Electric heater supplier facing fraud allegations
COUNCIL TAKING FIRM TO COURT
LEICESTER City Council Trading Standards has taken an electric heater supplier to court on charges including fraud and aggressive sales practices.
Documents submitted to Leicester Crown Court accuse Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd of making false claims to customers about the suitability of its products, overstating how good they were at storing heat and the savings the company’s products could make on household bills.
The documents say one sales representative offered to take a customer to the bank to pay for a heating system before they had a chance to change their mind.
The defendants unequivocally deny all the charges, which they said had arisen from a flawed investigation and are without any proper legal merit.
Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd, which is based in Leicester’s Frog Island, sells and installs German-made electrical heating systems around the UK. Trading Standards said there were 11 counts relating to the business and a related business, Premier Radiators Ltd.
Fischer Heat chief executive Keith Bastian declined to comment when contacted.
The counts include fraud by false representation against Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd, which trading standards said was carried out with the consent or “connivance” of, or was due to the neglect of, the company’s founders, Keith and Maria Bastian, and Isabelle Ana Maria Jeronimo Bastian, who worked for the business. Namely:
■ That the consumer would save money on heating their homes by installing and using their heating systems;
■ That their heating systems were a suitable and economical match for the needs of the consumer’s household;
■ That the heaters were capable of storing heat to a more than minimal degree;
■ That the heaters were suitable replacements for night storage heaters;
■ That the heaters were bespoke, and custom built to the customer’s precise requirements;
■ That the heating systems were compatible, safe and appropriate to be installed using the existing power source and electrical arrangements present in the consumer’s home.
A claim Keith and Maria Bastian and Isabelle Bastian were accountable for the business when it “engaged in an aggressive commercial practice by misinforming consumers as to their statutory rights to cancel”.
An allegation suggesting Keith, Maria and Isabelle Bastian should be held accountable for “an aggressive commercial practice by a sales representative offering to take a consumer to the bank to enable them to pay for a heating system in full, which in its factual context taking account of all of its features and circumstances significantly impaired, or was likely to significantly impair, the average consumer’s freedom of choice through the use of harassment, coercion or undue influence, by placing undue pressure upon the consumer to pay immediately and thereby caused or was likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision which he would not have taken otherwise”.
That the company “engaged in an unfair commercial practice by falsely stating heating systems would only be available on particular terms, namely a discounted price, for a limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision and deprive consumers of sufficient opportunity or time to make an informed choice”.
Other claims are also listed.