GOVERNMENT ACTION ON TIMESHARE FRAUDSTERS

That this House regrets that the Office of Fair Trading cannot protect victims of Laurence Werner and Simon Clarke of Club Riviera group timeshare companies from deceiving timeshare customers because of the failure of the Government to implement its 1990 report on trading malpractices; regrets that the Government has failed for four years to legislate to prevent Club Riviera's deceitful practices like offering worthless guarantees to buy back properties and the buy-sell scam, and unconscionable practices like conning elderly people into buying timeshare on the 6th floor without any lifts; notes that in spite of the withdrawal of consumer credit licences in July 1992 Werner and Clarke continued to sell timeshare and offer credit card facilities, and that the DTI has received the names of 2,000 victims of Werner & Clarke; congratulates American Express for refusing to accept credit card payments for Club Riviera companies but deplores the willingness of Barclaycard, Access and Mastercard to continue to bolster the criminal activities of Werner and Clarke; calls on the I.C.S.T.I.S. to investigate the use of premium rate telephone lines by Club Riviera companies to deal with consumer complaints; notes Club Riviera companies fail to pay fines and utilise their shell creditor company Macintosh Associates to escape bailiffs seeking settlement of county court judgements; deplores the Government's failure to act on EDM 888 from 1992 to protect existing timeshare customers and the public from Werner & Clarke's malpractice; and calls on the Government to bring Werner and Clarke and their associates to justice.