Health supplements company wound up after preying on elderly customers

A TELESALES company selling health supplements to vulnerable and elderly customers has been wound up in the High Court.

Elbon Wellbeing, based in Rednal, Birmingham, targeted individuals over the age of 65 who had health concerns over arthritis, blood pressure and high cholesterol.

It used a call centre in Goa, India, to make unsolicited calls to the individuals on these data lists to sell them a range of health supplements.

Between April 2010 and April 2016 the company received an income from the sale of health supplements of £3.7m.

An investigation by the Insolvency Service found that the company’s customers, many of whom were suffering from severe medical conditions including dementia, were subjected to lengthy telesales calls in which the callers gave the impression that they were healthcare professionals who were promoting an official healthcare campaign.

After customers had agreed with the telesales caller to purchase supplements, typically at a price of £25 per box, they were transferred to a manager at the call centre who would inform them that it was necessary to take a ‘course’ of supplements, for which they were charged some £200 – £300. Some customers were found to have paid several thousand pounds in separate transactions spread over one to two years.

The company was found to be operating in breach of consumer protection legislation by failing to disclose the commercial nature of the call at the outset of the telesales call and by failing to disclose the customer’s statutory cancellation rights.

Colin Cronin, investigation supervisor with the Insolvency Service, said: “The company’s sales representatives made claims about the health benefits and pain reduction qualities of the health supplements which had no medical basis and implied that they had medical experience when they had absolutely none.

“The sales methods used by the company were manipulative, pressured, misleading and wholly unfair.”