Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s star investigator, battling readers’ corners, revealing the truth behind closed doors and winning victories for those left penniless. Find out how to contact him below.
Mrs. LC writes: Skoda UK has disappointed us at every turn. We bought a Skoda Kamiq last June for £17,000 to use as a licensed taxi. In September, the electronic control unit burned out while my husband was driving the vehicle. It was still under Skoda warranty but the local dealer said the part was not available to order and our only option was to file a complaint.
Tony Hetherington replies: You complained to Skoda, but no one could give you any idea when the part would be available. Meanwhile, her husband had been losing income every day he was off the road. She hired a taxi to continue earning a living, but Skoda refused to even cover the reasonable £150 a week it cost her.
Back on the road. But a faulty part on a Skoda Kamiq turned out to be a costly affair
By the time you contacted me, your husband’s loss of income and rental fees had left you and him around £3,000 out of pocket. You told me: “The price we pay as a family is enormous and no one seems to care at Skoda.”
Cruelly, Skoda was about to close your claim, simply because it said that you had not responded to a message that simply told you that there was no news about the unavailable part.
You bought the car with finance from Black Horse, part of Lloyds Bank, so whilst contacting them I asked Skoda what had gone wrong. I was told that the Electronic Control Unit had to be manufactured individually and was not a commercially available product, so there was no schedule. But Skoda agreed that she would cover her husband’s losses as long as she could see the receipts and invoices. This meant delaying any agreement until final figures could be calculated. But in the meantime, you had done brilliantly with Black Horse. After seeing the same details you had given me, the finance company decided to take back the car, cancel the loan agreement and refund the deposit with interest. Well done, Black Horse!
While your husband’s accountant worked on his figures, you provided Skoda with evidence that you had so far paid £1,585 to hire a replacement taxi. Then came a small bombshell from Skoda, saying: “We will give no more goodwill for loss of income, council charges for preparing new plates, mechanics charges for removing taximeters and signaling from one taxi to another when a new one arrives.” has been acquired, or any goodwill payment for the inconvenience caused.’ Skoda’s customer service department concluded by highlighting that it would only cover rental costs and nothing else.
This was not what had been agreed with Skoda and was a classic example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand had already promised.
My own contact at Skoda apologized and confirmed that the company would not only pay the rental costs but would also cover the council costs, the removal and replacement of the taxi signs and the taximeter, and would add £500 to compensate for all the inconvenience.
I am pleased to inform you that your husband is now back on the road and that Skoda has transferred an agreed total of £2,948 to his bank account.
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The prosecution of seven people accused of fraud offenses related to the preparation of wills and trusts has collapsed after a decade of complaints, investigations and aborted trials. Among those charged were former solicitors Jonathan De Vita and Christopher Platt, who ran a law firm in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, and Alana Benson, who was involved in running a number of will-writing firms. .
Among those charged were former solicitors Jonathan De Vita and Christopher Platt, who ran a law firm in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire.
Benson was accused of falsely informing clients that they could avoid paying nursing home fees by purchasing securities that would protect their assets within a trust.
In 2015 I warned that Benson was a former bankrupt working as a manager at a corrupt will writing company called Express Law Limited. He was shut down by the High Court for misleading his clients. Benson also ran Doncaster-based Direct Law 4U Limited, which went into liquidation after collecting for wills and trusts it failed to deliver, and later set up Indeed Law Limited, which also went into liquidation, leaving creditor claims totaling more than £138,000. .
De Vita and Platt were accused of obtaining payment for deeds of trust, knowing that they were marketed with false claims. Their firm was closed in 2018 by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and the couple were dismissed as solicitors a year later. A court found they had falsified records and charged a client more than £52,000 for work that should have cost around £2,500.
Following an investigation by York Trading Standards, largely funded by its national organisation, the seven defendants first appeared in court in 2019. The case came to Leeds Crown Court in 2022, but the trial was stopped due to problems with the jury. It was rescheduled for last September but then postponed again. Ultimately, the prosecution decided not to offer evidence and the defendants have been formally acquitted by the judge.
National Trading Standards said: “This case has been before the courts twice, and new evidence provided by one of the defendants came to light in late 2023. The new evidence included a large amount of electronic material which would have taken months to review.”
A spokesman said that while the victims lost significant sums, rescheduling the trial would cause them further stress.
If you believe you are a victim of financial irregularity, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large volume of inquiries, it is not possible to provide personal responses. Please only send copies of the original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
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