Three people from Bristol will appear at a court in London this week accused of making at least £4 million from ‘unlawful business activities’ by selling high-end luxury vacuum cleaners on credit without authorisation.
The three are the directors of Proserv GBR, a firm which advertises as the ‘only specialist Kirby distributor for Bristol, Wales and covering ‘the whole of southern England’ – selling the high-end American-made vacuum cleaners, which can cost as much as £3,000.
But the Financial Conduct Authority said it has started criminal proceedings against the three – Anthony Hay, Laura Hay and Tim Stewart, alleging that their second company, Premier Finance GB Ltd, has been entering into credit agreements, hire agreements and setting up insurance for the vacuum cleaners with customers for the past ten years, without authorisation to do so.
Both companies, Proserv and Premier Finance, on an office building on an industrial estate in Hengrove, South Bristol, and the FCA said it has charged all three for their involvement in the conduct of both firms. The FCA alleges the three have ‘engaged in unauthorised business’. “Between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2023, the firms are alleged to have generated at least £4 million from unlawful business activities involving thousands of customers,” an FCA spokesperson said.
“The individuals are accused of engaging in regulated credit agreements, hire agreements and contracts of insurance – service packages and callout covers – for vacuum cleaners, when they were not authorised by the FCA to do so,” he added.
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“The firms also collected money from credit and hire customers without FCA authorisation. Anthony and Laura Hay served as directors of the companies and Tim Stewart was the compliance manager at both companies,” he said.
Anthony and Laura Hay are directors in both companies, while Tim Stewart was the compliance manager. All three could face hefty fines and could even be jailed for up to two years if convicted of the offence of carrying out unauthorised business.
The FCA said it has charged the three and the two firms with breaches of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which relate to carrying out debt administration and debt collection, entering into regulated credit agreements and hire agreements and effecting and carrying out contracts of insurance with customers for vacuum cleaners, whilst ‘not being authorised’.
The three are also being prosecuted under a different regulation which alleges that they ‘consented, connived or neglected to act in relation to the firms’ misconduct’.
Anthony Hay, 56, Laura Hay, 45 and Tim Stewart, 39, have been summonsed to appear before Westminster Magistrates Court today, Thursday, November 7, in London.