Blackpool claims firm shut by regulator
A BLACKPOOL-based company which told clients they were due refunds from payment protection insurance but charged them hefty processing fees without returning cash has been closed down by the Ministry of Justice’s Claims Management Regulator unit.
Greenacre Equities Ltd, which had its registered office at an address on Caunce Street, had its authorisation to operate a claims management company cancelled in June and the company has since been liquidated.
The regulator also permanently withdrew authorisation to trade for two Greater Manchester businesses which had previously had their licences suspended. They are: Bolton-based Wilson and Bateman Consultants (which traded as Claim4Gain) and Altrincham-based Sky Networks, which had a number of trading styles including The Credit Card Cruncher and Claims Advice Centre.
A spokesman for the Claims Management Regulator said: “We take strict enforcement action against businesses that fail to comply with the rules governing their conduct. A full investigation is undertaken to establish and substantiate the facts before steps are taken to cancel a business’s authorisation.”
The Claims Management Regulator has just produced its annual report into the industry which showed a surge in the number of companies who were authorised to trade in the year to March 31, 2010 – up by 85 per cent to 1,250. However, 44 businesses had their authorisation to trade cancelled or suspended by the regulator and a further 448 businesses surrendered their authorisation voluntarily.
“During 2009/10 the volume of enforcement action has grown substantially and action has been taken against some of the most complex and largest claims businesses operating in the financial services area,” said the Ministry of Justice’s head of claims management regulation, Kevin Roussell. “This trend is continuing into 2010/11.”
Roussell added that tighter controls now being imposed by the regulator over firms specialising in “unenforceable” credit card agreements had led to the first signs that the market was beginning to shrink.
