An estate agent who was banned by the OFT but who continued to work has been fined.
John Shepherd, 68, ran Grove Estates in Newport, Gwent, but was banned from estate agency work on June 1 last year after he failed to join an ombudsman scheme.
This was despite Newport Trading Standards Service imposing a £1,000 fine for his failure to sign up to an approved redress scheme.
The OFT subsequently launched its own investigation under the Estate Agents Act 1979 and found Shepherd unfit to practise estate agency work.
Shepherd has now been ordered by Abergavenny Magistrates’ Court to pay £1,715 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to breaching the OFT order on two occasions.
After the ban, he had practised estate agency work within weeks, on July 4 and July 25 2012.
Shepherd was ordered to pay a £600 fine for each breach, plus £500 prosecution costs to Newport Council and a £15 surcharge.
Grove Estates was set up in 1985. In January this year, Shepherd told his local paper, the South Wales Argus, that he was still – perfectly legally – operating as a letting agent. However, the paper now says that the premises have been taken over by a florist.
Comments
We currently have a multi chain branch of agents diplaying the NAEA logo and the OEA logo. It turns out they are not members of the Ombudsman. When I reported this direct to the NAEA, the lady did not seem too phased and said they would investigate and send a letter. If the organisation that claims to be raising the standards of estate agency takes such a Laisez Faire attitude to agents operating illegally, I do not hold out much hope for them, or us as an industry!
Perhaps the florists emits a much nicer smell than the previous occupant!
If I was 68 and thinking retirement I would be tempted to do the same! - "you take a view" - the fines must be way less than sales commissions earned over the extra months trading.