Smartbox licensees plan for legal action
More than 100 licensees are weeks away from launching legal action against the finance companies who bankrolled their Smartbox agreements.
Bill Ganley, licensee of the Grange Inn in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire is leading an action group in a bid to not only escape onerous three-year deals but to also recoup money already paid out.
"If the finance firms think we have forgotten about it, they are sadly mistaken," said Ganley. "I have seen a solicitor and am confident we have a claim. We are going ahead with this and the costs should not be too great between us."
Smartbox went bust in November 2006 owing up to 750 hosts hundreds of pounds in advertising revenue and leaving them tied into onerous three-year lease deals with finance companies. Licensees have so far been warned that they must continue to pay lease fees, typically £250 a month, or reach a settlement figure with the company. If they do not, they face a County Court judgement to reclaim the money.
But, the Morning Advertiser exclusively revealed last month that some of the agreements were made in breach of the terms of the Consumer Credit Act. Ganley's group also hopes to establish if Smartbox continued to trade when it was insolvent.
Ganley added: "I think rather than settle with the finance companies, they will be the ones that will be forking out money to us."
To join the action group email william.ganley@eaststaffsbc.gov.uk or phone 01283 568759.
THose involved
Abbey
Classic Leasing
Excel
Haydock
Heritable
ING
Leasing Facilities
Lombard
Weatherbys
1pm
The legal argument
l Consumer Credit (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2004 meant any agreement made from 31 May 2005 for sole traders and partnerships had to be accompanied by a
pre-contract information document prior to signing.
l Several Smartbox insiders claim many pre-contract information documents were never issued by engineers.
l Smartbox sister company Tec Rentals, which hires equipment direct to licensees, has been trading since 14 April 2003 and is still trading. It obtained a consumer credit licence on 12 November 2005.
Refresh-TV
Neil Orton and Kate Venables, the father and daughter team behind Smartbox, have managed to gain a consumer credit licence for their new venture Refresh-TV.
The licence was granted on 2 February and allows them to lease goods and arrange finance for equipment. Refresh-TV is based on a similar concept to Smartbox but is instead aimed at hotels. However, the key difference is that Refresh-TV is not offering to pay customers a percentage of any advertising revenue raised.
Instead, customers pay a subscription for the system and TV channel which screens lifestyle, news, sport and music programmes plus adverts. In return, customers get half the air time to advertise their own promotions and free use of Refresh's in-house design team.
