The convictions conclude a year-long investigation by trading standards officers into a faulty mains travel charger that exploded after a customer purchased it from a branch of DX Communications in Luton town centre last year (Mobile News January 22).

The customer contacted Luton Trading Standards which also found unsafe chargers at Ansertec a smaller retail outlet in Luton town centre. Ansertec bought the chargers from Essex accessory distributor Space Communications which claimed to have purchased the units from Elite.

European Telecoms accessory arm TAG supplied the faulty chargers to DX Communications. Luton Trading Standards dropped all charges against Space Communications.

I am relieved our name has been cleared. We co-operated fully with trading standards. It is now undisputed where the chargers originated from said Space managing director Darren Cooke.

We got our fingers burned buying third-party products. We only buy original products now because we feel confident they will have been tested added Cooke.

An Elite spokesperson said: We pleaded guilty and paid the fine immediately.

We continue to monitor competitors chargers against our own and these tests show that ours are among the safest on the market.

BTCellnet which rebranded all DX stores this year to BTCellnet stores said:

We had already terminated the use of the supplier before the incident happened. There was only one incident. We now stringently check for safety certificates. Customer safety is paramount to BTCellnet.

The Chinese-made travel chargers had false CE markings and failed independent tests ordered by Luton Trading Standards which found that people using the product were at risk from electrical shock.

Elite initially played down the claims made by Space but later ordered a recall and sacked its supplier. It signed a new contract with the company that supplied travel chargers for its Fone Range brand. Elite has also revised its product-testing procedures.

Entries for the Awards should be sent by January 25 to: Mobile News Awards 134 Petherton Road London N5 2RT. Judges include Mike McComb (ex-Mobile Phone Store) Alan Haddon (GSM Suppliers Association) John Strand (Strand Consultants) and Amanda Fisher (ex-Motorola).

ET has purchased Philips 12000-square-metre GSM handset configuration and fulfilment facility which employs 600 people in Le Mans France. Part of the deal will see ET manufacture limited quantities of Philips DECT phone range. ET also becomes Philips preferred repair and return partner in Europe.

European Telecom group operations director Mark Jenkins told Mobile News:

We are not pulling out of distribution. We are just focusing more on the logistics and fulfilment side of the business as we stated last year. The facility will allow us to customise handsets for operators. We will take in the base transceivers mass-produced by Philips in China. We will add the external plastics customer software and any other branding requirements for customers.

We will be the partner betweenthe manufacturer and network. Manufacturers do not like to customise handsets. It is not their key competency. Their competency is designing and manufacturing large volumes. They are not good at dealing with small orders. Network operators are increasingly demanding customisation.

Jenkins says ET has no plans to become a manufacturer.

The production line will allow us to produce low-volume niche products. We have been configuring and repairing handsets for the last few years anyway. This gives us a more concrete platform for pan-European fulfilment and distribution.

Philips is a good partner for us. It has had a quiet year in the UK. It is launching a new range of products in Q1 and Q2 to the European market. It plans to sell four million handsets in Europe this year.

European Telecom last week had its shares suspended at 8p for failing to submit its half-year interim figures in time.

This breached the AIM rules. ET has promised to release its figures later this month.

The youths entered the store at around 5.30pm forcing two sales consultants and a customer into the stock room where they helped themselves to the 65 phones.

The staff and customer were verbally abused but there was no violence. Police apprehended the thieves a few hours later and recovered the phones.

The handsets would have been blacklisted but this is a real well done to the police and coup for us said a Carphone Warehouse spokesperson.

The axe falls heaviest on the customer services department where 430 staff will lose their jobs. The commercial and corporate departments will lose 260 staff while another 210 jobs will go in the technology and information services departments.(Cont P8)

The news came after One 2 One dismissed reports that the business review started at the end of October was bad news.

One 2 One said job losses will consist of compulsory and voluntary redundancies and natural attrition.

One 2 One is consulting with employees and employee consultative bodies and says job losses are not simply to cut costs but to make the best of resources.

Prison warders only realised he was missing when they did an evening head count.

Woolley a 51-year-old company director originally from Stoke-on-Trent masterminded a 38 million VAT fraud involving the purchase and sale of mobile phones across Europe. Some of the proceeds of the fraud were laundered through a firm of solicitors in Leek Staffordshire.

In December 2002 Woolley was sentenced to nine years imprisonment for his part in the fraud – the heaviest sentence handed down for VAT fraud. He had served more than two years of his sentence when he absconded from Sudbury open prison in Derbyshire on February 23.

During the course of Woolleys confiscation hearing he listed the expensive properties and cars he had purchased at one point bragging I bought the Ferrari on a whim. Other assets included a Bentley and an Aston Martin and properties in the United States and Spain.

A spokesman for HM Customs and Excise confirmed that an international arrest warrant had been issued following Woolleys escape.

We obviously want to catch him and given that he has property abroad we are treating this as an international search he said.

Derbyshire Police which is leading the investigation said it had no plans for a public appeal for information.

Woolley is not deemed high-risk so we will not be releasing his picture to the national press. However his image has been distributed to police forces across the country said a spokesperson.

Despite the fact that Woolley remains at large Birmingham Crown Court ruled in his absence on Thursday last week. Woolley was ordered to hand over nearly 10 million of criminal profit or face a further four years imprisonment.

Judge Alistair McCreath sitting at Birmingham Crown Court gave Woolley 13 months to pay 9497704.02p or serve the additional time on top of his nine-year sentence for VAT fraud.

In a detailed ruling The judge said that Woolley had enjoyed substantial benefit from his dishonest enterprise and that he had regarded a sum equating to around a quarter of a million pounds almost as if it were loose change down the back of an armchair.

He also offered his personal thanks to Customs investigators for their enormous diligence in bringing such a complex case to trial.

See page 16

The network sent out a strong memo last week saying selling handsets and SIM cards separately was forbidden and that packaging has been changed to reflect this.

The memo stated:

You will see that we have changed the packaging of all new SIM packs to state: Not For Resale – Property of Hutchison 3G UK Ltd.

The reason for this change is to ensure that it is clear that the SIMs are and remain our property and are not to resold separately from the handsets supplied.

Please note that under the terms of your agreement with 3 the SIMs remain our property and you must NOT sell or supply any component items contained in the handset box (including the SIM) in different combinations or packaging to those intended by 3.

In addition you must also NOT sell or supply any component items contained in the handset box (including the SIM) to ANY third party who intends to on-sell or on-supply any of the component items contained in the handset box in different combinations or packaging to those intended by 3.

Any attempt to do so will be a breach of your agreement with 3 and may lead to 3 ending your agreement. In addition criminal and/or civil proceedings may also be taken in order to recover the SIMs which remain 3s property.

One dealer told Mobile News:

3 must have been getting stung to act in this way. It seems some have been guilty of box-splitting.

He blamed the increasingly low prices being offered by high street retailers. I think people are going to Woolworths buying pre-pay cheap and then exporting the handsets and selling on the SIM card.

However a 3 spokesperson insisted that the memo was sent out as a precautionary measure.

Box-breaking is not an issue for 3 and our recent work with retailers has been precautionary.

Ahead of this busy period and the anticipated high volume of sales 3 is simply re-emphasising the importance of selling our products in the appropriate way. These rules have been put in place to protect the customer and the retailer – not just 3.

She added: 3 monitors its sales process by talking to its distribution channels regularly as well as ensuring that handsets are activated at the point of sale where possible.

3 works hard to ensure it is bringing the right customers on to its network we hope retailers understand what were doing and why at this very busy time for 3 and thank them for their support.

A T-Mobile spokesperson said:

Sandy has resigned from his position as marketing director but hasnt actually resigned from T-Mobile as a whole. I cant announce his new position just yet.

Munros resignation comes as

T-Mobile last week made another 30 employees redundant. It is understood this is part of an internal cost-cutting exercise called Save For Growth which aims to slash 78 million in operational costs most of which will come from the indirect channel.

T-Mobile informed at least 14 staff of the changes in an internal conference call on November 15 and gave them two months redundancy.

All 14 employees are part of T-Mobiles direct SME sales team which will be disbanded and the accounts handed back to independent dealers.

It is believed T-Mobile took the decision to break up its SME sales team because it was under-performing and because it had fallen well short of attaining a 10 per cent share of the business market as management desired.

The Department of Trade and Industry is routinely investigating the dismissals because of the high numbers affected. T-Mobile declined to comment on this move.

A source close to T-Mobile told Mobile News:

This further signals T-Mobiles intention to go for its own stores and the web. It fits with [MD] Brian McBrides vision. He wants all the business to be done on the web and through the networks own stores. He has ripped 12 heads out of the training team and 14 people from the SME business as well as five or six supervisory and administrative roles.

The business handled by the now defunct SME sales team is being given back to independent resellers.

T-Mobile said that more job cuts had been announced in the networks campaign management team bringing the total number up to around 30.

T-Mobile head of business sales Simon Ainslie called the moves a matter of good housekeeping. He said that 22 of the 30 staff would be given different roles and that the company was actually bolstering activity in the independent channel.

Ainslie confirmed that it would take four weeks before the proposed job cuts took effect and that an internal works council was taking charge of negotiations.

All these positions are in consultation at the moment. Some of those affected will reapply to other roles. As part of EU law we have to consult the employee council which represents the company. That process takes four weeks said Ainslie.

People will pigeonhole the news as T-Mobile moving away from the indirect channel. But actually were putting more into the indirect channel as our SME business will go through this channel.

We are going to re-employ 22 out of the 30. So the net loss will only be eight positions. We will support the ongoing sales distribution strategy to drive our SME business through the indirect sales channels. Examples of this are our launches with Genesis and Yes Telecom.

We are refocusing our SME business through our partners. The proposals also affect our campaign management team. We are refocusing that resource and taking heads out of there to put them in front of the customer.

As an example The Carphone Warehouse will have a dedicated manager rather than a centrally-focused resource.

Its about putting the best resource in the right place said Ainslie.

There is a shift in the business on the consumer contract side from the indirect to the direct channel. But we are actively disengaging the direct SME business. Were taking our direct team out and the independent dealers will have free rein.

Dealers gave the move an enthusiastic welcome but were also aware of the work that would be involved.

Nigel Harrison of Midlands-based Phonebox said: Orange is looking for people who are committed to doing it. The idea is that we should have staff who are specialists in this area. These would be people who really know their stuff about data and can go out and sell it.

It could be really good by making it an elite tier rather than something thats open to everyone. It would be a better accolade to have and would be something that could really drive revenue in this area.

As elite data specialists we could grab the attention of the IT managers who normally dont speak to mobile dealers – its giving us a backdoor angle and I think it could be very strong.

Ian Robinson of MoCo Cell Link added: Data sales are very complicated. Out of 15 salesman we have hired two data specialists because data is not about selling a product its a solution. Youve got to understand all parts of it.

Paul Leonard of Sprint Communications said: Weve been talking about data for the past two years without much action but now we have 3G and its useful speeds its time we started exploiting it.

Orange explained the development saying:

We regularly meet with our Orange Business Specialist partners. At three regional events last week we discussed several thoughts about the development of the programme. These included looking at how we can support Orange Business

Specialists in a retail environment.

Hassan Mouhsine (27) of Sinclair Road Kensington London was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of blackmail. Mouhsine admitted making unwarranted demands with menace against employees of Phones 4U relating to a 3 million demand against the company and its chairman John Caudwell.

Detective Inspector Roger Dutton of Staffordshire Police said:

This has been a very successful operation. Staffordshire Police carried out a thorough and detailed investigation which led us to London and the arrest of Mouhsine following an undercover operation.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Lees revealed exclusively to Mobile News the sting that led to Mouhsines arrest.

John Caudwell contacted us in August after Phones 4U received a number of demands by e-mail and telephone he said.

The demands were coming from a former Phones 4U salesman. Mouhsine was demanding 3 million from John Caudwell in order not to make public details of alleged fraudulent activity at a number of Phones 4U branches specifically the Oxford Street branch in London.

Mouhsine was a salesman at the Oxford Street store until a year ago but was dismissed for dishonesty.

DCI Lees said he believed the Caudwell Group thought that was the motive behind his demands.

Although he admitted the offence in court Mouhsine claimed his demands were only empty threats and he never planned to carry them out.

He said he was joking and that he never intended to take the money said DCI Lees. But we proved that his threats were not idle. We produced hard evidence linking him to the phone calls and the e-mails. These were very threatening and malicious. This led to him being charged and gave him no choice but to plead guilty.

DCI Lees concluded:

This sends home the message to blackmailers that we take this offence very seriously and will put a lot of resources into finding those responsible whether their victim be John Caudwell or any other person.

A spokesperson for John Caudwell commented:

The matter is closed. Weve decided wed rather not comment.