22 May 2000

PUBLIC WARNED NOT TO SEND MONEY TO DEBT COLLECTION AGENCY

Trading Standards Service today issued reassurance to people who earlier in the year received unsolicited "first aid kits" from Netherlands company Royal Consulting along with an invoice for £23.70.

Letters from a Surrey based debt collection agency, European Collections & Investigations have now been sent to people who received the unsolicited product saying, "our records do not show receipt of your full payment."

Anthony Haughan from Trading Standards Service (TSS) said: "No one should feel threatened by these invoices. The law is on your side. It is a criminal offence for the sender to demand payment for goods which he or she knows have not been ordered."

TSS advise everyone who received the letter from European Collections & Investigations to return it explaining (in the space provided) why they have not and will not pay.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The "first aid kits", which consist of a selection of bandages started dropping through the letter boxes of an unsuspecting public across the Province at the end of last year/beginning of this year. The company claims that proceeds from the kits will help to support worthy humanitarian organisations. Last autumn the Charities Commission publicly repudiated that they had approved any fundraising.

Meanwhile, anyone who receives a letter or simply wants more information about their rights as a consumer can contact Trading Standards Service on telephone: 028 9025 3900, tss@detini.gov.uk or visit the TSS website at www.tssni.gov.uk

Trading Standards Service is part of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.

Requests for interviews should be made to Press Office Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment on telephone: 028 9052 9366.