UNDERMINING THE NHS
While NHS staff are performing daily miracles during the pandemic, one firm of lawyers is trying to drum-up business by encouraging people to sue hospitals and health workers.
Turner and White is a firm of solicitors in Preston, Lancs, and I came across them in an unexpected way.
City of London Police have recently warned about cold-calling scammers trying to flog warranties for home appliances.
“We’ve seen a high number of illegitimate companies using high pressure sales techniques to flog bogus warranty policies to people over the phone,” said Detective Constable Chris Glover.
“A lot of these scam calls are targeting the elderly, encouraging them to hand over their bank details when signing up for a non-existent policy which they claim is to cover breakdown or repair work on white goods, such as washing machines and fridges.”
One company accused of this is Apex Assure Limited, whose sole director, Belal Ali, 34, hides behind a virtual office address in Brighton.
It was recently added to the consumer alert list published by the Financial Conduct Authority.
“This firm is not authorised by us and is targeting people in the UK,” says the FCA.
A similar warning was given about Premier Protect 365, a trading name of Premier Protect Holdings Limited, and which operates in tandem with Apex Assure, according to online reviews.
“My aunt has recently been unfortunate enough to be scammed by a caller from Premier Protect 365, this involved an upfront charge of £495 and a monthly direct debit of £36 to cover a number of old white goods,” reads a TrustPilot comment posted last week.
“However, when the paperwork, if you can call it that, arrived in the post it referred to a contract with Apex Assure Ltd.”
The website for Premier Protect 365 has now disappeared, and Apex Assure has not replied to my questions.
Which leaves one mystery unsolved.
The FCA warning notice for Apex Assure gave its postal and web address and three phone numbers, one of them being the number for Turner and White.
How might the Preston solicitors be connected to the Brighton warranty shysters?
I asked the director of Turner and White, 35-year-old Sajid Munshi, and minority shareholder and solicitor Oana Petre, but they’ve both failed to get back to me.
Nor would they comment on their website’s home page encouraging people to sue doctors and hospitals.
‘‘ These scam calls target the elderly to cover repairs on white goods