.

He told Mobile News:

I want to pursue personal and business activities outside CellStar. Its a start-up venture related to non-distribution activity. There are issues with regard to restrictive covenants.

Jones is still at Cellstar serving out his notice period. The company is currently being run by interim managing director Brian Semple who has been deputy MD.

An industry source hinted that Jones had been made a scapegoat for the serious trading losses incurred by the trading division due to theft and fraud by certain foreign customers.

The losses occurred in late March and April during the purchase transfer of title and transport of six shipments of wireless handsets with a total value of approximately $3.2 million.

TAG will supply Virgin Mobile-branded accessories to 86 Virgin Megastores 217 Our Price outlets and Virgins call centre and e-commerce website.

TAG has designed special packaging for the accessories which will be shipped to Virgin Mobiles central warehouse. TAGs merchandising team will work with Virgin Mobile staff at store level with training display advice and product information.

TAG will also provide Virgin Mobile a product management service to ensure the Virgin shops stock the most popular handset accessories.

The investors are believed to be businessmen Alan Hemmings and Keith Hughes. Hemmings reportedly owns a motorcycle retailing operation called Motorocycle City while Hughes is said to be involved in the container business.

Joint managing director Amjad Baig confirmed that a deal was close to being announced. But he declined to make any further comment due to the sensitive nature of negotiations and confidentiality agreements.

Industry sources indicate that around 25 per cent of The Phone People might be up for sale for around 5 million. Baig said this amount was not necessarily correct adding that he would be taking legal action against Mobile News should we report incorrect figures.

In April Baigs business (Cont P2) partner Jason Pickthall told Mobile News Phone People was in potential takeover talks with the networks with One 2 One tipped as the hot favourite to buy the 125 stores

But One 2 One sales director John Barton said last week:

One 2 One has no interest in The Phone People and will not be acquiring any equity.

Pickthalls preference was for an investor to take a stake in the company.

Pickthall admitted then that The Phone People had encountered difficulties from its rapid growth but he denied the company was in crisis.

In April he told Mobile News:

We have our problems but we are not only beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel but we are starting to come through the tunnel.

Over the past 12 months the company has been run in too much of a lackadaisical way. You can perhaps get away with doing things that way if you have 30 or 40 stores. When you have 125 stores you need to perform.

Mobile News understands Baig and Pickthall will continue to run the company in the event of any partial sale to outside investors.

Peter Bamford remains chief executive of Vodafone UK. Reporting to him will be David Jones Ian Gray Paul Donovan Mike Pinches and Andy Halford.

Jones moves from running Vodafone Connect to Managing Director (Sales & Distribution). He will co-ordinate sales strategy across all UK markets including retail indirect sales including dealers and multiple distribution.

Vodafone Retail MD Ian Gray is managing director Customer Operations responsible for all customer care teams and call centre operations including Credit Management Billing and IT related activities.

Commercial director Paul Donovan becomes managing director Commercial with accountability for all marketing activities product and service-focussed groups including a new multi-media business unit and handset purchasing and logistics activities.

Vodafone technical director Mike Pinches who has been with Vodafone since 1985 is now managing director Networks responsible for all network operations including data and paging and technology strategy and development.

Vodafone UK managing director Alan Harper is now group strategy director.

Reporting to David Jones will be Ken McGeorge who is now MD of Indirect Sales.

Brand marketing director Helen Keayes becomes acquisitions marketing director reporting to Paul Donovan.

Said Bamford:

This is a substantial change to the way we operate. Our new structure will achieve a much greater integration of activities and concentration of our skills.

It allows us to refocus our resources on the key priorities of the future as we seek to realise the tremendous business potential presented to us as we move into the internet and multi-media age.

The PocketPhone Shop will eventually be run by Chris Edmeades ex-retail director of Phones4U and the man credited with creating the Phones4U brand.

Edmeades has already worked closely with One2One sales director John Barton when the latter was sales boss at Phones4U.

The original PocketPhone Shop management team of Simon Jordan John Davies Mark Hodgson Martin Cox and Dominic Jordan have resigned and are expected to cut all ties with The PocketPhone Shop within the month.

Jordan has reportedly made 30m from the deal. The company will continue to trade under the name The PocketPhone Shop for the foreseeable future. The investment in the 52 million turnover chain is part of Deutsche Telekoms strategy to build up its presence across Europe through the development and expansion of its operating companies.

Barton told Mobile News:

We started serious discussions with PocketPhone Shop last year. They were doing the majority of their business with Vodafone and we were network out in the cold. We started to develop a relationship with them and saw the volume of what they were doing. They started to buy more prime sites which (Cont P2) was of interest to us. Deutsche Telekom has 500 branded outlets in Germany. They didnt understand why One 2 One didnt have this part of the market.

One 2 One commercial director Richard Shearer said:

One 2 One has been inhibited in its sales by only addressing 80 per cent of the potential market through traditional distribution channels. It was clear to me that the balance was made up of sales from network-owned retail outlets either selling the single owner-brand or a combination of all the networks. One 2 Ones growth has been remarkable but there is a tremendous opportunity to close that gap.

Shearer said The PocketPhone Shop acquisition complemented its support of independent retailers who will continue to be a significant part of our distribution strategy.

This in no way detracts from our continued support of our independent retail channel who are essential to our distribution strategy said Shearer.

One 2 Ones sales director John Barton added:

Weve bought that which already exists. So it doesnt bring in more competition for our retailers. It makes more well-founded what already exists. PocketPhone Shop has been known as an aggressive retailer sometimes cutting deals which other channels have complained about.

Under One 2 Ones ownership that sort of activity will be reduced and a more approved state of affairs may result said Barton.

Paula Butler (24) was caught after computer checks uncovered her trail of dishonesty magistrate Geoffrey Breen was told at Horseferry Road Court London.

Butler of Eskdale Avenue Chesham pleaded guilty to two charges of stealing a Panasonic handset and an electronic diary both worth 649 in February and April of this year.

She further admitted theft of call vouchers other handsets and accessories worth 1300 between November last year and May when she was arrested. (Cont P2)

Prosecutor Anne Steer told the court that Butler stole the property at The Carphone Warehouses Covent Garden branch. To cover the losses she falsely recorded fake customer refunds.

Her dishonest dealings were discovered because the transactions were computerised. The discrepancies eventually came to light with her name against the dealings.

Butler admitted her guilt when interviewed by police. She said the stolen property had been given away as gifts to others.

She was remanded on bail until July 18 for pre-sentence reports.

Three white men reportedly tricked their way in to the depot. One of the night watchmen was assaulted and knocked unconscious.

The two men offered two IDs said to be of top quality. But staff became suspicious when one of the men made a mistake on the paperwork for the new phones and contracts. The men were held in the store by World of Accessories staff who called the police who arrested the crooks.

This has happened before where people are coming in using forged documents and proofs of ID said WoA director Masharaf Ali.

It is now becoming an ongoing problem and mobile phone stores are seen as an easy target. The thieves seem to be going for dealers with multiple branches. Our staff are better trained than ever and have been through the FCS training courses. We are putting in more effective procedures including stamping all proofs of ID so they cant be used again. Over recent weeks we have had several further attempts at the same kind of fraud which we have been able to foil.

Anne Sibley of the FCS Crime Prevention Scheme told Mobile News:

Weve been working closely with WoA on problems they have had and given them some fraud prevention training.

All the big retailers are suffering from it. The whole credit-issuing industry in the UK is suffering from application fraud Sibley said.

Orange has received the award for Mobile Communications Product of the Year for its WAP services at this years Networking Industry Awards. It faced competition from Hewlett-Packard Nokia and Psion

The awards are judged by an independent panel of information technology users manufacturers and journalists.

Orange says it was the first UK network to launch a WAP service.

During this time Orange signed up 1.2 million net new customers of which 212000 were on contract. This smashes Vodafones Q2 performance of just 75000 contract customers from 572000 new users. Vodafone still has the largest installed base of 9.36 million customers.

One 2 One and BTCellnet also trounced Vodafone for Q2 connections. One 2 One put on a million net new connections with 97 per cent of these on pre-pay. BTCellnet recorded 670000 net connections but did not give a pre-pay breakdown.

VodafoneAirTouch boss Chris Gent explained the relatively poor UK net connections by saying:

In the UK we have resisted involvement in a chase for customers at any cost and have adopted a prudent approach to controlling potential prepay fraud.

Orange said its Just Talk pre-pay tariff has attracted 984000 new customers since its launch last October taking the Orange pre-pay base to more than 4.4 million from a total of 7.16 million customers. The network said its overall churn fell from 14.6 per cent to 13.2 per cent for the year to 31 March. Churn on Oranges contract base improved from 20.6 per cent to a rolling annual average of 18.0 per cent. Orange pre-pay churn moved up from 8.2 per cent last time to a rolling annual average of 9.0 per cent.

Virgin Mobile One 2 Ones joint venture has grown by over 70000 in the quarter. Virgin Mobile now has a customer base in excess of 280000.

Scapegold was a Sony Cellular and Orange distributor based in Wenders Ambo Essex. It went bust in November 1998 owing creditors more than 650000.

Kobeissi even put himself down as a creditor following an unsecured loan of 50000 to Scapegold. A jury at St Albans Crown Court heard Kobeissi (24) had used company funds to pay for his high-living lifestyle.

Kobeissi persuaded bank managers creditors and friends that his business was booming when it was in fact insolvent. The company was in financial trouble from early 1998 and its debts rose to 650000 the court heard.

Kobeissi of Leaden Roding near Dunmow was the director involved in the operational side. He dipped into the company bank accounts to live beyond his means.

The jury found him guilty of fraudulent trading and 14 deception charges. He was cleared of two deception charges. Two deception charges were left on file after the jury failed to agree verdicts on these.

During sentencing the judge told him he showed a callous disregard for other people their savings and their lives.

Sony Cellular Services and Orange were each owed respectively 115000 and 76000 by Scapegold.

Despite trading fraudulently Kobeissi tried to organise a Corporate Voluntary Arrangement which would allow the company to keep trading while it worked to repay creditors 40p in the pound. The idea was that all revenue would be paid into an accountants client account which would then disburse commission payments to connecting dealers.

However creditors rejected the idea and Kobeissi resigned. In his initial statement to creditors Kobeissi admitted that Scapegold was in a financial mess and that there had been inadequate (Cont P2) accounting and misleading management information.

Clark White Publications publishers of Mobile News had already sued Scapegold for an unpaid advertising bill after Kobeissis promises of payment and claims that he had paid the overdue account turned out to be false and cheques he had issued bounced.

Other dealers told Mobile News similar stories at the time of unfulfilled promises and bounced cheques from Kobeissi.

At least 25 dealers were owed commission payments by Scapegold. at the time the company called in the receivers.