Newsroom

OFT bans Lincolnshire estate agent

113/08    3 October 2008

The OFT has made a prohibition order against a Lincolnshire estate agent, banning him from estate agency work. 

The order follows a hearing on 1 May 2008, at Lincoln Crown Court, where Simon Bews was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment for a serious offence involving violence.

 Mr Bews was a director of Winkworth Estate Agents offices in Sleaford, Lincoln and Bourne.

 Mike Haley, OFT Director of Consumer Protection Group, said:

'Estate agents who have been convicted of offences of violence are likely to be banned by the OFT. Whilst this offence was not committed during the course of estate agency work, the OFT will act robustly to protect the interests and safety of consumers.'

NOTES

1. The OFT can take action with a view to banning from estate agency work a person (and for the purposes of the Estate Agents Act this can also be a company or a partnership) who has been convicted of certain specified offences such as fraud, or other dishonesty or violence, or who has committed racial or sexual discrimination in the course of estate agency work, or who has failed to comply with the requirements placed on estate agents by the Estate Agents Act 1979 and its associated regulations (the Act), or who has engaged in specified undesirable practices, if an adjudicator finds that the person in question is unfit to act as an agent.

2. Before a prohibition order is issued, the person concerned has the right to make representations to the OFT as to why the order should not be made. If these representations are unsuccessful, subsequent appeal can be made to the Tribunals Service, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, on behalf of the Secretary of State.

3. Adjudicators issue and determine prohibition and warning notices under the Act. They do so on behalf of the OFT, but make individual and independent decisions based upon the contentions in a notice, the evidence attached to a notice and the representations of those to whom a notice is addressed. Representations may be made in writing and at an oral hearing.

4. An adjudicator determined that Mr Bews was unfit to carry on estate agency work. A prohibition order was made in respect of Mr Bews on 10 September 2008. The order will not come into operation until the period in which any appeal could be made under section 7(1) of the Act has expired. Mr Bews has until 8 October 2008 to lodge such an appeal.

5. After an order has been made, the person affected can at any time, and on payment of a fee, currently £2,500, apply to the OFT for the order to be varied or revoked.

6. The Act covers anyone who, in the course of business, is engaged in 'estate agency work'. This means introducing to someone else a person who wishes to buy, sell or lease land or property, and/or being involved in negotiating the subsequent deal. The work must be in the course of business, whether as employer or employee, and as a result of instructions from a client. The land or property may be commercial, industrial, agricultural or residential.

 

Back to:2008