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Leicester Council/Leisure Finance PLC |
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Leicester Council/Leisure Finance PLC |
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Unlawful Selling of Finance
contracts by Council ? You know the story.....young 20 something girl goes to local gym to get and keep fit. Signs up to pay fee by direct debit and the rest is a common story of events throughout the country..........or is it ? Well, in the case of our reader, things weren't so simple. When she moved out of Leicester to live with her boyfriend, she did as the gym instructor advised, and cancelled her direct debit, thinking that she would here no more about it. Well, isn't that reasonable to assume.......apparently not. Soon after, the young lady started to receive demands and threats from Leisure Finance Plc. Apparently, the young lady had signed a binding finance contract and was at risk of being in default and blacklisted. Curiously, the letter was a PO box and had no telephone number on it. No Contact allowed Her boyfriend made attempts to find out who this company was and after a lot of searching, eventually found the telephone number buried in one of the pdf brochures on Leisure Finances web site. There are no other reasonable contact details on this web site, as you can see - http://www.leisure-finance.co.uk/ The boyfriend called Leisure finance, and a rather surprised agent answered and made it clear that they don't accept calls from the public, even though the public seem to have finance agreements with them. Whilst the boyfriend insisted that they must talk in order to sort the problem out, a rather rude "manager" came on the line and abruptly told him where to go. No Consumer Credit Licence ? The boyfriend contacted the Gym and told them of this problem, and a sympathetic Manager agreed to look into it. Not happy with the way his girlfriend had been manoeuvred into signing an agreement that she did not know was a finance contract, the boyfriend visited the gym to see if the Councils Consumer credit Licence was on display, as required by law. No Understanding of Consumer Credit Law There was no sign of the Licence, and when asked, the staff at the gym had no idea what it was. The manager took the boyfriend round the gym and it was noted that nothing relating to credit, loans or a valid licence to broker such loans was displayed or understood by any of the staff. A further call to Leisure Finance Plc was fruitless, and ended is the same abrupt rudeness as before. We have discovered that the selling of finance agreements is common place in council run health centres. This is something that you may or may not expect in a private enterprise, but not of your local Council. What worries us is the fact that Leisure Finance Plc refuse to talk to "it's" customers, don't display their telephone number, and even refuse to give out the name of the MD in order that representations might be made to the senior executives. What is really, really scary is that if you look at the appointments held by the directors, the total is 71 between 8 people !!!! And your local council endorses this !!!!! We urge Caution Be careful, check with your gym before signing up to these contracts. Check the the Councils legal right to sell loans, and check the selling agents knowledge of consumer credit law. The lady in this report was not told of her statutory rights. She was not told that she was signing a loan agreement. She was not aware that the council acted as a broker for finance companies. Our search at company's house turned up the following on Leisure Finance Plc. Registered No. : 01270747 Directors list, which is public domain information is :- YOUNG, LINDA ELIZABETH SECRETARY We will take this up and see what transpires..........keep coming back to see how Leicester County Council and Leisure finance respond. In the meantime, if you have any similar stories relating to Leisure Finance, or your Council selling loans, please let us know Story by Darvinder Singh
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