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New law to stop rogue traders hiding behind accommodation addresses.Westminster Trading Standards officers have helped draft new legislation to give councils greater powers to regulate mail holding/ forwarding addresses whose services are frequently used by dishonest businesses and individuals in London.
Accommodation addresses as they are commonly called, are often in prestigious streets such as Harley Street, Piccadilly and Berkeley Square. Although most users are legitimate individuals or companies who use the address to hold or forward mail, evidence has emerged that the system is too often being used by rogue builders, dodgy competitions or lottery scams, investment swindles such as fine wine and paintings etc. Meanwhile, the police, customs and immigration authorities have encountered similar problems while investigating criminals involved in identity theft, smuggling and money laundering.
The City of Westminster has the highest concentration of accommodation addresses in the country.
Head of Trading Standards Sue Jones, said: “The use of these mail forwarding or accommodation addresses has been unregulated for a long time now and the result is that too many criminals are hiding behind them and avoiding detection by enforcement agencies – and therefore escaping justice. We realise that plenty of legitimate businesses provide and use these addresses without causing any problems at all – they have nothing to fear from this legislation.”
Ian Gibbor, Director of Lenta Properties Ltd and a Business Centre Association board member, was the first to register with the Council under the London Local Authorities Act 2007. He said: “This legislation is something we have been advocating for many years and we are happy that this has been put on a legal basis now rather than a voluntary one.”
Click here to view more information about the Act and its requirements.
The law controlling the sale of tobacco has changed so that it is an offence for any person to sell tobacco to a person under the age of 18 years, whether or not for the child’s own use.
For further information on the changes (including the updated warning notice) click here.
If you are a Westminster business and need further advice, please click here.
Knife retailers should be aware that the age restriction for buying knives has changed from 16 to 18 years.
It is now an offence for a person to sell the following to a person under the age of 18:
This restriction does not apply to folding pocket knives if the cutting edge of the blade is less than 3 inches or 7.62cm. Nor does it apply to replacement cartridges for safety razors, where less than 2mm of the blade is exposed.
Please click here to see further guidance.
The Council has a statutory duty to ensure that residents and tourists are not ripped off by the supply of counterfeit goods. The patient but rewarding work of planning several operations has been successful, fruitful and effective – leading to the prestigious national award of Team of the Year presented to Trading Standards by the Anti-Counterfeiting Group.
During the last year several operations were conducted namely, Operation Tian, Operation Backdoor, Operation Taragon, Operation Oxford, Operation McClaren and Operation Scrooge. The different initiatives reflected the Service’s intention to deal with counterfeit traders within the area and the variety of the products that were being investigated. Some of the more recent successes have led to often complex cases ending up in the Crown Court. See Press Releases & Enforcement Actions for the results of these cases.
As part of the Trading Standards' underage sales campaigns, officers have been educating retailers and checking on their compliance with the laws restricting the sale of certain products to underage persons.
Many of the campaigns have been delivered in partnership with the police and are directly linked to the Crime and Disorder Reduction and Anti Social Behaviour Strategies.
Since April 2007, our work has included:
To see further details of our recent education and enforcement work, click here.
If you have any information relating to sales of age restricted products to children in Westminster, please let us know by contacting us here.
For a number of years, Westminster City Council Trading Standards team have delivered a yearly "Doorstep Selling" campaign to various drop-in centres around Westminster. In partnership with the Police and Westminster Age Concern, officers from Trading Standards gave a series of talks to provide information to older residents about doorstep salesmen and "distraction” burglary.
Talks were held at various Age Concern drop-in centres in Westminster, including a special talk to the Chinese speaking community where a translator assisted with the presentation.
As it can be sometimes difficult for any resident, especially older people, to say no to salesmen - especially when they are standing on the doorstep - a special door hanger was produced to provide information and advice on how to deal with callers at the door. The hanger can be kept by the front door as a reminder.
The four key messages of the campaign are:
Please click here to see an example of the 5,000 special door hangers that are being distributed at the talks and through 50 advice agencies.
Note that to view the above document you may need to have installed the free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader. This can be obtained from the Adobe website.
The Government funded 'Consumer Direct' telephone helpline and website is now in operation in London. Consumer Direct provides help and advice for consumers in Great Britain and compliments the existing Westminster based consumer advice services.
To find out more, visit the Consumer Direct website by clicking here.
Theatre Tickets Awareness Campaign - "Going to a Show?"
Following the launch of our Theatre Ticket Awareness campaign during December 2004, we have received much media attention concerning the issues surrounding the resale of theatre tickets.
Westminster Trading Standards launched the 'Going to a Show?' campaign following many consumer complaints relating to the resale of theatre tickets. Consumers had complained to Trading Standards that some ticket agents were not disclosing the 'face value' of tickets or misleading them as to the seat's position or view from it.
The campaign tells purchasers of tickets, to check for important information if buying theatre tickets from agents. The campaign is also backed up by advisory and enforcement visits to ticket agents in Westminster.
Agents who resell theatre tickets should be giving consumers, before they buy, the following informaton:
As well as leaflet handouts in Leicester Square, many supporters, including VisitBritain and the US Embassy Consular Services, are distributing the leaflet. Many restaurants and retailers in the area are also stocking the leaflets.
To see "Enjoy the show - your guide to trouble-free ticket buying", click here.
Note that to view the above document you may need to have installed the free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader. This can be obtained from the Adobe website.
The campaign has been assisted by the Westminster City Council CCTV team and City Guardian patrols. The Planning Department are considering action against theatre ticket touts who are operating illegally whether on the street or doorways of nightclubs.
Ticket agents in and around Leicester Square have been visited by officers and advised on the requirements of the law. In some cases, these visits have or are being followed up by covert test purchases by undercover officers. Breaches of legislation are being investigated further.
Westminster Trading Standards have also been consulted by the Office of Fair Trading on this matter and contributed to their final report 'Ticket agents in the UK' , click here to see more information.
Below: Photos of the launch showing the distribution of leaflets.
For a number of years we have repeated our education and enforcement campaign to help shops who sell fireworks comply with the law. Working with the police, Trading Standards alerted retailers to the dangers of storing fireworks inappropriately and warned them about the illegal selling of fireworks to persons under 18 years old.
For advice on the use and sale of fireworks, please visit the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform website
If you have any information relating to sales of fireworks (or other age restricted products) to children in Westminster, please let us know - see contacting us.
Westminster's Trading Standards service together with its Environmental Health and Licensing departments has been awarded Beacon status for cutting red tape and bureaucracy. Beacon awards recognise local government excellence and innovation in improving quality of life for their residents and communities.
The services were praised for the way they use intelligence information and strong partnership work to focus their efforts – saving money and resources.
Some of the Trading Standards work involved included:
Cllr. Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for community protection, said: “This is great recognition of the work we’ve been doing to crack down on rogue firms who break the law without strangling well run and compliant businesses in red tape and bureaucracy.
“Business is the backbone of Westminster and we want to do all we can to ensure it flourishes. Although it is our public duty to protect workers and consumers we target our efforts and resources on so called ‘high risk’ premises and give well earned autonomy to those businesses who comply with legislation.”
Communities minister Sadiq Khan presented the award and said: “My congratulations go out to Westminster, which is among the top performers in its field, setting the standard for innovation, service excellence and improvement.”
Westminster Trading Standards are warning dishonest traders that crime doesn’t pay.
Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2003 any trader who has been convicted of an acquisitive crime risks a full financial investigation by the council of their assets. Any assets can be scrutinised, including property such as houses and cars as well as money in the bank. Assets believed to be derived from criminal wrongdoing may well be confiscated by the Courts.
Specialist Trading Standards officers trained under the Proceeds of Crime Act will conduct the financial investigations into criminally derived assets and instigate Court proceedings where appropriate. Furthermore these officers are waiting for an additional powers to come into effect in May 2009 which will allow them to seize cash from people where the cash is believed to have come from criminal activity. The Police already have this power.
Trading Standards Operations Manager Sue Jones said: ”The proceeds of Crime Act is intended to stop criminals from benefiting from their ill-gotton gains; it is a law we will not hesitate to use in appropriate circumstances. My message to traders thinking of engaging in criminal activity is that if you do, you will risk losing a lot more than a court fine. We realise that the vast majority of businesses in Westminster are honest and law abiding; financial investigations are reserved for those traders that flout the law and live off their criminally derived assets."
Westminster Trading Standards will consider financial investigations for all traders where they have instigated legal proceedings. Particular emphasis will be placed on those traders convicted of counterfeiting, money laundering and fraud.
The Trading Standards Service is registered to the Quality Standard ISO9001: 2000. Following a series of audits, the British Standards Institute remains satisfied that the Service can demonstrate compliance with the international quality standard and has formally certified it as such.
Previously the Service was registered to ISO9002:1994, which was a strict procedure based standard. The new standard however requires the registrant to demonstrate that they are identifying and trying to meet the needs of customers and that they are continuously improving their services.
In 2007, following a corporate assessment, the Audit Commission rated Westminster Council as improving strongly and demonstrating a 4 star overall performance. Westminster achieved excellent scores in nearly all areas, gaining maximum points in four out of five categories.
Previously in 2003, Westminster Trading Standards Service was specifically audited by the Audit Commission and assessed as providing an excellent three-star Service . The Commission delivered its report following a "Best Value" audit of the service. In reviewing the Environmental Health and Trading Standards Services, the commission said "We have assessed the Council as providing an excellent three-star Service that has excellent prospects for improvement".
We want you to enjoy shopping in Westminster. These tips should help you.
If you need any further advice or have a shopping related problem, please click here.