Staff at Swansea-based PPI business guilty of fraud

Fifteen defendants have previously appeared at two separate trials in Swansea, which took place in January and July this year. All fifteen either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.

A further defendant was charged with one offence of money laundering.  

The court action follows a lengthy investigation by Swansea Council Trading Standards, who has gathered large amounts of evidence that was used to highlight the company’s illegal activity. 

The Swansea company, which traded under a number of names, including, HES Synergy Limited and HES Savings Audit Ltd, involved itself in the business of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims and promised thousands of pounds would be refunded to victims after paying an upfront fee. 

The fraudulent activity took place over a number of months between September and December 2015, when more than 53 million automated calls were made to the public across the UK. 

Those calls resulted in many individuals calling the company back to enquire about the offer and were later conned into parting with hundreds of pounds. 

Swansea Council’s Trading Standards were alerted to the fraudulent business following initial investigations by the Ministry of Justice Claims Management Regulation Unit, which had received a complaint and had looked into the validity of the named directors of the company.

After establishing that the two directors listed (Aled Rees and Rhodri Rees) had never been authorised by the Claims Management Regulator to undertake any regulated claims management activity, Trading Standards carried out an unannounced visit of the business premises – Castell Close, Llansamlet. 

Officers’ unearthed scripts at the premises which provided evidence that customers were being misled into parting with hundreds of pounds on the promise of large financial claims they would receive. 

All fifteen members of staff at the company, including the directors, were cautioned and interviewed and subsequently charged with offences relating to fraud. 

The defendants will now return to Swansea Crown Court later in the year for sentencing. 

David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Performance at Swansea Council, said: “This latest case is another worrying example of individuals intentionally setting up companies to purposely defraud the public out of their much needed finances. 

“They clearly prayed on the vulnerabilities of the public, who may have been in need of extra money for themselves and their families. 

“The fact that all the individuals involved in the fraudulent business have now pleaded guilty, clearly shows they knew exactly what they were doing and that it was simply wrong to make false promises to the public and take their hard-earned money. 

“Our Trading Standards team has worked exceptionally hard to unearth this business’s dishonest behaviour and I am pleased we have been able to shut them down and take action against all those involved. 

“Unsolicited automated calls are something we have become used to in our daily lives and we have all most likely received a call on our personal phones. My advice is to ignore these calls, where companies make promises to offer large sums of money. 

“Our advice is always the same – if it’s too good to be true, it is likely to be exactly that.” 

(Lead image: Swansea Council)