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In April 2007 I set up as a Handyman. After 3 months of working on different jobs I was asked by my wife's friend to quote her to fit a kitchen, bathroom, and windows. I did not usually do such large jobs and advised that she would be better looking elsewhere. She did this and found that the quotes she got were very expensive. She asked me again if I would and I agreed.
Part way through the job I fell ill (certificated) with a virus and was unable to work for roughly a week. The customer had stated that she thought the baby might come early because of an illness she had, and the drugs that she was on, so she told me, after two days of being ill, that she would find somebody else. She then phoned Trading standards and complained to them by saying that I had walked of the job and that I had said "I would never work again". None of this was true.
Trading standards attended on two occasions. On the Monday morning to advise me that they had been to see her and were considering the complaint. Then they returned on the Tuesday to advise that they were taking no action; as far as they were concerned this was a civil matter between the parties.
Imagine my surprise when the Sunday Mail published on the 16th of September describing me as "the worst cowboy in the West". In this article there were quotes from Andrew Moynihan, Chief Trading Standards Officer of North Ayrshire Trading Standards claiming that he was starting legal action against me, under the Enterprise Act, by asking me to complete a formal assurance that it would not happen again. NO ACTION HAS EVER BEEN TAKEN.
I attempted to contact Andrew Moynihan to be told by the secretary that he was unavailable to speak, but I could speak to the case officer, James Howard. Mr. Howard told me that the Chief Trading Standards officer could serve a formal assurance at any time and that if I went to the Press Complaints Commission I would be "made to feel very sorry".
A few weeks later a car parked in my street, a small private cul-de-sac, with two trading standards officers within. The passenger was James Howard who proceeded to wave and smile at me. They then drove to the end of my small street and sat for roughly ten minutes and then drove off. At a later meeting with North Ayrshire Council's Assistant Chief Executive, Ian T Mackay, firstly he stated that the officers were there for other reasons. I put it to Mr Mackay that I had spoken to all of my neighbours in the cul-de-sac and none of them had dealings with Trading Standards. He then stated that it was none of my business what the car was doing in my street. I found this very intimidating.
Mr. Mackay also stated that NAC Trading Standards were NOT taking legal action against me and that the Sunday Mail appeared to have misquoted Mr. Moynihan. So NAC were claiming that the quotes in the Sunday Mail attributed to Mr. Moynihan were untrue.
You may think at this point that this would clear everything up but this was not the case. At the same time that Mr. Moynihan's employers were claiming that he had been falsely quoted by the Sunday Mail Mr. Moynihan had nominated the editor of the Column for National Consumer Journalist of the year (2007).
This competition is held by the Trading Standard Institute and the Office of Fair Trading and it was their publicity which named him as nominator.
How likely is it that Mr. Moynihan could have been embarrassed by misquotes and yet at the same time continued to nominate Jane Barrie of the Sunday Mail for this award. He also attended the award ceremony in London with her.
Surely if you had been so treated by her Newspaper you would have been furious and refused to continue to nominate Jane Barrie for this award.
At a later date NAC's Mr. Mackay denied Mr. Moynihan made the nomination and claimed that Mr. Moynihan had not in fact written the 500 word nomination that the competition required. So who did write it ? Does this not go against the rules and regulations of the competition?
I have been trying to obtain a copy of this document since the event in August 2007 and I am still waiting.
NAC claim to have never held the nomination because they claim Mr Moynihan never wrote it
The Trading standards Institutes secretary Chris Armstrong claims to have read the document and that there is no reference to myself. Yet he has stated that he will not show it to me.
The OFT claims that it never held a copy because the TSI told them that they would not be allowed to hold the nomination portfolios after the competition was decided. A large amount (over £22,000) of public money was spent on this competition by OFT but they never held any documents. Suspicous?
Later the OFT was caught receiving an email from TSI which stated that all correspondence with myself should be done by the TSI as they were not subject to the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. Another Email from TSI told OFT to give me no information without consulting them. Thus a non-accountable body was interfering in an application under the Act to the OFT.
The OFT told me these documents had been destroyed and yet they in fact held them and I now have a copy.
Later in this website you will see that the TSI breached their professional code of conduct to cover this up. That code of conduct was valid at the time. It has since been changed.
OFT and TSI refused to open an investigation in to this even though it was clear that something was not right and not in line with the rules and regulations. OFT had a duty to do this when public money was spent. It was not their money; it was taxpayers’ money and the Competition should have been above board.
There is far more to this story and the level of cover up is astonishing. A while ago I sent a document to all of the Scottish chief trading standards officers to advise them of what their colleagues and governing body were up-to. The document was aptly entitled Name and Shame and it is on this website along with more revelations.
Lastly I would like to say that this is not idle speculation but cold, hard facts. I have all the paperwork to back up these claims and can prove all of the claims made in this website.
I am still fighting to obtain the 500 word nomination and have an application with the Information Commissioners Office. I await the outcome of that request and will update this website.
I will be raising the profile of this site in the coming months.There is still more ongoing in this story and this website will be updated regularly. Name and Shame 3 concerning the details of my freedom of information act request to the Information Commissioner will be uploaded to this site in the near future.
Finally, during all of this my wife has miscarried and we have been forced to sell our home.
I will not stop until the truth emerges.
Thank You
Alan Arkison
Key Search words OFT TSI NAC Office of Fair Trading Trading Standards Institute North Ayrshire Council
