Con man is spared jail for fake devices
A ‘GET THIN QUICK’ conman fleeced overweight customers out of £400,000 by flogging fake slimming machines.
Aaron O’Brian Nickols, 34, from Burbage, advertised his fat-busting contraptions as a “revolutionary treatment” which promised to melt away blubber without the need to hit the gym or count calories.
Purchasers were prompted to rub a jelly on their “fatty areas” and use the machine’s circular pads to provide a self-liposuction effect.
However, the device he peddled was not a therapeutic tool, rather a metal polisher made in China.
He made around £400,000 with the scam over an 18-month period between May 2014 and October 2015.
Trading Standards officials in Warwickshire launched an investigation after customers complained the machines didn’t work and were giving electric shocks.
Last month Nickols admitted supplying unsafe appliances, engaging in a commercial practice which contravened the requirements of professional diligence and false advertising.
He received a nine-month sen- tence, suspended for two years, when he appeared at Coventry Crown Court last Thursday.
He was also handed 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £5,000 in prosecution costs.
Nickols had paid £170 for the machines on eBay and rented them out for £49-a-week through his company, UK Weight Loss Network.
Recorder Peter Levins said: “I’m satisfied you are a snake-oil salesman, and I sentence you for the two of the offences on the indictment to which you have pleaded guilty, and for a summary-only offence.
“These are serious offences that cover a significant period of time. Large sums of money are involved, which afforded you a comfortable lifestyle. I am satisfied the devices were entirely sham.”
The court heard how the crook set up the UK Weight Loss Network in 2013 as a sole trader, after previously being prohibited from working as a financial advisor.
Trading under the name Paul Jones, Nickols also denied customers their legal cancellation rights.
Tony Watkin, prosecuting on behalf of Warwickshire Trading Standards, said: “If they [customers] placed the device on fatty areas of their body, low frequency ultrasound would break the fat down, and waste fat would be excreted through urination.
“The defendant bought something in the order of 400 of them from a Chinese manufacturer via eBay, paying £170 for each.
“It was suggested the advertised rental price of £49 a week was half price, although there’s no evidence it was ever higher than that. The devices themselves were not safe and were not subjected to safety tests and regulations when they were imported.
“They didn’t meet electrical safety requirements and on occasions overheated or were giving off electric shocks. One said it kept giving him shocks, another said it blew up when he turned it on, another said the head came undone, revealing the wires and another said it was overheating hot enough to burn her skin.”
Nickols was contacted by Trading Standards, “but he continued to fail to comply with the law”, the court heard.
Since April he has refunded all but one customer who asked for their money back. Tim Pole, defending, said: “It seems obvious now in hindsight that those products provided little effect. He has ceased trading.”