Two telesales scammers who duped hundreds of customers into buying their bogus boiler insurance policies - even warning them they were in danger of death from hypothermia without them - were both jailed yesterday for their £87,000 swindle.
Masquerading as British Gas Services Ltd. they sold worthless boiler and central heating cover to at least 500 victims - mainly housewives - all over the country.
Company director John Annett, 29, (pic.top) of The Ridgeway, Croydon received 18 months imprisonment and magazine publisher Jay Firmager, 31, (pic.bottom) of Whytecliffe Road South, Purely received 15 months.
Annett pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to conspiring between April 1 and June 30, 2011 to make a gain by making false representations and Firmager was convicted of twelve counts of defrauding individuals by making false representations.
"You both involved yourselves in a serious and blatant fraud on the public," Judge Jeremy Gold QC told the pair on Friday. "You set up a fraudulent telesales company that purported to sell insurance cover.
"Your company was completely bogus from the outset and you, Annett, set this up out of pure greed for money.
"You were the prime mover behind this and it is not your first time before the court's for dishonesty.
"You, Firmager, played an essential part in this enterprise in the full knowledge of what was going on."
The pair had run a residential letting agency called 'Capital Estates' from their office in Purley Road and when it folded set up the 'Feature Me Ltd.' telesales company.
Innocent staff believed they were selling genuine British Gas insurance policies and had a high-pressure sales script they relied on when cold-calling potential customers.
The company wooed customers with a tissue of lies, which included having 7,000 highly-trained gas engineers and 1,000 plumbers on their books and promising unlimited annual emergency call outs.
For a £200 yearly fee the basic package would provide all parts and labour and reluctant customers were intimidated with tales of boilers breaking-down at an annual rate of one every six seconds and 130 people a year dying from hypothermia in the home.
However, the jury were told the defendants knew they were "selling a pup" and police raided their office after British Gas received a flurry of complaints.
"Annett was described as the money man and Firmager the front man, dealing with telesales staff and the office," explained prosecutor Mr. Adam Wiseman.
"They provided the telephone leads for their staff and provided the script and the company sold bogus products that had British Gas in the name and there were an average of ten complaints a day."
The police raids occurred on July 7, 2011 and Firmager - known locally as 'Big Jay' - had £10,000 cash at his home and £17,000 was in his bank account, which police say came from the scam.
Firmager was ordered to pay half of the £1,994 he defrauded from the twelve identified victims he scammed and Annett is subject to Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings to recoup all the money the victims lost.
He was also disqualified from being a company director for the next ten years.
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