Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
Mrs L.C. writes: We have been let down at every turn by Skoda UK. We purchased a Skoda Kamiq last June for £17,000 for use as a licensed taxi. In September, the electronic control unit combusted while my husband was driving the vehicle. It was still under Skoda’s warranty but the local dealership said the part was not available to order, and that our only option was to make a complaint.
Tony Hetherington replies: You did make a complaint to Skoda, but nobody could give you any idea at all of when the part would be available. Meanwhile, your husband had been losing earnings every day he was off the road. He hired a taxi in order to carry on earning a living, but Skoda refused even to cover the pretty reasonable £150 a week this cost.
Back on the road. But a faulty part on a Skoda Kamiq proved to be a costly affair
By the time you contacted me, your husband’s lost earnings and hire fees had left you and him around £3,000 out of pocket. You told me: ‘The toll on us as a family is huge, and no one seems to care at Skoda.’
Cruelly, Skoda was on the verge of closing your complaint, simply because it said you had failed to reply to a message which did no more than tell you that there was no news about the unavailable part.
You bought the car with finance from Black Horse, part of Lloyds Bank, so while you contacted them, I asked Skoda what had gone wrong. I was told that the Electronic Control Unit had to be made individually, and was not an off-the-shelf product, so there was no timetable. But Skoda did agree that it would cover your husband’s losses as long as it could see receipts and invoices. This meant delaying any settlement until the final figures could be calculated. But meanwhile, you had done brilliantly with Black Horse. After seeing the same details that you had given me, the finance company decided it would take back the car, cancel the loan agreement, and refund your deposit with interest. So well done, Black Horse!
While your husband’s accountant was working on his figures, you supplied Skoda with proof that up to that point he had paid £1,585 to hire a replacement taxi. Then a minor bombshell landed from Skoda, which told you: ‘We will not be giving any further goodwill on loss of earnings, council charges for preparing new plates, mechanical charges for removing tax meters and signage from one taxi to another when a new one has been purchased, or any goodwill payment for the inconvenience caused.’ Skoda’s customer relations department ended by emphasising that it would only cover hire charges and nothing more.
This was not what I had agreed with Skoda, and was a classic example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand had already pledged.
My own contact at Skoda apologised and confirmed that the company would not only pay the hire costs but would also cover council charges, the removal and refitting of the taxi signs and meter, and would add £500 to make up for all the inconvenience.
I am glad to report that your husband is now back on the road, and Skoda has transferred an agreed total of £2,948 to your bank account.
We’re watching you
The prosecution of seven people charged with fraud offences involving the preparation of wills and trusts has collapsed after a decade of complaints, investigations and aborted trials. The accused included former solicitors Jonathan De Vita and Christopher Platt, who ran a law practice in Barton-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire, and Alana Benson, who was involved in operating a series of will-writing firms.
The accused included former solicitors Jonathan De Vita and Christopher Platt, who ran a law practice in Barton-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire
Benson was charged with falsely advising clients that they could avoid paying care home fees by purchasing deeds that would shield their assets inside a trust.
I warned in 2015 that Benson was a former bankrupt who worked as a manager at a corrupt will-writing company called Express Law Limited. It was closed by the High Court for cheating its customers. Benson also ran Doncaster-based Direct Law 4U Limited, which went into liquidation after charging for wills and trusts it failed to deliver, and she then set up Indeed Law Limited, which also went into liquidation, leaving claims from creditors totalling more than £138,000.
De Vita and Platt were charged with obtaining payment for trust deeds, knowing that they were marketed with false claims. Their firm was closed in 2018 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the pair were struck off as solicitors a year later. A tribunal found they had falsified records, and charged one client over £52,000 for work that should have cost about £2,500.
After an investigation by York Trading Standards, funded largely by its national organisation, the seven accused first appeared in court in 2019. The case reached Leeds Crown Court in 2022 but the trial was halted after problems with the jury. It was rescheduled for last September but then postponed again. Finally, the prosecution decided to offer no evidence and the accused have been formally acquitted by the judge.
National Trading Standards said: ‘This case has been before the courts twice, with new evidence provided by one of the defendants coming to light late in 2023. The new evidence included a vast amount of electronic material that would have taken months to review.’
A spokesman said that while the victims lost significant sums, it would cause them further stress to reschedule the trial.
If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email [email protected]. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
