Staff Reporter

The company was created in 1987 by Joe Case using his initials for its name.

Darren Ridge was made a partner in 1996. We ran KJC as a trading concern until Darren and I sold it to PNC Telecom said Case.

The sale took place in June 2000. The board of PNC appointed Darren as MD of the new KJC division of PNC with me as a director.

The Federation of Technological Industries (FTI) has dismissed Customs and Excise predictions it will win the joint and several liability case to be heard by the European Court of Justice.

Customs and Excise lost an appeal to prevent the matter being referred to Europe and had to pay the Federations appeal costs.

FTI solicitor Robert Holland was surprised by Customs upbeat reaction to the proceedings after its High Court defeat.

Customs appealed against the decision of the High Court to refer questions to the European Court as to whether there was authority under Community law to enact the joint and several liability provisions. The Court of Appeal dismissed Customs appeal and awarded the FTI its costs. The FTI is pleased that the Court of Appeal recognised that it had to refer the questions.

Immediately after it lost the appeal Customs and Excise stated it was pleased the Court of Appeal had supported Customs efforts to tackle VAT fraud.

The statement said:

We welcome the Court of Appeals support of our actions to tackle this most serious and organised VAT fraud which costs the UK taxpayer and robs our public services of more than 1 billion a year.

The court has stated that we should continue to apply these laws and we will do so proportionately and appropriately to stamp down on this systematic attack on the VAT system.

The High Court has already ruled that our anti-fraud measures are proportionate and compatible with human rights. Todays ruling strengthens our case before the European Court of Justice said Customs.

Lord Justice Wards final summation noted:

It is with real misgiving that I conclude we must refer to the Court of Justice … Dishonest trade in these goods must be stamped out … I encourage the Commissioners to apply the impugned law in expectation of eventual victory in Luxembourg.

Holland countered that it was irrelevant what Lord Justice Ward believes about Customs chance of winning in Luxembourg.

Holland pointed out another quote from the summation which said: With regret I conclude that the direct application of Community law in this case is not so obvious as to leave no scope for any reasonable doubt. I am compelled therefore to refer the questions to the Court of Justice.

Holland added: When this case was heard in February Lord Justice Lightman said he thought we would be victorious in Luxembourg.

Now Lord Justice Ward has said he believes Customs will be. Out of four high court judges one supports us another supports Customs and Excise and the two remaining judges are undecided. What cannot be ignored is that this is a matter to be decided by Europe.

Lord Justice Jacob said Customs can try to apply provisions to apply notice. However this just gives people scope to appeal.

They can argue that Customs has no authority under community law to serve joint and several notices until the matter has been decided by the European Court.

Regardless of what Lord Justice Ward said about who he thinks will be successful he admits it must be decided by the European Court.

This is what we sought and won permission for before the High Court in February.

At those proceedings Lord Justice Lightman said he thought we would be likely be victorious. He even cautioned Customs and Excise to exercise great care before applying its joint and several liability provisions until the issue is decided one way or another.

Athief who walked into Carphone Warehouses Oxford Street store and grabbed a phone has been discharged for a year and ordered to pay 55 costs.

The retailer has teamed up with PhotoBox a company that sells digital photographic services.

The Carphone Warehouse photo service will let customers send their images via MMS to free online album space share photos order prints and order images to be printed on to items such as bags cushions and mouse mats.

Prints cost 19p each and gifts with customised photographs range from 10 for a mouse mat to 35 for a travel pouch.

The Carphone Warehouse says the initiative is a reaction to record sales of camera phones helped by free camera phones on all contracts.

Carphone Warehouse European head of purchasing Rupert Elvins said: PhotoBox is the ideal partner for us as it has great technological know-how and experience in the digital imaging world. Our customers constantly demand more from their phones and we want to help them realise the potential that camera phones offer.

Elvin said that camera phone sales are rocketing as the technology improves. New technology can be confusing for some people so the site will also include tips on downloading and sharing images he added.

Officially at least no call discounts are available on the new Company Caller tariff while the old Company Caller tariff (which allowed the dealer to offer discounts on call charges) has been removed for new business.

Dealers are concerned that they can no longer offer a competitive package to some of their customers with more than 50 handsets who demand a flat-rate deal.

The previously competitive (after discounts) Company Caller tariff has been removed from both our customer acquisition and retention armouries at a time when Vodafones stated aim is to make further inroads into the SME market said Mark Finlayson MD of Southampton-based Next Communications.

Vodafone business propositions manager Ben Sefton defended the new tariff.

You need to look at the overall communications picture and the communications culture within a company to realise the full benefit of Company Caller and the value the proposition offers he said.

Calls that were previously made from fixed lines to mobile can now be made mobile to mobile for free.

Some dealers believe Vodafone will be forced to offer call discounts on flat-rate deals for larger customers if it is to remain competitive in this sector. They expect the tariffs to be tweaked over the coming months.

The majority of Vodafones Perfect Fit for Business tariffs which include the Sharetime option (free Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls) have been welcomed by dealers (Mobile News July 26) as has the initiative that sees the network running business-facing ads on mainstream television.

(Full story P16).

This follows an agreement between graphics card maker NVIDIA Corporation and Samsung to fit the GoForce 2100 media processor to Samsungs new SCH-M500 Mobile Intelligent Terminal phone launched in Korea last month. NVIDIA also supplies chips to Motorola Mitsubishi and LG.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against O2 after a complaint that the mobile networks text message marketing failed to provide an opt-out.

The dispute began with an unamed female O2 customer in Hertfordshire. She received a text message which stated:

Get sport alerts & more. Text ACTIVE to 2020 2 set up then go 2 Info services 2 subscribe 2 alerts. Terms@o2.co.uk. Each alert from 13p to receive.

Her objection was that the text message did not include an opportunity for her to opt-out of receiving further marketing text messages.

The ASA examined the consent given by the customer to O2 in 1998 when the contract was signed with BTCellnet.

It included consent to receive marketing communications. But the ASA considered text message marketing was not widely used in 1998. The ASA thus decided that O2 lacked explicit consent for text message marketing.

An O2 spokesman said:

We were disappointed with the ASA ruling. We believed we had customer consent through the terms and conditions of our service. We are now looking at the possibility of introducing an opt-out for these types of text messages.

The case highlights differences between the CAP Code – a set of industry rules applied by the ASA – the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and a European directive of 2002 .

Shelagh Gaskill a partner with Masons Solicitors an international law firm specialising in IT law said these mixed messages create confusion for SMS marketers.

Although the ASA acknowledged that O2 obtained consent to send marketing communications it had not obtained consent to send them by text message. The complainant should have been told she had the opportunity to opt out in every text message said Gaskill.

The ASA was not saying that text message marketing was wrong just that the nature of the consent was not explicit so an extra requirement for opt-out instructions with each text message was called for.

Gaskill claimed the O2 case highlights the contrast between the guidance followed by the ASA and the guidance published by the Information Commissioner the UKs privacy chief.

The contrast is most visible when a marketer does have explicit consent she went on. Does a text message marketer need to offer an opt-out with every message? The ASA says not if there is explicit consent but the message from the Commissioner is always yes.

The ASA also rapped cosmetics company Avon over a promotion it ran with Orange. Avon promised a voucher for a free Orange pay-as-you-go phone for customers spending 15 or more on products from its Avon Anew range. But Avon ran out of vouchers leaving scores of disappointed customers.

The ASA told the promoters: to take greater care when estimating demand for free gifts on the basis of previous promotions and to minimise disappointment in the event that demand for future promotional items exceeded supply.

More than 2500 people in London make false reports about losing their mobile phones each year claims the Metropolitan Police.

The Met is currently running a campaign reminding the public that there is a penalty for reporting lost mobiles as stolen. The message is pressed home in an advertising campaign that was launched on July 12.

Commander Brian Moore from the Mets Territorial Policing Crime Directorate says the force is working closely with the mobile phone industry to stamp out false reporting and the massive costs involved in investigating these allegations.

Last summer Metropolitan Police research into false reporting culminated in an operation codenamed Pavilion that saw arrests made at 12 mobile phone retail outlets across the capital.

People who falsely report their mobile phone as stolen dont think they are committing a crime. The levels of false reporting we are seeing in London are unacceptable.

As well as diverting officers from dealing with genuine victims false reports can inflate the levels of robbery in London and make the public feel unsafe. My message is clear: falsely reporting anything to police is a crime and we will deal with you.

The campaign has been planned to communicate with the target audience at key times when they might lose their mobile phone or be reporting it as stolen.

Alongside London-wide press and radio advertising there will be leaflets and posters in mobile phone retailers beer mats in pubs and adverts on taxi seats and buses to reach people when they are having a drink and travelling around the city.

There will also be posters in police stations reminding people when they are at the point of reporting a crime. 23-year-old Matthew Shiu an IT student at Middlesex University was one of the first to fall foul of the tough new stance.

He admitted making 15 fraudulent claims against insurance over a two-year period. Shui went to police stations on four occasions where he made false reports and obtained crime numbers in order to make multiple claims to his insurance company.

Shiu was arrested in June and admitted three counts of deception and four counts of wasting police time. He was sentenced this week to 180 hours community punishment.

PC Mick Donaghy working within the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit said:

Shiu falsely reported that his property had been stolen on many occasions. He claimed mainly against mobile phones but also alleged digital cameras and Apple iPods had been stolen. The total value he received in false claims amounted to 2800.

His sentence sends a clear message to those that think they can get away with making false claims – It is a crime and we will deal with you.

The cheap call rate is latest stage of the networks Relax tariff strategy. Voice calls text messages picture messages and downloads from the t-zones web portal all contribute to the 40 spend.

If a qualifying customer spends more than 40 the calls they make for the remainder of that month are halved to just 5p per minute.

We want to reward the loyalty of our high-usage customers many of whom prefer the flexibility and control of pay as you go said T-Mobile director of marketing Sandy Munro. With our new 5p per minute rate these customers really can feel relaxed about using their phones whenever they want to.

The girl who cannot be named was granted unconditional bail and ordered to appear at Redbridge Youth Court.

She was further charged with obtaining a Puma T-shirt and tracksuit by deception from a sports shop on the same day.