Whittle who is also an ex-financial director of Talkland will be in charge of developing the individual business units within the Hugh Symons Group. He reports to Hugh Symons Group chairman Geoff Roper.

There are exciting times ahead for the Hugh Symons Group and I am confident John has the ability to lead us to great success said Geoff Roper.

Whittles move to Hugh Symons has been planned to coincide with a new era of growth for the group as a whole.

His appointment is also calculated to allow Roper to step back from day-to-day operations of the company.

The Hugh Symons Group consists of four autonomous business units: computer component distribution and PC assembly distribution of Toshiba portable computers and third party peripherals mobile data solutions and distribution of Orange and On 2 One phones.

Whittle left Ora after reportedly not being happy there even though he was one of the two-man management buy-in team.

Vodafone sent out a channel bulletin at 2.25pm on January 19 that said its early upgrade commissions which let dealers upgrade customers between month 10 and 12 would be suspended with immediate effect and until further notice.

A Vodafone spokesman said: The supporting budget is being used up due to the success of the scheme.

Concerning the stricter credit checking rules he added: Weve recently seen a rise in organised fraudulent activity which has led to a tightening of our credit approval process to minimise the risk to ourselves and our partners.

Mark Finlayson managing director of Next Communications complained: Vodafones strategy just changes overnight. The change to its upgrade policy came out of the blue. To suddenly change it smacks of a knee-jerk reaction. It is not managing things at all well.

Phil Rider managing director of Digital Phone Company said he sent out around 1000 letters to Vodafone customers every month notifying them they can upgrade after 10 months. Digital Phone Company puts 95 per cent of its business through Vodafone.

You cant run a business without more than 24 hours notice of changes he said. Scores of customers have come in for upgrades that suddenly we cant fulfil. It leaves us with egg on our face.

He argued that the network should have given a weeks notice. The people in charge of Vodafones business are desensitised to what is happening at the coalface.

Jez Harris of the Mobile Phone Dealer Forum was angry that Vodafone has asked dealers to request bank statements from potential business customers.

It is very awkward because business customers are reluctant to disclose their bank statements to third parties he said. Vodafone will lose customers because independent dealers wont connect them or else we will just lose customers to Vodafones direct retail.

Byron Gambold managing director of The Phone Box added: It doesnt make any sense. Why would Vodafone want to turn away good business? Its total madness.

Ian Robinson managing director of MoCo distribution said: It is very invasive to ask business customers for that information. They are happy enough to give us phone bills for analysis but there are other ways of ascertaining that a business is legitimate.

Another dealer who wanted to remain anonymous said: Vodafone seems to have lost the ability to manage its UK business and we are taking the pain. The Japanese business is in dire trouble. All operator companies have been asked to give back out of their own budgets. The stock market is all over Vodafone like a fungus telling it to sell its Japanese arm and the US businesses.

The groups founder spoke out as trading results for the year ending December 31 2005 revealed that strong Christmas trading had seen group turnover rise 15 per cent to 2.12 billion.

We far exceeded our growth targets with increased profits from Phones 4U Dextra Solutions and 20:20 Logistics said Caudwell. We now have in place a very strong platform for future growth.

Caudwell said Phones 4U in particular had enjoyed a buoyant Christmas. He claimed it now sold 30 per of all 3G contracts in the UK and had enjoyed a 42 per cent like-for-like increase in new contract sales in Q4 2005.

This has definitely been a 3G Christmas for Phones 4U he said.

We are attracting younger and more technology-savvy customers than any other mobile retailer. Our plans for growth will see 100 new stores in the next two years.

After securing new contracts with France Telecom Jessops O2 and Tesco Dextra Solutions saw profitability growth of more than 60 per cent and like-for-like sales growth of 22.6 per cent.

The picture was also bright at 20:20 Logistics where external sales surged 39 per cent. Profitability was also strong increasing to 41 per cent. CEO Mark Ryan said that 2006 was set to be another bonanza year.

Closer alignment with key suppliers and customers plus further investment in senior management will ensure we are well-placed to deliver results in 2006 he said.

See feature page 26

The changes come two weeks after Vodafone marketing director Mike Webb abruptly left the company amid strong suggestions that he had been fired.

The big winner from the in-fighting has been Vodafone Retail marketing director Helen Keays who now takes charge of all Vodafones brand management and advertising.

Another promotion has gone to Ken McGeorge who is now managing director for independent service provision. This role has been designed to give independent service providers their own top level Vodafone man who has the same clout as the heads of Vodafone Retail Vodafone Connect and Vodafone Corporate.

New Vodafone chief executive Peter Bamford has also created four centres of excellence in Vodafones UK marketing team to focus on advertising for specific end-user groups.

Vodafone Ltd marketing executive Colin MacDougal becomes marketing director (corporate) Vodafone Corporate marketing executive Kevin Taylor is in charge of advertising to business. Vodafone Connect marketing executive Tim Ward takes charge of consumer advertising.

They all report to Keays who is accountable for the time being to Bamford but it is expected that Vodafone will be looking to hire a heavyweight marketing executive from outside the industry to fill the hierarchy between Keays and Bamford.

Meanwhile the industry is alive with speculation over Webbs alleged sacking.

Said one top industry source:

It is an astonishing thing to do. Mike invented the incredibly successful Pay As You Talk product managed the re-branding and made sure they were in all the major retailers like Tesco.

There are few things that really shock me in this business. but I am astounded the new team at Vodafone think they can manage without him.

On the other side of the coin one independent service provider was not shedding any tears at Webbs departure.

There was once a time when Vodafone and its service providers were very close. When Webb joined he took all that away and pushed the SPs aside.

The majority of Vodafone SPs would say that close working relationship has gone. Now they see Vodafone as more of a competitor. In other words Vodafone has done a Cellnet. Im glad to see the back of him.

Wade Chester 23 filled out forms for 14 non-existent customers using stolen ID then kept the handsets for himself and his friends.

He cost his bosses 15876 in unpaid bills and missing handsets and also got hold of eight stolen credit cards.

Chester who has been offered a place at university studying financial management admitted a string of fraud and theft charges and asked for even more offenses to be taken into consideration.

He escaped a prison sentence at the Old Bailey and was given 220 hours community punishment and ordered to pay back 3000.

Judge Richard Hayward told him: You were in a position of trust but you embarked upon a course of dishonesty. This was a carefully planned and thoroughly dishonest enterprise. You could have no complaint at all if I passed an immediate custodial sentence.

The court heard that Chester who has no previous convictions had been working at the Liverpool Street branch of the chain for almost two years before his crime.

He was arrested after his bosses investigated the contracts he had worked on and police later found six stolen credit cards on him and at his east London home.

Helen Butcher defending said Chester had only started the fraud because his colleagues were doing the same thing and had not been caught. He was also deeply in debt and needed the money for day-to-day living expenses.

Chester of Ridgewell Road Canning Town admitted six counts of obtaining services by deception six of theft six of handling stolen goods and asked for 18 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Dass Solicitors announced the move at a VAT conference in Birmingham last week that it may seek judicial review of the policy.

Alias Dass of Dass Solicitors said: The closure of UK bank accounts is the next major problem for traders. If the banking problem isnt resolved then the industry will die. We have managed to get evidence that shows that there is some kind of policy to attack mobile phone and CPU traders.

Dass said the firm had obtained using the Freedom of Information Act confirmation of the existence of internal HMRC documentation which states that HMRC has put pressure on UK banks and used the threat of money laundering to make banks freeze traders accounts.

Dass Solicitors is also considering a civil conspiracy action against the banks.

The firm issued an action to challenge Customs for discriminating against exporters for judicial review on December 23.

In November and December 3 introduced massive changes to the price book. Commissions were slashed and the channel was left with an unsettled feeling said MoCo communications and operations director Harvey Alexander. We felt as if the rug had been pulled out from under us. Things had been getting better and better with 3 and then all of a sudden it changed in a downward direction.

MoCo switched its focus to T-Mobile which Alexander claims has a more consistent price package.

We read the tea leaves and started pushing T-Mobile. We went into the channel and got more T-Mobile dealers on board. The call centre had started to switch from business with 3 to T-Mobile.

According to Alexander the network had been offering the most consistent package over the past three months.

It dropped the price of the Sony Ericsson K608i by 60 in November he said. Over the past three months sales on T-Mobile contracts have risen by over 700 per cent.

Seemingly in response 3 last week lightened up on its stance on dealer commissions.

Now 3 is offering another 50 commission on the LG Muse. Its trying to win back some custom he said.

The company is expected to announce the strategy shift this week and the official launch of the product will be at next months 3GSM show in Barcelona.

As well as positional co-ordinates provided by the GPS satellite network the device will also include full-screen colour 3D maps and voice commands now familiar in many of the current navigation devices.

The news comes as Benefon is preparing for a share issue that it hopes will boost the companys coffers by about ¬13.5 million ( 9.2 million). In the companys most recent interim report published in November last year it revealed operating loss for the third quarter of 2005 was ¬1.6 million up from ¬746000 in the same period the year before.

The company said it hoped to shift 200000 units this year through distributor 20:20 with which it struck a deal in October last year.

It is understood that this months handset announcement is one of a number of such launches set to target both business and consumer customers.

The service called WePay pays pre-pay customers 5p per minute for calls and 2p per text they receive. Customers reclaim their credit when they purchase a new top-up voucher. Credit can be used to purchase any 3 services including music and TV. On top-up pre-pay customers have 30 days to accrue credit.

3 marketing director Graeme Oxby said that 3 wanted to give pre-pay customers a reason to port their number from rival networks a process that normally takes up to seven days.

Because the process can be slow only a fraction of people on pre-pay port their number when they get a new phone he said. Our new reward for picking up calls and texts makes it worthwhile for consumers to move their number.

3 UK sales director Marc Allera explained that the network is putting on a big marketing campaign on the launch on February 1 to drive home the message that it pays to be popular on 3.

We want to reward loyalty and stimulate use he said. There are six million mobile phone users out there with more than one pre-pay account and we want all of that usage on our network. Its a market-breaking proposition.