADER has been fined almost £2,000 for failing to offer cancellation rights to a vulnerable resident.

Peter Johnstone, of Colne, pleaded guilty at Oldham Magistrates’ Court yesterday to an offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The defendant, trading as Allsup Tarmacadam Contractors, had cold-called at the home of a vulnerable and elderly Grotton resident offering to re-Tarmac his driveway on March 4.

Any trader calling at a consumer’s home address — solicited or unsolicited — must provide a written seven-day cancellation notice with any completed contract where the total payments are more than £35.

The resident was not offered this and, although he had not paid Mr Johnstone for the work, he contacted Oldham Council’s Trading Standards team.

A decision was then taken to pursue a criminal prosecution after Mr Johnstone failed to accept invitations to attend interviews with officers.

Magistrates fined him £1,928 for failing to offer cancellation rights as required by the recently-introduced consumer protection law.

Councillor Mark Alcock, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said: “The cancellation rights are in place to ensure there is a general duty upon firms to trade honestly and fairly with customers.

“The vast majority of local businesses are fair dealing but where we find that one is not following the law we will not hesitate to act.”