Leamington Spa - the respectable address for disreputable companies

Alderleys - which gave its postal address as Suite 120, Oxford Street, Leamington - is the latest in at least a dozen firms that pretended to be based in the town.

In fact they merely used Leamington Spa as a respectable-sounding registered office and a “maildrop” address.

Director Lester Hadfield, who lives in the north-west of the country, was forced to close down his business and it’s now up to the Insolvency Service what further action is taken against him.

But Alex Deane, of the service’s Manchester-based investigations department, admitted: “Leamington seems to have become a bit of a hotspot for what is known as ‘support publishing’ operations which prey on the business community.”

Mr Deane said: “Staff working for Alderleys Limited cold-called businesses to sell advertising space in what they described as safety and emergency services booklets as well as an online directory.

“Between December 2009 and September, 2010, the company received in excess of £290,000 even though there is no evidence that the booklets were ever produced or that the website existed.”

When invoices were submitted and, often queried, representatives of Alderleys would produce ‘edited’ recordings of conversations which sought to mislead the legitimate business owner into thinking he or she had agreed to take out the online advertising and that the invoice was correct and payable.

Mr Deane added: “At first the contact would be led to believe they were confirming the details of an existing advertisement they had already placed with another organisation rather than contracting to place an additional advertisement with Alderleys, and for which Alderleys would raise an invoice.

When they subsequently sought to challenge the invoice the edited recording of the telephone call would be played back to seek to mislead them into believing that a contract had been agreed.

“Alderleys dishonestly promoted itself as something it was not, selling advertising space which, if it existed at all, could not benefit the clients in any way.

“People responsible for such companies should be aware that The Insolvency Service will pursue these companies, take steps to close them down and pursue further action against them wherever possible.”

Previous firms used advertisements in prestigious magazines like the British Medical Journal as the basis for a first call.