An Enfield-based building firm has been prosecuted by Trading Standards after falsely claiming to be a member of electrical accreditation body NICEIC.
UKSmartBuild.com and its director Ertan Gokay were fined £8,630 and ordered to pay costs of £1,100 following a prosecution by Brent and Harrow Trading Standards.
The firm said it was NICEIC registered and used the logo on its company website, stationary and billboards. NICEIC originally referred UKSmartBuild to Trading Standards early last year, and the company was ordered to take down any material fraudulently displaying the logo. Further action was taken when the firm failed to comply.
"NICEIC is synonymous with quality and a job well done," said NICEIC's chief operating officer, Emma McCarthy. "We cannot have rogue traders posing as NICEIC registered when, in fact, the quality of their work has never been approved by our organisation. Specifiers need assurances that when they appoint a registered contractor that is exactly what they are getting."
The prosecution comes soon after NICEIC launched its 'Wall of Shame' campaign, where any rogue trader found to be incorrectly using the NICEIC logo will be 'named and shamed' on the NICEIC website.
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