Council secures conviction of alarm traders after two-and-a-half month trial

A London borough has secured the conviction of three traders who were found guilty of mis-selling alarms to elderly residents across the country.

David Diaz, 28 from Glasgow, and Ludovic Black and Gary Mcvey, 30 and 31 respectively from Cheshire, were found guilty of engaging in unfair commercial practices at Harrow Crown Court last month after a two-and-a-half month trial.

They are expected to be sentenced at the end of June. The maximum penalty for the offence is two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

The case was brought by the London Borough of Hillingdon and involved more than 100 witnesses.

The three defendants owned a company called SAS Fire and Security Systems Ltd. Its salesmen would cold call potential buyers and persuade them to allow an employee to visit, offering the burglar alarm from free or for £1.

However, during the visit it would emerge that to get the alarm for free, the buyers would have to spend thousands of pounds on a monitoring contract.

Hillingdon said it would be making a proceeds of crime application following the convictions.

The council’s Leader, Cllr Ray Puddifoot, said: "Our hard work has paid off and we got the result in court that we were looking for. This was a lengthy and challenging investigation by our Trading Standards officers that involved more than 100 witnesses, many of whom were elderly.

“These men had been targeting people across the country and I am very proud to say that when it came to the crunch it was Hillingdon Council that delivered the case to court. We are pleased that these men were found guilty and we will continue to fight against rogue traders trying to take advantage of residents."