An ‘arrogant and greedy’ former director of a company that sold mobility aids to the elderly and vulnerable has been prosecuted for fraud.

Peter Kitson, 64, of Elizabeth Close, Henley-On-Thames, supplied mobility aids and furniture to people across Devon and Somerset from 2015 to 2018 as the director of the nationwide company, Mobility Furniture Company Ltd.

At Exeter Crown Court on Tuesday, October 7 Kitson, pleaded guilty to falsely claiming that goods were subject to a sales discount, making misleading claims that customers would not be placed under pressure to purchase goods, and for falsely claiming that goods were ‘bespoke’.

He falsely claimed that a product was made to order when it was in fact ‘off the shelf’, which meant that customers were unable to cancel their orders when they did not receive what they had paid for.

The company had a £30m turnover and sold items such as adjustable chairs and beds to customers in their own homes.

Under Kitson, the company used the offer of a perpetual seasonal sale to fool customers into acting quickly to make what were in any case overpriced purchases.

Kitson admitted at interview that the sales promoted were not genuine and that the company falsely claimed they would not use cold calling or high pressure selling.

However, one customer told trading standards that they were cold-called 88 times in a year despite saying they were not interested.

Victims reported being subjected to high pressure lengthy demonstrations by sales people visiting their homes which included the use of banned practices such as time limited offers and refusing to leave the customers’ homes.

The defendant operated an annual competition rewarding his staff for falsely selling items of furniture held in stock as bespoke.

The court heard that the defendant had signed an Undertaking under the Enterprise Act against the use of the use of such practices – yet he continued to ignore Trading Standards advice and continued his illegal sales practices.

Judge Climie reached an immediate conclusion without adjourning for consideration and called the company under Kitson’s management as one of ‘greed and torture’ and his actions had had a ‘devastating life-changing impact’ on some of his victims.

The blame, he said, fell on Kitson’s shoulders as director and Kitson had himself admitted to his probation officer that he was “arrogant and greedy”.

In mitigation Judge Climie accepted testimonials from the defendants’ friends and family and reduced the sentence from the maximum of two years to 15 months.

Alex Fry, operations manager for Heart of the South West Trading Standards said: “This was a large-scale, long-running investigation and we are pleased that it has reached the successful conclusion today. The case involved many victims from across the country who were subject to hard sell and misleading tactics.

“Most of those victims were elderly or disabled and I would like to thank and pay tribute to those who came forward and supported the case including the families of those who have sadly passed away without a resolution.”