IN May 2003, following alleged complaints from customers, Herefordshire Council's trading standards department started a case under the 'Stop Now' Regulations against Silver Buckle Design Ltd.

The Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter carried an article about the action in our edition of December 12, 2003.

The action began three months after the company had been put into liquidation. There was only a preliminary hearing of the case, in August 2003, when the council withdrew its claim against the company, but sought to continue the action against former director Osyth Devanney and former company secretary John Malone.

His Honour Judge Geddes said no evidence had been produced against the defendants and gave the council 28 days in which to produce an amended case.

Judge Geddes then invited Ms Devanney and Mr Malone to volunteer undertakings to conduct any future business within consumer law. Ms Devanney and Mr Malone have told us that they agreed to give the undertakings only because they knew they had never contravened consumer law and understood the undertakings to be temporary until the next hearing.

In fact, there was no further hearing of the action. Mr Malone says he has now asked the court to strike out the original action.

For clarification, no evidence was put before the court against either Mr Malone or Ms Devanney, nor was there any finding or judgment made against either of them. We apologise if this was not made clear to readers.