Coghill brought a private prosecution against the Welsh shop which sold him two phones. He claimed they should have been supplied with a health warning.

But magistrates at Abergavenny said he had failed to prove that mobile phones did not comply with Government-approved safety constraints.

Another two dealers have had their positions of Good Standing restored following successful appeals to the FCS Board.

The six banned dealers are Pankaj Pabari (Lexus Telecom 163 Green Street London) Anjad Mahood (Sunrise Communications 163 Killinghall Road Bradford) Mohammed Ateek Rashid (Talking Phones Communication Centre 233 Hollins Road Oldham) Gail West (Town & Country Trading t/a The Fone Factory The Green Guiseley) William Adcock (Direct Phones 2a Lady Lane Leeds) and John Newton (Elite Business Systems Mansfield 141 Nottingham Road Mansfield).

Elite Business Systems (Mansfield) has no connection with with Orange distributor Elite Business Systems in Northampton. Trading between the two companies stopped in May after Elite Business Systems (Mansfield) broke the terms of its license to use the EBS name.

Dealers restored to Good Standing are Christopher Edmund-White (Solent Cellular 170 Forest Road Liss Forest) and Zahoor Ghafoor Ahmed (Crystal Communications 322 Alfreton Road Nottingham).

From this month a Crime Prevention Scheme rule closes one major loophole that might enable dealers to escape its effects.

The Rules have been strengthened to now make it significantly more difficult for those not in Good Standing simply to carry on trading under another guise said James Malcolm manager of the Scheme.

A new clause now requires that the FCS Board be satisfied that any new person dealing in cellular phones from premises identified in a Notice of Breach of the Rules is not connected with the dealer (or any named individual) who is the subject of such notice.

Service providers and distributors must ensure that all new dealers proposing to trade at any address subject to a Notice of Breach apply to the FCS Board which must then be satisfied that no connection exists with the previous occupant. Provided this is so agreement will be given quickly.

New wording in the rules makes it more clear precautions must be taken and records kept for all phones in the possession of a dealer including those in for repair or other reasons said Malcolm.

He told Mobile News:

I wanted to leave. I had been there six years and had become very tired. They offered me something else and a few options but nothing I thought was suitable or challenging.

I needed a rest and time to recuperate. Im not doing anything in November and December except having a rest and getting fit. They (John and Brian Caudwell) have been incredibly professional and gentlemanly and Ive got nothing but good things to say about them.

A statement from the Caudwell Group Board added:

We are very grateful for the contribution John has made to the development of the distribution business during his time and wish him all the best in the future.

A trade source says Cellnet was given every opportunity to avoid this embarrassing failure but were unable or unwilling to complete.

Apparently DX sales managers have been told to terminate their Cellnet accounts and are receiving new Nokia kit direct from Orange.

DX spokesperson Paul Drury said:

DX policy is to offer an impartial service. When it came to reviewing the network that would provide our corporate communications DX asked a number of companies to quote for the business. It was Orange which came up with the best solution for the companys current needs. We are delighted to enter a deal with them that initially involves just 55 phones. To put it in perspective however DX last month connected more than 20000 new customers to all four networks. The relationship with Cellnet is as strong as ever.

Added Orange sales director Gareth Jones:

Orange has an improving relationship with DX Comms and as such it is natural that Orange will be part of their business portfolio because of the strength of our business offering.

This follows pressure from Vodafone and Midlands distributor Project Telecom who convinced Customs that such a policy would have caused chaos in the industry.

It would have meant distributors paying VAT on handsets at full price even though they were given away and sold for nominal amounts.

We and other retailers would have had to pay VAT on income we never received. In some cases we would have had to pay VAT on double our turnover said Gael Clarke of Project Telecom in the Midlands.

Customs bosses had a draft document ready to go. Local VAT officers had already threatened mobile phone distributors with crippling assessments.

This was an industry issue. If Customs had brought in their new policy many smaller retailers would have gone out of business she said.

Backed by Vodafone Project Telecom and its accountants Deloitte & Touche met with senior Customs policy makers. Vodafone also wrote to the Treasury and Department of Trade and Industry.

Although they initially appeared to have made up their minds Customs have in this case demonstrated they were genuinely concerned with the commercial impact of their policy said Clarke.

In a recent VAT case against Thorn EMI Customs and Excise argued that free mobile phones provided by Radio Rentals should be treated as gifts. This would mean paying the full VAT on the original cost.

Customs & Excise lost the case. But they have been trying to assess dealers for the same amount of VAT by attributing a value on the action of the subscriber signing a contract and assessing this as the difference between the phones real cost and the price paid by the end-user.

Customs & Excise has now confirmed that the original interpretation of the Thorn case Judgement that free or discounted phones are not gifts would stand and that they would only seek to collect VAT on the actual selling price.

Judges so far include: Bill Mieran (Telecommunications Users Association) Gary Bridger (Airwaves Communications and winner of 1998 Best Small Dealer) Jeff Lucas (marketing consultant) Yow Moy Yap (Ebbe Fone Galleria and winner of 1997 Best Small Dealer Award) Tom Wills-Sandford (Federation of Electronics Industries) and James Malcolm (FCS).

Award winners will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner-dance to be held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Thursday March 18 attended by 900-plus people.

Banners dealers are being given a CD offering internet access through a local number.

The company says this is the first time a UK distributor has teamed up with an ISP to target a specific sector.

Our research suggests that less than 10 per cent of mobile phone dealers have access to the internet* and we felt that with the launch of our new web site we should make a positive contribution to encouraging dealers to connect to the internet. said Banner Telecom sales and marketing director Stephen Hughes

A number of distributors have recently launched their own web sites.

But publicising the address without introducing a method of access is akin to supplying a new car without the keys.

*In a recent Mobile News readership survey nearly 90 per cent of the 549 respondents said they had internet access.

Mobile News has just launched its own internet web site found at www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk

The company has been without a financial director since it was bought out of administration and re-launched in April 2005. Rob Lees oversaw the role temporarily but Breare will now assume full control.

Breare qualified as a chartered accountant in 1997. He spent several years working in South Africa initially with Deloitte & Touche. This was followed by senior roles for global IT service provider CSC.

Breare decided to return to the UK in 2002 because of family considerations and the weakening rand.

We will be looking to him to inject fresh ideas into our financial systems said Unique chairman John McFarnon.

JM Comms owner Jon Morris (who writes the Sharp End column for this newspaper) was in Sweden on an assignment for Mobile News when he found he was unable to get access to his web site.

On his return to the UK he was told by service provider Demon that the site had been shut down because of objections by One 2 One about claims that JM Comms were no longer selling One 2 One phones because of alleged price fixing threats and supply problems.

One 2 One spokesman Ian Volans told Mobile News:

It came to our attention that on the web site there were some statements alleging we were involved in illegal activity such as price fixing. We didnt feel we could allow it to go unchallenged. We drew the fact that we considered these comments defamatory to the attention of Demon who were recently involved in a case where a judge (Cont P2) created a case law that internet service providers are potentially liable for information published via their systems. So all we did was write to them and say please note this site contains information we consider to be defamatory. That is far as we took it. Demon required it was taken off.

The allegations of price fixing dont stack up because we dont have a direct trading relationship with JM Comms. If Jon Morris wants to become a One 2 One dealer he only has to apply and we will assess him on the normal criteria we apply to any else which is he must have retail premises.

But Morris claims he has been certified by One 2 One as successfully completing the networks training course.

I attended a training course at the operations centre in Shenley in 1995. The woman holding the course told every one of us we had to sell at recommended retail price and that failure to do so resulted in lack of stock or us being struck -off. I asked her to put this in writing which of course she refused to do.

Volans admitted the training advisor may have made these remarks but that she was not officially sanctioned to do so and that she was severely reprimanded afterwards.

Anyone at One 2 One involved in threatening dealers with stock supplies and price cuts will be severely disciplined he said (see Sharp End)