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Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s star investigator, battling readers, revealing the truth behind closed doors and securing victories for those left out of pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
Journalists receive press releases every day, but it’s not often that one takes our breath away. However, a few days ago, one landed on my desk with the title “Honours List recognition for Henley consumer hero”.
Andrew Cooper, director of European Consumer Claims (ECC), based in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was featured on his fight to obtain justice for victims of timeshare scams.
Andrew Cooper, European Consumer Complaints Director
The statement, which described Cooper as a “revered British hero” and “selfless man”, said how “34 years ago, Andrew Cooper worked briefly in the timeshare business”.
I was a salesman for a UK company in Tenerife during a long-forgotten era when the product worked and had a stellar reputation.
Later, timeshare owners found themselves trapped, unable to resell and facing ever-increasing annual fees. In 2016, Cooper created ECC, which, despite its official name, is a private company that makes its profits by filing lawsuits against timeshare companies.
Now ECC is comparing its boss to Sir Alan Bates, knighted after fighting for years to obtain justice for wrongly convicted subpostmasters.
He said: ‘Industry experts and ECC clients alike are uniting behind a growing groundswell of demands for Andrew Cooper’s dedication and selflessness to be recognised in the New Year’s Honours List.’
ECC spokesman Mark Jobling said: “If Andrew Cooper has not won an award, there is no justice in the world.” The press release added that he deserves a knighthood or an MBE “at the very least.”
These prizes are awarded by the King. Candidates are previously examined by the Honours Committee, a branch of the Cabinet that includes renowned experts from outside government circles.
So if Cooper’s campaign goes to committee, they will need to know what he did between 1990, when he was a 21-year-old salesman in Tenerife, and 2016, when he settled in Henley.
And this is where I explain why I gasped, as Cooper himself appears more than once in my own files on dodgy timeshare salesmen.
About 25 years ago, Cooper was marketing director for Club Class, which attracted huge amounts of complaints.
He then became a director of Club Class Concierge and Bridge View Consultants, both part of the group of companies headed by well-known timeshare shark Peter Utal.
Victims were offered the chance to get rid of their unwanted timeshare and high annual bills, but first they had to pay thousands of pounds to join the Club Class holiday scheme.
I reported that timeshare owners who accepted Cooper’s invitations to meetings had been told they were supporting a victims group called International Timeshare Refund Action (ITRA).
But instead they were faced with a hard sell strategy, which scared them into paying £7000 or more for Club Class membership, and they still found themselves stuck paying the original timeshare fees they wanted to avoid.
In 2012, the Advertising Standards Authority banned an ITRA television advertisement for failing to disclose that its meetings were a sales proposition for Club Class.
Later that year, then Business Secretary Vince Cable won a High Court action to forcibly close down seven companies that made up the Club Class group, including those run by Andrew Cooper.
The lawsuit follows lengthy investigations by the Insolvency Service, whose investigator David Hill said: “These companies were set up with the aim of defrauding consumers.” They are a scam, he added, adding that “investors have nothing to gain by paying these companies.”
Liquidators Grant Thornton took control of the seven companies. It was not until 2020 that their finances were put in order, when the liquidators confirmed allegations of mis-selling and high-pressure sales tactics.
There was no money to meet the claims against the Club Class group and all the companies were dissolved.
I invited the ECC to comment. Spokesman Mark Jobling said the entire press release had been written by someone he declined to identify and was published “erroneously”.
The statement disappeared from the Internet and was replaced by another one attacking the press for failing to give ECC sufficient favorable publicity. It said nothing about Cooper’s discredited past.
If Cooper’s current company is actually helping timeshare victims, then I applaud it. But giving him a medal for switching sides would be like rewarding a burglar who retires from robbing houses and instead sells burglar alarms.
HT writes: Tui is a liar. My wife and I, along with many other people, were caught in a terrible storm on the Greek island of Skiathos whilst on holiday in Tui.
For 48 hours our hotel had no electricity, running water or sanitary facilities. No representative from Tui contacted us to check on us.
Tui has offered a discount voucher for future holidays as compensation for its lack of concern.
But we had no intention of using Tui again, so we asked for cash. They replied that everyone was offered vouchers, with no cash option. This is not true, as we know that other people who were with us received cash.
Tony Hetherington answers: I recently reported on a couple who booked a Tui cruise but had issues with their US visa.
They called Tui and were relieved to be told they could change the holiday, with no extra charge.
However, this turned out to be a lie, followed by more lies which Tui dismissed as a “customer service error”. The couple lost thousands of pounds. Tui offered £400 as an apology.
They are now facing the same kind of misinformation from Tui. I raised all this with the company, but Tui refused to comment.
Instead, he contacted you directly and paid you and your wife £200 in cash. If he had done this before, you would never have contacted me and I would never write about Tui again.
There’s a lesson there, if Tui cares to learn it.
If you believe you have been a victim of financial crime, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the high volume of enquiries, it is not possible to provide a personal reply. Please only send copies of the original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.
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