Nine sales agents sentenced for role in Andrew Pilley fraud

Nine sales agents who tricked small businesses into buying overpriced energy contracts and convinced them not to sign up for better value alternatives have been sentenced today at Preston Crown Court court for their role in a complex fraud case. This is the latest milestone in the legal case that saw Andrew Pilley, the owner of Fleetwood Town Football Club and a range of other businesses, sentenced to 13 years in prison following a hearing in Preston Crown Court on Tuesday 4 July.

The fraud worked through a telesales operation – described by the judge who handed Pilley his sentence as ‘a salesforce of cold-calling liars and manipulators’ – which was run by companies that appeared to be independent but were actually controlled by Pilley and his sister Michelle Davidson, who were the directors of BES energy supply companies.

The fraudulent companies targeted small businesses and charities – including guest houses, a children’s cancer charity and companies providing support services for disabled people – as they moved into new premises or when their energy contracts were up for renewal, deceiving them into entering expensive long-term energy contracts between 2014 and 2016.

In the initial ‘front end’ part of the call, the sales agent would lie about the contracts to persuade business owners to sign-up. The fraudulent mis-selling included false or misleading statements about the length and price of the contract as well as competitor rates.

Business owners were then transferred to a more senior sales agent – known as a ‘legend’ – who would run through terms and conditions and confirm the agreement. This was a binding verbal contract and, because it was a business-to-business sale, there was no cooling off period. The fraud worked because the vast majority of customers didn’t realise they had been misled at the point of entering into the verbal contract.

The agents sentenced today were:

• Jade Lambert, aged 32, of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, was a Director of her own Energy Brokerage, a Training Manager at Commercial Power and a Legend and Sales Agent at brokerages controlled by Andrew Pilley. She was directly responsible for the training and corruption of others, teaching them how to obtain contracts with blatant lies. She was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, 180 hours community service, and ordered to pay £2k in costs, having pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud by false representation.
• Conor Gladwin, aged 29, of Bispham, Blackpool, was a Legend, having been promoted from his role as Sales Agent. He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, having pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud by false representation.
• Graham Shaw, aged 50, of Bispham, Blackpool, was a Sales Agent. He was sentenced to 13 months suspended for 12 months, a 10 days rehabilitation requirement, a three month alcohol treatment requirement, and ordered to pay £200 in costs, having pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation.
• Jamie McCracken, aged 26, of Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, was a Legend, having been promoted from his role as Sales Agent. He was sentenced to 11 months suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, having pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud by false representation.
• Victoria Macauley, aged 35, of Blackpool, Lancashire, was a Legend, having been promoted from her role as Sales Agent. She was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, having pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud by false representation.
• Daniel Stoney, aged 28, of Fleetwood, Lancashire, was a Legend. He was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 60 hours of unpaid work, having pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud by false representation.
• Victoria Hargreaves, aged 37, of Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, was a Legend, having been promoted from her role as Sales Agent. She was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment suspended for 12 months with a curfew requirement (not electronically monitored) between the hours of 10pm and 6pm every day for the next two months, having pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud by false representation.
• Stacey Witham, aged 29, of Blackpool, Lancashire, was a Sales Agent. She was sentenced to five months suspended for 12 months, a 10 days rehabilitation requirement, and ordered to pay £200 costs in costs, having pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud by false representation.
• Ryan Keenan, aged 30, of Blackpool, Lancashire, was a Sales Agent. He was sentenced to 5 months imprisonment suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 60 hours of unpaid work, having pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation.

The sentences follow an investigation and successful prosecution by the National Trading Standards Regional Investigation Team (North West), which is hosted by Cheshire West and Chester Council. The criminal investigation followed previous warnings and investigations from enforcement bodies, including Blackpool Trading Standards and Ofgem, before the current Trading Standards case began as a mis-selling investigation commenced by Lancashire Trading Standards in December 2013.

Lord Michael Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said:

"This was a sophisticated fraud that involved careful planning. Junior sales representatives would cold-call innocent businesses before passing over potential victims to senior sales agents. Cunning agents would then close the deal by telling lies. Once the customer had been persuaded to enter into the deal, they were told that the call would be recorded to go through a formal contract process. The lies which had induced customers to enter into the contract during the front-end call would then not be repeated as the binding verbal agreement was made."