Voltimum - Solar PV company directors jailed for deception

[Social Integrator]

Two directors of a Warrington-based solar panel company have been handed four-year jail sentences for fraudulently deceiving customers and falsely claiming to be NICEIC registered.

The two men were each sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court following an investigation by Warrington trading standards.

James Thomas Birchall, 36, was found guilty of 12 offences of fraud and money laundering. Peter Steven Haddley, 32 was found guilty of 19 offences of fraud and theft. Both men denied the offences.

The investigation related primarily to Key Energy Solutions Ltd of Winwick Street, Warrington that was linked with Future-Energy-UK Ltd of Piccadilly, Manchester.

Both companies were involved in the sale and supply of solar panels and battery systems for solar panel systems. Victims were enticed into purchasing solar panels with the promise of payments back via the feed-in-tariff.

However, customers were never entitled to such payments, because the company was not certified by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS)

The companies were found to be providing fraudulent contracts using logos they were not entitled to use, issuing fake MCS installation certificates, pressure selling and not refunding deposits legally owed to customers.

Kevan Parker, Managing Director of NICEIC commented: “The NICEIC name is associated with quality and we will work with the appropriate authorities to protect those contractors who are legitimately registered with us and have the quality of their work assessed on a regular basis

“This latest prosecution is a warning to anyone thinking about using our logo fraudulently, that they will be caught and dealt with appropriately by the courts.”

NICEIC urges anyone who is suspicious about using a registered contractor to check his or her details at the website www.niceic.com

It contains a full list of all those contractors who are legitimately registered with NICEIC and also a wall of shame which lists those firms who have been caught fraudulently using the logo.

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Two companies were found to be providing fraudulent contracts using logos they were not entitled to use.


Type: 
Industry News



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Date of publication: 
08/01/2019


Target group: 
Voltimum


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[Sharpend]

Another successful hit by the Niceic on Logo abuse. They’re getting real good at this shame they’re not so good on the quality aspect of the scheme , although give the new MD credit he is continuing with the mantra that Niceic stands for quality maybe nobody has told him yet of the differences between what he believes and what is real on the coal face

on a more serious note it is more scary for the trade that a new MD is continuing with the same old same old and not actually looking at reality and changing what is wrong with the scams

I also note that he is pleased he has succeeded on the logo issue for the sake of customers per se but I didn’t see anything as to what he was doing to help all these customers that have been led to believe they are protected by the niceic and mcs registration bodies?? 

Too much to ask is it? 

 

[roys]

I was wondering if the customers who bought the solar believing they were MCS registered and were going to get the FIT payments actually got the FIT in the end.

 

[NozSpark]

I have a customer that was ripped off by them...... he paid several thousand pounds for a battery storage system for his solar PV (which they did not install).... they spent several hours in his loft fitting this "unit"

He asked me to have a look at it as he didn't think that it was working properly... I found that all they had done was to mount another, cheap ****, inverter in his loft... wasn't even connected up!!!

 

[Sharpend]

So who now protects these people? Did the courts seize the assets of these two criminals and sell them to raise funds to reimburse any of their victims? I bet not. 

 

[binky]

money has probably been off-shored or spent already.