Cold-calling fish seller ordered to repay victims

​A doorstep criminal who ran fish-selling businesses that contravened consumer protection regulations has been sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court today (27 September). Adam Brown used a number of illegal sales techniques to exploit consumers, resulting in nearly £8,500 lost by consumers from nearly 60 transactions.

A doorstep criminal who ran fish-selling businesses that contravened consumer protection regulations has been sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court today (27 September). Adam Brown used a number of illegal sales techniques to exploit consumers, resulting in nearly £8,500 lost by consumers from nearly 60 transactions.

Mr Brown was sentenced to a 20-week custodial sentence (suspended for 18 months) and ordered to pay £2,624.70 in compensation, which will cover the monies lost by all seven victims involved in the case. During today’s hearing, Mr Brown was sentenced at the same time for other offences, including a consecutive suspended sentence of 16 weeks for theft from gaming machines. The sentences combined mean Mr Brown will serve a suspended custodial sentence of 36 weeks.

Brown, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, travelled the country selling fish door-to-door, often to the elderly and vulnerable. Using a variety of business names – including Shore to Door Fisheries, SSRS Fisheries, Scottish Coast Finest and Scottish Coast Fisheries – Brown or his associates would target the addresses of elderly or vulnerable consumers.

Brown used a range of tactics to pressurise consumers into buying fish that they often didn’t want. These included:

• misleading selling techniques, including false claims that the fish was fresh when it was previously frozen (this included buying fish from supermarkets and selling it on)
• delivering excessive quantities of fish before charging an extortionately high price
• operating an erratic pricing structure to exploit victims’ vulnerability
• obtaining higher payments through a card machine, without consumers realising at the time, by obscuring the total or tilting the card machine away from the consumer
• targeting addresses in “No Cold Calling Zones”, which are normally established in communities with a high number of older or more vulnerable residents

In one instance, a witness only expected to get a few pieces of salmon and haddock. The seller packed trays of fish in the freezer and then demanded £325.00. The witness said that she did not have £325.00; the seller said he had delivered enough fish to last six months. Eventually, the victim paid what had been asked because she felt pressured by the seller being in her house.

In another example, a victim agreed to buy some cod and salmon before the seller went to a van parked in the street and returned carrying an arm full of trays of fish. The victim commented that there was a lot of fish, but the seller walked straight into the kitchen and put the fish in the freezer. The seller demanded £94.00, which was more than the victim wanted to spend, but by that point just wanted the seller to leave the property. The witness paid by card but when entering her PIN number the machine was held at such an angle to prevent her fully seeing the screen. When the witness checked her bank account, she saw that £946.00 had been removed.

The sentence follows an investigation by the National Trading Standards Regional Investigation Team North East, which was tasked by National Trading Standards to carry out suitable enforcement action against a number of businesses considered to be the “facilitators” behind criminal mobile fish sellers originating from the County Durham area.

Lord Toby Harris, Chair, National Trading Standards, said:

“The intimidating and coercive sales techniques used by the defendant took place in people’s own homes, with many victims pressured into agreeing to buy fish – which often turned out to be fish from a supermarket – or were subsequently overcharged. The businesses profited illegally while victims have been left out of pocket.

“If you or someone you know, has fallen victim to a fraud like this you should report it to the Citizens Advice consumer service helpline by calling 03454 04 05 06.”

Mr Brown has also been issued with a Criminal Behaviour Order that prohibits him from selling fish and making unsolicited calls at people’s homes for the next five years. The sentence following his conviction on 9 May 2019 at Teesside Crown Court, where Mr Brown accepted he knowingly or recklessly engaged in commercial practices which contravened the requirements of professional diligence and materially distorted the economic behaviour of his customers.

-ENDS-