Fleetwood Town chairman jailed 13 years for fraud
BES Utilities and Fleetwood Town Football Club owner Andy Pilley has been jailed for 13 years after being convicted of fraud in May.
Pilley appeared in person at Preston Crown Court and the judge handed down a 13 year sentence. He was also disqualified from being a director for 13 years.
On passing sentencing, Judge Knowles KC, said Pilley had built a “salesforce of cold-calling liars and manipulators duped very large numbers of honest and decent proprietors” into “long and expensive contracts” for energy supplies.
Sparing no mercy he said Pilley and his associates “devised and enforced an elaborate pretence that the sales team were independent of the supply companies”.
Pilley who served jail time for four months in 1998 for conspiracy was told he could have chosen a different path but … “Instead it is a sordid tale of squalid lies, greed and fraud,” he said.
Pilley’s barrister Jonathan Laidlow pleaded with the judge for leniency and claimed Pilley was “fundamentally a good man who has led and is capable of leading a productive and worthwhile life.”
He said: “Mr Pilley is the first to admit he is not without fault and he is undoubtedly scarred by the mistakes he has made” and described the conviction as “humiliating and humbling for him and a very severe punishment.”
Also convicted and sentenced was his sister Michelle Davidson who was jailed for six years and disqualified as director for nine years.
Lee Andrew Qualter was jailed for seven years and disqualified as director for nine years following his conviction of fraudulent trading, while Joel Chapman was jailed for eight months after being found guilty of fraud by false representation.
The successful prosecution follows an investigation by the National Trading Standards Regional Investigation Team (North West), which is hosted by Cheshire West and Chester Council. The criminal investigation followed previous warnings and investigations from enforcement bodies, including Blackpool Trading Standards and Ofgem, before the current Trading Standards case began as a mis-selling investigation commenced by Lancashire Trading Standards in December 2013.
In 2015 the business was fined by Ofgem after it admitted that it breached gas and electricity supply licences and had to compensate affected customers.
Back in October the jury were told that Pilley’s sales teams “routinely used false statements, misleading information and outright lies” to secure customers.
Prosecutor Andrew Thomas KC said: “The case is about fraudulent mis-selling of energy contracts by and on behalf of businesses based in Fleetwood and Blackpool.
“The victims were small business owners from all around the country, such as small shops, pubs, cafes and hairdressers.
“The charges relate to offences from the period 2014-2016, but the roots go back further.
“The prosecution case is that fraudulent sales tactics were rife within the telesales team.
“The telesales team pretended to be independent of the suppliers.
“The reality, the prosecution say, is that they were working for the owners of a specific energy supply group called Business Energy Solutions (known as ‘BES’).”
The prosecution case against Pilley and three other defendants was brought by Trading Standards North West.
