Caravan park owner accused of making threats to customers

A caravan park owner allegedly threatened to make a grieving man homeless if he did not buy a caravan from him.

Businessman Cresswell Welch has appeared in court accused of carrying out a campaign of selling caravans using bullying tactics and intimidation.

Welch faced a total of four charges relating to the coercive selling of caravans over a two-year period when he appeared in the dock at Perth Sheriff Court.

The 56-year-old appeared in private to face a petition alleging he had used misleading information and made threats to customers.

Welch, of Seaton Road, Arbroath, is alleged to have engaged in a misleading commercial practice by giving John Robertson, 73, misleading information about the age, value and warranty terms of a caravan he agreed to purchase between September 1 and December 23 2016.

Between October 1 2017 and May 31 2018, he is alleged to have made threats and aggressively harassed, coerced and placed undue influence on Anthony Steven, 70, to purchase a caravan other than the one he had ordered.

Welch is further alleged to have misled John Wadman between April 25 and June 1 2018 by telling him his caravan was under construction and near completion when work on it had not been started.

That charge states Welch misled Mr Wadman about the size and age of the caravan.

The final charge alleges that on June 1 2018 he told Mr Wadman he “would end up homeless” if he refused to accept his offer of a worse deal than he had agreed.

Welch is alleged to have “aggressively harassed, coerced and placed (Mr Wadman) under undue influence... in the knowledge his father had recently died.”

That charge alleges Welch had intimidated Mr Wadman and tried to force him to accept a smaller caravan than the one he had agreed to purchase.

Welch entered no plea and the case against him was continued.

He was granted bail.